I have been helping a friend strip his 1987 Z28 interior out and have noticed a few differences between his car and mine.

First off, I notice on my 91 Z28 that my spare tire area looks like it was sprayed black (almost like a rubberized coating, which didn't work because it rusted through anyway). It looks factory; not aftermarket. My friend's 87 spare tire area is just like the rest of the cars interior metal, just lightly misted with paint.

The other thing I noticed was on the interior of my pass side rear quarter panel, I have a strip of what looks to be fiberglass going the length of the rear 1/4. My friend's 87 has a piece of sheet metal welded to the inside of the same rear 1/4. Both appear 100% factory; Just a difference through the years?

Can anyone verify that both area correct for their years?

 

Anyone??

 

Pictures would help. I've had the interiors out of lots of F-bodies but the fiberglass thing doesn't sound right at all. I've never seen that working on an 85, lots of 87's, 91, or 92 cars.

 

my 84,87,88 are all steel in that location

 

I'll take a pic tomorrow.

 

My friend has 2 nos quarters for an 82 camaro they have the fiberglass

 

Mine is metal as well.

 

I'm curious to see the differences because all of them I've seen were metal everywhere. There is no fiberglass in the bodies anywhere I've been able to look.

 

Not to be rude but you might not know what it is you are looling for. I know for sure its on the passengr side there is like a 6" X 20" piece of woven fiberglass cloth stuck to the inside of the quarter panel and its on my 91 it was on my 84 its on NOS quarters for an 82 so I dont think model year has anything to do with it. Perhaps it depends witch assembly plant it came from.

 

I finally was able to take a pic:



I'm not sure why that side was painted black. It doesn't look like it was ever replaced and the black material looks like it was sprayed on with a Schutz gun; Looks factory, doesn't look like anyone sprayed it on later in the car's life.

Anyway, that's the part I'm talking about - See the strip of fiberglass-type material on the inside of the quarter?

IdeaS?

 

Doesn't look factory to me. Might have happened early on in the car's life, even at the dealership, but those spray patterns look like they came from a rattle can. Actually, looks absolutely the same to some of my early attempts to address rust on a Firebird.

 

I've seen the black spray on the inside of the panels. Clearly on metal that wasn't repaired in regard to dents, creasing or crushing. One car I saw like this was a Texas car all its life and didn't have any rust in those areas and would have had it elsewhere before having it there. Though there was no fiberglass material in this car. As I recall it was built at Norwood but I'd have to check my documentation on the car to know that for sure.

 

The 91 was built in Van Nuys... Norwood was closed either in 88 or 89... My 87 Van Nuys car has that strip of fiberglass and the black on the inside, but I couldn't tell you if the quarter is factory or not, looking like it had been replaced at some point in time along with other body parts (only original sheet metal was the doors and the left rear quarter, as verified by VIN tags).

 

Norwood was closed at the later end of the 1987 model year.

 

Yep, just looked it up. I knew it was before '90, but wasn't sure when.

 

11th digit on VIN indicates which plant: N = Norwood; L = Van Nuys
From the book I have it looks like the last year for Norwood was 1987.

I'm going to guess the piece and/or black spray marks are either part of a deluxe/soundproofing package and/or something to do with rustproofing. I could be wrong, but that's my


This is almost as interesting as the speaker socks behind the sail panels. Some had them some didn't but no one could figure the rhyme or reason as to which cars had them.

 

If the black spray stuff was rustproofing, it didn't work at all. The floor section of the spare tire are is rotting, almost all the way through, and its really the only really bad spot on the car.

 

Don't know where the car was from but it looks like you're from Tennessee. I'm from Minneaota and nothing will stop a car from rusting out when it's exposed to salt and that's a common area to go, especially if it's a one wheel wonder as it packs the snow/ice/salt mixture into that area all of the time. I know some places up here recommend that you come back every couple of years or so. That might be more for the steady income than anything else though.
But even if a car gets scratched up here rust will eat away from the center out to a couple of inches around.

Otherwise if water was sitting in the spare tire area with no where to escape it would eventually get through and rust it out over the years. Probably more likely than anything else.