Rich's 1969 Camaro Z28

The first step is to remove everything from the car, assess the condition of each part, and determine the approach to be taken with the restore. The car will be restored as a beautiful driver with the effort made to restore as many of the original parts. The car will be enjoyed, not judged.

Engine will be disassembled and completely checked over. The parts being reused will be cleaned, sandblasted, and painted. Some items will be replaced if necessary.

Some parts before cleaning, prepping and painting. Several parts will be sent out for replating.

And after a time consuming process of cleaning and painting.

The rear is removed and the underside of the car will be thoroughly cleaned and painted. The rear and springs will have all the rust removed and also painted. New brakes, brake lines, shocks, bushings, fuel lines, fuel tank, parking brakes, exhaust and hangers will all be installed.

After a good cleaning and some paint.

One issue to deal with is the rear frame rails. The back of the car took a hit at some point in its life and both rear rails have a crack and buckle.

Also, some prior repairs will be redone and fixed correctly.

The motor was freshened up and now as good as new and ready to rock!

• Honed
• Deck Surfaced
• Crank .010 under
• New rod and main bearings
• New Cam and bearings
• Stainless Valves
• Hardened Seats

After cleaning off the undercoating we found other small cracks in the frame rail. First task is to straighten it and remove the bulges. When completed it will look great from the outside, reinforced on the inside, and stronger then new!

In these shots (left and right) you can see the extent of the some of the cracks to be repaired.

After straightening, the cracks are welded in and then ground smooth. It will be followed up with reinforcement. Another time consuming process but when done they will be stronger then new.

The final welds. All filled in and backing plates in place. A little putty to smooth things out and some primer and undercoating and will look good as new and be stronger than new.

Oops! A little more fixin' up required. A gas tank strap had previously bad a patch on it so we removed both of them to repair the trunk panels and install new tank straps.

Much Better:

Rear carrier all cleaned up and painted:

All repaired and painted. Time to start throwing parts at it:

First up, new leaf springs, fuel system, and brake lines

And off to the body shop