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68 Camaro Build

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ssanto

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I've had the car for a couple years now and I think its time to start my official build thread.

So here's how I got into this project...

Coming home from work one day, somebody tried to pass me in the emergency lane and broadsided my truck. It smashed up the bed and the cost to fix it was worth more than the truck. The insurance adjuster said I'd get around $2,500 for it. I've done a little body work in the past so I just fixed it myself and planned on pocketing the money. Somehow I got the great idea that I should by an old Camaro to mess around with. I could get a running 70's era Camaro for that and have a new toy. My wife said the 67-69 models looked cooler (and I agreed with her) so she persuaded me to get one of those.

Well within a few days I found my car. As soon as I drove out and saw it, I knew that it was mine. I'm kind of an impulse buyer.

Unfortunately, the money from the insurance didn't pan out. Apparently, if you hit somebody, tell a different story to the insurance company, and then stop responding you don't have to pay. That's what happened in my case. They said I could take him to court but I figured it wasn't worth the trouble.

I paid $3,800 for this 1968 Camaro with clear title and factory AC. The interior was about 98% there and the floor and trunk panels were solid. The major rust areas were on the quarter panel and roof where the vinyl top was. It was a factory 327 car but the drivetrain was long gone.

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Its a tight fit in the garage... I may have to move some things around...

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Here's my little helper... I figure this car may take a decade to get this thing done so there's a good chance he'll be helping me before its over.

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I got curious about how many times the car was painted... looks like tree rings

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Discussion starter · #2 ·
6 months later.... I have everything that unbolts taken off of the car. I built a frame dolly to move it around in my garage.

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After I got all of the carpet stripped out, I was very happy to see that the floor panels were good. There are a few dime and quarter size holes that need patching. Nothing too bad...

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Discussion starter · #3 ·
And here we are in July 2013... two full years after I purchased the car.

I'm taking some vacation around the July 4th weekend to work on removing the quarter panels. It took about 7 hours to get the first one completely off. Not too bad?

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#4 ·
Looks better than mine did when I bought it in April 2012. I spent the first six months replacing every piece of sheetmetal other than the roof and center cowl, and then worked from December to April swapping in an LS and a 4l80e.

Just take it slow and do it right- you don't want to have to do it again.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
After I get everything off, my plan is to build a sandblasting booth around the car in my garage. I want to blast all the rust off of the inner body panels. And then use walnut (or some other non-damaging media) to blast the couple of body panels I'm using (hood, decklid, one door, tail panel). Then I'm going to epoxy prime everything.

I'm not an expert at metal work... so any sheet metal that is visible will be new. However, there is going to be a lot of repair work within the car. All of the inner fender wells need patching, radiator support, a few spots in the interior of the car.

Hopefully by the end of the year I can order body panels and start fitting things together.
 
#8 ·
If pieces like the inner fenderwells and rad support need more than just minor work, it's almost cheaper to just buy repro parts and bolt them on. They're not perfect reproductions, but they're close enough unless you're restoring a high-value car like an all original RS/SS or a Z.

I'm not trying to spend your money for you, but when you can buy a new radiator support or inner fender for under $100, you've got to factor in the amount of time you'll spend fixing your existing pieces- time that could be better spent working on other parts.
 
#9 ·
ssanto said:
After I get everything off, my plan is to build a sandblasting booth around the car in my garage. I want to blast all the rust off of the inner body panels. And then use walnut (or some other non-damaging media) to blast the couple of body panels I'm using (hood, decklid, one door, tail panel). Then I'm going to epoxy prime everything.

Hopefully by the end of the year I can order body panels and start fitting things together.
Click to expand...
Avoid repro doors and fenders and find good GM used or ones needing some repair. They are out there. Assembly line take offs trump NOS too.
In order to correctly repair a radiator support when it reaches a certain state of corrosion it has to separated. Not hard but takes time. AMD has a good substitute. Don't buy any Goodmark panels. Might be cheaper and easier to sub out the blasting.
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
That's good advice... but I think most of the repairs to the inner panels will be minor. Besides, for now the limiting factor is budget and not time... :yes:

My doors are good. Only one of them needs a new skin. And that's mainly because it has some rust in one of the corners and a dent right in the middle of the edge/body line of the skin. I don't think my hammer/dolly skills will be able to fix that dent so I think it will be better to replace the skin.

