67 Camaro project "It Don't Fit" - Page 20 - Lateral-g Forums

**Sieg** · #**191** 01-21-2013, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makoshark

Thanks Sieg and Robert

Patience, I don't think, really is the word for it. Persistence would fit better. If I were patient, then I wouldn't have a hole in my sheetrock from throwing a hammer through it this morning

That's passion!

You can put a poster over the sheet rock.

I'll never forget thrashing one night to prep a bike for a x-country race the next day that involved leaving town at 4 a.m. to make the starting line at 8:30 and snapping a bolt..........I "released" the ratchet across the garage and it hit my 2 week old washing machine dead center on the front edge and left a dent and 1.5" void of enamel which for the next 10 years reminded me to control my temper............30 years later I still have the ratchet!!

makoshark · #**192** 01-21-2013, 10:51 PM

I lost it this morning for sure. After 40 years, I've learned to not fly-off at the hat like that, but not this morning.

My driver's door needed a slight bit more tweaking to fit better. I loosened the hinge bolts just enough for them to move, but not move on their own. I broke out the dead blow to give the hinge a gentle tap. As soon as I did that, the door dropped down and threw off the entire adjustment. I, essentially, had to start all back over. Needless to say, that dead blow ended up in the other garage via a sheetrock wall.

My garages are due for a fresh coat of paint and I was planning to do that early spring. Guess, I have no choice in it now

**Sieg** · #**193** 01-22-2013, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makoshark

I lost it this morning for sure. After 40 years, I've learned to not fly-off at the hat like that, but not this morning.

My driver's door needed a slight bit more tweaking to fit better. I loosened the hinge bolts just enough for them to move, but not move on their own. I broke out the dead blow to give the hinge a gentle tap. As soon as I did that, the door dropped down and threw off the entire adjustment. I, essentially, had to start all back over. Needless to say, that dead blow ended up in the other garage via a sheetrock wall.

My garages are due for a fresh coat of paint and I was planning to do that early spring. Guess, I have no choice in it now

Nice throw!

Some emotions cannot be endured with a golf club in your hands.
~ Bobby Jones

makoshark · #**194** 02-08-2013, 05:32 PM

Not a great deal of progress has been made as of late. However, I haven't made any new holes in any walls, so that is a good thing.

I did make a hole in my original header panel though. I had picked up a NOS header panel a few years back at a swapmeet and recently found out that panel is for a 69 Camaro. That forced me to have to go back to the original panel. The area of the panel where the emblems go was oil canned and banged up. No matter what I did with the hammer and dolley, it just wouldn't move. So I cut out the metal and welded in a patch there.

Also, I picked up a LS3 short block. It may or may not ever make it into this car, but I'll put it in something eventually.

**KPC67** · #**195** 02-08-2013, 06:54 PM

Good work

makoshark · #**196** 02-17-2013, 08:14 AM

I have revisited my panel alignment dilemma. This has been an ongoing process of a test of my patience, sanity and obvious lack of skill level when it comes to aligning this front cap. I have tried to progress this project to start prepping for paint, but have hit a proverbial brick wall with not being able to get the correct alignment of my fenders.

Bare with me as I detail my problems with this starting with the driver's side. I have the driver's side door aligned as well as I can to the quarter panel. The quarter to door gap is not perfect, however I can see at the bottom of the door it begins to curve out closing the gap with the quarter. The only thing I know that can be done there is grind the edge of the door to even the gap. However, I will probably break through the skin on the edge as it needs about 1/16" removed. Of course, if I break through I'll have to reweld, but would this be customary?

Also, on the driver's side fender, it required 3/8" of shims at the top of the cowl to lift the fender to the proper height to match the fender. I forget the amount of shims I added in the lower fender bolt. I did have to use 5/16" shims in the fender jamb bolt to pull the fender out enough to match the door. The driver's side fender to door is perfectly aligned. I am worried though, with the amount of shims I had to use in the fender jamb bolt. That amount of shims will increase the fender to hood gap as well as the outer cowl to fender gap. With all that aside, the fit is near perfect. This is the best fit I have managed on the driver's side. There is one exception though, the bottom fender corner that mates to the rocker panel sticks out past the rocker. I cannot get that to lay even with the rocker. Do I just accept all this or is there more work that could be done to get 'everything' to fit within sync?

Now onto the passenger side. I am not getting good alignment here at all. I have reworked the alignment on the passenger door so many times I lost count. The door gap along the rocker is tighter at the front of the door than the rear of the door. I didn't get an actual measurement, but I would guesstimate around as little as 1/6" to 1/8" difference. I dropped the front of the door in an attempt to lessen the amount of shims needed to lift the fender to match the top of the door. I have maxed out the amount of shims the cowl fender bolt would allow as well as the lower fender bolt would allow. None of which ever sucked the fender in even with the door. At this time, there is 1/16" more shim on the passenger side cowl bolt compared to the driver's side. If I lift the front of the passenger door to get a consistent rocker to door gap, then I would have to add even more shims to that fender cowl bolt. In doing so, that would cause the hood to sit that much higher than the drivers side which would make the front cap crooked. Also, I have no shims in the fender jamb bolt. The fender is sticking out well past the door with this arrangement. I did notice that the fender firewall bolt area has a tear in the sheetmetal, which with a tape measure shows the passenger fender is taller than the driver's fender when measuring from the top of the cowl to the top of the fender. I am beginning to think this is where the problem with my passenger fender lies. It has caused the fender to already be stretched more without adding shims, thus not allowing me to stretch the fender the appropriate amount to suck the fender in with the door. If this is the case, then how the heck can I get this part of the fender back within spec without damaging it? Also, the fender is doing the same thing on the passenger as with the driver's side at the rocker. The bottom corner sticks out past the rocker.

Both fenders and doors are original GM. The driver's side fender to outer cowl panel gap is measuring 1/4".

makoshark · #**197** 02-17-2013, 08:15 AM

The rest of the pictures

makoshark · #**198** 03-10-2013, 07:08 PM

Hmmm, I wonder how well this gauge set could be grafted into the 67 Camaro dash? This gauge set addresses 99% of the problems I have with the Dakato Digital VHX new gauge set. This set offers large gauges with a larger digital readout. I really want this set!

Roberts68 · #**199** 03-10-2013, 07:47 PM

That looks awesome, what vehicle is it meant for? The biggest hiccup is likely to be view angle. That looks like a large radius would have to be sunk into the top of the dash quite a ways... Seems to me that is in the opposite direction of how our dash slopes isn't it?

makoshark · #**200** 03-10-2013, 07:57 PM

It's designed to fit the new Marquez dash. The 69 Camaro that Ridetech is building for GoodGuys is utilizing this gauge set.

The problems I see with integrating this set into a stock 67-8 dash is the width of it would cause you to have to relocate the ignition swith and the light switch. I'm not sure it would protrude into the dash top as this gauge set says its 7 1/4" in height. If you installed this set at an angle, laid back at the top, then that would reduce the height even further. It's the width of the set that seems to pose the problem. I don't think the factory a/c vents would work either. The factory opening is 13", so that is a 3" deficit to the VHX gauge set.

I have already broke out the tape measure and stared at my dash to see how will it could be fitted.