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Have not heard much chatter on Forums on active restoration projects. I'm interested to see who else is out there actively working on there cars. Would be nice to see progress picks to see how your doing. Weather your upgrading a new engine, getting a new paint job, new interior, body work or complete restore, I would like to see your picks and a story behind your car. I've got a 68', 327 Sport coupe, posi rear end, no options, all original, my father purchased back in November 1967. I started working on it back in 2003, but got married and had kids. Back into it now. Below is the car back in January 2021 and now its completely torn down and up on a wood tilt jig ready to clean the body.
Thought I would update my progress. Subframe stripped and standing by for cleaning. As for the body, I have a couple rusted sections of floor pan and rear window to cut out and weld. Still have the rear end and radiator & support frame to strip down. When those are done, everything will be ready to be blasted and acid etch primered. If anyone has any advise at this stage, let me know.
Very excited... just got back a bunch of parts and sub-frame back from the media blasters. Everything is now primered and ready to paint and assemble back the front suspension and radiator frame. There are lots more parts, but I'm cleaning those myself. Still have to clean, paint and rebuild the front breaks and spindle assembly. The inside of the sub-frame looks great. They were able to get all the way inside, clean and primer. I got some internal frame paint to coat the hard to reach areas and paint the rest in semi-gloss. I have almost chosen my painter and body work company. I looked at four different painters. They all approach painting, body work and cleaning differently. Hard to chose.
Hey Camaro lovers... showing update. My car is currently at the blasters and awaiting addition media blasting. Has already been hit with a plastic media for the hard areas and later next week will be completely striped. You can clearly see the factory led joint between the roof and rear paneling. Getting all my sheet metal paneling done too. Will show pics later of clean metal body (hope there is no more rust) and then primered. The company I use specializes in classic cars. You can see in the background a VW Bus, what looks to be late 70's Volvo and a 56-57 Chevy. They are expensive by worth my months and months of time I don't have in grinding down rust and paint.
Though I would do some more sharing. First pick in mid 80's in the driveway. I was going through some old pics and found what my car looked like before. First pick in mid 80's in the driveway. Second is 1999-2000 just before I started working it. These are pictures of a picture, so not very clear. I also have a pic from back in 1972 in Pennsylvania when it was hit by that jeep with the snowplow attachment. I can even still see the dealership logo/emblem on the back by the rear left tail light (wish I still had that). Ahh... back in the day.
just before the car came to California in 73'.
So awesome, no more rust found. Rock panels, lower cowl, firewall, trunk area and other floor panels all clean. Just the drive side and rear passenger floor (as predicted) and a couple pencil size hole in the back window.
The tilt jig works great. Very heavy though, took four guys to tilt it. Not sure what I did wrong in the construction of the jig. The construction video show two guys very easily tilting over (I guess should have taken the caster wheel off first). Maybe I got the balance off and sits to high making hard to tilt....? Anyway, replaced two floor panels locations and working on the package tray and rear windows.
Quick update and big thanks to 1stGen and Gorn for the paint and seam seal recommendations - Caramo body back at home and on site side again. Took me a couple hours to blow out and clean the blasting media out of all the nooks and crannies out of the body. Wow, what a mess. If anyone decides to get their Camaro body (or any car) sand/media blasted, plan on spending lots of time getting the debris out of the car before you do any painting. Need to use everything from shop vac, all kinds of attachments to a leaf blower. I even used 1/2" irrigation flex tubing to reach in the rocker panels and frames and other inaccessible areas. I must have removed about a quart size of material and that's what I just vacuumed up. Who knows how much I blew out with the blower. With this much debris, I'm starting to doubt the quality of the primer coat due the amount of dust and debris I found after. Has anyone had any issues with this before? Anyway, I'm ready to seam seal and work on final coat of paint for the undercarriage. Need to scarify the primer surface first, but on my way. Any recommendations at this stage is welcome.
Active First Gen Projects
If anyone decides to get their Camaro body (or any car) sand/media blasted, plan on spending lots of time getting the debris out of the car before you do any painting. Need to use everything from shop vac, all kinds of attachments to a leaf blower. I even used 1/2" irrigation flex tubing to reach in the rocker panels and frames and other inaccessible areas. I must have removed about a quart size of material and that's what I just vacuumed up. Who knows how much I blew out with the blower. With this much debris, I'm starting to doubt the quality of the primer coat due the amount of dust and debris I found after. Has anyone had any issues with this before? Anyway, I'm ready to seam seal and work on final coat of paint for the undercarriage. Need to scarify the primer surface first, but on my way. Any recommendations at this stage is welcome.
