Replacing all rear sheet metal?

[Mike Hall]

I'm going to get started on my camaro project soon and I had some questions. I plan to replace about everything on the rear of the car except the frame rails. How should I go about doing something like this? Is there a order I should do it in that would insure the best fit and correct alignment? Any tips on this would be great. Oh yeah, I will be using all goodmark parts other than using the DSE mini tubs.


Thanks
Mike

[LS1NOVA]

First align the doors and leave them on the car during the process. Do quarter panel, inner and outer wheelhouse one side at a time. Also make sure the rear glass and trunk
lines up at various times during the surgury. Also take your time welding and moving from one spot to another, so not to distort the metal. Good luck.

[CAMAROBOY69]

Make sure you set ups some reinforcement jigs because when you start removing panels the body becomes weak. You can use square tubing or angle iron. Just about anything so that when you remove panels, there is still something there holding the car in place. Later you just cut the jig off. If you only do one panel at a time you will be safe. An example would be if you just do the passenger quarter and leave the driver quarter on until the pass side is welded up. Then you can go to the driver quarter. That also leaves other panels in place for you to line up with as a guide. Have fun and take lots of pics. Try to avoid warping the metal if you can.

[EFI69Cam]

One thing I read that was something I wished I'd done, is to use small sheet metal screws to hold the panels together to get the alignment right. Then when you are happy with the alignment, remove the screws and weld, one at a time.

[Mike Hall]

Thanks for the info. I just closed on a house we where selling so I should be getting started soon.

Mike

[mikey]

Definately use sheetmetal screws to temporarily hold the pieces together. It's alot easier to realign parts this way. I also use 20 -30 pairs of different styles of vice grips when installing a rear clip. I would also recomend a 4 ton porta power because you might need to apply some pressure to hold or align parts while welding and fitting.

[Jim Nilsen]

I used self drilling/self tapping screws to do mine and it makes it so you don't have to have the drill chuck slam into the sheetmetal when the drill goes through. It also makes it easier since most of them you find will have a hex head or a phillips head, either will work better than a straight slotted sheetmetal screws, I used the phillips head screws mostly.

I also made some measurements and wrote them down with a marker on a few places that stayed on the car. I did one side at a time and then the rear panel last and I had no problems. I didn't brace anything and I am glad because things changed a bit with the new panels and it turned out better than the factory when I was done.

Also you can get a laser for doing ceilings that rotates and when you go to align things up as you go you can check to see if it is all in the same plane with the rest of the car. I set mine up to be in the same plane as the rockers and the points in the package tray. The beam was at the height above the package tray and I measured down to the parts of the car to make sure they were all in the same plane. It worked out great for me and it was my first time doing full factory 1/4s and the whole rear end including the trunk floor. I hope I explained this right so you understand what I mean. You will be able to line up the body side crease to match behind the rear wheels with the door line like it should. The factory had it a bit lower on mine and it really did make a difference in the way the whole thing went together and looked in the end. If you do measurements from the beginning you will have a map of where it should go but mostly let the parts lead you to where they fit the best. I had to pull up on the whole rear panel and 1/4s to get it where it was right and then tack it to the frame rails. Took me a whole week to see what was wrong and why it just didn't want to look right.

I also drilled 2 3/32" line up holes on each trunk hinge into the trunk lid to make sure that I could bolt it back on exactly in the same place since the hinges never got removed. It really made it easier to find the starting point to take it on and off but mostly I left it on.

I also used many different types of vise grip clamps and c clamps to help out too. 30 or so is no exageration as was said. I even used some boards from the floor and some from the ceiling to move things where I wanted them. Getting creative is what makes it so much fun.

Goodluck, Jim Nilsen