73 on a slow road to recovery... by Done Yet?

11 minute(s) of a 308 minute read

Finally... 1/4 skin install...

After having two weekends off from the camaro, it felt good to make a little headway. Today i started by putting seam sealer on all of the hidden seams that are under the quater panel. Being careful not to place it by any weld points of the 1/4.

Then the quater was fastened to the car double checking the fit. I needed some minor adjustments at the tail panel. I then began to weld it to the car.

I did try a new product today, i used a heat sink compund that i purchased at the welding store. You can see it in a few of the pics, looks like toothpaste that runs along side the weld line. It draws the heat out of the metal to help with warpage and distortion. It seamed to work very well.

I still have a few welds in the wheel opening to finish and under the 1/4 at the rear also to weld up. Im hoping to get the welding and grinding complete on Sunday so i can get the 1/4 in epoxy. Thanks for stoping bye to check out my project.

11-21-2010

Today i started off grinding some of the welds that were laid down yesterday, when i got tired of grinding i swithched off and welded the few spots i didnt finish yesterday. here are a few pics of that work.

Working outside with mother nature i had my mind set on getting this 1/4 in primer today and then the rain came down haulting the work on my 1/4 skin.
I have alot of bare metal at this point and will need to finish this panel with prime Monday night if weather permits.

11-25-2010

Turkey day....

Well i never had enough time to get epoxy primer on my 1/4 skin so i just sprayed it with a rattle can primer to keep it from rusting. Today i restripped it finished welding and grinding and shot the epoxy here are a some pics.

I had a little primer left in the gun and i dumped into the B-pillar through the vent opening and let it creep under the lip on the 1/4 skin to protect that area, all excess ran out of the seems. Happy thanks giving Rob

11-27-2010

Saturday.. spinning my wheels....

Today i ran to the body supply store to pick up a few sanding blocks and some sandpaper so i could try my hand at a little bodywork on my 1/4. I have very lttile to no experience with filler so this will be a learning exreience for sure.

After sanding the areas to recieve the filler it was mixed and applied.

Once hardened it was sanded and reapplied on any low spots. I was having trouble running my hand over the repair area and it was like my mind was not taking in the information LOL. After all day working on this 1/4 it felt like all i did was apply filler and sand it off, frustrated to say the least. here are a few shots of me spinning my wheels and not going anywhere lol.

So after working on this car for 6 hours or so i really didnt get to much acomplished.  I would say i have a little learning to do appliying and sanding the body filler to achieve the results im looking for. My hats off to the guys that do this for a living its definately an art in itself. Not being one to let something get the best of me i will be out there agian on Sunday learning more  Thanks for stoppin bye to check out my work. Rob

11-28-2010

Sundays waste of time and money,,,

I continued on my 1/4 skin and also ventured to the roof and A pillars, i worked on these areas all day epoxy priming when i thought i was close.
I did learn one thing today i am tired of wasting my time and money and going backwards. Wherever i had filler the fish eyes in the primer were real bad. everything was wiped down real good with wax and grease remover and cleaned first with acetone. I dont know what problem i have going on but i do know the filler, bodywork and paint will be left for a reputable paint shop.
I dont have a problem putting in the time on my car but when you spend over 16 hours and waste a few hundred dollars and create more work having to remove what just took you all weekend to do thats not for me. So next camaro day will be cutting off the r/s 1/4 and wheel house and starting the panel replacement on that side of the car. Sorry very bad day had to vent I did try to post a few pics but you could not see the fish eye,
and on another note where i thought my filler was good and smooth once primed it looks like you could surf on my 1/4. This is not acceptable after replacing metal on this car for about a year now. This project needs to move foward and not backwards so i will bow out of the body work and paint end and leave it to the professionals.

12-5-2010

Some progress on my project

Over the weekend i began to remove the two last rusty panels off the car. I started by laying the 1/4 skin on the car to get an idea of where to make the long cut along the top. While the skin was on the car i drew a line across the top and then ran a piece of tape below that line for my initial cut line.

Once the bulk pf the 1/4 was removed i then removed the outer wheel house.

After that i began the tedious job of removing any pinch weld seams and the edge of old 1/4 off of the B-pillar, so the new skin will lay at the same hieght as the old panel. While i was in there i also used my heat gun and removed the old undercoating on the inner wheel house. I still have a little more trimming at the very rear of the old 1/4 to do but the majority is cleaned and ground.

Its been a year since i sarted this project last december, and being i just cut off the last of the rusty panels from my car i figured i would take a pic of all of the metal replaced in the coarse of that year. I was hoping to be alot further along on my car in a years time but sometimes things take longer than expected. All in all im happy with having a rust free car at this point in the project. Heres a pic of a years worth of metal work.

Once this 1/4 is done i still have some grinding and welding to be done on the bottom of my car but all panel replacements will be complete. No more rust, im loven it