aarivers

Good Day all,

Just wanted to stop in and say hello. I just purchased my new to me 1991 Camaro RS in June of last year and am in the process of getting it back into shape after being cast aside by a FoMoCo guy.

Just a little back story here, I had been hunting for a 5MT hard top car for about 4 months, with a 3k price limit I was hoping to find a reasonably clean higher mileage car in stock condition.. long story short, it's amazing how hard that is to do. I finally found this car on Craigslist in Bloomington Indiana, talked to the guy, car sounded good, so I put a deposit on it and took off early from work to pick it up. Car had a little more body damage than I could see in the pictures but nothing too bad, so after a short test drive and look over for any bad rust I gave him the 1200 bucks and off we went back home with my new prize.

We topped off the fluids before we left and the car ran fine on the way home, the speedometer was not working, but other than that all the gauges worked, oil pressure was fine, temp never got above 180 and this was on a 95 degree day. So all in all, I think it was a good buy.

This will be my first F-body, having owned mostly Nissan's in the past. My first plans were to strip it and use it for Autocross and Track days, but I have since changed my mind and am just going to restore it and use it as a daily driver, with a few upgrades here and there.

I am going to swap out the gray interior for a light tan/cream color, I plan on wrapping the plastic panels in leather or vinyl to get them the color I want and to get rid of that cheap plastic feel. I have lots of interior upgrades in my head, we'll have to see how they play out.

Snapped a few shots after I got the car home.

Album is here. Link

Here's a couple of shots to appease the crowds.







Thanks for looking

Aaron Rivers

aarivers

So I started work on the car back in July of last year, mostly just stripped it down to get ready to clean it, this has to be the filthiest car I have ever seen, the previous owner worked at a quarry so it's filled with dust from that place, as you can see in the photos.

Also has a fair amount of rust going on, drivers and passenger floor pans and rear wheel arches both sides. This was the first rust repair I was going to have to take care of.

With the interior out I could see it really needed some work, and will need a new headliner and carpets for sure, since I'm changing the color to tan, it was going to have to happen anyways.

So here are the pics. Enjoy. Gallery Link

aarivers

This is the first area I patched up on the car. Remember that I'm working with a 110v Crafstman Gasless Fluxcore welder so it's not perfect looking. Getting it down low enough to not burn through the sheet metal was a real pain, thankfully the welding classes I'm taking really helped me see what I was doing wrong the first tiem I tried to do this.

From this -



To This

aarivers

I was able to get all the rust and holes patched on the rear of the car, so it was time to move on to the floorpans. That was going to be a fun little venture.

The drivers side of the car had more rust on it in the wheel arches seen here, so I had to make a lot of patch panels for this side, thankfully they will be covered up by the new carpet.

And my finished patch panels.

aarivers

I had to strip out the dash to get to rust on the firewall, and I also wanted to remove main wiring harness. I weeded through the harness and removed the SRS computer and sensors, I'm not a big fan of airbags and I haven't decided if I am going to be using the stock steering wheel anyways.

aarivers

After I finally got motivated enough to start hacking up the passenger side floor pan and start fabbing up a new one it didn't take too long to get it done. That old pan was just rotten to the core, along with the firewall area next to heater box, took some time but I got it all welded up. now I just need to get the drivers side done and all the sheet metal repairs will be complete.

After that is complete I can start working on the interior color change, and i am thinking about changing the door panels to some GTA door panels as they look a lot better than the Camaro ones.

aarivers

Camrs89

Looks like good progress! Plus you know how to weld I take it so thats half the battle with rot!

Cant wait to see it done!

smier

I applaud you for taking this project on, but wow that's a lot if rust!!!! How is the subframe etc????

aarivers

Subframe is fine, most of all the rust on the passenger side was from the joint where the firewall met the heaterbox/blower motor wall. it was rusted out and so once it started leaking there, the carpets just kept it wet on the floor pan, I'm not 100% sure where the drivers side rust came from, so I'll need to find it before I call it done. all the rust was very localized to certain spots, mostly just areas that trapped water, or had seam sealer breakdown and let water into joints.

aarivers

Went to the Pull-A-Part this weekend and scored the firewall jute padding with rubber backing and upper jute padding, as mine was mildewed and I wasn't planning on reusing it in the car since it was going to be a stripped out race car. But plans change and now I'm trying to get it all put back together as a daily driver. I also picked up the A/C box top cover that was cracked on mine, and a front fender liner.

I also started to take off the ground f/x, front bumper, and fenders. The fenders will get replaced with new units unless I can find some good used ones. I'm gonna have to go back and see if the passenger side ground f/x is any good as almost all the mounting tabs underneath on mine were broken.

Once I get all the rust damage welded up I can start getting the interior ready to put back in. That in itself is going to be a challenge. My plans are to change the color from the gray to a light beige/tan color. I plan on wrapping the interior panels in Ultraleather with Ultrasuede inserts to make it a more inviting cabin, not so chintzy and plasticy. My SAAB has spolied me, lol. I have purchased some complete GTA door panels and will be recovering and swapping those in as they look a lot better than the Camaro panels.

