Until now I was fully vested in repairing my 86 Z's rust issues. The usual quarter, shock tower, floors. (as evidence by this thread:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...ower-rust.html

But yesterday I came across a rust-free '91 hardtop (my '86 is a t-top car) local for a ridiculously low price. The car isn't COMPLETELY rust-free, but it is compared to mine! Here's my '86's current drivers floor:




Here's the '91's drivers floor:




A step in the right direction if you ask me!

Here's the other big plus - it's mini-tubbed. Not hacked to s h i t either:

 

Also it amazingly doesn't have a huge hole in the spare tire well:

Or quarter/door/trunk rust:





Here's the one issue. A ding in the drivers quarter:


So it's basically a shell that needs damn hear everything donated, but it's much more solid than my current '86Z so the plan is to transfer everything onto this '91.

I have to give a huge thank you to the guy I bought it from. Said he was a member here so if you're around, post away man! Picking it up Sunday, then the surgery begins!

First up: Paint.

I think it'd be very counterproductive to swap everything over THEN tear it back down to paint. The car is pretty bare, so I think paint now makes sense. Even before paint I have to fix what little rust there is and make sure it never comes back! Here's the car:

 

Another thing I like is that the AC is there and not hacked up. I'm planning on an LS swap in the car, but I also want AC. I think having a fast/reliable car is great, but little things like AC and cruise control make a car special IMO.

 

how much is the shell? if its not ridiculous i say you have a good game plan. and i hop you plan to run a wide tire outback to make use of that mini tub. the small amount of rust and the ding are gonna be cake to fix.

 

those were my thought's exactly. Plus the car's already white (my '86 is white too)

It's still going to require a TON of work.....but worth it. I hope the previous owner posts here sometime too. He seemed like a genuinely cool guy.

 

itll be less work than replacing an entire floor pan. but since its a hard top and urs is a ttop, there will be slight differences and youll have to get some hard top specific parts if they arent already on the shell.....or you can get crazy and graft the ttop roof onto the hard top....

 

Ouch!!!!!!!!!!! Goodluck on that. I know you'll be taking some pride in that puppy when it's done. lotsa work!!!!

 

Yeeeeeeeeeeah, I don't think so! I do love T-tops, but they're very prone to rust and the weatherstripping is very expensive. So from a paint/cost perspective I think I'll be perfectly happy with the hard top car.

 

My local parts yards sale is this weekend so I'm going to be digging ALL DAY and will hopefully come away with a lot of the specific stuff I need.

 

Plus a hard top car will have less body flex.

 

Good point. It's also nice that the windshield isn't cracked like mine is currently.

 

Subscribed. Be interesting to see how that tub works out! Glad u got a shell, I prolly would be better doing the same, but I'm gunna save Mine.

 

You gonna go to Victory's sale this weekend? I've a HUGE list if crap I need! I'll post it when I'm done just so none of you monkeys try to steal my 3rd gen parts Saturday! Only 2 3rd gens in the whole place as of last week. Both V-6's.

 

Well the previous owner came through! Picked up the car this evening, towed home no problem, and is in my garage waiting some welding and paint prep.

I also picked up 2 doors among other stuff this weekend at Victory's free parts weekend.

I just uploaded a bunch more pics here, enjoy:

http://s816.photobucket.com/albums/z...1991%20Camaro/

 

Haha you got it?! You bastard. The guy that sold it to you is a very cool guy. I picked up the Control arms and Spindles from that car. I was also interested in it too since it seemed pretty solid. I liked the mini tubs and the coil over setup it had.

The price he was offering was good as well. You scored def, I didn't want another project but I did tell him I was interested.

Did he leave you the hatch? It was practically the only good thing left on it.

I have alot of crap from my old 92, let me know if you need anything.

 

not bad. a little surface rust here and there. but it looks solid. def an improvement over what you got

 

So you're the guy who made it difficult for me to tow with no front suspension?!

I do need a few odds and ends, what color is your '92's interior. hardtop car? What's available? Thanks!

 

Ha, I originally wanted to just get the passenger side A-Arm but decided to pick up everything else for a spare. You can come get the stock spindles and the driver side a-arm for cheap...

Beige/Tan is the color, Seats and some interior plastics. T-Top though. I do have a hardtop backboard in perfect shape that needs to be re-covered. Daytona Hood, I have alot of crap man. Its better for you to let me know what you need and see if I have it lol

 

Small update: Got almost everything stripped off the car except the windshield and rear hatch. Tons of pics here:

http://s816.photobucket.com/albums/z...1991%20Camaro/

Little peek:

 

if you got the cash, id have the whole shell blasted. then go over the underside with a good corosion protection and lizard skin the inside. but thats just me.

 

It's been on my mind, but what do you think that costs?

 

whole car, around $400

 

only down side to getting the whole thing blasted is you have to do any metal work quick and get some sort of corosion protection on it before it starts rusting away.

 

A good idea is to have the.car primered/sealed after being blasted. That way you don't have to worry.about rust if it sits, inside, for a long time.

For the OP, the new shell looks pretty solid. However, that rear tub job severly weakened the rear structure of the car. You may need something in the realm of a 6 to 8 point roll bar at least to tie the car back together. Pablo may chime in since he tubbed his car the same way and found the back.of the car to be a bit flimsy afterwards. I used much heavier sheetmetal to rebuild the rear tub and frame when I did mine so I had no issue with strength.

 

Update: Floor rust repair done.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...-repair-w.html

Currently sanding the engine bay. I also bought a 4-post list so that'll make coating the underside a lot easier.