Both fenders on the car were rusted through in multiple spots so I was going to replace them with AMD. I did get one fender for free from the guy who sold me the car. It appears to be removed from another car (has a bit of rust where it mounts). It also has some body filler that oozed into the inside of the fender through about 10 holes. Would that be from the factory? Or was it drilled and had body work done?

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What's with these holes oozing body filler?

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This looks like it was run for awhile... although this is the only rust I can see.

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#11 ·
I highly doubt that filler is from the factory- most likely from a dent that someone pulled and repaired in the past. I'd grind out the filler and see how bad the dent is- if it can be hammered and dollied out, you can weld up the holes and re-use the fender. You'll likely need at least a skimcoat of filler to get it perfect if your hammer and dolly skills aren't great.
 
#12 ·
the holes that were drilled were drilled to fix a dent using a "t" handle puller and a body hammer. now days we have stud guns that weld studs on the panel and use t handles to grab ahold of the stud and make pulls which doesn't screw up the metal and is alot faster. they should have at least used all metal to fill holes!! i would blast the fender as well the rest of the body, then weld up holes and fix any dents
 
#13 ·
That fender did not even need a stud gun to repair. In collision yes, guns are fast but if your doing restos, proper metal working skills should be learned. No wonder the majority of cars for sale are not worth half the purchase price.

If your unwanted tin is salvageable by someone with skills, they will sell. If you have the time then take some more and learn the craft.
 
#14 ·
well scott considering the fender was obviously repaired with the fender on the car at some point (probably just collision repair not resto) it would have been impossible to do any hammer/dolly work due to the fact you could not get behind the fender, but i do agree with you, if the fender is removed hammer/dolly work would be the way to repair the fender
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
I decided to media blast my suspension parts and body shell myself. I built a booth in the garage by hanging plastic sheeting down the sides of the garage to section off the middle. I used PVC pipe to attach it to the ceiling and I've got more PVC pipe on the bottom of the plastic sheets so I can roll them up. The system works pretty well and it gets out of the way when I don't need it.

Media blasting is dirty, dirty, dirty.... I'm using Black Diamond from Tractor Supply. My plastic sheeting keeps the larger particles from entering the other areas of the garage. But since it is not completely sealed at the edges, the dust it creates creeps around it and coats everything on the sides of the garage that I was hoping to protect.

Its going slow. I can only blast about 1 square foot of area before my compressor kicks on (60 gallon Husky). And I find that I can only run it the compressor (on/off) for about an hour before the pump gets so hot it stops building pressure. I measured the pump head and it was about 230 degrees F when it quit working.

Here are some pics...


Blasting booth rolled up:






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Blasting the frame:
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Dirty, dirty, dirty...
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Discussion starter · #18 ·
I played around with the pressure and got it to a point where I could get may be 3 square feet before the compressor kicks in. And I figured out how to throttle my work (spend time sweeping after every 10 minutes of blasting) to keep the compressor from getting hot. I went for 2 hours this morning and got done with the subframe and the rear end.

Its still a big dirty mess... but its working :)
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
I've decided to move all of my blasting outside. After I got my parts blasted in the garage, the whole area was WAY too dirty to paint in. It took a couple days of blowing, sweeping and hosing with water to get all of the dust before I would be able to paint in there.

It isn't nearly as messy outside as I thought it would be. The heavy particles collect on the tarp and the dust blows away. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier. I remember running across a forum for swimming pool builders where they discussed using Black Diamond from Tractor Supply. So what I'm doing is technically no worse than if I had a pool refinished in my backyard (at least that's my defense if anybody complains about the dust).


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Discussion starter · #20 ·
I can't get the body shell in the backyard to blast it... it would take too long out there anyways. If I get a sprinkle in the middle of doing it, I'd lose all my work.

I called around for quotes and they ranged from 700 - 1000. This place was only a few miles from my house and agreed to do the body for $750.

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