[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

[Hammered]

I caught this post a little late, but it looks like you're doing just fine. esahlin has already noted most of the problem areas. I did this a couple years ago now and have some pictures posted here:

http://john.my67.net/Body%20Progress.htm

You started with the easy side as the passenger quarter quality is not as good as the driver side.

[Region Warrior]

Dont suppose you'd like to come to Indiana for a weekend.
My 67 needs qtr's.
You' guys have done in 2 days!

[67'7F6'Bird]

Hammered: Thanks for your Link! I enjoyed reviewing your pictures - Very Nice Car!!!

Region Warrior: You pay air fair and food - keep watching and you'll be able to do it your self.

We were very unhappy with the fit of the outer wheel well so I located both NOS outers and picked them up Saturday morning. Here are some photos of the wheel well lips major difference. I couldn't waste any more time on fitting the patches from repo to the exististing panel.

The pictures below are from left to right:

pic 1 ( NOS left )
pic 2 ( NOS bottom )
pic 3 ( NOS top )
pic 4 ( NOS top )

[67'7F6'Bird]

I initially had some reservations on cutting off the remainder good metal of the outer wheel well but it had to be done the right way with the best panel available. The pictures show how we cut off the outer wheel well. We are not going to install the inner lip of the NOS wheel well between the side supports and the inner wheel well - I dont see the need to cut into all the other metal, the old lip which is rust free will remain on the car. The NOS wheel well rotated right into place, the fit is so much better and the metal is noticably thicker too. We did get the quarter panel back on and there are no fitting issues. We are happy.

[esahlin]

Sweet job on scoring the NOS outer wheel wells.....Where did you find them so quick?? Amazingly, I can see from your pics that the stamping of the NOS is different than the Taiwan one.

Another suggestion before you weld on your quarter.....see the "hinge support" area for your trunk lid? See how that whole trunk lid hinge support mess there is kinda rusty......well now that you have decent access to it with the quarter and outer wheel well off and the tail panel......I would remove the rust there and Picklex it and epoxy prime it (if you have the spray gun etc). I spent alot of agonizing painful time laying in my trunk area trying to wire wheel the rusty trunk lid hinge and support pieces with both quarters already on the car. I just didnt have good access and did a poor job.

Also think about wire wheeling and treating the rust on the bottom of the package tray area....if you were laying in the trunk and stuck your head under the package tray area and looked up.....all that rust there. With the tail panel off and the quarters off it might be a good idea to get at all the rusty areas in the trunk treated/sanded/wire wheeled etc. No tail panel on the car makes it more comfortable to lay down in the trunk if needed.

Also, When you weld on the new outer wheel house to the inner ....there will be a gap there that is exposed inside the wheel well right above where the tire would be. You might want to consider using a good 1K or 2K seam sealer to fill that seam between the outer and inner. Most of the good seam sealers (not the brushable ones) can be applied over primed metal and can be painted over. I used the Fusor 800 1K sealer that can be used in a standard caulking gun.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Esahlin - I purchased the NOS wheel wells locally. I remembered I saw them forsale in a weekly publishing. I think Im going to give that job you mentioned to my brother, clean the underside of the package tray metal and rear valance panel. hahaha

I will get some of that seem seeler and give it a try. - Thanks.

I have posted the inner wheel well, cleaned and wiped with Picklex. I am now working on the underside of the the trunk floor near the trunk drop off. I need a suggestion on what special tool to use in getting in the tight spots there and below the inner wheel well especially in the seams - the wire wheel works well but I can't use it in those spots.. I do not want to sand blast. Has anyone tried soda blasting? I hear it works well but makes a mess. My brother has filled in all the spot welds on the trunk lip where the tail panel attaches. I like new panels so much better.

[Hammered]

You can sandblast those structural panels without any problems and it will make less of a mess than soda. You might consider buying a siphon feed blaster from HF or Sears because you have so little to do. Plus, it's virtually impossible to damage any metal with a siphon blaster because the pressure is much lower.

[67'7F6'Bird]

Esahlin: Hello, I looked at both panels you mentioned, other than the minor rust on the seam - its in great shape. I do like the galvanized coating on the original bumper support brace.

Hammered: Hello, I do have a siphon feed blaster, I have used black beauty before - but I feel its too abrasive. I went to a media blast company today and they suggested silica, which I purchased. I will pull the car out of the garage and blast those hard to get spots. I will be back on track next week and hope to get most of the prep work completed.

http://www.dawson-macdonald.com/product.html

Thanks,

Steve

[67'7F6'Bird]

We finally had some time to get the sandblasting done on the drivers side. I still need to do a little more on the underside of the trunk pan and above the differential. For the time involved it took I may use the sandblaster more than I wanted to initially, it made quick work of the rust removal. Now we can get some paint on these pieces and be done with them for now.

We used plastic bags and tie raps to cover the exhaust,fuel lines, fuel pump and rotor. Very little sand ended up in the car. A quick vacuum and we were ready to apply the Picklex.

[Hammered]

Steve,

It's looking good. The media blast company gave you good advice. Brown silica sand is cheap, it breaks down easy (less aggressive) and it's not too big a deal if it gets into the yard. I like to lay down a big tarp and collect and reuse the sand.

It is much slower going with a siphon blaster, but you can't hardly do damage either. You will be glad you did this. I'm looking forward to more pics!

John