I got this Car back in December for a project. It didn't look that bad when I got it. Its still not that bad. Last night I decided to pull the passenger side inner fender plastic peice out. It seems that the bottom of my fender is about shot.

Dose anyone know where I can get NOS GM Fenders.

What is a good fitting aftermarket brand.

I had noticed when I was pulling the engine that the lower fender bolt that bolts on under the body was bent up. After getting all of the dirt out of the fender I pryed the lower fender mounting spot back down where it should be. I seem to have a rust hole in the rocker at the front. The lower fender mount is pretty bad too.

The Drivers side fender looks like its not to bad. It hangs out a little though past the door. I need to fix that. It might be aftermarket I don't know.

This poor car.

 

It seems like that bolt is ALWAYS bent. The only thing I can think of, is its in the place where you'd usually jack the car up, and it may frequently be mistaken as a jack point.

 

Ya thats exactly what I was thinking. I'm also wondering if someone tried to jack the car from the front of the side skirt. The bottom of the fender is all bent up and the skirt is cracked and not even attached anymore to the bottom of the fender.

 

I had one of each. My driver's side was rusted all the way through, my passenger's side was folded over. I've replaced both of them now.

I was gonna say I could probably ship a fender to you next week when i get my parts car, but I see your a UK member, and with something sizable like that, it might just be cheaper to fabricate it from gold, lol.

 

Ok, I fixed that, I'm actually from Maryland.

There are two camaros in my local junk yard. I plan on checking them out to see how good they are. Both are 84 z28s. Unless yours is already shiny black in color.... I might consider that.

Thanks

 

Nope, my parts car is lime green. Feel like adding a touch of flair to your Z28?

 

Not so sure I would consider that "a touch of flair" More like a slap.
J/K

 

Lol. yeah, thats why this is a parts car and not a restore project. Its a former drag car that dropped its tranny, and the current owner bought it for the motor. I'm taking the interior out, as it seems to be fairly healthy.

If you feel like sanding off a slap of flair, let me know, lol. Otherwise good luck with replacing that thing. Those fenders have so many bolts connecting them to things its not even funny. But at least you have a Camaro so your headlights won't get in the way of the bumper mounting bracket.

 

I've never had one off. Now I have something to look forward to. "Bangs Head on Desk"

Guess I'll find out tonight. Thinking I'll pull the whole front end down looking for rust. I have no idea how any of the front end comes apart.

 

Most of it is simple and straightforward. Fenders are attached at top and bottom, as well as the wheel wells. You already found the nasty little secret that the bottom attachment bolt on the fender tends to get smashed. There's a ton of bolts, but most of them are easy.

Depending on your ground fx, the front bumper for the most part is simple, allthough ground fx can pose a bit of an annoyance. Its just there is a bracket with 4 bolts that threads through the bumper into the fender, which can be a terror to get off. I started a thread asking how to deal with that issue and the response i got was "how much are you willing to bleed?"

Again, maybe its easier on a Camaro with the headlights in the bumper, but on a Firebird the headlights are in the way, so you find yourself removing the turn signal and fog light housing, jamming your arm into the bumper, and cursing until the thing finally lets loose.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by campin1983

Its just there is a bracket with 4 bolts that threads through the bumper into the fender, which can be a terror to get off. I started a thread asking how to deal with that issue and the response i got was "how much are you willing to bleed?"

HAHA Gotta love that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by campin1983

Again, maybe its easier on a Camaro with the headlights in the bumper, but on a Firebird the headlights are in the way, so you find yourself removing the turn signal and fog light housing, jamming your arm into the bumper, and cursing until the thing finally lets loose.

I wonder how you would get it back together?

Thanks verymuch for the info on what to expect. I'll just have to make sure that the sawzaw is no where near the car as I'm working on it.

 

For getting the front back together, I found the only way was to have someone help me, and each of us first threaded the bracket through the bumper, then carefully guided those bolts into the fender as we put the bumper back on. Then i quickly put a nut on a few bolts on each side to keep it from falling back out, then returned to the bleeding method to tighten them, lol. If you have a rachet with a hinged head, or some other flexible way to get nuts off of bolts, it makes things a bit easier too.

Glad I could help, it means my blood loss was not in vein!

 

 

This actually went kinda well. I pulled all of the bolts that hold the fenders on. I removed two bolts that hold the head lights to the core support and a few odds and ends clips and bolts. I got my G/F to help and we slid the whole front bumper fenders and Headlight assembly off in one big peice. I think it will be easier to dis-assemble now. Glad I have a Camaro.

Here's a question. I was reading the article about a firebird being built from scratch at the factory, Did any of the parts under the body get actual paint or were they only primed? From the Article it seems like they only got primed. By the looks of my car both areas behind the fenders are only primed.

