Hey everyone, I'm lookig for a little bit of guidance on restoring a Rally Green 69 RS Camaro convertible that my father has owned for nearly 10 years. The car was originally from out west and is very solid. I think the car may have been wrecked, as the drivers side quarter panel has been laid over the original and the firewall on the same side has some damage to it. The trunk is the only part of the car that has rusted through, and while it isn't the worst rust I've seen, it will need a new pan welded in. We do have a new pan for the trunk, another quarter panel, and another firewall from a very rusty car we also have. The car was originally an automatic, but someone hacked the transmission tunnel and installed a Saginaw 4-speed. The rusty parts car we have also has a good transmission tunnel, but we will probably keep the 4-speed in the car. We haven't checked the numbers on the engine yet, but it has a 307 in it and it still runs. It could be the original engine, but we won't know until we check the numbers.

Now I have a few questions. First off, should I keep the car its original color (Rally Green)? I didn't like it at first, but I think a fresh paint job would do the color more justice. I would like to keep the Rally Green with no stripes, as I've heard it keeps the value of the car higher. It came with a white top, but in my opinion black would look much better. I would probably keep rally wheels on it too, and all the RS stuff. I'm not into making it something it isn't (SS or Z28). Some may like to restore it to pristine condition, but then it isn't any fun to drive. My dad and I will be doing all the work on this car, from rust repair, body work, engine work, etc. I don't want it to be perfect, but I do want it to look great and be streetable. No trailer queens for me.

What is the normal procedure for welding in a trunk pan? I am assuming you would butt-weld it in, grind down the welds and use some filler to make it look like nothing was ever done. I thought about flanging it so the pan would sit in place, then weld it all in, but underneath it may look a little funny. Again I am going for more originality than anything, so any tips would be appreciated!

I'd also like to hear some recommendations on websites to buy parts. I would like to find some spindles for disc brakes, but don't know where to start looking. If I remember right, Chevelle spindles will work on Camaros. I'm sure somebody makes some aftermarket too, but haven't searched yet. Something else I would like to find is a quality convertible top. I believe the car came with an electric top, but if parts are too expensive I may opt to go with a manual top instead. Also, what kind of underbody protection is common to use on these cars? Por-15 or something similar? Most likely I will start by fixing the trunk and painting the underbody in the rear.

After installing the trunk pan and cleaning up the rear-end, I will start on the front by pulling the engine and transmission from the car. Since the engine still runs, I'm thinking about installing an intake and a 4 barrel carb, cleaning up the engine, installing new gaskets and seals, and etc. The transmission will get the same treatment, and a new clutch of course. While the engine is out, I will be pulling the subframe off the car and sandblasting and painting it, along with the front suspension and rear leaf springs. I will hopefully be installing disc brakes as well, and new bushings. While the engine and subframe is out, I'd like to fix the firewall and paint it black. The last thing on the body to fix besides the quarter panel would be the transmission tunnel, and after repairing that I could finish painting the underbody. Most likely I won't do any body work to it for a while and just drive it like it is. Unless of course I get bored during the winter months!

Sorry for such a long first post, but I wanted to try and cover as much as I could about the car so I could get some good suggestions on parts and restoring the 69. Thanks everyone!

Welcome to Team Camaro......

Sounds like you have it bad.....that's okay most of us do. Also, sounds like you are talking about restoring only what is wrong or what you see now. These projects always bring suprises (remember you are working on something that is 40 years old) which means added costs and work.

Restoration part sources can be found in our supporting sponsers many if not all have a online catalog or will send you one for free or with your first order. Just about everything you need for your car is remanufactored. Other items (original parts not remanufactored) can be found in our classified section and on the internet Craig's list ebay etc. buyer beware!

If it was a power top car you should keep it a power top car, I think it will make it easier to complete. Changing over is not a bad thing but usually requires hunting down hard to find parts or buying alot of aftermarket parts and fastners.....=$$$$

If it is posssible to keep the car running and driveable along the restoration do so. You will find that a car together is more fun then one sitting in a hundred or more pieces in your garage.........I know that some of what you are planning for your car will take it off the road but tearing into it head on is for those with deep pockets experience and time....

This site has most of your answers (you will have a lot of questions) you can use the search feature with just a few short key words and most likely find your answer. The first thing you should buy is the Assembly manual along with the Fisher body manual for 1969. They are required reading in my opinion.

