Project 1969

[6t9 camaro]

I like where this one is going!

[Intimidator3]

Thanks guys. @ Curtis - I have settled with going back blue. But this time a more modern GM Color... Luxo Blue.. Here is a reference pic.
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...rebb/C6frt.jpg

I plan for it to be more simple so probably not going back with the rally strips, but something more subtle...when we get to that point.

So here we go. About a year ago at this time, I decided it was time for paint and body and move in a slightly different direction. I knew I did not want this car to end up as just another drag car. That is not why I looked for a 69 Camaro for so long. SO I drove my car over to Camaro Concepts here in Houston. I spoke with Corbin up there and we agreed we agreed I really have to get this baby down to bare metal to see what we are dealing with and go from there. The car is what I would call a 20 footer as in it looked damn good from 20 feet away. Having this car for 10 years I already knew most of the secrets, or at least I hoped... I knew there was body work and rust in some areas, but nothing that Corbin and Roy could not handle. So I began the tear down...

So I pulled the motor and removed my cowl vent. Notice the rust near the bottom of the wind shield....


a little around the back window after I pulled the glass... but not as bad as I thought...whew! Hey look...Butternut Yellow!



The trunk pan...well I knew about that...yeah, kinda hard to haul around any dead bodies in that so I will have to replace that. (J/K)



Pulled the interior and yeah, hard to tell how bad, but someone previously tried to put glass over the pinholes looks like... Not looking good for the floorpan...




So I got it over to Camaro Concepts and while I was there, they already dropped the rear suspension. Within a week, here is what my car looked like... Ready for blasting!!



I decided to smooth the firewall. Here is a good before pic...


As I feared, I can see the rust damage around the windshield is pretty extensive. It's okay, Roy and Corbin have seen worse.


A little on the lower cowl too...



Car is back from blasting. naked and P-coated. I was worried they would start blasting it and suddenly they would say, "where did it go?" luckily, it still had a bit of medal left.

Some previous bad patch work hidden under the paint...



and the door...



More to come... 15 pic limit per post... Thanks again for reading!

[Intimidator3]

Oh yeah, looks like it got attacked by metal eating termites...


Sorry, a little blurry


Lower cowl, floorboards... can see daylight through the holes. Under the fiberglass was sheetmetal patchwork. Oh, yeah, floorpan is outta here...





Doors eaten up from the inside (lower right corner) and the lower left door frame..


Okay, so while all that is going on, I loaded up my subframe and brought it home for disassembly. I am taking it and a few other parts to get powder coating.


Fast Forward... A week later...

[Spiffav8]

Dig the new color! Looks like the body has seen better days, but we have seen worse around here. It sounds like you've got a good team that will get it back into shape and done correctly. Keep at it!!!

[Intimidator3]

Meanwhile, back at the fab shop, my car is getting a lot lighter...

Cut out the cowl, right side cowl shoulder, floor pan, trunk pan, and left rear quarter panel...








At this point, with all that out of the way, I decided to go mini tub and 4-Link rear suspension. So Corbin added that to the parts list for me.

New parts came in and the car starts to go back together.







Start of some of the pre-fab work for the minitubs.


Tail pan


Trunk pan fitted



Ready for the tubs





Fixed that rust spot with a new section



To be continued... Thanks for reading!

[Intimidator3]

Up on the rotisserie to finalize welds and clean-up to prepare installing the 4-Link rear suspension from TCI.









Couple more tweaks and we're ready to send the whole rear suspension to powder coating.



Time to put the subframe back on for fender fitting.



Starting to look like a car again... decided not to try salvaging the doors, so got these doors from Auto Metal Direct. Body lines are pretty true and like all aftermarket body parts, needed some massaging, but the guys at Camaro Concepts were able to fix them right up.







Tubs looking good



We've got a roller again...



The rear suspension came back from powder coating and finished nicely. I gained an additional 3 inches to accommodate the 19X12's I plan to have on the final product.







Back at home where my work continues. A big thanks to Camaro Concepts for all the help with the sheet metal work and fab work. They are top-notch and easy to work with. Now it is time to do some more fitting and additional prep work before sending it to paint. Room for one more? (don't mind the Cokes in the back ground. lol )

As always, thanks for reading.

[Spiffav8]

[WSSix]

Welcome to the site. Glad your project is moving along nicely. What all do you have planned for the car? I like the blue you're going with.

[Intimidator3]

Okay, a few more updates to get y'all to present. Since I got it back this past winter, I worked on seam sealer in the interior and exterior. Also worked on the surface rust in places to help preserve the car for the winter since I did not yet have a paint shop lined up that did not have a 9 month waiting period. So I worked on the interior first. I cleaned and applied #M Seam sealer to all seams. I stripped any rust off and e-coating with a rotary nylon abrasive brush. (Thanks Sonar Chief) I then cleaned, taped off and shot the areas with Eastwood's Epoxy Primer to seal it well.



This was just to get it by as I did not want this thing sitting in Houston humidity and just rust away since I suddenly found out I was going to be traveling quite a bit for work in the first half of the year and will have less time to try to get this finalized to go to paint. (Work always seems to delay major projects like this )















Did some fitting for brake lines, fuel lines and some of my new billet accessories.



Also got my Ice wheels in from Budnik. Thanks Jason Swain.









Fronts are on the way.

Next update will have the latest progress as of 9/26/14. I will then be posting as it moves along. I finally have it at a local paint shop after hunting all summer. Great shop and has been doing excellent work so far and it is getting really close to paint now.

[Intimidator3]

Okay, so it has been over at the paint shop where it has gone back on the rotisserie. The bottom sealed, primed, blocked and shot with semi-gloss black. Here's a couple of shots after it was rolled out of the paint booth. Sorry, pics taken from my phone...








More updates coming soon! I'll use a better camera on the next ones!