Front bumper mounted permanently. Needs to be adjusted when I put the bumper cover on.





Now for the rear. After putting the inner on and attempting the put the outer cover over it I could tell something wasn't right.





See the gap between the bumper and quarter? The outer was rubbing on the inner, which I knew wasn't right.

I determined the impact absorbing material was different from the original bumper:



Not much, but just enough to be a problem. So I drilled out the 4 rivets so I could swap the original one onto my good bumper.




Haven't finished mounting it yet but I'll just use some small nuts and bolts with thread locker.

 

Finished swapping the correct impact absorber onto the good inner bumper.

After that I pulled the brackets off of the rear outer bumper to clean them up.







Then I cleaned them up


And painted



Once they were dry the bumper fit like it should

 

Lets talk doors, alignment, why they're not adjustable, and how to make them adjustable.

If you're using doors that are original to the car, you just throw them on and they should be good. The exception is when you replace door pins/bushings you may need to bend the hinge back into place with this tool:



However, in my case I'm using 2 '91 Formula doors. If you've done this before (using non-original doors) you know they just don't fit properly. Here's why:

When our doors are installed during production the thick steel plate that they're mounted to is not welded into place yet. This is what it looks like from the inside looking out (passenger side):





The door is mounted, aligned (because the plates top and bottom are not welded yet so the door can be adjusted) then welded into place. That's why original doors go back on with much less trouble. 2 of the 3 bolts holding each hinge to the car are adjustable. The front 2 (1 top 1 bottom) bolts are not and that's what makes the doors non-adjustable.







However because these doors are not original, some adjustment is necessary. Because the plates are welded into place, the adjustment must be added to the hinges. Yes you could also use a spot weld cuter to free up the mounting plates, but I think this method is a bit easier.

I drilled and elongated the 2 front holes on each hinge, and now the door is able to be adjusted in all directions.



Of course this means adjustment will need to be made to the fender/hood/bumper, but that's to be expected.

 

Update: I sold my 4-post lift and bought a 2-post!

I moved the lift outside to work on the panel gaps and I realized how much room it took up. After some measuring I knew a 2-post would work. Sold the 4-post in 10 hours and had the 2-post 3 days later.

Started the install last weekend and finished it today. My biggest concern was being able to fir the Camaro next to the lift. As you can see I fits no problem!

 

 

For anyone wanting to know, this is an Atlas BP8000 sold by Greg Smith Equipment.

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-BP8000

The only mod I've made to the lift was to the baseplate. The baseplate is the big metal piece that sits on the floor and covers the cables/hydraulic hoses.

In stock form it is not anchored to anything and just bounces around when you drive over it. No way I was going to live with that so I welded 2 tabs at opposite corners to bolt it down. It's since been painted.

 

Christmas update. I started gaping body panels, specifically the fender to door gap. Even though the passenger door and fender are OEM parts, the upper gap was too large. From the bottom to the center of the door was fine, but from there up to the hood was just too big:


So I had to tighten up that gap. To do that I welded along where the gap was too large:


Then ground it down to achieve the gap I wanted:

 

Looking good!

 

Thanks, but the hood to fender gap is too big for my liking. Any ideas on how to widen the fiberglass hood?? Besides adding glass and resin which I'll probably have to do...

 

Is there any adjustment in the top fender bolts? EG Move the tops of the fenders in toward the car centerline?

 

Can't do it man......the front bumper, specifically the upper fiberglass part that mounts to the fenders, determines the width between the 2 fenders. Without narrowing it and the plastic front bumper the fenders can't get closer to the hood. I really wish I could do that though....

 

Doesn't look like TIG, I don't see much splatter so it's not Flux Core, Regular MIG then? The fender didn't warp either? I will begin a similar process for the convertible I'm doing. The trunk to fender misalignment is horrendous.

 

Yes gas-shielded Miller DVI MIG welder. No warping that I can see or feel. Skim coat of filler and it'll be perfect.

Just take your time, stagger your welding, use air and a wet rag to cool things off and you'll be fine.

 

Was the door off when you did the welding?

 

Very nice project! - Great to see so many pics of the build in all stages.