Just remember to establish a budget for either the whole project or if money is short. Establish a budget for each major task and complete it before moving on.......Little things like cleaning and refinishing a part that is going to be resued can fill in the time in between the larger tasks.

Again, I would keep the drive train in as long as possible so you can enjoy the car. Plus you never know what you may find along your search........

Another suggestion try to keep your tasks in order. Complete each one before tearing into the next. It may seem like it will go faster if I do this while I am waiting for that but multitasking can become overwhelming and cause stress and frustration in your restoration.= idle and idle sucks.

You are about to undertake a pretty large project. Photograph everything at least two or three pictures from different angles front and back etc. and make sure you stay organized with both the photos and the work in progress.

Butt weld the pan and do not weld continuous tack it in and then go around alternating from side to side etc to keep the pan and surrounding metal from warping......That would be a great question to use the search feature alot of us have replaced the pan and have added how I did it with comments and photos........

Good luck and when you get a chance post up some pictures of you ride..........

8Ball

Welcome Todd! Plenty of Convertible owners here, like myself. Rally green is the only green I like :) If the trim tag says it was rally green, white top, white interior, then it is best to keep it, that scheme looks nice when done.

Power top frames are different than manual frames, if it is a power top car, then keep it, more desirable for resale (not that you would :))

Rebuild your drum brakes and add a power boster and power master cyl. It is an easy swap and the power drums work very close to power discs if drums are rebuilt well. I did that on my original car and like it.

If the 307 is original, keep it, if not, look for a date correct 327/350 block, they are a better foundation to work up from.

The best bang for performace improvement is the trans/rear gear combo. If the rear is a 2.73 ish gear, the best thing to do is swap it for a performance ratio and get a better trans than the saginaw. Going with a modern transmission like a 200r4 automatic with a 3.42/3.55 rear gear is a popular swap and it will feel like a different car!

Luck!

Todd -

Welcome to Team Camaro!

For the front disc brake conversion, you can do a few different things. There are some junkyard swaps you can use if you can find the parts. X-body cars (Nova, Appollo, Ventura, Omega) from 69-74 are a direct swap for everything. A and G bodies (Chevelle, Skylark, Monte Carlo) are a source for spindles, caliper brackets, etc.) Good info at http://www.pozziracing.com/first_gen_suspension.htm .

As far as the trunk pan goes, the "best" method varies depending on how much you need to replace and your skill level. If it is just the center pan, then there are ways to hid the seams, and if it is a full floor, there are others. Best bet is to get some pictures posted in a thread in body shop. Once we see what you're dealing with, we can offer advice.

Rally Green is a unique 1st gen color, and unlike some of them where unique doesn't necessarily mean good, I think RG is a good color, especially on a 69 RS vert. If you search Rally Green here, you can find some photos of shiny RG cars. There are also pics here: http://geocities.com/MotorCity/3652/69pics.html , but it looks like the RG vert with white top pic isn't working. Here are some more:

http://www.volocars.com/1969-chevrolet-camaro-z28-c-342.htm

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/ekammerer/1969_Camaro.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/ekammerer/59_12_sb-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/ekammerer/DX1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/ekammerer/a7_12_sb.jpg


I like the white top with RG, but having had a white top car and having tried to keep the top clean, I can see wanting a black top. But when they are clean, a white top with white stripes is very cool looking...

Thanks for the replies! I will be searching on here quite a bit, just haven't had time to so that is why I had a few questions. I like the white top on the Rally Green, so it might be a hard decision to make. I'm not even sure if it originally had a white top, but that is what is on it now. Hopefully I will have the car where I want it in our shed tomorrow and can start on repairing the trunk. Doing tack welds was what I was planning on doing, so there is no warpage like you mentioned. This will be my first time welding in a floor/trunk pan, but with my dads help we should end up with good results. After looking over the trunk again today, it didn't look like the rust had even gotten to the frame rails yet, so a pan replacement should be all it needs in the rear.

I know restoring a car this old is a lot of work, but it won't be something that ever HAS to get done. I would be happy having it as a driver for a few years with the old paint job that is on it. Body work isn't my favorite thing, so I won't mind the old faded paintjob :)

If you want to know what color the top was, check the stamped metal tag above the brake master cylinder on the firewall. On the right of the tag, you'll see 79 (if rally green is original) and either A (white) or B (black) for the top color.

http://www.camaros.org/numbers.shtml

Good to know! I will check that out soon. I took a few pictures of the car on my phone and uploaded them to my photobucket album here: http://s143.photobucket.com/albums/r148/toadson/camaro/

I mostly just took pictures of sheet metal damage. As you can see, I have the rear-end out of it already and the front end removed. It's been sitting like that for a while, but it is finally time to get something done on it.

