Rust Bullet uses in vehicle restorations

Today we used Rust Bullets Black Shell single stage epoxy to seal off the inner structure of the rusty Camaro to ensure our work to stop the rust will last a long time:

 

As well, we put another coat on the 240Z's fender wells. The RustBullet did double duty here by  covering up the blue over spray:

 It's a bit shiny, but sure cleans it up! I have a feeling it will flatten a bit over time, which will be perfect:

More to come!!

Datsun 240Z front suspension rebuild Please support me by clicking on the ads to the right!!

New ball joints and poly bushings in the E-tek 240Z:

               Rebuilt all the brakes withnew seals, bearings and hardware:

Same with the torsion bars - 

Check out the difference between new (poly) and old (rubber) bushings:

Almost done!

                    Don't forget to check out our website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !

Popping the top off the 68 Camaro

We decided to replace the roof panel now as well, due to finding several rust holes along both front and rear glass channels, as well as some perforations above the doors. Replacing it - if done without warpage - can save time cutting and patching, save time, material and frustration of having to use filler to level all the welding work - and most importantly -  allow us to repair and abate any rust issues that exist both on the underside of the roof panel, as well as on the support structure.

The easiest way to remove these panels is to first find the attachment points and then cut near them, but not on them - in order to remove the panel, exposing the areas that need to be separated:

A chunk of filler that was pushed into a rust hole the last time repairs were performed.
                                            Definitely NOT the way to do it!

Heavy rust scale from both the roof panel and the structural panels:

The trimmings - removed by way of drilling out spot welds and separating the pieces with the air chisel:

After clean-up, we can see that some of the inner structure also needs to be repaired:

But first, any surface rust, hidden rust is converted and clean metal is prepped, using a phosphoric acid solution:

I'm not a hater....but

I hate to trash other peoples work, but WOW!.... Whoever did these skins were either drunk - or trying to do a terrible job of it! Check out the rough edges, Very little (if any!) paint or undercoat used and the use of just a few spot welds to attach it all:





The inner fenders where sliced and punched in to fit into the skins wheel arch. No welding here, just sealer and filler:



This method was so poor at sealing to the quarter panel that it came away without any trace!

And the striker panel....the inner piece below is as I found it. It appears as though they started to cut it out, then realized it had to stay, so tried to repair (some of) it. 





Here's just one of the reasons I use dedicated rust paints - if there's a joint, there's gonna be rust:



A little bit of patch work to be done here :(





The dirty work - removing undercoating - 



All cleaned up 

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Website: www.E-TekRestorations.com

HOLY HINGE ISSUES BATMAN!!!!

Ever had one of those days where you chase an issue for what seems like forever, only to find out it's someone elses fault?!  Well that's what ended up happening with the repro hinges on the 68 Camaro project....

Although I was able to get the door reasonably-well lined up with the quarter, the leading edge still wouldn't quite sit even with the front fender for some reason, which is obviously a critical spot that needs to be addressed. After re-checking factory measurements to ensure the door post is properly positioned (no previous damage here), we decided to see if the repor hinges could be the problem:


Although the door bolt holes were off compared to the originals, slotting the door bolt holes in the door didn't help much and looking into the door gap, we could see that the hinge-edge was butting up against the door inner, not allowing it to be adjusted inward enough. So after a bunch of effing around.... we compared the old and new hinges against each other:


Check out all that extra material! That is what is holding the door from sitting inward enough to be flush with the fender. On the next 2 photo's, check out the portion of the hinge next to my thumb:





You can see how the OER repro hinge is WAY off the original. The extra material is what is butting up against the door, stopping it from sliding in enough so the door lines up with the fender.... So a call to the supplier got me another set on the way, but still...this is why repro parts get such a BAD name! 

Time to call CamaroDepot.ca and see what they can do to help....

In the meantime - lets get this quarter started!

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !