Day 2 67 Camaro restoration

[Chuck_Burg]

Originally Posted by RPOLS3

Thank you - I recall the story about Curt now - sad as it is.

Agreed. He did an amazing job restoring this car and hunting down the protecto plate/engine block. That Chevelle is probably my favorite car...

[Chuck_Burg]

So yesterday was fun! We removed the sub frame. As we all know this car is a low mileage unmolested early production car. The body mounts are in great shape! The tape for the rear body bushings was still intact!

I have dug up some things in this archeology experiment that differ from what I thought were correct.

Many things on the front suspension seem to have been painted black at the factory rather than "natural finish" such as the drag link, tie rod ends, spindles, and the steering knuckles, and pitman arm. The idler arm definitely looks like it is natural cast iron. I always thought these parts were left natural finish from the factory. I HIGHLY doubt these parts were painted black after the car was purchased new. Note the orange inspection paint on the drag link, pretty cool! The car retained all the factory bushings, control arms, riveted upper ball joints. Only thing that looked altered were the shocks. Figured everyone would like the condition of the ID tag on the one coil spring..

So my question to you all is would you refinish the black aforementioned parts in black, or would you do them in a natural cast finish? I am leaning toward the black because it seems like they left the factory that way. Either way, black parts will be powder coated....

[NorCam]

A common question that we all ask of ourselves. Black, natural, or add some contrast with grey or phosphate color mixed in? Myself, I like a little contrast on the inners, outers, and sleeves. I leave the steering arms natural but have satin clear coated them to preserve the paint daubs once redone. Everyone has different views on this and ultimately is up to how you like things refinished and there is no right or wrong on a great car such as this.

I would however caution you on powder coating any parts that connect to other metal parts under stress. The powder will often crack and can then flake off when the joints are tightened back together. For that reason alone, I now paint all of the front steering and small suspension parts and only powder the frame, control arms, and sway bar. The rest is easy to media blast, prep and paint while the big stuff is off being coated. But that's just me...

Loving this car and trust it will turn out to look spectacular!

[SMS]

This car is beautiful. But I'm partial as I have a Gold Chevelle. Thought I'd share a gold interior 67 I used to have.

[Chuck_Burg]

That interior is beautiful! I love the door panels on the deluxe interior. My car has gold standard, no pun intended haha, interior. Did yours have plastic or steel seat backs? Look like the later plastic ones in the picture, mine has the early steel ones.

[Chuck_Burg]

Slowly but surely coming along. Last week I sent the subframe, control arms, engine mounts, cross member, inner fenders, core support and sway bar to a local powder coater. Very impressed with the results. Yesterday I sent them my leaf spring buckets, and bumper brackets.

I decided to use Rich, Enoch on this site, to replate much of my original hardware. Can't wait Rich!

[Too Many Projects]

FINALLY !! some new news and progress...
I had all that stuff powdered on my '67 too and it really is a nice way to go.

[Chuck_Burg]

Had a little fun getting dirty this weekend. As I've previously mentioned, the underside of this car is in very good shape. After a day of cleaning with Simple Green, Super Clean degreaser, and a steam cleaner I gotta say, WOW! I'm pretty proud of the condition of this car. These pictures don't do it justice. I need a plug for the right rear frame rail and the right rear 1/4 panel. Let me know if any of you have an original you want to sell. Also feel free to ask questions or ask for more detailed pictures. ...

[R68GTO]

very nice work. It's really satisfying to see this kind of transformation with just a little (well, actually a lot) of elbow grease.

[scuncio]

Nice work! Wow is that ever clean.