Hi everybody, I'm a new guy here! Wanted to say hi and get some opinions about body work.
My girlfriend bought a 69 bird convertible for me as a birthday present last year. It looked good when it arrived, but after closer looks it was fairly well rotted out in the rear end.

It needs both quarters, entire trunk, drop offs, floor pans,inner and outer wheel houses. So I ordered everything i needed for the car from APE in Marlboro NH as it was close enough to go pick it up and save tons on shipping. Well the quality really sucked. So I started ordering parts from Ricks first gen. Which I highly recommend! Great parts and very knowledgeable people.
I'm real new to restoration body work ( I have always hated body work) And have run into many "fit" issues with even the best repro parts. Is this real common ? I expected to buy a “repro” part and get exactly that! Boy was I dumb! Almost every part isn’t quite an exact repro of the original. I seem to always have to bend cut, twist , hammer , extend each part!
sorry about the long post, but any suggestions …LOL
also has any body got the x measurements of a convertible available? I have the 69 body manual but it doesn't quite have all the measurements I’m looking for. It only covers height from ground level.

Thanks in advance!
PS, I know this is a Camaro site, but it’s an fbody either way. I just liked Pontiac styling better.. Small block Chevys rule though!

I have a number of repro pieces and had to do little tweeks to get things to fit. I have heard from a number of people that even with the original stuff (or NOS) there is a little tweeking that has to be done. Fortunately there have been no major problems.

Welcome to Team Camaro Pci_RAID!

Repro parts.... do a forum search and you'll find someone asking those same questions or bringing up the subject at least twice a month. Repro parts are a crap shoot really. Some good, some bad, some in between.

Some folks see a twisted panel or something that needs tweaking and don't think anything of it. They do what needs to be done and press on.... then there's guys like me and you who see that kind of thing and it just adds to the frustration of fitting poorly made parts when we've never done it before! ;)

No matter how frustrating it gets, or how lousy the parts are, someone here has at some time worked with the same part and can offer some guidance. Just start reading past posts!

Firebird, Camaro.... twins! Good luck with the restoration and TAKE LOTS OF PICS!
graemlins/beers.gif

Yes, I am going to press forward either way. But right now I’m kind of stuck.
I removed the entire trunk, inner and outer wheel house and quarter panel on the left side as it was the weakest link. I have installed the inner house and welded. It fit perfectly! So now do I just install the outer house and quarter panel and worry about trunk fit later or kind of try and fit it all back together and weld?
I remove way too much, believe me I won’t make this mistake on the passenger’s side!

Bob

I think you need to start with this "Basics". smile.gif

Click here for the "Basics of Basics" to Trial fitting parts (http://www.camaros.net/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=005391#000000) graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Welcome to the best Camaro Site ever! We can always use another "Granite Stater" and, don't worry, an F-body is an F-body even if it does have a Poncho engine!! tongue.gif

As the other guys said, the repop parts are not always good quality. I've found that if your willing to add a bunch of "sweat equity" then anything can be made to fit nicely.

Here's what ya can do with a load of re-pop stuff if you have a few years to spare!! :D

http://img39.photobucket.com/albums/v119/pdeyeso/?action=view&current=DSC00004.jpg

If you're willing to drive an hour or so to Weymouth, MA then the "candy man" can get you most anything you need. Jimmy Puopolo runs a little warehouse that stocks most of the pieces for the Camaro and can get most anything else. He will tell you if the part is junk and not worth buying! He'll also save you the $100/panel shipping charge since he buys by the truck load. You can reach him at 781-337-1231.

Paul D.

when i did my wheelwells and 1/4's i welded the two wheelwell halves together then welded that assembly to the car. the wells have ears with alignment holes in them to get the two halves lined up to each other. (discovered that the hard way)

also instead of fitting one piece and welding one piece you should fit everything together all at the same time. and then, when you are satisfied with ALL the seams and joints, begin welding.

if you fit one, weld one, and something is off you either weld up the next piece crooked or have to undo a lot of work.

take your time and get everything to fit perfect all at the same time.

i welded both quarters, both sides inner and outer wheelwells, tailpanel, trunk drop offs all at the same time. must have had over 100 clamps holding it all together. weld in between clamps then remove the clamps and weld where they were.

as mentioned earlier i did the wells as an assembly and fit them to the body and then the 1/4 then welded those in. the trunk drop offs have to be fitted to several pieces then weld them in. once those are welded in you can clamp up the 1/4's and tailpanel to all the wells and drop offs, lower trunk panel and if you did a good job prefitting, the final weld up should come out excellant. it probably took me 2 monthes to get all the seams fitted and tight. it only took one night to weld up.

all this after putting in new rocker panels after the new full length floors, new trunk floor and new dash panel, oh did i mention both shock towers with various fabricated patches. this car had been abandoned in a field sitting on the floor, no suspension. floors were holier than most churches.

i can't stress enough to get everything fitting together all at the same time FIRST, THEN weld.

