Sean's 78 Camaro Z28

Should we leave the wheels grey or paint them body color?

  • Leave grey

  • Paint blue to match the body car, the way the car was when new


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dr78442

G-Body Guru
Mar 15, 2010
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massapequa park NY
Impressive! Great work. Such talent between you and bother father. I look forward to updates on the camaro, Galaxy and GP.. Keep the updates coming and best of luck
 
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Longroof79

Rocket Powered Basset Hound
G-Body of the Month
Oct 14, 2008
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Very nice work, Jared.
Of course you had shown me pics of Sean's car before, but now I can appreciate the amount of painstaking work that went into it.
Well worth the effort..I love it. Thanks for sharing the details and a little history of what went into the build.
 
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Texas82GP

Just-a-worm
Apr 3, 2015
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The Camaro is going to last longer than the originals did from factory.....:)
Thanks Steve. It will outlast us if we have anything to say about it. We intend for it to live inside the garage for the rest of our lives, and hopefully afterward. We hope it will be like some of those really old restorations you see on the TV shows. You know, old horseless carriages that were restored in the 30's and still survive. :)
Looking really good Jared!
Thanks Kevin. I really appreciate it.
Impressive! Great work. Such talent between you and bother father. I look forward to updates on the camaro, Galaxy and GP.. Keep the updates coming and best of luck
Thanks man. The Camaro is almost finished. They are never finished, so call it almost substantially complete. LOL. Progress is good on the Galaxie. I think we may have them both 'finished' by the end of the year. I plan on hitting the GP hard this fall and winter. That was the plan last fall but I fell ill and suffered a major medical event and that ate up the cool months of the year. Once I got to feeling better I was needed again on Dad's project so it will likely be September or later before I get back on the GP. It's in a storage and its just too hot until the fall.
Very nice work, Jared.
Of course you had shown me pics of Sean's car before, but now I can appreciate the amount of painstaking work that went into it.
Well worth the effort..I love it. Thanks for sharing the details and a little history of what went into the build.
Thanks Jack. The fact that some of you are enjoying the thread really makes it worth posting it. I'm also enjoying going back and reliving the journey.
 
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Texas82GP

Just-a-worm
Apr 3, 2015
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Ok, next installment. When I left off earlier today, we had completed the passenger rocker and quarter replacement. You may have noticed Sean had done a great deal of seam sealing work as well. Next we rolled into putting the new skin on the passenger door. Starting with the usual prep....
passenger hinges and door skin preperation 5-22-2011 023.jpg


We were also working on stripping, rebuilding and epoxy priming the hinges. I don't seem to have any pictures of putting the skin on the door. It's a shame but we probably did it in one evening. Here it is on the car....

passenger door hung 6-11-2011 006.jpg


Next we moved on to replacement of the tail panel. It wasn't terrible but was bent up at the bottom where it looked like the car had been pulled or had pulled another car by a hole in the tail panel. It also had a little collision damage where evidently someone had tapped the rear bumper and pushed it into the tail panel. Here's a look at some of the damage....
P1010007f.JPG


Since we had a genuine GM NOS tail panel and had done that much metal replacement, we decided to go ahead and replace the tail panel. We also had to cut away some of the tail panel to do the quarter panel replacement on both sides. Here's the tail panel off the car...
P1010022v.JPG


Followed by the usual prep...

tail panel preparation 6-27-2011 001.jpg


tail panel final preparation 6-29-2011 010.jpg


And the new panel...

tail panel welding grinding and stripping complete 7-4-2011 002.jpg


And primed...
tail panel epoxy primed 7-6-2011 004.jpg
 
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pontiacgp

blank
Mar 31, 2006
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Kitchener, Ontario
Jared, when you get the engine in the Camaro compare where the engine sits in the Camaro vs your Grand Prix. In our race shop we were building a G body and a 2nd gen Camaro circle track cars they were sitting side by side and I was surprised how much the Camaro engine sits further back and lower than the G body. That is a big part of the reason the Camaro is a better handling car...
 
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Texas82GP

Just-a-worm
Apr 3, 2015
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By the time we completed the tail panel replacement, it was around the middle of July of 2011. We moved into mocking up the front clip.....
front clip installation mock up 7-10-2011 001.jpg


It was exciting. It was really looking like a car again after looking like a shell for so long. Most of the family went on vacation but I stayed behind. I had to work. Evenings I worked on restoring the hood hinges. It was bigger than it sounds. They were greasy and crusty. I had to clean them up with solvent before I blasted them. Then I had to clean the blast media out of them. Then I primed and painted them. I did this all as a surprise for my brother so that when he came home the hood was ready to go on...
hood hing prep and installation 003.jpg


hood hing prep and installation 007.jpg


hood hing prep and installation 011.jpg

hood hing prep and installation 026.jpg


hood hing installation final 002.jpg

When he got home we installed the hood and started cleaning up the lower fender extensions....
hood hing prep and installation 019.jpg
 
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Texas82GP

Just-a-worm
Apr 3, 2015
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By the end of July of 2011 we had the lower fender extensions stripped, primed and installed. We also had the hood on it...
hood and lower fender extension installation 7-23-2011 007.jpg


Next we got into a really big project stripping and restoring the front and rear bumpers. The urethane bumpers had to be hand sanded and it was a big job...
front and back bumper stripping August 2011 004.jpg


front and back bumper stripping August 2011 012.jpg


front and back bumper inner brace installation 9-8-2011 003.jpg


front and back bumper inner brace installation 9-8-2011 007.jpg

hood scoop install and bumper cover priming 9-18-2011 007.jpg


hood scoop install and bumper cover priming 9-18-2011 008.jpg


Installing the nose 9-21-2011.jpg


front and rear bumper install w tail lights 9-24-2011 002.jpg
This got us to early October of 2011. Note the ill fitting reproduction deck lid. Grrrrrr.... More on that later.
 
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Texas82GP

Just-a-worm
Apr 3, 2015
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Spring, Texas
the car is getting built but who is going to grow the mullet?.....:D
My brother sorta had one in the late 80's. Maybe he'll grow it back? I guess we could get some wigs.:p
 
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