1967 Camaro RS - "Recycler"

[awr68]

It's about time! j/k...I just know how long Deb's been waiting!
so a little body work, primer and a full wrap...or going all out and painting it?

[KPC67]

Originally Posted by James OLC

Yeah... it's been snowing for the last 5 days... it's hovering just below freezing so it's not like it's cold - just cold enough for it to pile up. The good news is that it's supposed to be 70ish on Wednesday or Thursday.

70ish hey... dont you mean 21???
Jokes aside, I am really starting to envy your car collection James.
Maybe you want to finish mine after this one

[James OLC]

Originally Posted by awr68

It's about time! j/k...I just know how long Deb's been waiting!
so a little body work, primer and a full wrap...or going all out and painting it?

Yeah... she's due for her bit of fun. This one will get painted and will be set up for the car seat in the back - gotta get the little one around in style

I'm fortunate - not only does Deb "tolerate" my hobby she actually got me in to cars when we were in high school. I just have to keep her time with Mary down to short spurts so she doesn't get too carried away.

[James OLC]

Originally Posted by KPC67

70ish hey... dont you mean 21???
Jokes aside, I am really starting to envy your car collection James.
Maybe you want to finish mine after this one

I don't know if I'd envy it... one finished car... one beat up race car... two projects that are starting as rolling shells... I don't know. (In all fairness, Recycler does still have it's stock 327 and glide in the big hole but I don't know why). I've toyed with getting back to building cars for other people but in all honesty I don't think I could do it again... I kind of like being able to do it the way I want to.

[KPC67]

Maybe so, but at least you have one finished!
Anyway great start to a fun project. I am excited to follow this thread.

[James OLC]

Well it’s been a while since I updated our progress on Deb’s “Recycler” 67 project and since I have some down time while travelling for work I thought I would try to update our progress – even through it’s less than current (these pics are from last July). My good friend Chris Heighton – who did the OLC - started work on the car early last year and by summer had started on the metalwork…

We knew that the passenger side was going to be an issue… the car had obviously been hit at some point in it’s life (hard enough to leave a crease in the inner piece below the sail panel) and when we started to pull the old quarter off we were disappointed to find the old quarter panel still in place… I know that there was a time when this was common but still. We pulled the panel off, fixed the tweak, and installed a new inner wheel well…



There were a couple of missing braces at the back but we’re replacing them as we go…



I hate the way these things look when they’re half naked… thankfully on this one it was only the passenger side…



Even though the trunk pan looked good it was pretty thin and we made the decision to replace it, plus it gave us a chance to verify that the frame rails were ok…

[James OLC]

It is nice to have a perfect trunk pan…



And the trunk pan needed replacing from where the car had backed into a post…



I was lucky and an NOS panel had come with the car – so no messing around trying to make it fit…



The passenger side door needed a skin and at the end of the day it was easier to replace the whole thing (especially since the quality seems to have improved recently)…

[James OLC]

We need to clean up some fenders and dig up some sheetmetal for the front…



Since the NOS front clip that came with the car when I bought it was used on another project “without consent” so to speak….



Eve’s enthusiastically following the restoration… maybe a little to enthusiastically…

[James OLC]

Fast forward a bit to August of last year and the hard work is mostly done, the metalwork is nearly done, and it’s starting to look like a car again…

Deb’s decided to go with an SS hood so a call to Eddie is in the near future…



And with a fender and a quarter in place it actually looks like it’s coming together…



The front header panel is an NOS panel that I had in the garage… we used it for color experimentation for the OLC – trying to find a grey color and finish that went with the red…



Rear filler panel and trunk are fitting together nicely…



And the gaps on the (second) drivers door are much better. The first door was… an issue… but this new one fits like a charm…

[James OLC]

Everything seems to fit well…



including the new quarter panel. Chris will finish the transition to the roof in lead once we’re happy with everything else…



It’s nice to see it looking like a car again…



Next step is to get it in primer (I know – that shouldn’t be the next step) and then work on collecting some parts to get the initial fit done…



Did I mention that Eve’s really having fun watching the car come together…



As I said earlier, the next step was to put the car in primer. That wasn’t the plan but the reality of real life took president and we put work on the car on hold while we focused on selling our house and finding a new one.

As you can probably guess, the build is (hopefully) getting back on track now. Chris is trying to get a ’68 ‘vert done for the World of Wheels later in February and if I can collect some parts between now and then we’ll shoot to get the body done. Once that gets cleaned up I’ll bring it home and figure out what to do with the suspension and make (finally) make arrangements to bring Track Rat’s (old) engine up here and get if fitted up… then the challenge becomes finding an auto to put behind it…