Team Camaro Tech banner
Cancel
Create thread New Garage Forums

'69 Camaro for my Daughter- Build Thread

Jump to Latest
21 - 40 of 67 Posts
#21 ·
Bob, congratulations on your ton of progress you are making! Photo of your daughter welding made me chuckle. My 15 year old daughter is taking a metal class right now for summer extra credit and she literally freaked out when the instructor tried to teach her how to use the wire feed. It scared her pretty good so the instructor is having my daughter and her friend build a life size doll house for charity instead since the wood shop is adjacent to the metal shop. I think that is genius to make sure the daughter has some invested time and effort into the car. She will appreciate the car all that much more and also realize what dad is going through in order to give her a nice ride!
 
#22 ·
Bob-- I just reviewed all of your photobucket pics.... and you're Camaro is coming along nicely! :yes: Can you post up a few pics of the inner rear rocker braces installed for everyone if you don't mind? I'd love to see them installed.
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
Discussion starter · #23 ·
6781camaro said:
Bob-- I just reviewed all of your photobucket pics.... and you're Camaro is coming along nicely! :yes: Can you post up a few pics of the inner rear rocker braces installed for everyone if you don't mind? I'd love to see them installed.
Click to expand...
Ummm.....I don't know that I've got any pics of them, to be honest- I'm always forgetting to take pics while I'm working. I can snap some pics of the tops of them as the sit now- that's all that's visible at the moment.
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
fordpowerjoke said:
I think that is genius to make sure the daughter has some invested time and effort into the car. She will appreciate the car all that much more and also realize what dad is going through in order to give her a nice ride!
Click to expand...
Haven't had much participation from her recently- it's too hot in the garage for her, and it's far too easy for her to be lured to the pool by mom.....lol.

I think once the shell is off the jig and we start suspension, brakes, etc., she'll dig in a bit more, as she tends to get a bit bored of the slow fitting, welding, grinding process. Her younger sister may end up with a nice Camaro if she doesn't start participating more....lol
 
Discussion starter · #25 ·
Sauron67MM said:
Don't know where you are getting you hinge kit but vendor bushings are not that great. I had to rebuild sloppy hinges someone "rebuilt" with vendor bushings. They were undersize or nominal. I have a W&E catalog and get mine from my jobber. Dorman is just one of the others. All have on-line catalogs. I mic mine up because they have tolerances obviously.

I also get molding clips from the jobber, not the repro boys.
Click to expand...
Getting them from John's Classic Cars- so far I've been happy with the quality of everything else they've sold me. I've got a jobber that I've been getting my paint supplies from- if the bushings in the rebuild kit aren't tight, I may get some from them. Thanks for the heads up.
 
#26 ·
Bob, Another thing to look for with the hinge rebuild kit is the pin lengths. There
should be 2 different lengths. Mine came with all 4 being the same. You'll see in
the pic the middle pin is what came in the kit. It was fine for the shorter pin
(left) replacement but about 3/8" short for the longer one (right) required. The
original pins pictured have been hammered blunt during removal. I bought 2
longer Dorman pins. I just couldn't live with it. The short pin did not provide
full contact with the bushing.

Image
 
Discussion starter · #27 ·
allanjs said:
Bob, Another thing to look for with the hinge rebuild kit is the pin lengths. There
should be 2 different lengths. Mine came with all 4 being the same. You'll see in
the pic the middle pin is what came in the kit. It was fine for the shorter pin
(left) replacement but about 3/8" short for the longer one (right) required. The
original pins pictured have been hammered blunt during removal. I bought 2
longer Dorman pins. I just couldn't live with it. The short pin did not provide
full contact with the bushing.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info, Al. I picked up the rebuild kit last night, but didn't have a chance to really dig into it yet. I got the hinges all cleaned up, and will be putting a coat of epoxy on them tonight, and then getting them back together later this week.

The kit is from OER, so hopefully it has the right size pieces, but we'll see.
 
