A paint and body story by Ken Smith
aka BOARDOG

Okay, I have Jeff's car in the shop for some work, it is a original paint 1980 z28, good solid car that is worn out after a long life, good color combo and will make a nice car.  

It's getting painted along with new w/s, decals, fixing a bunch of worn out stuff, and a set of 5 spoke wheels.  
Please remember my way may not be the way some people do things but it works for me.  Wish me luck
Here I have some trim and frontend stuff off, headlights and turn signal still had the original torx bit screws holding them in, all the 78 thru 81 z's had them.


Passenger fender needs some alignment but not bad at all.


I think just about everyone thinks if you use a tube of urethane around the windshield it won't leak. 
I have found that a good even 3/8's bead will work. I use the 3m windshield urethane. 
Someone had put the molding on when the sealant was wet, I had to cut the molding loose with a knife to get it off.


The driver door hinge is worn like all old f bodies are. 
This will get a new hinge. 
Some people think raising the striker will fix this, it will not.


Driver hood hinge is bent, hood would not close right

This is why you have to take a car apart to do a nice paint job. 
Notice the pile of dirt and trash that was hiding under the rear spoiler and bumper.


One area that you need to look at with these cars is the bottom of the tail panel, if it is clean and rust free the car usually is pretty much rust free, Jeff's car is super nice, the rest of the car is 99% rust free.
 The trunk lid is being replaced due to rust on the inner corners. if you ever see rust in the lower tail panel start looking hard at other areas. Notice the trunk lid prop stick, like a lot of 2nd gens one of the torsion rods are broke, when you replace them the rod goes in the upper slot on a car with a spoiler, the cars w/o a spoiler goes in the 2nd or bottom slot.

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I pulled the gas tank today, no build sheet. The rear rubber lines are dry rotted. 
Gives me a chance to clean the area better when I pressure wash it.

Okay, I had to take out the back glass, it was actually sitting on the the trim studs on the drivers side. 
I had to cut the trim retainers to get them off the studs. 
The glass was put in offset to the drivers side. 
Also replaced to trunk torsion bars so now the trunk will stay open. 
Last pic is a little tool I made years ago to replace the torsion bars, makes it easy to get them on and off.

Here is a common problem with the 79 thru 81 Camaro, I have found the best way to repair cracks and breaks in urethane is use this 3m 2 part repair product. It works great and can be sanded like filler, and stays flexible. I also applied some to the front of the spoiler but did not want to move the spoiler until it had set up. Check out the dirt and leaves behind the fender. Tomorrow is pressure wash and start body work day.

I spent a couple of hours pressure washing the car today, cleaned up nice.


This is how you do not make room for your highrise intake.

Jeff is going to need a pass rear wheel spoiler.

Went to Rick's or now Ecklers for a few parts

I started some body work today. As you can see door had a dent in it. 
I use a stud gun to pull dents, make work a lot easier. as you can see now needs only a skim coat of filler

Jeff car had a drivers side door lock in the pass door.
His key did not work in the lock so it came from another car.

This is one think people seem to forget, the door handles have a gasket. Jeff's car had one on the pass side but not one on the drivers side. These really need to be on the car, acts to seal out water, if they are left off I have seen the handle chip the paint when the handle is lifted to open the door. 
It spaces the handle out from the door a little.

I also did some adjusting on the pass fender to set the gap a little better, also the body line was off a little


I started getting the body straight.

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