The metal work continues. It's getting exciting to see the car come back and starting to resemble a Camaro again..
Nick has been busy. After he installed the new dash, cowls and floor repairs he moved to the rear of the car.
The trunk floor, both quarters, minitubs and rear tail panel all need to be replaced. As the work unfolded it became more than obvious that he was thinking many steps ahead when he braced things specifically the way he did. The braces held everything in alignment without getting in his way any more than necessary. I'm sure that's a function of how many of these they have done in the past but it was impressive to see their rhyme and reason reveal itself as the job progressed.
As usual, the V8TV crew takes lots of pictures and video along the way. Here are some pics that show their attention to detail and hopefully offer some guidance to others who decide to take the job on themselves.
First he drilled out the original factory spot welds and removed the trunk floor.
Of course the body jig is critical to help keep things in alignment but Nick also recorded lots and lots of reference measurements from the old sheetmetal before he removed it.
The rear deck drip rail, the frame rails and some of the inner rear tail panel are about all that will be reused from the rear of the car. The rest will be replaced with new metal we ordered from Classic Industries.
The inner rear tail panel had a rust spot in it at the rear of the driver side frame rail. Nick cut the bad spot out, fabricated a patch and installed it before replacing the trunk floor.
I appreciate the way Nick always takes the time to put weldable primer everywhere he can.
The new trunk floor was trial fitted into the car.
The original spotweld hole locations in the frame rails were marked on the bottom of the trunk floor while it was test fitted in the car.
The trunk floor was then removed and Nick drilled holes where he wanted to plug weld the floor to the frame rails.
When finished, his plug welds will resemble the original factory spot welds.
Similar preparation was done for the reinstallion of the trunk floor to rear tail pan braces.
Trunk floor back in for welding this time. You simply can't have too many clamps when doing this kind of job, neither in quantity nor type of clamps.
Notice how Nick took the time to use wood shims so his clamps wouldn't mar the trunk floor.
Floor trunk in. Coming next, the DSE minitubs and quarters...