Pierre

 

Nope door stayed on.

 

Update:

The Drivers side Goodmark fender was just not working. After a LOT of searching I found a fender in Frankfort, so I bit the bullet and drove there to pick it up. Only $40 so if it sucked, oh well.

It ended up fitting pretty well. The fender to door gap need to be refined, but everything else was ok. Did the same as the passenger fender:

Before:



During:






After:

 

Currently working on aligning the front bumper and hood/sanding.

 

Looking great. That lift has also no doubt been a real time saver.

 

It certainly helps. It'll be much more useful when doing the major stuff like engine/trans/rear install.

 

Minor update:

Got the hood/doors/fenders/front bumper aligned. A lot of tweaking but it looks pretty good.

 

Got the drivers fender stripped, and the front bumper sanded.

Almost done:





Finished sanding the door:







Then I blew it back apart again to strip the areas that are covered when the parts are mounted:

 

Finished another milestone today; Sanding the hood.

Took 6 hours and I cannot feel my hands, but it's done.

Starting:



Some progress:



Halfway:





Almost done:

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/robguitargod12/1991%20camaro%20engine%20bay/5-26-2016/_DSC0014_zpse7ham2ec.jpg[/img]

Done:

 

You're doing some damn good work, man. What did you use to sand the hood? Electric or by hand? I think i see an extension cord lol

 

I used a 5" electric dual action sander. This is the one:



I used about 15 80-grit discs on the hood alone. Will probably switch to 180 and go over the whole thing once more but no more than a half hour to knock out some of the larger 80 grit scratches since I'm considering just spot priming the hood.

I still cannot feel the tip of my left thumb. No joke, I'm concerned.

 

Double check the tech sheet on the primer, it usually calls for 220-320 for final sanding of paint or filler before primer. You're going to all the trouble of correcting excessive gaps but you're not using any sanding blocks?

I do the small spots with my fingers too, I have the issue of my finger tips giving me the feeling that everything I pick up is warm....

 

Never fear, of course I have blocks!

<a href="http://s816.photobucket.com/user/robguitargod12/media/1991%20camaro%20engine%20bay/5-27-2016/_DSC0005_zpsfdni1zxe.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/robguitargod12/1991%20camaro%20engine%20bay/5-27-2016/_DSC0005_zpsfdni1zxe.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo _DSC0005_zpsfdni1zxe.jpg"/></a>

Because I was using epoxy then high-build, I figured something like 180 would be fine. I'll probably use 220 and use my judgement before priming.

 

Yesterday was super-lazy, all I did was remove paint from the underside of both fenders (the part that's hidden when the hood is closed:

 

Today was much more productive. I filled and sanded some small imperfections on the front bumper:



Cleaned up all of the fender bolts that will be painted:



FINALLY got the hood to front bumper gap right! This gap bugs the hell out of me, so I spent a lot of time today getting it right. The fenders and front bumper are mounted for the final time:

 

Then I pulled out the ground effects to clean them off. I'd sanded them last year and it took forever.

Since my passenger fender is from a 1991 camaro, and my drivers side is from an '86, I still need to cut the slots for the front ground GFX in the drivers side:

<center>
<a href="http://s816.photobucket.com/user/robguitargod12/media/1991%20camaro%20engine%20bay/5-28-2016/_DSC0012_zpswqxdbpzk.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/robguitargod12/1991%20camaro%20engine%20bay/5-28-2016/_DSC0012_zpswqxdbpzk.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo _DSC0012_zpswqxdbpzk.jpg"/></a>
</center>

I've also decided on what configuration I'll paint the car in; Everything mounted except the hood.

 

I reread the thread, It looks like you went with one of the Eastwood HVLP guns. I bought their Concours gun. It's worked out well with the 1.2 and 1.4 mm tips but spraying primer with the 1.8mm tip has not worked well. Horrendous orange peel. I'm using 1/4" air line, maybe 3/8" would make a difference. Just trying to save you some headache and recommending that you shoot the primer with a 1.4 or 1.5mm and thin it slightly more, that route has worked out great for me. I had the air pressure at the maximum "safe" recommendation and it just wouldn't atomize with a 1.8mm tip.

