[esahlin]

Finally got some pics of my original trunk lid.

Pictures of the underside of the trunk lid frame and the underside of the top skin.

Doesnt look too good does it.

I was very surprised when I saw how rusty it was in there. With some hard work I can definitely salvage mine.......but Ive got to get the bigger projects done before we lose our warm sunny weather here.

I also checked the fit of my new Taiwan trunk lid again and it fits surprisingly well. The gaps are actually good. This was with no weatherstrip though.

At one point a year ago, I installed a new trunk lid weatherstrip and bolted my Taiwan trunk lid up. The new weatherstrip would not let the trunk lid sit low enough so that the lid was "flush" or level with the tops of the qtrs. So I went over to www.camaros.net and found alot of posts there about guys having problems with new trunk lid weatherstripping and it not letting the trunk lids sit flush. I gave up on trying to research more about a solution (I had more important/more difficult bodywork to work on)....just something I thought I would mention before you got to that point.


On my original trunk lid......I didnt do the best job seperating the two pieces......so if you think you want to seperate yours i know of a place you can ask the question (an online internet forum with some professional body/restoration guys) and receive some professional feedback on how to do it properly. I wouldnt follow the procedure I used. If you decide to do it....I dont want you to potentially damage your original lid based on my advice.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Hello Esahlin: - That looks like a lot of work to save your trunk lid, keep us all updated on the progress - It gives me a better appreciation of parts I have and normally thought unusable. I will not be taking my original trunk lid apart, I'm going to silica blast the lip and sand the frame.

Regarding my origninal trunk lid fit, I only bolted it on to the original location, I haven't had time to do any fitting on it with the new panels. I hope to have the undercariage final painted next weekend, springs and differential bolted back in, then the car back on the ground for Final Fitting on all the panels. Roof still undetermined, Does anyone have a flexible snake camera I can borrow?

My brother Ed sent me an e-mail today with the following picture. He sand blasted the spring cups and applied a few coats of Rust Mort. Rust Encapsulator to follow then Chassis Black. Its nice to have my brother as my best friend and also to help keep me motivated!!!! Thanks Ed!!!!

Also, Esahlin, He loved the Camaro comments too! It seems we compare everything on my car to it as far as condition and quality, as it only has about 24k original miles. I always say to him, "How does it compare to the Camaro" , "Treat it like its the Camaro" I can go on and on - We have a great time working on these cars.
It is Pontiac powered with a Long Rod RAIV currently, soon to be upgraded with some of the new cylinder heads coming out.

[drew1967]

i've enjoyed reading about your progress! its going very quickly. im about to start this very project but i have to completely back half my car! trunk, wheel houses and quarter. in reading the posts im going to replace my rear valance as well. ive began cutting the spot welds from it but i think i will replace it instead to speed things up. have either of you removed the inner wheel houses? ive bought new ones but im unsure on where to cut. i have all new metal for this including the trunk! just need to know where to cut to get things moving in the right direction!

any help is greatly appreciated and it looks great!

[drew1967]

this picture book might help as well!

http://1stgencamaro.net/gallerytwo/v...400/?g2_page=6

[esahlin]

drew1967-

I would start by removing one of the qtr panels. Once you get one of the qtrs removed (follow 67'7F6'Bird posts/pictures here)....you will see how the outer wheel house is spot welded on. Once you remove the outer wheelhouse, then you will be able to get a good look at the inner wheelhouse and where all its spot welds are. The inner wheel house actually spotwelds to the trunk sheetmetal and to the floorpan seam, and the package-tray/trunk lid hinge support. There are several totally different areas where the inner wheelhouse is spotwelded to.

Make sure you have a good spotweld cutter. An air chisel as 67'7F6'Bird used during some of his removal will also come in handy for removing the old sheetmetal.

