Variety is the spice of life - and of restoration work!

The holiday weekend coincided with my having several projects in progress and in need of attention. 

The '68 Camaro 's seat backs where blue units and had been painted black at some point. With the rest of the car at show-level, we couldnt just leave them like that, so new ones where ordered. 

 

While the new ones look very similar, instaling the lower screws was impossisble due to the angle of the bottom fold-over and the position of the screw holes. 

Look closely: the holes on the originals are closer to the edge and the screw that secured them to the seat bottom pulled the hole right to the very edge - which meant the new holes where way off....

The fix was to drill anew hole closer to the edge, allowing the screw to go into the threaded seat bottom hole without being overly angled or stressed.

Next up was some prep work on the 390FE for my 67 Galaxie. The block is at the machine shop being honed and fitted with new pistons. Here the heads were cleaned and tested:

After a thorough cleaning, the runners on each side of each of the heads was filled with cleaning fluid from the parts washer. Cylinders with well--sealing valves would maintain the fluid. Valved that didn't seal perfectly allowed fluid to leak past. On one side you can check the exhaust valves - flip the heads over and you can check the intakes:

As shown in the photo below, the intake runner on the number 6 cylinder leaked. As it was the only valve that leaked - and this engine is being set up for a turbo -  I won't need to address it. Had it been a large/fast leak, or had several leaks been evident, a valve job would have to be considered.

The 240Z project got some attention today as well. With the fibreglass kit I purchased a while back I finally got to work on the front air dam:

This kit from BONDO has enough resin, hardener and fiberglass matting 

to do several large repairs - or many smaller ones. Just pour the required amount of resin in a mixing container and add 8 drops of hardener per ounce of resin. 

Then, having cut the fiberglass matting to the required size for the repair

 (I used strips sized 1/2-1 inch past each side of the cracks), dunk them in the resin to coat them with the resin....

Then lay the strips over the crack, gently pressing them down to lay flat on the surface being repaired. The kit comes with a 'tongue-depresser' to use as a tool, but a small brush works best. 

The resin - and soaked matting - hardens like a rock in 25-40 

minutes and is ready to shape shortly thereafter.

The largest cracks were reinforced with metal strips secured with 1/8" pop-rivets:

 With the 240Z's front air damn repairs hardening, I turned my attention

to the rear suspension, which is about half-way through the re-assembly process

The front underside is mostly done, save for the sway-bar mounts!

Looking back at the air dam, the repairs are now hard-as-rock and ready for shaping:

1968 Camaro finsihing touches - Part 3

With the carpet laying square and the console and shifter back in place and bolted down, the carpet isn't going anywhere and so it can be cut to size and tucked under all the edge pieces.

With the carpet carefully trimmed back, the sill plates can be re-installed. 

Up front, the carpet was tucked behind the kick panel.

Now THAT's a fine result -  What a beauty!

Finally, it's time to power it up to test and check the electrical systems the many, many, connections I made in building this car.

Whenever I power up a car for the first time - especially after such an extensive re-fit - I never just throw in the battery and hope for the best, but I use a trick my Dad taught me, nearly 35 years ago, which is to use a battery charger, instead of a battery, for power. With the charger set to 2 AMPS, this ensures I get a bit of time to find any issues before wiring starts to smoke and fused start to burn up - or worse!

And upon connecting the leads, things began to light up, including the O2 sensor gauge:

As well as headlights, markers, I could also hear the new Vintage AC fan kick in and see the Volt meter in the new gauges showed 9 Volts (due to the obvious drainage off the low AMP supply).

Of course this is reality, so not everything worked right off. I noted that I didn't have interior dash lights, the fuel gauge was pinned to the  full mark and the wiper motor arm binds the wiper linkage when I tested it. This is part of the shake down process of any new build and will give me something to do tomorrow ;)

Other items tackled today included a new front spoiler (looks great!) - 

As well as an overhaul of the shifter indicator plate assembly:

 Its amazing what a little polish and paint can do

 

The windshield and back glass are being re-installed next week, so in preparation for that I need to get the chrome surround into shape. This included sorting out pieces that need a bit of hammer and dolly work - against the ones that just need to be polished.

So I threw on a new Sisal wheel and went to work removing scratches....

    
                                                     
                                                               .......and polishing them to a high shine!                                                                                                                                                                                      

FINALLY - the 66 Camaro project lurches forward!

The roof and quarter panels were welded in place using my Lincoln 180, with ESAB wire through the plug-weld-holes I punched earlieir on -



All the gaps were painstakingly measured and evened-out prior to final welding:

Once everything was welded solid, the welds were prepped with 36 grit, the surrounding metal was gone over with 80 grit and the entire area cleaned with pre-solve to enssure there where no contimants remaining.

Short-strand fibreglass re-enforced filler (referred to as "Kitty Hair" by my Dad!) was used to cover and fill the sail panel and A-pillar welds. It dries har- as-rock and is water proof, making it the best product for this application -

Although it took a lot of work (due to shitty re-pro hinges!)I'm very happy with the gaps.

The inner fenders were welded to the quarter lips as per factory specs:

Whenever I do a big project like this, I think how nice it is to take an old vehicle that had already gone through several restorations - and bring it back to a "no-filler new" state.

Paint is slated for July/August!!

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

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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Check out all my projects in my Project Thread at www.GarageJournal.com

Website: www.E-TekRestorations.com