LS7 1969 Camaro SS Convertible - Project "Overt"

[Nine Ball]

I restored the 1969 Camaro firewall cowl tag yesterday. It has been off the car for 2 years now, since starting the sheetmetal work. Here is a step by step process, to help others do the same restoration.

Remove cowl tag by drilling out old pop-rivets. Here is how mine looked.





Get some aircraft stripper, let the plate soak in the stuff for about 20 minutes. The old paint will lift right off. Use a plastic bristle brush to gently remove all the paint remaining.



Here is how it looked with all the old paint stripped away. It was a bit harder to read, due to the texture of the surface. My tag was also a bit warped, and had a couple edges lifted. I used a small 1" wood roller (used for installing wallpaper or dynamat) to smooth the tag out. Try to avoid rolling on the letters, just the bordering areas. Sort of like a small rolling-pin. Got the badge perfectly flat again.



I spray painted the tag with matte silver metallic. I wanted something close to the bright zinc color on the backside of the tag. Let the paint bake in the sun for 30 minutes. It came out perfect.



Painted, in same lighting as before. The paint really made it easier to read.



Before/After



I used some aluminum pop-rivets and put the tag back on the firewall. Pedigree is restored. For you cowl-tag decipher guys, X55 = SS 350, 72 = Hugger Orange, 711 = black standard interior, 01C = build 3rd week of Jan 1969.





Tony