[drew1967]

i played hooky from work today in order to do some research on this. i stayed up way too late last night(4 a.m.) to go to work today anyway. i went to the garage and bagan cutting into the sheetmetal. i have a few questions for the 2 of you since you've done this already. first, in the quarter /door area there is a re-inforcment for the door striker. is this removed or left in place when replacing the quarter? also there is a trunk gutter re-inforcment plate that appears to fasten to the quarter as well. is this removed or will it stay in place? i saw ALOT of spot welds connecting the wheel houses to the inner structure. i didnt think there were so many of them but i now know why some say there are THOUSANDS OF THEM holding these cars together! i want to thank you in advance as this is my first car to go this far! ive had others but had to sell for financial reasons. partly why im doing the work myself now!

also would it be easier to replace a skin versus a full qarter? i only need a partial skin but i know the quality is said to be junk! i know there are alot of question and apologize in advance but im eager to find out how this comes apart so i can get it down in order to rebuild it! i'm an experienced welder but have no clue when it comes to body work on cars!

AGAIN THANKS!!!!

ANDY

[drew1967]

i also for got a fe ? how did the 2 of you remove the lead safely without warping the roof? what tools did you use to remove the rust so you could see the spot welds on the wheelhouses? sorry for taking a great deal of time but if i can offer any help to either of you just say the word!

[drew1967]

this link was recommended to me by a member on the firstgen site. if either of you are going further with this it might help!

http://www.superchevy.com/technical/.../photo_22.html

also i wanted to ask yet another question. what tools were used to do all this work? i have an air hammer, drill and saw zall. going to buy an air saw as 67 used and a body chisel. any other tools needed to help speed things along would be great. its taken me 8 hours to drill the tail panel and cut part of the quarter panel off. slow going because i dont know what i can cut off and whats behind there that needs to stay!

[esahlin]

Drew, thats a good article.

One of the best places to do research is over at www.camaros.net in their body shop forum. If you search there in the Body forum you will find a massive amount of info/pictures on replacing body parts on the firstgen camaro/firebird body.

Its a very slow process and takes alot of time so dont get discouraged yet.

Air body saw is a great tool if you have a big compressor, air chisel as you have.....and I use a 4 1/2 inch electric angle grinder with a cut off wheel for cutting alot of sheet metal and grinding welds. 67 on this thread had some great tool ideas.

Removing the lead: I used a propane torch and had a wet rag handy to make sure I kept the surrounding metal cool. I heated the lead and used a screwdriver to scrape the melting lead away. Works best with two people.

For rust removal I used a wire wheel on a drill.

Again ,get a good spot weld cutter.

[drew1967]

I've got a sharp drill bit! saves on the wait time of a spot weld cutter. haven't melted the lead out yet but ill let you know as soon as i do. will try to get pix this weekend as I've been too busy here and the weather is ridiculously hot and humid!

[drew1967]

esahlin,

you would be surprised how well a sharp pair of tin snips works on the body metal. exhausting for the hands but no noise!lol i melted the lead out monday and now have to get to the roof line spot welds. somoene mentioned to me there are spot welds on the drip rail for the quarter. is this true?

thank you for your help both of you! extremely fortunate to find this thread and the 2 of you!

god bless,

andy

[esahlin]

ive used the tin snips many a time....mainly because it doesnt bother the neighbors like an air body saw does or an angle grinder.

Yes, there are small spot welds in the drip rail (the welds are about 1/8 of an inch in diameter or so) for the sail panel bond. they are spaced about an inch apart or so. The way I got rid of them was to use a wire wheel on end of drill to strip the sealer out of the drip rail gutter so that i could see where the spot welds were. Then, you can use a small/thin cut-off wheel....I used a 3 inch dia by 1/32 thick to grind just the spot weld area of the sail panel flange. After you grind all the spot welds then you can usually pry up the sail panel flange with a screwdriver etc......during the prying the flange will break free of the spot weld. the sail panel flange that spot welds to the drip rail gutter is narrow and thin. So be careful not to grind through it etc and make a hole in the drip rail gutter.....that could be a pain to repair.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Hello Esahlin & Andy:

I have been away for training for my Job. Im back now and look forward to getting back on track for this restoration. I was in Chicago last week and witnessed the Hurricane.

Andy: It looks like Esahlin has kept you on the right track. Any more questions let us know.

