Starting a Restoration Project

Overview

I purchased a red 1967 Camaro RS/SS automatic in spring 1987. It had just been shipped to Michigan from California. The car was built at the Van Nuys (Los Angeles) plant. I still have the 1987 personalized plate from California that was on the car: ROADWAR. I’d always been a huge fan of the first generation Camaro growing up, so when I found this first year RS/SS, I had to have it. It had a newer paint job and the interior was in good shape for a twenty-year-old car.

In 1987, the Internet as we know it today didn’t exist and the information available in text to identify the information contained in the VIN and Trim Tag wasn’t available, so I took a little bit of a chance that the car was optioned as stated. I did take the car to a professional appraiser (albeit after I had already bought it) and he verified the original options. 

Over the past 20-plus years I’ve pretty much taken care of all of the mechanical needs: 

• Rebuilt suspension and steering
• Rebuilt the braking system
• Rebuilt the engine including boring .030 over with a hefty hydraulic cam, Dart II heads, headers and roller rockers
• Had the TH 350 transmission rebuilt 

The Decision

With the mechanical systems in good shape, my focus is the body and some of the little cosmetic issues that came with the car -- none of which got better with age. The decision to repaint was a combination of the car having a ~25-year-old paint job and the fact that I was aware of every little flaw and imperfection to the point that when I looked at the car that was all that I noticed. My original plan was to “piece meal” the work, starting in the spring, fixing up and/or replacing some of the cosmetic items like the chrome, stainless, and aluminum trim, then moving on to the interior, etc. Once I got started, it became apparent that if I were to go through all of that work this year and redo the interior next year, then tear the whole thing apart down the road to get it painted, it would be a lot of wasted work. So, after sizing up the work and mulling over the value of the project (along with getting my wife’s “buy in”) I decided to “do it once and do it right.”

Be Prepared

One thing that I’ve learned through experience, both at work and home, is anything is possible if you have enough money. However, as I’m sure is true of most of us, I share Jay Leno’s passion for the automobile, but not his bank account. With that being the case, most of the manual labor and as much of the restoration work as possible would be done by me, so I broke down my requirements into three areas:

• Space
• Organization
• $$$$$$$$$

Space is the one thing I don’t have. My house has a 1 ½ car garage that’s used for all of the usual homeowner storage needs: lawn equipment, lawn furniture, snow blower, kids’ “stuff”, etc, etc, etc, along with the Camaro. Fortunately my old friend and neighbor Tom Start has a large garage along with a storage shed and was gracious enough to offer up the space needed for the project. So sometime around June, I drove the car across the street along with a hand cart full of tools and began to dismantle it as time permitted, usually weekends. After about six weeks or so the car was ready for the first big step in this process -- stripping. So it was loaded onto a flat bed and hauled off to have the paint removed and expose the hidden truth.

Organization is huge

Until you’ve actually taken on a project like this, it’s hard to imagine how many small pieces there are to keep track of. Virtually every part that has to be removed has specific connectors, trim, fasteners, gaskets, and various other pieces that you’ll need for reassembly, so tossing everything into a box would be a disastrous mistake. I went out and bought boxes of lunch bags with the zipper closers in several sizes. Those, along with a Sharpie to mark the bags, helped keep everything organized.

One thing that I didn’t do, but in hindsight would have, is take more pictures. With digital cameras, it’s easy to take a photo of everything both before and during disassembly and store it on your computer for reference. In my case it will be almost a year before I finish reassembly and having digital documentation may come in handy.

Show me the money

Obviously, the more work you’re able to do yourself, the cheaper it will be. There are two things I’d like to point out about the cost:

1. Time: You hear about people taking five-plus years on a restoration and it seems like a long time. But, I know that if I were to take on this project (assuming I have all of the skills and tools) five years might be optimistic when only weekends are available. Some things are cheaper in the long run to leave to the professionals.
2. Expect to be surprised: After owning the car for over twenty years, I was sure I knew of every flaw and imperfection. But, after media blasting, there were several unexpected surprises. The car is the solid Californian that I had expected, but let’s just say it is not a stranger to the body shop and since I’ve taken the “do it once, do it right” approach, it means some new sheet metal along with the associated labor. But, when I’m finished, I hope to have something better than anything that rolled off of the line in Detroit (Norwood OH/ Van Nuys, Calif. for that matter) in 1967. 

Finding the right people for your job

When you’re looking for vendors for the various jobs that you decide to outsource, the advertisers in the Cruis’news are a good place to start. They are local and specialize in this type of work.

Media Blasting and Paint

I’m not sure how anyone else goes about finding a painter, but I would assume it would either be someone you know personally or someone whose work you’ve seen and is recommended by people you trust. I did the latter. I took my car to Gerard at Eastpointe Collision. I have seen his work and he did come highly recommended. Gerard and I spent time going over the car, discussing some of my options and his approach to the job. He then provided a quote and I was off to Tom’s garage to start tearing it apart.

For the media blasting, several people, including Gerard, recommended Matt and Rusty at Strip it All in Clinton Township. As it turns out, I‘ve talked with Matt several times over the past few years at the local pub -- I guess we never talked about what he did for a living. Anyway, they did do a good job of removing the paint (and everything else that had been put on the steel over the years), sealing off all of the seams and areas where the media would be undesirable. From there, it was back on to a flatbed and over to Gerard’s, where it is today.

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