69 LS7 DSE
 

Just wanted to preface this with thanks and gratitude to this site and everyone involved. Certainly has helped to fill in the gaps with ideas, inspiration and support. Hopefully someone else can learn from my experiences along the way.

Original pics from an ad in Craigslist, the car was in San Jose and spent all its life in California and I was looking for a shell. Purchased the car in March of 2019.

I had met Craig at Kennedy Coachworks https://www.ctw-ltd.com/ before I started the project, it's difficult to find someone available to do his level of work. Took the car to to his shop form picking it up in San Jose. I knew the driver quarter needed to be replaced, most of the interior was out of the car when I purchased it so I could pull up the carpet and see the floor was all original paint, I took a bondo magnet detector with me when I purchased the car and it looked pretty good, the guy selling the car thought I was nuts looking the car over with a magnet but you never know whats lurking under the paint or in this case primer. It was interesting to see what we had after media blasting the car

Looks like a great project!

Nice car to start with!

:captain:

Disassembly

Back from media blasting and on the frame table, we knew the drivers quarter was coming off, there was a couple crappy repairs, dings etc, but no rust

Not bad! Nice to see it isn't full on rust.

:captain:

DSE frame and a host of other parts from DSE came, awesome quality and as we found moving forward with the project the fit is better than expected

The right side quarter has some previous damage repair but definitely fixable

Fitting the DSE subframe to the front end

I sourced an NOS left side quarter panel from Camaro Central, they are great to work with, high regards.
We found hidden damage under the quarter that had been reskinned, the outer wheel well had been repaired which made it impossible to fit the new quarter.
(Thinking a tire blow out or an axle let loose)
So I did some research and found a Sherman outer wheel well.
From what I could find Sherman was stamping parts in the US or North America a while ago and I was able to source one from Camaro Specialities, It was cheap and fit like a glove so did the NOS quarter.

Man that’s a clean car. What did you paint the inside of the quarter panel (looks white) with?

Thanks,
Jim

Hey Jim, it's just a 2 part epoxy primer, it looks white in the pic but its actually light gray
THX

The lower tail light panel was riddled with small dents so we decided to use a patch panel, surprised how clean the galvanized structure was underneath

Thanks. I’m glad to see you paint it with epoxy paint

moving on to the right quarter

A couple more of the right quarter

Wow! nice work straightening those panels.

Yeah, Craig at Kennedy Coachworks has skills

The doors

Colorado80439;
Does epoxy primer let in moisture like regular primer or isn’t it as porous?

Thanks,
Jimbo

Quality epoxy is not porous and when properly applied it will block moisture.

Don

Tubs and Quadralink

Very nice work. :thumbsup:

PPG DP90 will. Its not what it used to be. If left exposed it will last about 6 months before rust starts to show.

I quit using DPLF many years ago. Overpriced junk imho. SPI epoxy is all I use. Better product for less cost than DP.

Don

dhutton,
What’s DPLF ? Sorry, lol. Does the SPI have any problems with solvent or water Bourne paints? What do you put down for a sealer?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Jimbo

DPLF is the new lead free version of DP. It was never the same once they took the lead out. It can’t be sanded and the price is outrageous for what it is.

Epoxy can be used with any solvent or waterborne paint.

For sealer I use reduced SPI epoxy. There is a lot of information in the tech sheet on their website.

So my usual build is bare metal, SPI epoxy, filler and/or polyester primer in the epoxy recoat window, epoxy, urethane primer in the epoxy recoat window, and reduced epoxy sealer just before base coat.

Sort of hijacking this thread. :) You can PM me if you have more questions.

Don

I quit using urethane primer years ago because of shrinkage. Get it straight in poly, seal in epoxy and color. It eliminate a step and reduces the amount of material which also helps reduce shrinkage.

Thanks guys !

Colorado80439,
Sorry about mucking up your thread.

Hey Jimbo, no problem thanks for acknowledging!

Yes, who wants shrinkage!! LOL

Moving forward to the rear!
Fuzzy at Gear Fx , can't say enough

Yup. It will be quite. Nice

Bowler T-56 Mag Stage 2 upgrade, Bowler night stick shifter upgrade, .50 6th gear.

It's times like this when I'm inspired with the build, but in reality there is so much more to go!

On to that scab on the fender
Found a donor GM fender to make the patch

Damn. That looks good. What does the back side look like? How long do you think this took just to weld and finish it out?

Trying to resize my photos before I post them so they're not so big

Hey Jimbo, I don't have a pic of the other side maybe I can post one when we blow the car apart for paint