Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Yesterday, while I was sitting around the fairgrounds, I struck a deal to buy a left, NOS rs fender for the car and I need to go get it in the next couple weeks

in New York State...

Hey, it's closer than central Florida, where I was less than 2 weeks ago.

Buffalo, NY and back in 42 hours. Brought home the NOS fender, a clean, used hood latch to sacrifice it's main spring, roof rail seals and a few emblems and misc fasteners I was missing.

Rebuilt the rs latch, blasted, painted and installed. The hood will now stay closed for transport.

Thanks Larry,
I have NO IDEA why some of the pics are huge again. Same camera, same settings, same bat day and same bat time... Makes no sense to me...

Yesterday, I restored the original trunk drop to re-use. They are galvanized and is in very nice condition, aside from some rust on the inside. I wire wheeled that and then welded all the spot weld drill depressions/holes shut and ground them smooth. I had cut thru the drop near the tailpanel with the plasma, getting the old trunk pan removed, so welded that shut too.  After that I sprayed the rusty area with undercoating and when that was dry, I welded the drop on the new trunk pan.

Took 2 more steps to getting the q-p on today. I welded the brace back in the forward compartment and then cold galvanized the weld and the trunk drop. Also moved the flange at the rocker a little more. It wasn't quite straight, so I HAD to make it better. I'm going to remove another 1/16th off the top of the panel so it sits flatter inside the original. THEN, I'm going to make it part of the car.

Then, I cut off the entire right quarter panel. It had been partially skinned, VERY badly, way in the past. The replacement skin was brazed over the old one in places.

Happy for you on the NOS part.
The collision repair industry used to do some pretty interesting things in the past.
Particularly compared to current standards.
I cannot remember ever going up to factory seam at roof or butting up to factory seam at upper deck panel and rarely tucking under drip rail.
Took too long

I shudder when I remember some "choices" that were made and considered acceptable. 

Going to be an exceptional Camaro!
Still my favorite year of the earlies!

Karl

Well, the forum did it again. I had a write up with 6 pics that looked fine on preview and when I hit POST, half of what was in the preview disappeared. I'll try again, with less pics, and more breaks between them.

I have an AMD tail panel that I was having a few fitment issues with matching the NOS q-panel.

This corner wasn't matching the curvature of the q-p, but in fairness, it appeared the q-p had been dropped and damaged in this area and would need more work to get better.

It does fit the q-panel better, all around, but still had a contour issue in the upper corner. I worked it with small hammer and dolly and got it to pull in very close and tight. Quite pleased with that, but the AMD may fit just as well now. The one thing I don't care for with the NOS panel is, it does NOT have the cut outs below the bumper for the rs reverse lights and the AMD does. So, do I just use the AMD and re-market the NOS, or cut into the NOS and hope I don't screw it up... I really prefer the fit and appearance of the NOS, but may mock up the AMD again to compare.

Just be sure before you overcommit

(And BTW, it is sure good that car has someone who loves it like you do too!)

With winter blowing in the past few days, I started digging out the Camaro to get back on it. I see I left out some of the progress from last spring.

I had to replace the extension panel between the rear window and trunk. This is an AMD piece too and most of it fit OK. The trunk seal gutter was not good and I had to slice it to get it to lay down flat. The right side was the worst, but the left needed help too.

The panel was plug welded in the window channel, but panel bonded on the sides and in the seal channel. I then tried my hand at attempting to replicate the brazing at the side seams. It has been 55 yrs since I brazed and it looks like it too. I'll need to touch this up when I get back to it.

I, also, drove to the far side of Michigan in July for a right side NOS RS fender. I now have both sides and hope to get them on before next year too.

It will be a while yet, before the work really starts, I hope. I got a hernia on the last day of August and had double surgery on Sept 15th, so I'm way behind on getting ready for winter and hope the weather will warm up for a few weeks so I can get caught up.

Today was THE day. I still spent another 2 HOURS prepping and tweaking the fit to be just a wee bit closer...dang OCD. Anyway, the panel is now part of the car. Still a lot of welding left on the inner structure and I need to spot weld along the bottom flange, but it is on there and, actually, looks quite good.

Nice, even gap of the trunk lid to panel. I can't stand the huge gap all these cars have here. I may be one of "those" people who welds an 1/8" rod across the entire lip of the lid to close this up some.

Chris S wrote:

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Looks great Mitch! Paint in the spring???

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 We are looking at that as a possibility. I have the 2 NOS front fenders that shouldn't need much work and another original hood that is better than the one on there now. It does have a bump in the front that I will need to work out better, but having it ready to shoot in 5 months could be doable.

Interesting, I changed the event count down and now I'm the webmaster ???

I was waiting on a quart of flattener to mix with clear coat to get the 60% gloss on those parts, so decided to remove the front clip, as I have NOS fenders for the car. As you can see in the pic, under the left corner of the windshield, there is a rust hole I had forgotten about from when I did the cowl repairs in 2019. I had to remove the windshield and found a much bigger issue hiding under the urethane glass sealer. I have seen some amazing stuff done by bondo artists, but I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There was NO indication of an issue with this dash panel until I pulled the glass out. The rust had been covered and hidden by the sealer!

I ordered a complete upper and lower cowl assembly and was waiting for that to arrive, so I cut off what was left of the dash top flange. After removing the dash top layer, I marked and cut out the cowl top.

The lower cowl flange was complete trash too, so that got cut off also.

Once the new part arrived, I clamped the cut off upper to it and cut it to match, along with the lower.

I still needed to trim more of the lower off, but the replacement actually fit and lined up very well.

There were still a few hours involved with getting this to fit to my satisfaction, but I'm happy with the result.

I realize how upset you were when the dash issue came to light.

I would, however, add that now when you reassemble car and interior, the inside will be all done for practical purposes.

WAAAY better than Gold interior, Black dash, especially now knowing what was underneath.

I really believe it worked out for the best.

Now when you lay in to the 70 Chevelle you will have fewer loose ends on other cars.

Fortunately, your Bride is very understanding.

LUCKY YOU!

Karl