[67'7F6'Bird]

The Goodmark delivery is scheduled for Tomorrow.

2 Full quarters
Tail Panel / Inner Panel
Trunk Lid
Outer Wheel Wells

This is my first car which my brother and I are attempting to do the work ourselves. I would appreciate any tips or suggestions, what to be careful of or just anything that you feel may be important.

I will update progress with photos and any details that may be helpful.

Wish me luck!!!!!

Steve

[esahlin]

The Goodmark outer wheel wells dont fit worth a darn....will require alot of trial fitting and trimming etc. Plus make sure that before you weld up the quarter panel or the outer wheel houses that you screw or clamp the outer wheel house in place and then try to fit the quarter panel. You will most likely have to finaggle the outer wheel house around to get it to meet up with the quarter wheel well lip properly.

Also, dont weld anything until you have everything clamped in place (I used small sheet metal screws to hold my panels in place while fitting) and fitted properly. Fit the tail panel up to the quarters with the quarters clamped or screwed on. Everything will require alot of trial and error fitting and some trimming to get perfect....unless your lucky. The key is trial fit, take apart adjust, trial fit, trial fit trial fit until your satisfied.

I would replace the those trunk drop down pieces (these go behind the outer wheel well and inside the bottom back of the quarter dropping down from the trunk pan) while you have the quarters off....not saying yours are bad just that they are fairly cheap and will be nice to have em replaced if your replacing all the other stuff.

The inner wheel houses will have some rust between the inner wheel house and the shock tower panel/trunk panel (all the first gen camaros/firebirds do) most people just dont know its there unless its really bad. If you grind out the sealer that GM put down between the trunk pan and the inner wheel house (in the trunk compartment) you will most likely see that that whole seam there is full of rust. You'll notice this especially on the passenger side inner wheel house. The drivers side probably wont be as bad. If its bad you might want to replace the inner wheel house and the shock tower panel (the part of the trunk that the top of the shock bolts to) or you could cut off the lower section of the inner wheel house and fab a new lower section inner wheel house and weld it in along with replacing the shock tower panel.

I mention this because I just got done replacing my shock tower panels and lower inner wheel houses. I wish I would have noticed that seam was rusted while I was replacing my quarters and outer wheel houses. Would have been a much easier job with the quarters off. My car wasnt that rusty when I started the disaseembly but once you start opening it up and looking in all the nooks and crannies that GM left unprotected from the factory........you will find rust.

If you are going to have your car that far apart (quarters off, tail panel off, outer wheel houses off)....I would recommend replacing as much as you see feasible given your time constraints etc even if it is a only a little bit rusty. The sheetmetal is cheap as long as you have the time and patience to put it in. Like the trunk pan or the trunk side extensions and trunk drop downs.....if their rusty put new ones in now while you have that thing apart .....dont waste time trying to repair the rust if there is some there and its more than minor

The new tail panel weatherstrip gutter corners dont match up to the original side trunk gutter pieces...you'll have to do a bit of fabbing to get them perfect.

Your going to be doing alot of work and you will be much happier when its all done if you replaced as much rusty metal as possible.

[67'7F6'Bird]

esahlin: Thanks for the advice. The trunk drop-offs were also ordered in case we found more rust.

In the sail panel does the quarter panel need to be installed beneath the roof or can it be placed over the lip and plug welded?

Steve

[esahlin]

67-

Here is a link to some info that you can read and decide. the link is to the Camaro body forum. The Camaro body forum is an excellent forum for all of our Firebird body questions. I found alot of info on there that helped me.

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=107560

[67'7F6'Bird]

esahlin: The link was very helpful.

Steve

[Region Warrior]

Whatever you do, dont remove more then one panel at a time.
That way you can line up the new panel to the original locations(other panels).

Well...dont remove the inner/outer tail panel till the gtrs are fttd.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Parts arrived, well packaged and no damage. They were ordered through MuscleCarMetal.

I couldnt wait, so I had to place the quarter on. The initial placement looks pretty good.

[esahlin]

Cool 67.....take your time and you will have that great feeling of accomplishement when you get it done....there is nothing better than tackling it yourself.

Fitting that tail panel is a real bugger like Region Warrior said probably best to fit the quarters/wheel wells with the original tail panel still on as he suggested.

I am in the process of fitting a new tail panel on my 68 right now....I think I have had it on and off the car probably 15 times trying to get it to fit the best possible. Get a good spot weld cutter for the tailpanel....there are 1/2 million spot welds on that thing.

Are you an experienced mig welder? If not, a professional welder recommended a special mig wire to use when welding sheetmetal...its called "twenty gauge". It helped out my sheetmetal welding tremendously....I used to burn through quite a bit even on low heat settings...I have a cheap mig machine and wasnt very experienced and the "twenty gauge" was a savior for me.


If you do decide to buy a new Trunk pan.....dont get the one from Classic Industries.....the one I bought from them didnt fit very well....the grooves didnt line up with the original grooves on the original trunk.

Ricks Firstgen Camaro parts has a different trunk pan that is better.
http://www.firstgen.com/

Ricks actually carries some sheetmetal that is different than the other suppliers. Some of their floorpans, trunks and others stuff is made in the USA and considered show quality stamped sheetmetal. This is stuff that Classic Industries/Goodmark doesnt have.

Once you get going on the firebird you can cut into your 69 camaro....since you'll be an expert soon on firstgen Firebird/Camaro.

