COMP Cams 40th Anniversary Camaro at V8 Speed & Resto Shop

[Jon69RagTop]

Your cuts and fit of the new panels are so good, very jealous of the skills here.

[waynieZ]

It looks great Kevin, nice work.

[V8TV]

Originally Posted by gofastwclass

Looks good Kevin.

Originally Posted by Jon69RagTop

Your cuts and fit of the new panels are so good, very jealous of the skills here.

Originally Posted by waynieZ

It looks great Kevin, nice work.

Thanks guys, Adam enjoys making these things fit as if it never happened. We appreciate the kind words!

[V8TV]

This Camaro is going to have a mostly stock appearance, but there are some upgrades that will add a modern touch to the car. The Eddie Motorsports billet trunk hinges, hood hinges, quarter vents, marker light bezels, door handles, and door latch striker pins will update the car.





We broke out the hood hinges to start test fitting the front sheet metal. The hood fit wasn’t too bad to start with, but it was high in places in relation to the fenders, and the gaps we’re not super straight and even.

[V8TV]

It became apparent that a previous repair job and some rust in the firewall was preventing the hood hinges from being placed in the proper location to align the hood.

Once we knew what we were up against, we pulled the front clip to gain access to the firewall.



A little pokin’ and prying revealed a rusty-crusty sandwich lurking just beneath the surface of the firewall steel. This was going to have to come out and be replaced with new steel.





We also removed the original heater box hole in favor of a smoothed firewall, which also cleans up the Vintage Air A/C system install.

A few hours later, and Adam had all the rusty steel replaced inside the firewall, and a new skin finish welded in place.

[V8TV]

Next, he made a new panel for the bottom section of the firewall and heater hole close-out, and welded it in place.



The panel was attached with plug welds using the HTP MIG 200 wire feed MIG welder to keep the panel as cool and warp-free as possible. Finally, Adam ground all the welds smooth to finish it off. Looks like we were never there, huh?

[V8TV]

The top of the dash at the windshield base was another soft spot, so the rust was cut out and new sheet metal formed and welded in place.



Like the firewall, a big section of the substructure needed replacing before the top part of the dash could be fixed.



Here you can see the lowest level of the new structure in place. The new piece on the cowl is the next level to be attached.

[V8TV]

Then the next level was repaired.





This piece was welded in place, then the welds finished smooth.



The new dash from Year One is fitted, clamped in place, and plug welded.





The welds are all ground flush and the repair is nearly complete.



Notice the perimeter of the dash was welded toward the interior of the car.

[V8TV]

There was a similar repair needed on the driver side of the firewall as well.



… and after.



We found some extra holes and small spots of corrosion on the radiator core support here and there, so those were repaired as well.

[V8TV]

The front sheetmetal was reinstalled so we could check the fit. We’re using some new Eddie Motorsport billet hood hinges, and we plan on re-using all the front sheetmetal that came with the car.





Overall, the fit was pretty good, but any issues would be fixed in the next stages of construction.