1969 Camaro Z/28

[67pro-street]

So now i finally had my trunk pan tacked into where it meets the floor. I still had to keep it supported on the backside otherwise the whole thing would have flopped over and gotten my substructure out of whack. My next step was to weld the inner wheel wells in. since i have the AME back half and i want to go with some wide tires in the back, i also decided to use DSE mini tubs. My thought process was that since i know where the top of the inner tubs need to meet up with the substructure, i could set the top of the tubs in place first, and then lower/raise the trunk floor until it met up with the tubs "properly" I am using "properly" in quotes because i was guessing what properly was and i had also cut out the wheel tub area on my trunk floor to accommodate the wider tubs.

But hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder right? In my case, i must be a 95 year old man with cataracts in both eyes who's looking a mule and thinking its really Jessica Alba





PS, my cataracts must have been preventing me from noticing that i cut the floor in a square to meet up with the rounded wheel tubs. But hey, thats what Bondo's for right? To tell the truth though, i really did know i needed to round the corners on the cut, but just dont have the skill to do it properly

[67pro-street]

Here is the patch panel i made to cover up the hole i created when i cut the trunk pan to accept the DES tubs. This is one of the very few things i am proud of to post amongst all the other builds on this forum. Although, even this patch panel looks like kindergarten work compared to what i have seen everyone else do...

And when I decided to go with the full AME Max G chassis and realized i had to cut out my back half, i cussed like a sailor for 30 minutes because i got overzealous with the welding and didnt just tack the frame in...So now the one patch panel I am proud of is now sacrificed because i cut into that to remove the frame. I didnt want to ruin that beautiful AME frame when removing it!!

[67pro-street]

Now is about the time when i was really questioning whether or not i should continue this process on my own. but i was still bitter about the previous fabricator experience i had and hadnt gotten in contact with the shop that is now going to fix everything for me...so i pushed on and put the outer wheel tubs in.





As you can see by the photo below, after a few bud lights, my work started looking acceptable





I had to take a break for the QC guy to come in and inspect everything. He didnt look to pleased, so i tried to butter him up with some food Unfortunately somebody else also tried to get in on the food action, but was quickly put in her place!







Dont worry, she found something a little more exciting to occupy her time

[67pro-street]

Here are some cool pics i took when i went back outside after eating some dinner...I only say they are cool because they are taken far enough away for the car to look like someone respectable is working on it, not a hack job like myself!!









Once again, if you would like to get a list of the specialty tools i have used in my build, PM me and i will send you a copy

[67pro-street]

Here are some more pictures of the car...just in case the horror movie you just watched isnt enough and you need some fresh ammo to help you have nightmares











Damn QC guy came back. Had to fill his pockets with some sheckles before i could continue working..

[67pro-street]

Here's some pics with the trunk pan, back half, and wheel tubs installed. If you look past my fabrication skills and just focus on Art Morrisons, these pictures are pretty pleasing









I had to force the QC guy to get in this pic.

[67pro-street]

Here's the straw that finally broke the camels back. I started to fit up the quarter panels, trunk lid, and rear tailpan. I first started off by rebuilding the door hinges and then squaring them up with the rocker, since the rocker had not been touched. at this point, i was not privy to the fact that my doors had not be re-skinned properly, so after failing numerous attempts at getting the sheetmetal to fit together, i pushed the car into the corner of the shop till this year. PS, any comments or pointers (good and bad) are welcome. As you can tell, i am very green to this stuff and any help i can get is always appreciated!!

[454SSguy]

The project is def looking pretty good, don't beat yourself up to bad. And at the very least this thread will be entertaining, lol. Good luck and can't wait for some more updates.

[67pro-street]

Luckily i only used sheetmetal screws on this part, so the panels can be re-used. My new sheetmetal guy is going to start working on the car in June. He is going to rebuild the wheel tubs from scratch, amongst many other things. This was also the reason why i decided to go with a Max G Chassis. Since i still have so many flaws and since the Max G requires you to rebuild the floor, i figured that since i got a good deal on the Max G i would come out ahead by just having my metal guy start from scratch! I will post some updates around June once i take the car over there and he gets started!! I am finally starting to get excited about this car again, wish me luck

[67pro-street]

Here is a picture of a trailer i built from scratch, while i was letting the camaro rest from all her surgery... It uses C5x9 channel and 6k axles. Should be good for 12k pounds, but i may have over-enginerded because it weighs in a 2400 pounds, haha!! But it was a fun project to say the very least! And i got some good stick welding and mig welding practice while building it!! The pics only show it after it was all framed up, but here is to your viewing pleasure!





Here are some pics of some vertical-up welding i did. I was pretty proud of how they turned out! Do you think i have enough weld metal in there though? haha, just joking, i used heavy C-Channel so i had to make multiple passes on all the welds. I cleaned the metal on each weld before making the next pass, and then i put doubler plates on all the welds for the main frame and cut holes for plugs welds, so i am pretty confident i wont be cracking any welds on it anytime soon!