Nothing special 68

Another '68 convertible in the mix! Welcome aboard. Nice back story too. Looks like you've got a shop and motovation. Now you just need some time and money!! LOTS of money!!

My advice would be to put your plan on paper. Is it going to be a stock build, modified, or a little of both. You will be surprised how many decisions you have to make regarding that choice. For example, do you spend hours doing research and spraying test panels to make sure your upper dash is the right color and sheen? Or do you just spray it semi gloss and move on?

Take a ton of pictures along the way (which you share with us) and make notes while tearing it down too. The photos and notes will help tremendously when it's time to go back together. Especially since you note it might take some time. I never thought my build would last 3 years, but life tends to happen!

Good luck...now jump in there and start tearing that thing apart! Brian

Capt,
The wifey is on board although she has no concept of what it's going to cost. She'll probably hold it over my head until there is something that she wants to spend money on, then she'll throw the "Camaro card". I plan on making a big sheet metal purchase within the next month or so. Probably something like one of those sheet metal packages that Belair Bob sells. He seems like a good guy plus he always seems to come through when someone has a question.

I just bought the compressor, here's a pic. Just a single stage 5 HP Campbell Hausfeld refurbished. I ran about 50 feet of 3/4 copper tubing around the garage. I've been purchasing air tools little by little. I have the Fisher body manual, the Assembly Instruction manual and a camaro restoration guide. I need to get a media blaster. Any suggestions? (I live check to check by the way)?

Glad to see that the wife on your team... for the time being! But you may have to both sit down and go through what the projected build is gonna run you. Being able to not farm out the project will cut down on costs a lot.

If doing this from pay to pay, you're really going to have to choose your battles, and as indicated, the bodywork will come first, followed by the additional mod changes that you may want to do down the road...changing out the 6pack and going to an RS will not be cheap. So, you don't want to get discouraged along the way, having a uncompleted unit in the garage in pieces for a long time, and not being able to enjoy it...been there, done this... it ain't fun!

So, more the reason to get 'er down on paper...as many costs as you can, and prob adding another 10% on top as the prices still tend to do anywhere but up. Maybe yet another 10% for parts that you think you won't need... but will.

If not too far from "Camaro Specialities" in East Aurora, NY, Bob Harris used to have a great selection of first and second gen Camaro parts... and he knows his stuff. You might want to check him out.

I haven't checked out the archives?... but there may be info in there re. a suitable source for a blaster. You might want to check out to see if there's an industrial guy in the area who has a shoot cab, or a blast set up, and you can work out an arrangement like I did.

Good luck on your restore...just take your time, and look for the deals...there's still some out there.

capt