Steve's bitchin' Camaro, the day we went to look at it before
buying. The fellow was asking $1500, which was too good to refuse
after taking it for a test drive and seeing how nice the car
felt. Usually old cars are plumb worn out, but this one drove
very well....although it's a tad slow with the thrifty 250 and
powerglide.
We put the car in the shop one day, and decided to just see what would
it would take to make it look better. As usual, we got carried
away after this mild start.
We pulled off the right fender to fix the rust. Later we decided
to take off the rest of the front end, as there were some things like
the door hinges and some emblems that can't be reached with the fenders
on.
The white paint was put on with a spray can, but underneath it was a
lot of the original Hugger Orange. We stripped and sanded off the
white, and got to work fixing the body. The left rear corner and
rear valence were dented, and the sail panel seams were pretty rough
from the factory. The trunk lid had a bunch of holes from a
luggage rack, which we welded and smoothed with filler.
The passenger side door had some dents, and the fender had a good sized
rust hole. The rust at that spot is pretty common even in
Arizona, there are two panels close together and dirt collects between
them, and rots out the metal during rainy season. The front
header and valence somehow managed to live 35 years without receiving a
single dent! At this point we had already removed both doors and
repaired the hinges with new bushings, and aligned them with the
body. The hinges were not very badly worn, the doors still opened
and closed ok, which is rare on these cars.
Steven sanding, we're about ready for the first coat of primer.
Now it's starting to look like something! This is where the work
begins, we sanded this coat, then primed and sanded twice more.
This is the last of the primer, soon it's off to the paint shop.
The jambs are done.
The color is on, and the first clear coat is being applied.
It's home from the paint shop, now we have to put it back together.
Most of the way done! We cleaned up the inner fenders and
radiator support while it was apart, and one of these days we'll do
something to the engine and it'll look good under the hood at last.
This is the first "after" picture with the new wheels and all the parts back on the body.