[67'7F6'Bird]

I finished removing the rest of the quarter in the door jam area. This took the most time for me. I found the following tools useful in removing the panel; air chissel (especially around the door jam area and also in removing the panel which was sandwiched in the attached picture), high speed cut-off, right angle grinder and an air saw. The complete removal process took me a few hours, the next time should be faster.

After some DA sanding on the outer wheel well, its surprisingly in pretty good shape. As 'esahlin' suggested I'll now remove all the seam sealer around the inner wheel well and determine if it needs to be replaced.

The car had been rear ended early in its life and Im hoping this doesn't effect the new panel alignment. There was some bronze used on the repair on the quarter and the tail panel, I also noticed in the door jam area internals that a spot weld had pulled due to the accident.

[esahlin]

Your outer wheel wells look pretty good! So does your quarter to rocker area.


If interested....Below is a link describing the best rust converter out there if you are looking for something to use on the internal rusted areas. After you sand/wire wheel or sandblast the rust......use the Picklex which removes/converts the remaining rust then you scuff the area and apply a good epoxy primer (no etch primers). A much nicer/cleaner and more effective way of treating rust than POR-15.

http://www.autobodystore.com/r-o-n.htm

[67'7F6'Bird]

Hello Esahlin: I will give the Picklex a try, I do have RUST MORT - but it has a powerful odor, most likely toxic.

As far as the outer wheel well, I may just patch the lower rear section and the front lower lip - Only if the inner is in as good of condition.

Thanks for all the help!!!!

Steve

[67'7F6'Bird]

We decided to attach the sail panel over the roof panel. The alignment looks very good, we are still in the trial stages of fitting and alignment. Would it be wise to use panel adhesive in the area where the panel sits in the drip rail?
I think it may be a good choice for not only sealing the panel but also to help ease the installation.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Here is the area on the tail panel which shows the damage. And the pasenger side for comparison. Would you repair the existing Tail Panel or change it? We are noticing that the passenger side quarter panel is in better condition than previously thought.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Here are some pictures of the new quarter panel, new rear valence panel and new trunk lid. We are still a few hours away from being satisfied with the gaps and alignment but pleased with how easy things are going so far. I have not yet prepped all the inner panels with the rust deterent and paint, but looking to get this done in the coming week. And so far we have had the quarter panel on and off about 15 times.

[esahlin]

The fits actually look pretty good from the pictures. You guys are going about it the right way by doing alot of trial fitting....and making alot of progress fast.

THe panel bonding adhesive would be a great alternative especially in corrosion potential areas. I wish I would have used it in some of my repairs.

Another spot that is you might want to think about using the panel bonding adhesive in is bonding the new quarters to the outer wheel houses on the wheel well lip. I didnt use it but wish i would have spent more time trying to use it there in that area.

as far as replacing the tailpanel or leaving the original.....the tail panel is alot of work to remove cause of all the spot welds (at least it was for me but my equipment wasnt the best)....and it looks like you could fix you old one with bondo. If you were to remove the old one and put a new one in you might be able to close up those gaps between the trunk lid and the quarters by using a "come along" with straps wrapped all the way around both quarters and cinch up the straps (to bring the quarters in closer together) to decrease that trunk lid to quarter gap. All the while testing the tail panel fit. I read about guys doing this on the Camaros.net board. Might want to look on the Camaro board if your thinking of possibly trying to close that gap while installing your new panel.

[esahlin]

The "come along" deal would only work if you were going to replace both quarters and the tail panel.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Hello Esahlin - Thanks for the "come along" tip;

We plan on using the panel adhesive in a few locations. I did get the adhesive, the gun, and there is a special going on until June 30th for a "Lord Fusor Spray Gun" which sprays wheel well spray/sound deadening material and seam sealer - you get the $224.00 gun for $59.00 when you purchase 6 tubes of the material - each cylinder is about $16.00. I thought it was a good deal and wanted to pass it along, I went to my local paint supply store to get it. They couldnt believe it until they called their Lord Fusor Rep.

I am undecided on changing the tail-panel for now, I did inspect the passenger quarter panel more closely and it is very much usable, it would need 2 small patches one in front of the wheel opening and one behind, the rest is rust free and solid. As far as the seems in the inner wheel wells in the trunk area; they too are in great shape - Im glad for that.

Are there any crucial measurments to take into consideration before we start the welding? I just don't want to forget anything. We have compared the front window pillar to the end of the quarter and its spot on. We also measure from the inner leaf spring to the lower rear part of the panel and it matches the untouched passenger side. The window chrome was placed on and here are some pictures.

[esahlin]

Since your welding your new quarter to the original outer wheel house, original roof and original tail panel you should be fine without worrying about measurements. I know there is a Camaro book out there that lists all the measurements and tolerances but I dont know which book it is. If you feel the need you could ask over on the Camaro board......someone there will know.

Yeah, that is a good deal for the Fusor stuff!

[esahlin]

This upcoming responses in this thread might be of some interest if you are going to play with the pass qtr and tail panel.

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=110808

[67'7F6'Bird]

Hello Esahlin,

You guessed it right with your last response. We started to cut out the small patches on the passenger quarter panel and low and behold just more rust. The car now is getting all rear panels replaced. It looks like the only panel which will stay is the lower inner panel which sits behind the tail panel.

The camaro forum has been very helpful. There seem to be hundreds of people online in the body forum all the time. Great resource of information.

I did go to Home Depot today and got the ratcheting straps. We'll get these gaps in line one way or another.

We have trial fitted the tail panel and it needs some tweaking.

Photos to follow.