Lots of work ahead, with lots more pictures so stay tuned.

Probably going with the Almond Ultraleather HP on this page http://www.braddandhall.com/00020_ultraleather.htm for the panel wrap material.
This site also gave me a lot of ideas on how to recover the panels and repairing the cracked dash. http://www.classic9leathershop.com/ Check out the gallery and you'll see what I am shooting for in terms of looks.

hellzsaint24

i have a 91 rs too what u got for an engine??

hellzsaint24

nvm i just read ur thing duh lol

aarivers

Fixed it for you.

I have the stock 305 V8 in it. I will be leaving that engine in there. Any upgrades I do will be solely focused on improving mileage and reliability, and if they add HP then that's an added bonus.

aarivers

Just a small update. I started cutting out the drivers side rust and noticed I could see the ground through a hole in the rocker panel, so it was time to take off the fender to patch that hole up. Since the passenger side fender needs to be replaced also I went ahead and removed it from the car and found a hole in that rocker panel also! I swear one thing leads to another on this car.

I also got in the GTA door panels that will be replacing the flat bland Camaro panels. Also got in my new rubber seal kit for the doors, windows, trunk, and under hood.

So once I get all this rust wrapped up I can start getting the car prepped for paint. The front bumper cover has seen better days along with the front GFX panel, so I will see if those can be repaired or if I will have to replace them.

But on to the pics!

GTA Panels


Old Camaro panels



Drivers Side Rocker Panel





Passenger Side Rocker Panel

ericjon262

it's looking good, thank you for not just sticking a piece of plywood down and calling the floorpans fixed! I've seen "fixes" like that too often, and it drives me crazy!

Good job so far, keep us posted-

Eric

aarivers

Alright, so I almost have all the rust holes welded up and back to keeping water out. I still need to plug up a few pinholes here and there. I also will need to go back over and try to remove a lot of the old cracked seam sealer and lay down some new sealer. But it's moving forward. I picked up both front fenders, both side GFX panels, a new drivers door, and a set of heated power mirrors.

My plan is to build this car as if this had been Chevy's flagship sports coupe, something to rival a Porsche 928 or Ferrari in '91. Leather covered interior, all the amenities you would expect in a luxury sports car, heated seats, power everything. But more on that later.

85_ZED28

That's a alot of rust, good for you for fixing it! I bet that poor car never thought it would get another chance

aarivers

It's funny you should word it that way. They where my thoughts exactly after I picked it up. When I was a kid I watched the Brave Little Toaster and at the end there's a scene in a junkyard with cars singing about their past lives and then being tossed away and now I think about it whenever I see a car about to be scrapped. Just glad I could keep this one out of the crusher.

odecca

Great Work. I love seeing these cars saved from the scrap heap.

That's a whole lot of work you are putting in. Can't wait to see more.

aarivers

Alright guys time to update this thread. Looking at the last time I posted I feel so lazy, but I had some decisions to make with the direction of the project, other mini-projects, and life getting in the way of progress. Well I finally got around to working on it again so here's some updates.

After much cursing, bleeding, and cutting I got the old drum/open diff unit out. I also had to cut out the lower control arms since all the bolts were rusted solid. Once that was out of the way it was time to bolt up the new 4th gen Z28 rear end, lower control arms and panhard rod. I also took this time to slip some used 4th gen Z28 shocks and springs in there. The installation went smooth as silk, I still need to get some handbrake cables to finish it up. Then I can check that off the list.

Next up is getting it prepped for paint. I purchased all the stuff to get it prepped and have it taped up and ready to prime the jams and cut in the doors. I also got some seam sealer to redo the drip tray under wiper assembly.

On to the pics!

aarivers

Holy $hit it's update time! After finally getting my honey-do list a little smaller in the new house, I've been working on getting this ride ready for paint. I had to do a little more rust repair behind the rear fender and cleaning the engine bay for paint is still going on, there's so much crap in the way in this engine bay I haven't decided how much I want to remove for painting, since this isn't going to be a show car I may take the shortcut and spray bomb the rails near the headers semigloss black.

Anyways, here's the pics of parts, parts and more parts getting prepped for paint.









This area still needs work.



These parts are sanded and ready for some primer.



These parts are not, and the front nose cone needs some plastic repair, time to look up that GRM article on how to do it right.



The hood and decklid are ready for primer, I'll have to scuff that new chin spoiler up good.



It's hard to see in this picture but this door edge will need to be flattened a little, to make it mesh right with the quarter panel.

Unashamed116

Lots of rust but you look like you handled it well. Keep up the good work!

bricks23

very good job boy, i love it and keep going .....looks like you put a lot of hard work....

bricks23

nice boyy keep going, looks real good you put a lot of hard work on it....

IROCgiraffe

iTrader: (3)

Nice job! Keep it up