Todd, make sure you save the rear tire holddown and floor pulgs if they are not rusty and mark the location of the holddown on the new trunk pan.

With HEI and the color of that engine, I doubt it is original or a 307. Looks like a later 350 engine. Get the casting and pad numbers to be sure. Also get the vin and trim tag numbers too and we can see what you got.

From the pics, its an automatic car with console and power top :) The Rally green looks original too. :D

Well I made one mistake, the car is not an RS. It is just a plain Camaro convertible with a 307. We got the numbers off of the block to verify it is a 307. My dad said he installed the HEI a while back, which explains that. According to the numbers, the car came with a powerglide and a 307. We couldnt locate the vin tag however, which on 69's should be near the oil filter. It was pretty greasy, but I scrapped grease off of where the numbers should be, and saw nothing but yellow paint. The car was originally Rally green and had a white top, but I forgot to print off the interior color numbers so I didn't get a chance to check that (but I assume it is white anyway). One of the plug holes for the trunk is good, and the rear tire hold down is still intact, so I will keep that in mind when I install the new pan. I plan to look the engine over again once I get it pulled to check for any other ID numbers. Thanks again for all the info everyone!

Todd, any 69 convertible is valuable, its not "just" a 307 convert :D Most engine vin stamps cant be seen until you strip the paint anyway. I suggest saving the engine and trans and putting something better in. As a PG owner, that is what I am doing. The PG just sucks in a street car.

Standard white interior would be a 727.

Luck on your restore!!

My car was Rally Green with a white top, white interior, with a 327 4 speed when I bought it. It also had a black DX1 stripe on it. Somewhere along the line my restoration went off track...LOL.

This is the only "before" picture I have handy of my car. It's right after I brought it home. The picture makes the car look better then it really was. I had a very poor restoration done on it at some point. I put spoilers and a dual exhaust and drove it around in this condition for about a year.


http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/4140/originalvq0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/4140/originalvq0.88a4c7c397.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=501&i=originalvq0.jpg)

.

Rally Green is one of my favorite Camaro colors - keep it that way! As you can see in some of the pictures, that color will jump out at you when paired with the white top and some white DX1 stripes to set it off. You won't regret sticking with the original color - there are so many red and blue cars at the shows, so yours will stand out from the crowd.

Good luck on the restoration!

After looking the car over some more, we may have to replace the tail light panel. It is damaged in two spots and looks to be quite difficult to get perfectly straight. I will try to get a picture later to show you where the damage is. At least if we remove the tail light panel, the trunk will be a little easier to fix. I'm not looking forward to all the spotwelds though that hold the tail light brackets onto the panel! While the tail light panel is off, we may even remove the quarter panel that was laid over the original and replace it with the factory one we have. You can see 1/4 thick layer of bondo where they seamed the new quarter panel on. It's a very sad sight.

Taking the tailpanel off is the best way to replace the trunk with a full panel. You should try to save the original tailpanel if you can, because the repros are not exactly the same. Do some searches to find the issues. Also, one the tailpanel is out, the repair should be easier.

welcome

Thanks 442olds, I take it you're from Brighton, IL?

I managed to get the engine and transmission out of the car today. I'm stripping the subframe down now, but won't remove it because we still need to push the firewall forward. My dad noticed someone enlarged the holes on the door hinge in order to get it to fit right. Upon measuring, the firewall on the drivers side is pushed back 3/8". Once we straighten that out, I can remove the subframe and sandblast and paint it.

KevinW, you were right on the money when you said that you couldn't see the vin stamp on the block until the paint was stripped away. I used a wire brush on the paint, and found the vin. Surprisingly it matched the car! So it looks like I have the original 307 that came in the car. Too bad it wasn't an original 302.....

I think we may put some new seals and gaskets on the old engine and run it for a while with the four speed. I'm sure we will build a better engine /transmission for it somewhere down the road, but at least this one still runs. We'll start with the body first, then figure out the engine later. Thanks for all the advice so far!