Dennis' 1969 Camaro Build @ Dutchboys

[Sales@Dutchboys]

Originally Posted by hersheys69z

For the amount of work guys go thru replacing all the body panels and inner structure it would be easier to just swap the front of the original firewall onto the new body. I know some guys wouldn't be ok with that idea. But if it is done super clean you wouldn't be able to tell.

We haven't gotten into to many that the inner structures were bad..Usually its your basic Floor pans, Qtrs, Rear body panel, Upper dash etc.

I think I speak for my customer and myself that I would rather stick with my original investment and put the money into the car that I've already purchased. Going out and (trying) to find another "rust free body" isn't as easy as some people might think.

Say a customer bought the starting roller for 15k, (in most cases more) The shop sandblasts it and finds out all the issues that it has. Customer says im not going to build this car, We should try and find another one. I don't really want to invest all the time and money into replacing all the panels. So the customer has his initial 15k, plus sandblasting, disassemble time, etc.

Lets just say Hes knocking on 20k plus.

Unless he can sell that sandblasted car with a bunch of rust holes that are easily seen now that the car is sandblasted. He will be lucky to get half of his money back.

Finding a really nice unmolested 1969 body is getting pretty hard. Minimum it seems like your putting quarter panels on a car. Say you found a super nice 69' for 25k thats a close to original driver car. The customer buys it. Car gets to the shop. Shop disassembles the car, sandblasts it, epoxy prime etc. with the car and labor hes Knocking on 30k plus..

So the customer now has 50k (or more) floating out between the two cars in just the START of the build phase. No cool hotrod parts,no engine/trans, wheels etc. New clean 69' needs a qtr, maybe both. here we go again. It just snowballs from there.

As far as a dynacorn body. I think its a great concept if that's the direction YOU want to go to start with BEFORE buying a first starter car.

But Ive seen and heard of some horror stories with them that don't seem to put you to far ahead if you are paying a shop to do all of the work.

I have seen in person a shop that is working on a dynacorn body car, panels welded on poorly, misaligned. Major gaping needed to make everything fit. Mini tubing the car the tubs were off side to side. Windows fitting very bad. looked to be that the roof was crooked along with the a-pillars. Maybe it was an early body and they have improved since. But I think I will stick with replacing panels on a GM body before I go down that road. The AMD sheet metal is so nice to work with that it isn't worth the trouble.