I was just wondering.

Heres the article if you havn't read it. Its a great read.
https://www.thirdgen.org/presentatth...river-june1983

 

That makes me sort of curious too. The grey/greenish stuff they describe is what the interior sheet metal of my car was all covered in. It sort of looks like etching primer. The metal under my fenders was completely bare, wasn't even in primer.

What factory assembled your car? Mine was assembled in the Van Nuys plant, and I hear their paint booth was one of the worst of its time. The article describes the Norwood plant, which was much better, but didn't spit out the bulk of the f-bodies unfortunatly. (the 7th digit of your vin tells you this. N=Norwood L=Van Nuys).

 

If its the 7th from the right hand side then mine was made at Norwood. I haven't gotten into the Interior yet of my car. I'm hoping that when I start to remove the carpet I might find my build sheet. My RPO list that was in the Center Console isn't from my car. (just My luck!) My Dash says it is an IROC but I don't think that is correct as it is just about completly unbolted. I did find out the IROC camaros in my year still got the Z28 Emblems on the Side skirts but had IROC on the doors. I guess its still possible.

Any how, I've definatly got some sort of primer on the metal under the fenders. I'm not sure how origial they are though. I did find last night that the bottom of the Skirting on the doors is gold. My car might have Black and gold instead of just black. I think I'll leave it Just black though. I'm hoping I'll find some more clues though.

 

Norwood, your lucky. At least you got primer on your fenders. When i ripped my carpet up, there was probably a build sheet there, but it was so badly stained with rust I couldn't read a thing. The boys at Van Nuys paintshop certaintly didn't care about my car when it went through. I know its had a long, hard life, but I'm irritated by the simply terrible painting on this car. The primer-like stuff on the inside doesn't even coat all the sheet metal, it looks like someone just sprayed it real quick then moved on without looking.

 

Man, I'm sorry to hear that. My car has fare'd pretty well since it was a Jersy car at one point. (lots of Salt used on the roads up there, rusts things up pretty good.) I've only found some rust in the fronts of the rockers one spot in the driverside front fender wheel well and the passenger side rear wheel well. I'm hopeing to get the interior out soon so I can see what the inside looks like as well as look for that build sheet. I think the driverside rocker has rusted into the passenger compartment sorta. Its behind carpet or something. I will probably Por-15 it and leave it. I haven't had alot of luck fixing floors in vehicles. Fortunatly the rockers are hidden behind plastic. If I can Eliminate the rust and at least close the rocker back up I should be happy with that.

 

What I believe was the build sheet was on the floor on the passenger's side of my car. Its also possible it could have been there on the driver's side, but when I lifted the carpet, I saw driveway.

 

Good greif, Mines not near that bad I've looked from the bottom up I haven't seen any signs of carpet yet other than for that small area in the rocker.

I'm more suprised that the floor isn't 6 inches hight than normal since previous owner/mechanics decided to use ever inch of that car for a jack point other than the ones designed to be that.

Hopefully, I can find the build sheet. I've read some people found them in fender, on top of gas tanks. At this point it wouldn't suprise me someone managed to stuff it in a valve cover. Though my luck the engine that I pulled out was out of an 83 so if that were the case my build sheet is long gone
LOL.

 

I know what you mean about the jack points...

And yeah, I knew I had some rot in the floor, but when i started sanding and cutting, I ended up with a very flintstone's car. Then there was another hole in the back that I wasn't aware of. I was rather ticked off. Thank God for scrap metal and fiberglass. The patch doesn't look amazing, but its solid, and this isn't a show car. Once carpet is down, you won't know the difference.

 

Thats exactly How I feel. I'm gona try to remove as much of the rust that I can. Hopefully i don't find that the interior needs to be Flintstone'd. From the way it looks now it isn't too bad. It just gets worse when you start poking at it. My half inch hole in my front fender well is now 4 in square.

 

Yup. The hole in the floor on my car was about 6 in square, and when I started poking around, it ended up being about 3 times that size. Eventually I got sick of poking and just got out the cutting wheel and cut back to what I was fairly sure was solid metal.

I think your just gonna have to find yourself a new fender if that one is so bad. With a 4 inch hole your gonna need to do some serious paint work, so you might as well start with something fresh to do it on.

 

I'm actually talking about the fender well where the Shock mounts but more toward the actual cabin of the body. Its right above where the fender well meets the body below the brake booster. Dirt and stuff has collected there and cause it to rust. I definatly have to replace the fenders themselves. The passenger side is shot. Since they are removable I'll replace them. The other spots aren't, so I have to fix them. Gotta love rust. If I didn't have that I wouldn't have anything to do. Ya right.....