Hello All,

I have a 1978 camaro I bought a few years back and haven't done much with and now I'm starting to tear it apart and start getting in restored. I have run into a lot of rust really only near the back end around the wheel wells, under bumper, etc. Most I can repair with a simple piece of sheet metal and welding and it's fine.

This though, I have no idea how to fix. Where the very back of the body and the rear bumper start is completely rusted away. I have no idea what it's supposed to look like so I'm not sure how to fix it. I have a few pictures here that will hopefully help. Most of them are the driver side but the passenger side is pretty much the exact same.

Any help and opinions is very appreciated. If anyone needs any more pictures I will upload more.

 

It is hard to tell from the pics what is salvageable. You need to sand blast the metal and see what left. There is a huge difference between being there and being weld able.

My guess is you will need quarter panels inner fenders, trunk drops and rear valance. These are not big money parts in the after market. Maybe $200 per side and $50 for the rear valance. You will need the big bottle of gas for your mig or plan on a lot of runs to get it refilled. To do this right it will be Very time consuming.

This is a pretty common and the parts are not expensive as long as the frame is solid. Of course everything needs treated properly to kill any remaining rust.

Check out Ricks Camaros for body panels and Eastwood.com for chemicals to treat remaining rust.

There are tons of how to information on the web. Youtube alone can be great. I would suggest the paintucation series of videos. You can start with Rust repair and body panel replacement. In the body panel replacement video Kevin does almost this exact repair on a Mustang. There is also a Eastwood show on youtube called Hands on Cars that has the same guy restoring a 1978 Z although I don't think they get into a lot of body work detail. I think Kevin calls the car Zed Sled or something like that.


You really never know till you start cutting

This is a door I did a few years ago. Not Bad to start with?


After I was done cutting away metal that could not handle being welded it looks like this.


Ready to weld
<a href="http://s226.photobucket.com/user/DC_Gorn/media/Restoration%20of%20C-10/Testfit2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd308/DC_Gorn/Restoration%20of%20C-10/Testfit2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Testfit2.jpg"/></a>