#28 · (Edited)
There is no play in the hinges I rebuilt with correct pins and bushings. If the bushing OD is nominal, it can spin or wiggle in the hinge, provided the hinge itself is not toast. If the bushing ID is oversize, the pin play can be excessive. There are also fluted and non fluted bushings. Most supply you with fluted. While they will work fine, I prefer the non fluted. A very small amount of play is acceptable; but I have encountered excessive play with a combination of bad bushings. Vendors repackage pins and bushings, they don't pick the cream of the crop.
 
Discussion starter · #29 ·
Time for the weekly Monday moring update.

Went out and bought a small blasting cabinet at Tractor Supply. It works great, other than the fact that there's no way a 1 1/2" opening with a paper filter on it can provide enough relief air to balance the 6cfm that's being put into it while blasting, so the seals on the lid leak, causing dust to seep out everywhere. I found that by putting my Festool vacuum on the opening, I can practically suck the plastic lens out of the the lid, so that provides a good balance to stop the leaks. Unfortunately, I didn't find that out until after I was done with my first blasting project- cleaning up my rusty steering arms.

After that little experiment, I got the door hinges rebuilt, and mounted the new door shells and aligned them to the old quarters so I'd have a point of reference for the new quarters. The OER rebuild kit from John's Classic Cars worked great- the hinges have no slop in them, and the pins have retaining rings on them, so no peening required to keep them in place. I know it's not "factory stock", but that's not what I'm building anyway.

I get the rest of the rear sheetmetal stripped off, and fitted the new deck filler panel before taking the quarters off so it'll serve as a reference for the new quarters. I picked up some Clecos, so I set the new filler panel in place with them so I can take it on and off and have a constant point of reference. I've still got to peel out the small strip of quarter that's under the roof edge, but have read the posts in Todd's thread about how to find the spot welds that are holding it in from the inside, so that shouldn't be a big deal.

The wife and kids are leaving for a week-long vacation next Saturday, and I'm trying to take some days off from work next week, and will hopefully get all of the read sheetmetal fitted. There's still some tweaking needed to get the trunk, framerails, and floor exactly where i want them, but I don't want to get any of that stuff final-fitted until I get the quarters and tailpanel set. Then I'll be able to weld it all in at once.

Fun stuff! Updated Photobucket link below:

http://s1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii586/BobKovacs/
 
Discussion starter · #30 ·
Had a hectic week at work last week, including a trip to Tampa for a few days. I took that opportunity to rent a 2012 Camaro (could only get an RS- no SS- bummer..), and drove out to see Todd (6781Camaro). Had a good time hanging with him for a while and checking out the progress on his cars- it's amazing what he's been able to accomplish is a 3-car garage with two in-progress cars stuffed in it.

Got back in town late Friday, and spent yesterday and today working on the '69. I got the remaining strips of metal out from under the roof, which was much easier once I saw where the spot welds were on Todd's 68 that was on the rotissiere. Still not a fun task, but not as bad as I'd expected.

Then I got the quarters set for a first test fit, and they fit pretty good. It took some work to get them tucked under roof edge, and they still need to go in further, but I had to deal with the back edges of the quarters, which were hanging up on the rear lip of the trunk pan- it was about 1/4" too far back, so the quarters couldn't tuck in behind it or come up high enough to let the tail panel get vertical.

I pulled the trunk pan out and slid the frame rails forward, which tightened the previous gap at the torque boxes nicely. While the trunk was out, I shot a coat of epoxy on the back of the y-braces, the package tray, and the inner fenderwells, so I won't have to climb in the trunk on my back to do it later. I got the trunk pan back in, rehung the tail panel and inner valence, and things are coming together much better. The flanges on the rear of quarter need some adjusting to lef everything suck together properly, but that's a project for tomorrow, along with getting the floor screwed down to the frame rails and the firewall so it can't move around anymore.

Overall, if things go well, I hope to have everything final-fitted by the end of the week, then I can pull the quarters back off, prime and seamseal the soon to be hidden areas, and start final welding. I'm trying to get the shell off the body jig by the end of August so I can start on suspension, brakes, and electrical over the fall and winter.

