Had a little time to prep for the removal of the old engine and trans. I drained the engine and transmission oil. I also went ahead and drained the oil out of the 454 while I was at it. I was pleased to see that the transmission had a drain plug as it is my understanding they don’t have them stock and would have had to been added after market.
I am using the engine removal checklist from NastyZ28.com as a rough guide: http://www.nastyz28.com/index.php?page=camaroengineremovalchecklist
Emptied the gas out of the gas tank and removed the front windshield without damaging it. Also got a new tool set on sale from Sears:
Got the misc parts that I unpacked in the car stored away. I also changed the tires as the two rear tires had a slow leak and I also like the rims and want to store them until I am ready to use them – The tires I put on the car were from the old Camaro and still hold air:
Next steps are to remove the windshield, engine and trans.
Got to unpacking the parts in the car. Good thing I did as there was some standing water in the trunk and floor from the drive out here from Arizona. I cleaned up the water. Still need to go through some of the boxes and put away, but did get the Camaro emptied. I am impressed with the body so far! Hope to get some garage time in after work today!
Switching gears on the project. After pricing out all of the sheet metal I need to complete this project, I researched my options and found a car in Arizona (same year Camaro) that is pretty much rust free for the same price as the sheet metal (including shipping). The person selling it is a NastyZ28.com member and had it listed in the local Craigs List:
Pretty much a rust-free shell needing a small patch in the floor – also included pan for patching:
I had my folks who live in AZ go out and look at the car, then purchased and arranged for it to be hauled out to me. While all that was going on, I sold some parts off of my old shell and cleared out some space in the garage:
Also purchased a 454 engine and a few more tools for the garage:
My neighbor:
The truck arrives:
Car’s new home (good thing the neighbors helped!):
Me:
Now I have to unpack and see what all I have. Then work on that patch panel, strip the car down and get it on the rotisserie for the first coat of primer! Still waiting for the new title and plates to arrive in the mail within the next three months. I also need to update the blog menus for the new project!
Pics of the clamps I am using:
I still need to trim off a little bit more to get the left side clamp in place.
I ordered some sanding discs which I need to do the final cleanup of the edges. Should arrive in the next few days.
Patch panel should be ready to weld.
Should be enough of a gap to clamp and butt-weld.
Now I need an extra set of hands to help clamp these in place for a spot check before final preparation of the metal to weld.
Got some work done on the passenger toe board today. Decided to go another route and patch the rough area rather than trying to fill-in the holes. Used the extra pieces of the half floor pan from what I cut out the toe board patch. It is the same gauge metal.
First – rough cut the opening:
Next, place the cut out piece on the patch panel to be cut out for reference:
Cut around the outside of the tape – I want the patch panel to be larger than the rough cut area:
Mark what needs to be cut out on the toe board:
Cut inside the marks to give some wiggle room:
Double-check the patch panel covers the cut out hole:
All that remains now is to grind down the opening to fit the patch panel and then clamp and weld. I need to order the proper grinding discs – hope to have by next weekend so I can finish it off then!
This weekend I ground down some previous welds and cleaned the engine side of the firewall where I am welding. I worked on my technique for filling in the pinholes and gaps from where I removed the firewall brackets. Finally got it down, but there is much more welding and grinding ahead. Basically, I am filling in the spaces with a bunch of tacks allowing the metal to cool between tacks – slow and tedious, but it is working! No pictures to share for now – maybe next weekend.
Started welding to fill-in some of the tears and holes from removing the firewall brackets:
I am getting some burn-through and pinholes. After doing some googling, looks like I need to ensure both sides of the metal are clean and got some other tips to try. These are some links that I found helpful:
http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130848
http://www.redpowermagazine.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=58063
http://autobodystore.com/forum/showthread.php?2947-welding-small-holes
Part of the differences between what I had practiced on and the car is the metal I am welding is in an awkward location to access and the back side (engine side) wasn’t cleaned and has some contaminants.
So something that I didn’t think would take so long is once again taking longer than I had hoped for!
