The V8TV 1968 Camaro "Reloaded"

[Kevin O]

Introducing  the V8TV 1968 Camaro "Reloaded"

This 1968 Camaro SS 396 project has been waiting patiently to be returned to the road.  The owner bought this original California SS 396 car back in 1986 and drove it for a year, then parked it in his garage and disassembled the car.   He put the body tub on jack stands, bagged and tagged all the hardware, and there it sat... for 24 years!   Over this time, the owner finished college, grad school, got married, had a son... you know, the important stuff.    Now that those milestones have been reached, it's time to turn life's spotlight back towards the '68 Camaro.    It's been waiting patiently, and now it's time.  

Plans include big block power, road-holding suspension, and a clean, classic look.   We're running a Stinger hood like the Baldwin Motion cars had.  An aggressive stance and handling to match.    It's going to be a killer car.  



This is the first time this Camaro has seen daylight in 24 years!    

Thankfully, while patiently waiting in storage, this car has lived through some trends without becoming a victim of fashion.   At one point in the early '90s, the owner was considering a hot magenta pro-street theme with graphics and the whole deal.. would have been cool then, but we're after a much more timeless design.    

Follow along here as we RELOAD this Camaro!

[Steve Firebird]

I will be watching this build. It looks like a pretty soild car. Good luck.
Steve

[Kevin O]

Here's the original SS hood from the '68... this has a story I've told a million times, and it was good to see the hood again to make sure I was telling a real story!

See the dent in the hood?    That's from a flying flex-fan blade that let go while the engine was running and tried to come through the hood!    Luckily, (not for the hood,) the hood was closed at the time or someone would have gotten a hell of a quick shave & haircut!

[Kevin O]

So we brought the '68 back to the shop and started taking a closer look.   Although this is a clean car, there are some visible rust spots, and a few more hiding.    This was a vinyl top car, which of course held moisture, and then rusted the windshield and rear glass channels.

[Kevin O]

We also discovered some soft spots in the lower cowl boxes.     These are extremely common in cars that have open cowl panels at the base of the hood where leaves and stuff can fall on the car, work their way down, and get trapped, blocking the drains.    Then they rust from the inside out.    Luckily, these panels are available in the aftermarket and are not difficult repairs with the right tools.



After a little more tapping...



And after a little cutting...



We see some rust inside.   We'll probably end up replacing the entire cowl box, as these are available new and completely assembled from Classic Industries.   In fact, we've used these before on the Royal Sport Camaro project a few years ago. 



We did some exploratory cutting and media blasting on the driver side and found a similar situation.   

[Kevin O]

But the good news is that the floor is super solid on this car.    Check this out:



Here's a close-up of the hood damage from the flex fan...



Moving back to the quarter panels, the driver side is really nice. 



However, the passenger side had an obvious rusty spot behind the wheel, and a not-so-obvious spot in front of the wheel.





The wheel arch area is rusty in front of the wheel just above the body line.   





There was also some considerable filler on this one and lots of little dents.      At this point, we're contemplating a complete replacement for the quarter panel, as this would give us clean steel for the rusty lower areas, fix the dents, and also give us a new window channel on the passenger side with one panel.    Installation is involved, but it would be much quicker and cleaner than making patches all around.     We'll also have to fix the outer wheelhouse when the panel is off the car. 

[FLP]

Can't wait to see how this one turns out after hearing you talk about it the other day when you stopped by!

[Kevin O]

Thanks Tony!     We're jazzed about this one too.

Here's something we have NOT seen before.. a bottle cap used as a backing for body filler?    This was on the backside of the fender...



That is intentionally wedged in there and is hardened in the filler... we're interested to see what kind of cap it is!

[Kevin O]

We found that the passenger side quarter panel had a tear near the rain gutter.    Don't know how this happened, but you see things like this on 42 year old sheetmetal.   This could be an easy fix on the car, but a new quarter would take care of it, also.

[Kevin O]

We got a chance to flip the Camaro upside down for a while today and got a look at the bottom side of the car.   Overall, it's very clean!







We did spot some damage which looks like a driveshaft let go at some point... and being an SS396 car, I believe it.   The dents near where the floor kicks up for the rear end aren't supposed to be there.    We can probably hammer & dolly them out pretty easily.  

[Kevin O]

We did find a little damage on the driver side rear frame rail.    These got painted silver at some point, and this little tear will need to be fixed.





We also noted a hole in the bottom of the driver side quarter panel... (the clean one)





We're pretty sure a patch panel will be the best route here.   We may have to do a little repair to the inner trunk "drop" area behind the quarter, as that's got a little rusty-crusty going on as well.

This next shot shows the factory floor seam not fully welded, something we see often on these cars.    Easy fix, a couple plug welds and slight grinding to clean up and it's tight as a drum again.    This was where the passenger footwell meets the trans tunnel.

[Kevin O]

We did a little work on the stock subframe... the flat part under the engine cradle was pushed-in from the car being jacked at that point.   Again, very common on these cars.   This time, we drilled the spot welds and made a couple slices to remove the center...







And now we're going to weld in a couple cross braces inside the cross member, flatten the original center piece, and then put the original piece back on.   We'll use a combination of plug welds on the perimeter, and butt welds where our slices were.    After a little grinding, it will be solid again.  This way, it will look stock (as if nothing ever happened) but it will be reinforced, so future "jackers" won't crush the crossmember.

[Kevin O]

Couple update shots, these are only camera phone stuff, so they are a little grainy, but you get the idea.

The subframe repairs are coming along.   Here, the center of the cradle is welded back in.   There are new supports inside the frame, and this has been welded and metalworked so it looks like we were never inside... heh heh heh!



One of the body mounts repaired with new steel.     Again, undetectable repair. 



We put the '68s body up on the jig so we could begin cutting without having to worry about the structure flexing & distorting.   





We found some filler and dent damage in the rear tail panel, looks like it's from a bumper impact.    Nathan stud-spotted the panel and pulled the majority of it out today, but you can still pick up a little of the pushed-in area.







We also dug in to more filler on the passenger side quarter panel, but we expected this.   This is the panel that's getting replaced.    Thick stuff here!

[Kevin O]

A few better pics of the Camaro on the jig..







Better shot of the subframe center section repair.    Note the reinforced welds in the front.   

[Kevin O]

Nick re-welded the subframe for strength and aesthetics.   The factory welding looked like it was done in the dark!







Body mount repair:   Original rusty pieces cut out







Notice that this section is actually two layers, folder over each other.   Nick's goal was to re-create that same process with new steel.