The epic build of a 1969 Camaro!

Here is the car the day it was delivered. I wanted to get a picture of it on the trailer but it was midnight and I was ready to get the car in my garage. The shell was complete.....just in pieces. Most of the suspension came with the car, but it as well was in pieces. I also received some misc. interior parts. The car had been previously blasted and has started growing surface rust again. The night before the car came, I build the wooden box it was on......I sure am glad it fit on it like it was supposed to! (click pictures for a larger view)

Now for the rust issues........I think the pictures are self explanatory. At first glance I thought to myself "this car already has had both quarters replaced......how bad can it be?" Those will be my famous last words! The further I got into the teardown, the worse the rust and patch job got. In addition to the rust, there was JB Weld and a lot of homemade patch panels added in. I also found household insulation and lots of expanding foam! This was the point where I told myself I was in for a wild ride.

After the first initial cuts, it only got easier to tear stuff apart (and by easier I mean mentally........NOT physically). The important thing to remember is to brace up the shell and take a lot of reference pictures to look back on later. I used 3/4" 14ga. square tubing to do the inner bracing. If you have never drilled a spotweld, I assure you........you will get a lot of practice. There are hundreds of them holding the car together. There were days when I could barely hold the drill because my hands hurt so bad from drilling.

These were the final pictures the night before I took it to get sand blasted.

After the blasting session. The future pictures will be posted in the Build section.