 

Eastwood opened up a retail location in Alsip, IL about 45 mins from me so I've been there a few times. Wish it was closer but I'll live.

Haven't used the gun yet but I'll let you know how it goes as soon as I do.

 

I bought my welder and welding supplies from that store when they had their grand opening month and were giving out 20% off coupons. I moved from the Downers Grove Lombard area.

 

What kind of primer are you spraying? I sprayed summit racing epoxy primer recently out of an 1.8 tipped gun and it came out decent. Slight orange peel but it was to be sanded before base coat anyway. I'm not a body man and don't have much experience at all with painting so i'm just curious...

 

Also, rob, your'e fixing something that's always bothered me with these cars...panel alignment. Can't wait to see the end results.

 

His looked like it might be a concours kit. But you and i should be more specific, I'm using a concours gun by Eastwood that was designed with really low air requirements, low enough for the regular compressors sold at big box hardware stores. I was having issue spraying high build 2K primer. It sprays epoxy primer fine but epoxy primer is much thinner and my experience has been epoxy primer is shot best with a 1.4-1.6mm tip. Since my guns requirements are so low it wasn't designed for up to a 50-70 inlet pressure like some hvlp primer guns so it has a tough time atomize big globules of thick primer. It's akin to all of these 110 volt mig welder manufacturers claiming their box will weld up to 1/4". It might be able to weld 1/4" and this might be able to spray high build with a 1.8 mm but there will be a dozen ifs and buts first.

 

Project looks amazing so far!!!

 

Yeah I've never sprayed high build. I'll find out how my fx300 with a 1.8 sprays high build eventually.

 

The fender/door and hood to bumper bug me the most.

 

Yes it's eastwoods conrour polyester primer.

It's says it's direct to metal, I'm just not sure if I'll still use epoxy too.

 

Sunday I started cleaning up all of the front GFX mounting hardware. 18 of each mounts the front ground GFX the the front bumper.



Then I worked on adding the correct GFX mounting holes to the drivers side fender (in front of and behind the wheel opening)

<center>

 

Then I started on the last spot of rust repair; Drivers side quarter. This is under the GFX but I couldn't just leave it.

 

Awesome work man. It's going to look great when you're done

 

Thanks! I was sure I could have it painted 2 weeks ago. Nope not even close and I've been working my *** off!!

 

The last bit of rust repair was on the same drivers side quarter:


</center>

I'd repaired it yesterday, but wasn't happy with it. The little zig-zag right at the lip of the quarter was very hard to build from scratch. I knew it wasn't right and it kept me up last night.

So today I had an idea. I could cut a section off the '86's quarter and use it to patch the area I wasn't happy with.

So I cut an area off of the donor car:


</center>

To match what I had to cut out:





It took forever to get the piece to fit perfectly but because I was tig welding it, it had to be perfect:




Welding it in:






Finished:



The finish is perfect and even though it took all damn day, it was worth it.

Now the bodywork can begin.

 

Nice build so far man, keep it up. Any idea when you may start on the meat and potatoes of the car? Officially subscribed by the way!!!

 

I'd love to start on anything but bodywork right now, but it HAS to come first! Mostly because around here after September it could be 40-75 degrees on any given day!

Since my garage is heated the engine/trans rebuild can be done then, but the paint/body stuff needs to be done in warmer weather.

 

Small note, my rear bumper won't work. It's from the '86 and it turns out the 91-92 quarter panel GFX won't work with the earlier bumper. Found a guy local that has one for $40, but he's been hard to get a hold of.

 

Another note: that TIG welding was difficult to do. I'd never actually TIG welded on anything that mattered, and definitely not on something as small and delicate as the body's sheet metal.

I practiced on scrap for about 2 hours before I was good enough to give it a shot. I found that 30 amps was where I set my welder, but almost never have it that much heat. I kept the pedal around halfway or less the entire time unless I was starting where I'd left off. In that case I'd heat the existing weld bead up faster to get it liquid quickly without adding too much heat to the area.

I used a 2% thoriated tungsten that I ground to a very fine point. was able to keep my weld pool about 3mm in width.