Winter Body Work Progress

[tazinhawaii]

I've been updating a build thread of my 69 Camaro on another forum, but since the car is built as a pro-touring car I thought I'd post here. The car is actually almost done, and looking AWESOME. Way better than I even expected. The body work is being done at a place in Portland, Maine called Back Bay Customs which is a small shop that has a few magazine and big event cars to their past. As for cost, at $60/hour I'm now at approx. $32K. Way more than I expected initially with a quote of $18-26K. Found some surprises along the way and I changed some tweaks... Here is a link to the photobucket with over 500 pictures of the rebuild :

http://s330.photobucket.com/albums/l...20Down%202010/

Here are a couple pics from the re-build which started in the end of August 2010.

First how it started. It was a 30 foot looker. Looked great at a distance, but horrible up close!


After media blasting (8/20/10)


unexpected surprises (8/26/10)


Interior and underside in primer (9/2/10)


Fitting doors and new rear quarters installed (9/17/10)


Working the gaps to perfection (9/28/10)


First time I saw the car kind of looking like a car again (10/12/10)


More tweaking and unexpected surprises (10/22/10). At this point every panel had to be replaced except the roof, rockers, cowl, and floors/trunks/firewall). I was only expecting fenders, doors, and rear sail panel when this started.


Body primed and into making everything straight (11/3/10)


Blocking and sanding (11/11/10)


Interior and underside color finally (12/3/10)


More work on color (12/10/10)


Car together and on the ground. BIG DAY FOR ME!! (12/16/10)




Wet sanding in final preps for paint (12/28/10)


Masked off for black base coat paint for the graphics (12/30/10)


Painted black and graphics being taped off in the morning (1/4/11)


Car in color in the evening of 1/4/11


Doors/fenders (1/4/11)


And the stinger hood which I think came out better than even the best I had imagined (1/4/11)


And now color sanding and waiting on the airbrush artist to arrive to put on some graphics (a little very subtle flames on the stinger and american flag in the stripe on the rear quarter like the project American hero's Camaro from a couple years ago) (1/7/11)




I'll add more pics as the car finishes up in the body shop and as I start to put the new goodies on when I get it home.

Derrick

[elitecustombody]

looking good

[Bryce]

Sweet!

[ROBS6T8]

That's going to be a beautiful car. Good work!

[Ron.in.SoCal]

Hey Taz - your car's lookin' sweet! Going through something similar, it looks like your shop is about twice as fast as mine. Congrats bro and post more progress pics!

[robert worl]

Lookin' good, Can't wait to see the finished product.

[bart0510]

Looking good!

[absintheisfun]

Looks really good. Where did you get that insert for the stinger hood?

[tazinhawaii]

Thanks all. These last few weeks seem to be an eternity!!

The insert for the stinger was custom made. There is a similar insert in the back as well.

Derrick

[Richio1]

Sweet project! Do you have a rendering of what it is going to look like?

I too am going through the same thing with my body shop / builder. Quoted one price but now about twice as much and twice as long to finish... But gotta keep my eye on the prize. They should be wetsanding mine for paint by the end of the month.

Keep the pics coming... Oh and what other forum is the build thread on? Lat-g?

[badbu68]

Looks great!

[tazinhawaii]

Sweet project! Do you have a rendering of what it is going to look like?

I too am going through the same thing with my body shop / builder. Quoted one price but now about twice as much and twice as long to finish... But gotta keep my eye on the prize. They should be wetsanding mine for paint by the end of the month.

Keep the pics coming... Oh and what other forum is the build thread on? Lat-g?

Thanks. The complete build thread since I originally got the car a few years back is over on camaroforums in the first gen section here :

http://camaroforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33596

I don't have a rendering, but am basing the car on the super chevy project American Hero's from a couple years ago (at least the paint scheme with different colors). Here's a pic.



Derrick

[manicmechanic]

Looks good, liking the Bee too!

[tazinhawaii]

Well, the airbrush guy arrived today and to quote my 16 year old daughter "O-M-G!!". The ghost flames on the scoop and the ghost flag in the stripe came out awesome. And only a few hours to do them. The pics are after 2 coats of clear over everything. One more coat went on after these pics, and color sanding on Monday. I've been promised I'll have the car back by next Saturday.

The ghosted flag in the driver's side stripe :


And the passenger side stripe :


Ghosted flames in the scoop :


And another shot of the scoop :


And overall hood :


Derrick

[CruizinKev]

wow looks awesome!! love the ghost flags!

[ROBS6T8]

^^^ X2. Lovin the ghost flag. That is too b*#chin!

[tb8125]

the car looks awesome... Its hard to see how the car was a 30 footer from the pics.... Was it done by someone else before you bought it or was that your 1st try at restoring it????

[tazinhawaii]

the car looks awesome... Its hard to see how the car was a 30 footer from the pics.... Was it done by someone else before you bought it or was that your 1st try at restoring it????

The body work was done before I bought it. It turns out it was a bondo buggy, more so than I thought. It looked like the winter waves on the north shore of Hawaii when you looked down the side. The roof to quarter panel seam was horrible on both sides. There were runs in the paint everywhere, and whatever "5th grader" that repainted it didn't even disassemble anything. Overspray on EVERYTHING. That's why there really weren't many closeup pictures of the car body from me. Or they were creatively taken to not highlight these faults. Not anymore though!!!

Derrick

[HotRod47]

LOVE the car! The paint looks great.

[tazinhawaii]

Had to drop off some odds-n-ends for the headliner install (i'm having the shop put the headliner in so I don't destroy it). The shop has sanded everything and all but the hood and fenders are buffed. Got to roll the car out into the sun because the painter was so excited about seeing the car in the sun, oh, me too... Here's a couple pics from today. She'll be home Saturday assuming the weather permits.













Derrick