1967 ss/rs resto/mod

[Too Many Projects]

My CR-V gets 28 mpg, so, yeah, I did go thru almost $300 in fuel. At $200 to ship and have a rare part lost or destroyed by UPS or FedEx, for $100 more, I'd rather go get parts myself. Sure, I MAY get refunded for the part, if they lose or destroy it, but how many more NOS parts are out there ?
I've had a lot of stuff shipped to me over the years and I don't trust any of the shippers to give a damn about anything they handle anymore.
The adventure of going to get parts is just part of the story of rebuilding the car too.

[Pro Stock John]

I like road trips too. I also have to say most of the times parts are not as nice as I expect, so I want to lay eyes on them or have a local buddy do that.

[Too Many Projects]

Well, I got to got to FL for 2 weeks, but that's about 2 months short for avoiding the cold up here.

Anyway, back on the Camaro. After agonizing for days/hours over the fit and alignment of the truck floor/tail panel brace and the tail panel and quarter fit, I finally just said it's about as perfect as I can get it. I prepped and got it welded on.








Drill screws and clamps gets it tight to the trunk floor and frame rails/tank braces.








I'm going to spot weld the top flange to the trunk floor to avoid needing to dress welds and hide them with sealer. Only issue is, my spot welder is at work and I'm not motivated enough to make a 60 mile round trip to fetch it this weekend. I'll get it home next week, as I work Mon-Wed.

[Lynn]

I get it. I bought an antique gauge tester about 14 years ago. Post Office lost it.

Price was only $35, so not even worth my time to fill out a claim. Have not seen another one since.

Few months ago I drove to far SE OK to pick up an old Sun VAT. Took me almost 10 hours to go pick up a part I paid $17 for.

Speaking of long distance, there HAS to be someone closer to Thermopois Wy. This Sun Distributor machine is still sitting at $2.50. Would be a 29 hour round trip for me.

Therhttps://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/auction/view?auc=2977657

[Too Many Projects]

Time/distance to the Sun machine for me is the same. ~950 miles/14 hours each way. The last ~100 miles or so on US 16 looks like a blast to drive thru the mountains with switchbacks and all....just not in the winter.

[Too Many Projects]

Now that the lower brace isn't coming out again, it was time to weld on the right trunk drop/extension.






Marked where it would get welded, cleaned the edp off and shot some weld thru primer on. The extension tab is to extend it out beyond the q-panel for welding, as it was too short. I sprayed that with cold galvanizing paint.








As always, I clamp every weld tight for a good fit and clean weld.





With that done, I went back to prepping the q-p. I welded the side/pillar brace on. I then shot all the dressed welds with the cold galvanizing.








Located and installed 2 drill screw studs for the window trim.





After spending a couple hours, tweaking and moving the q-p around, I FINALLY got the fit I was after. Previously the back was 1/4" below the trunk lid when that was even with the left side. Drove me nuts. It's pretty darn close now...











I put the latch on and worked on getting the door to fit the new panel. Door gap is better and good enough to work with from here.





Getting it flush was a bit time consuming. It was twisted all out of shape from the previous q-p skin replacement in it's early life. I'm pleased with it now. Could always be better, but, again it's good enough to move on from for now.





This is what it had before. The top of the door was pushed in as far as it would go to try to match the badly installed skin. It had to be twisted/pulled back out to be flush with the new panel.

[dykstra]

Looking good Mitch!

[Too Many Projects]

Brought my spot welder home from work yesterday and got the rear brace to trunk floor flange welded today.








41 welds should hold that panel in place...





Then I cleaned up the mig welds with a disc and went over everything with wax and grease remover and hit it twice with the galvanized zinc paint to prevent rust.

[Too Many Projects]

I'm running out of excuses to not install the q-panel. I'm apprehensive about screwing this up and am procrastinating terribly. I decided to waste some time and spot welded the bumper reinforcement to the panel.





After that I couldn't come up with anymore things I needed to do before removal and final prep, so I removed it and did more sanding off of paint in areas that will get welded. I cleaned all the weld thru primer off and painted the bracket and then it was time. No more excuses...
I brought a tube of bonding glue home from work for the drip rail and got that all set up and applied a small bead to both the panel and car and put the panel in place. Once I had it where I thought it was good, I clamped the rail to compress the glue. Well, the panel slid forward and eliminated the gap at the door... I removed the clamps, reposition the panel and then used drill screws to hold the panel in place and re-clamped the drip edge.












The frame/body tech at work said I had 60 minutes to move the panel around before the glue would start setting and 90 minutes until it wouldn't move at all. I had the panel firmly screwed and clamped in place in 15 minutes and it was noon, so I went in for an extended lunch of 90 minutes.

When I came back out, I spot welded the B pillar while constantly checking the door gap.



Door still closed nice with a good gap, so welded the bottom flange to the rocker.



Proceeded to weld the inner reinforcement/latch panel to the inner structure.



The door now closes with a slight push from about an inch open. With the bad misalignment before, that door needed a bit of a slam to get to close. Very happy with the fit.



Moved on to the roof seam and welded that all up.



As always, drill screws and clamps for a tight fit.





I still need to do the welding to the inner structure inside, but that will require a bit of persuasion to get tight and I don't want to disturb the glue for 72 hours, so is for a later date.



Likewise with the welding at the bottom to the rocker inside the quarter structure. That is always a pita and I was making good progress on the outside, so skipped that until I do the roof.



So, changed out the ends on the spot welder to do the wheel house.

[scuncio]

Nice work! Wish I had that selection of tools...I will be doing quarters and outer wheelhouses on my '68 next winter.