Sean's 78 Camaro Z28

[Texas82GP]

This gets us to the end of February of 2012. Time for some blue!

And some clear!!

Towards the end of March of 2012 we were ready to paint the door jambs and the sides of the cowl that are behind the front fenders. It was a lot of prep so Sean got started the day before. I think I helped him with this but I don't remember...

I was definitely there to spray it...

To be continued....

 

[Texas82GP]

Here's some blue in the jambs. We left the doors on. They are so heavy, even empty that the thought of trying to hang them painted was more than either of us were willing to entertain. I'm totally satisfied with how it turned out. Show car? No, but damn nice for something done in the driveway....

and some clear in the jambs...

Next we painted the top of the dash the original light blue color of the interior...

A look at the jambs un-taped....

Next, we started putting the front clip back on it....

You can imagine that after all of the sanding, scraping, welding and grinding we'd done in the previous years that it was fun for us to start putting it together with some color. This got us into early April of 2012. We moved to paint the trunk, tail panel and the rear window opening...

Followed by shooting the bottom of the decklid and getting it installed on the car...

This gets us to the end of April and is a good place to leave off for a little while. Thanks for following along. Hope you all are enjoying it. More to come.....

 

[Texas82GP]

Moving on....

Following the painting of the trunk we continued to put the body back together. This culminated in the body being substantially assembled with all of the jambs painted. We got it out in the driveway to take some pics on 5-15-12.....

Next, we sprayed portions of the interior and the trunk with Lizard Skin. If you aren't familiar with it, Lizard Skin is a sprayable product that when dry resembles truck bedliner. They have one product for sound deadening and one product for thermal insulation. We sprayed both.....

More to come....

 

[Texas82GP]

Next we installed the windshield and the rear window. Sean had to work to source a windshield that wasn't made in China. We managed to salvage the rear window. We'd never installed a windshield before and we made some mistakes. It didn't turn out to our satisfaction and some years later we ended up having a glass guy come out and cut both of them out and redo the job. One of the mistakes we made was putting the primer on the back glass so that it didn't stick. It's a miracle the back glass didn't blow out of the car on the highway once we started driving it. It's one of those deals that you don't know until you try. My advice is have a good glass guy come out to the house and do it for you.....

There were a couple of stickers on the rear window from the local rock station that had been on there since the 80's. It hurt my feelings a little bit to take of the 'Monsters of Rock' decal....

Next up was installing the drip rail trim over the side windows. A good story on this. In the 80's when Sean and Dad were taking the first crack at painting the car, Sean wanted to black out all of the trim. He sanded and primed the drip rail trim against my dad's bitter objections. By this time, in August of 2012, six years into the project Sean had bought some drip rail trim off of another car. We weren't happy about how it fit. We ended up taking the original drip rail trim to a chrome shop here in town and had it professionally polished. It was amazing what they were able to do....

Next we worked on rehabbing, painting and installing the mirrors....

Followed by door locks and handles....

And then the window outer dew strips and window supports....

Followed by the side glass.....

That finishes up 2012 and gets us caught up to the purchase of the engine. I'll resume the thread with more work on the LS and its installation in the engine bay. Stay tuned.

 

[1evilregal]

lovin' this build! besides the early split-bumper cars, the disco-z's were my only other f-bodies that I like.

for guys who don't do that for a living, you sure have gotten good at it!

hunkering down for the rest of the story!

 

[Clutch]

It's all good but how much is the neighbors house! I got to get out of the toxic waste state!

 

[V8 Rumble]

I think my malibu is going to Texas for paint and body work.

My dad always had camaros. In 77 (I was 2 years old) he bought a 75 camaro that was handed to me at 17. I wrecked it playing street racer in nyc.

I regret it everytime I think about it. It's great that your brothers camaro was saved.

So the next thread will be the GP right? you have your dad and brothers build pretty much done.

 

[Texas82GP]

lovin' this build! besides the early split-bumper cars, the disco-z's were my only other f-bodies that I like.

for guys who don't do that for a living, you sure have gotten good at it!

hunkering down for the rest of the story!

Glad you are tuned in and enjoying it. I like the split bumper cars as well.

It's all good but how much is the neighbors house! I got to get out of the toxic waste state!

The appraisal district says $234k. It's 2700 sq. ft. You wouldn't want to live in a deed restricted subdivision. Texas is a great place to live though. The only real down side is the hot summer from May to September. May this year was pretty mild. The metro Houston area is a great place to find work. Texas is an inexpensive place to live in general. Low taxes, pro business. Mild, mild winters. No salt.

I think my malibu is going to Texas for paint and body work.

My dad always had camaros. In 77 (I was 2 years old) he bought a 75 camaro that was handed to me at 17. I wrecked it playing street racer in nyc.

I regret it everytime I think about it. It's great that your brothers camaro was saved.

So the next thread will be the GP right? you have your dad and brothers build pretty much done.

We all have a car that got away don't we. That might be the best part of my brother's car is it's his first car and it didn't get away. Now, 32 years later he has what he always wanted. I expect to get on the GP in the late fall or early winter. It's in a 10'x25' storage because I don't have room at my house and its just too hot over there during the summer. Think of it as the winter for our friends up north. I have a build thread on my car. It's just dormant. Thanks for looking and chiming in. I appreciate it everyone.

 

[JAMCAR223]

Looking forward to seeing it finished. Im probably the only one on the Forum that has seen the car in person. Jared, Sean, and their Dad have done a great job of restoring this car. 32 years of hard work, patience, and preservation is about to payoff BIGTIME. I can see some celebretory beers being consumed at your place, soon enough!

 

[Texas82GP]

Looking forward to seeing it finished. Im probably the only one on the Forum that has seen the car in person. Jared, Sean, and their Dad have done a great job of restoring this car. 32 years of hard work, patience, and preservation is about to payoff BIGTIME. I can see some celebretory beers being consumed at your place, soon enough!

You are the only forum member that has seen the car in person, James. We went and saw it this evening. It's nothing short of a dream come true and we thank you again for introducing us to Justin. He's done a great job.