Ya, i found out about the tabs the hard way too. I think I may have welded the inner well rotated a little too far forward. I'll do some more fitting tonight.If it is to far ,remove and start over.
To get it straight, you did the clam shell of wells then installed that. Then the quarter panel,welded. Then moved on to the trunk area. fitted clamped and welded all of it.
Bob

yes, if that inner well is off at all it will rotate the outer well and your wheelwell lips between 1/4 and well won't match. this is what i mean by fit everything then weld.

i welded the 2 w.w. halves together. that way i could clamp the wheelwell assembly to the car and do any tweeking. i could also lay the 1/4 panel on the floor and lay the wheelwell assembly into it and get it tweeked.
then clamp the w.w. assembly to the car and clamp up your 1/4. should be close, but you can still take everything off and tweek if you have to. once you weld something it can't be tweeked very easily. make alignment marks or small alignment holes once you get things settled in. this way if you take something off you can put it back on exactly the same way.

drop off's....

these have to be welded to the trunk pan and lower trunk extension first before you put the 1/4 on or you can't get to those seams with a spot welder. but they are hard to clamp in place without interfering with tailpanel and 1/4. use a couple of pop rivets or sheetmetal screws for temporary alignment. the drop off's look plain and simple but they weld to everything.

if you DON'T get the drop off to lower trunk extention seam just perfect you'll have a heck of a time fitting your tailpanel and getting a tight fit, OR it will be too tight and the tailpanel won't fit.

i'm sorry this post is so long, and i seem to be repeating several things. but this is a huge job, welding up the whole back end of your car and you only get one shot at it. so again, take your time, get everything fitting as perfectly as you can before welding anything. try to have good flat seams where you will be spot welding. don't expect the spot welder to "clamp" the metal for you and make a nice tight seam (it won't). you need to do that for the spot welder. sand, or use weld thru primer on the seam, you can't spot weld thru paint, rust, or regular primer.

there will be times you have the whole rear mocked up and have to take it all apart so you can tweek one little itty bitty area. do it. mock it all up again and check every seam again. you will feel like you mocked it up and tore it down a hundred times. and you will. and in the end, the night you finally start welding, and after you take all the clamps off and weld where they were, you'll stand back and look. you'll be tired, dirty, and probably have burnt yourself at least a couple of times on hot metal and hot spot welder tips. but run your hands along all the seams, eyeball all the gaps........PERFECT AREN'T THEY. now just try to get some sleep after all that. you'll be so damn excited and proud of yourself you won't sleep for 2 days. and that my friend is what it's all about. graemlins/beers.gif

Thanks for all the advice guys! I really appreciate it.
But here is a for instance, last night I went out and spent the entire evening fitting, removing bending the trunk and trunk drop offs. Only to realize that when they made the trunk drop offs, the horizontal piece that is visible in the trunk has a dip about ¼ inch in the middle because of the dimple in the vertical section. So to fix it I need to partially cut the piece off ,bend it flat and add some metal. Is this the stuff that is common with repro parts? I don’t mind bending here and there and a little trimming, but i do expect the part to fit.
The trunk extensions I received from APE are so far off in relation to the trunk I would have been better off if they sent me a flat piece of tin and some body hammers with instructions on how to make my own! graemlins/angry.gif
I'm really mostly upset with myself for trusting that the parts are exact replicas of the originals like all the vendors claim. So when I bought the car I made a laundry list of parts and ordered everything I would need! Now i have what looks like 1200.00 worth of spare tin to make the better parts fit!

Is there any common gotcha’s that you guys can think of that I should watch out for?

Has anybody had any experience with the new one piece trunk and floor pans? The ones that are “totally “complete one piece.

Thanks again! You guys are the best!

LOL! Yeah sometimes I think we would be better off if they'd just sent us a flat piece of steel and a hammer-n-dolly in a box marked "some hand fitting required"!!

Well, generally the re-pop's fit much better than that but sometimes not. Take your time and, as others have said, make sure it all fits together nice before you tack it in!! I found that my rear quarters fit especially poorly where they meet the trunk drop-offs. On both sides I had to cut triangle shaped wedges out of the quarters to get them to line up with the drop-offs and at the curviest part at the lower rear qtr!!

People are pretty much raving about the one piece trunk. You do have to install it before the tail panel though!! You can't fit it in through the deck lid opening!!

Good Luck,

Originally posted by MARTINSR:
I think you need to start with this "Basics". smile.gif

Click here for the "Basics of Basics" to Trial fitting parts (http://www.camaros.net/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=005391#000000) graemlins/thumbsup.gif BTW Thanks Martinsr . I've been readin'
Bob graemlins/thumbsup.gif