Steve

[67'7F6'Bird]

After considerable debate we have decided to change the Roof Panel on my car. It would bother me not knowing how good or bad the panel really may be so for more than piece of mind we are going to replace it and the support structures as needed.

Steve

[esahlin]

Just finished installing my roof panel.

I used "Fusor 109b" adhesive to glue the roof in the drip rail area and used plug welding in both windshield areas and butt welded the sail area seam.

The Fusor 109b is a 50 ml tube and you can use it in a regular cheap caulking gun.....as long as you have an adaptor for the caulking gun. The adaptor is cheap too about $5. If you buy the bigger tubes of adhesive you have to buy an expensive gun to dispense it. The 50ml tube was a perfect amount to bond the roof in the entire drip rail....with about 1/4 of the adhesive left over.

I wasnt sure I would like using adhesive......but I love it! I should have glued the whole thing (except at the qtr sail panel area).

My roof panel didnt fit the best it was OK but the passenger side "roof to qtr panel" sail area didnt fit that great and there was actually a fairly large gap that resulted. So I had to fab a small metal piece to fill some of the gap before I used short strand fiberglass filler.

I had an awful time getting a roof panel shipped to my house. I ordered from California and the first panel came and was all smashed in like someone had sat on top of it. Then there is the whole deal on who is liable for the damage etc.....what a headache. Both the trucking company and the parts seller try to blame it on you or they blame it on each other. I was so fed up that I almost stopped working on the car for another year.

Anyway, I finally got one sent that was perfect....and finally got it installed. Actually one of the easier panels I have replaced......the two floor pan sections were definitely much much harder.

http://www.lord.com/Home/ProductsSer...0/Default.aspx

Good luck on the roof.

[drew1967]

man, im having a he!! of a time with the 1/4. i'm at a stand still with the front of the quarter panel where it meets the roof and drip rail. i got most of the drip rail out and removed the upper part of the 1/4 but the peice underneath is giving me hell. so much i cut the roof where it seamed into the 1/4 to try and get better access to it. cant get into it to see well enough for whats holding it there. really starting to pi$$ me off! there is a small section of tim from the 1/4 left at the front of the panel near the window area and the tacked peice under the roof panel. if you 2 could help me on this i'd really appreciate it! next step is cutting the roof or making this a drag car. niether of these are my favorite options! when i do the other side ill cut it below the seam and weld it in as a butt weld!

[RAIV-Z]

Drew,

We removed the all of the old quarter from the drip rail using a high-speed cutoff and a thin flat screw driver, it was a slow process.
As for the upper part of the quarter which is under the roof panel, we where going to leave it and just put the new quarter over the old roof which seems to be common practice when the roof isn't being replaced. We did get both quarters and tail panel to fit pretty well. There where some rust holes in the rear window channel which we sand blasted then filled with weld. Before we started welding any of the panels on Steve decided he didn’t want to replace all these panels then have the roof start rusting through in a couple of years, so now it's time to cut the roof off.

Ed

[esahlin]

Ed, quit wasting your time on your brother's car and get working on that Camaro!

[RAIV-Z]

Esahlin,

As soon as the firebird is mobile again I'll be able to lower the Camaro and start working on it. Steve jammed his firebird halfway under the lift and then took the rear end out of it and said something about having to sand and paint the leaf springs!

The Camaro needs to have the new sheet metal bolted on and a little finish body work done on the backend. It was in really good shape, only has about 36k miles on it.

Ed

[drew1967]

ed,

i have to ask you. ive heard of others laying the 1/4 on top of the roof but i have NO CONCEPT on how this would finish out! for that fact how you would even get the panels to line up! any info you have as well as step-by-step instructions and pics of this would be AWESOME! i cut the 1/4 off and removed the metal in the drip rail already! my problem lies with the top ot the 1/4 where the 1/4, drip rail and roof meet. i have about a 4" peice that wont give up! also the strip underneath the roof is giving me hell. i have the rear 1/2 of it freed but the rest wont budge. esahlin and steve have given me gr8 advice on this so far but i find the more heads involved the more i may find what im looking to find out!

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP EVERYONE!

ANDY