JohnL71RS’s Project restart…..

5 minute(s) of a 140 minute read

Everything on the car is original. The ps side of the car was wrecked before I got it. But onto the question. The door to rocker is about perfect. I have a 5/16 even gap all the way down. I already cut the lower part of the 1/4 off next to the door, so I have nothing to go by below the body line. The measurements above the body line on the door to 1/4 is a consistent 3/16. The only thing on the passenger side is the body line and that to me is the most important. I never changed the hinge pins on that side because the door didn't sage and worked great. I did have to change the other side because the door hung down over a 1/2". The driver’s door will need more adjusting, I can see that. Tried to do it last weekend by myself and it seemed to not move. Maybe this is a task for 2 people.

I guess I will have to decide if I want to move the ¼ down to meet the door. I think that will probably be the best bet. The door seems to be where I want it. The driver side is another post all together.

I will worry about the fenders after the 1/4's change out. I will try to use all the original sheetmetal. the only exception might be to reskin the passenger door. i will try to fix the dent on the door by the 1/4.

Thanks for your input and any more suggestions.

11-22-2010

No progress this weekend. Washing machine died and I had to shop for one and replace asap. Then I had to cut the grass and cleanup yard. Folks coming to my house for Thanksgiving. Will be off Wed thru the following Tues. Should get some work done on the Camaro.

11-28-2010

Made some progress in the last few days. Been cutting off the metal left after cutting off the quarters and trunk extensions. I have found some rusted areas under the quarters. So I have been making templates and cutting new pieces to replace the bad areas. I also had to get some materials to mount my vise to my bench so i can start making my bends in my new pieces. Will have most of the day tomorrow and some of Monday to do more work. Wife wants me to decorate outside for Xmas, so i might loose some time tomorrow. Will update soon with more pics.

11-30-2010

Update over Thanksgiving

Update to my madness. I drilled out about a couple of hundred spot welds. Then I had to grind some of them that I couldn’t get to with the cutter and chiseled off the metal very delicately. I completed everything except the metal behind each door. I did cut the spot welds on the passengers’ door. Just never got chance to chisel off. I still have to align the drivers door before I cut off the metal under the door.

I also cut off the majority of the passenger outer wheel housing. I had to remove the rest of the undercoating from the wheel housing. To whomever this pertains, I read in someone’s thread to heat the undercoating up with a heat gun and use a putty knife to scrape it off. Thank you, it worked perfectly. Then I drilled out some of the spot welds. On the area where the outer housing spot welds to the car, I counted 45 spot welds from the trunk to the center of the housing. Not going to use the spot weld cutter here. I will just use the mini grinder with a disc to grind threw most of the metal. Then I will hit it with the air chisel and it should come right off.

I spent 4 days on this and making replacement pieces for rusted out metal that was under the ¼’s and the roof. I will also have to fix the drivers wheel housing. A little bit of rust damage at the lower section.

I have a patch panel for the lower ¼ and I will use it to fix the damage.

Will be working on it this weekend. Thanks for stopping by.