Updated Photobucket link below:

http://s1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii586/BobKovacs/
 
#31 ·
Glad you closed the gap on those torque boxes to floor. That's great! It's looking awesome. It was cool to meet another Team Camaro member who shares the same passion for perfection. Can't wait to see your Camaro back on the road.
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
Discussion starter · #32 ·
Had a doctor's appointment this morning and some vacation time to burn, so I took the day off and made some great progress. Got the trunk and floorpan screwed down to the frame rails- it all came together nice and tight. Then I tackled the rest of the rear sheetmetal. I was having a problem getting the quarters to suck in tight to the tail panel and deck filler, so I put a few ratchet straps around the wheelwells and deck filler, and was able to suck everything in nice and tight. Still need some minor massaging when I final-fit everything to tighten the gaps a little more, but is was good enough to get holes marked for plug welds.

I tore the rear clip back off to punch holes, and then shot a coat of epoxy on all the inner surfaces that I won't have access to later. Tomorrow I'll start welding the floor and trunk in, and do a few little odds and ends that need to be done prior to final installation. Maybe I'll get the shell off the jig sooner than I thought.....

http://s1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii586/BobKovacs/
 
Discussion starter · #33 ·
Haven't updated in a while, but I've gotten a lot done. Got the welds ground on the quarters and tail panel, and got everything in epoxy. Then I filled the quarter seams, using Everglass Kevlar-reinforced filler for the base coat, followed by Evercoat Lightweight. Next week I'll get the trunk welds ground, and get the trunk and deck filler epoxied, then there's just a little more welding underneath, and it's time to take her off the body jig and start on the suspension and brakes.

http://s1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii586/BobKovacs/
 
Discussion starter · #34 ·
It's been a few weeks since the last update, but there's been a lot of progress.

I got the roof insulation stripped off (that was nasty...), and got the inside of the roof epoxied. The firewall seams were sealed, then the firewall was shot with SEM Trim Black.

Friday night I rounded up a bunch of neighbors, and we got her off the body jig and sitting on jackstands. Once she was off the jig, I was able to roll underneath and finish welding the rockers to the floorpan, and get the welds along the inside of the framerails done. Everything underneath was then shot with a few coats of truck bedliner to give the epoxy some UV protection and extra protection from rocks, etc.

The subframe was cleaned up and shot with black epoxy, and is now installed with new polyurethane body bushings. The body jig proved its worth, since the subframe mounted up flawlessly, and is nice and square to the body.

Suspension is being ordered today (CPP Stage II with tubular uppers/lowers and QA1 coilovers), and brakes are being ordered as well (4-wheel power disc from Matt's Classic Bowties).

Updated album link below.

http://s1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii586/BobKovacs/
 
#37 ·
Looking great Bob! Bet you're glad to have sped through those last few steps of the build. Looking forward to watching more progress happen. Keep it up!:beers:
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#38 ·
BobKovacs said:
Just wanted to buy everything in a box and know that it'll fit. I did enough junkyard scrounging back in the day looking for parts, and don't want to relive those days....
Click to expand...
Gotcha, i'm sure you know this already, but many junkyards do online inventory through car-part.com if you ever decide to go that route again to relive the days! :beers:
 
#39 ·
Hey could you let me know how the CPP kit worked out? I am ready to purchase and am wondering what sort of drop in front i can expect. Stage 1 kit seems to suit my needs, but wondering if drop in front with lowering springs included (1.5") will be enough. I am going to be running 17x8 rims up front with 4.75" backspacing. I plan on running standard 11" disc brakes. motor will be 350...
 
Discussion starter · #40 ·
I bought the Stage II kit with the adjustable coil-overs, so I can't say how the ride height on mine would compare to the Stage I kit with the dropped coils. I also haven't gotten it sitting on the ground yet, as I just picked up an 8.5" rear for it last Friday that's currently getting new gears/posi/axles installed. The fit and finish of the kit was great, though.
 
21 - 40 of 67 Posts
About this Discussion
66 Replies
15 Participants
Last post:
69rustbucket
Team Camaro Tech
posts
2.4M
members
90K
Since
1998
A forum community dedicated to 1st generation Chevy Camaros owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, builds, restoration, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, reviews, and more!
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
Bench Racing Engine Body Shop Performance Brakes, Suspension & Steering