4th gen body work?

[Pranav]

Anyone have their front core support and inner fenders replaced? What about quarter/rockers?

My passenger front upper section of the rad support, and front half of the inner fender is all messed up from my punt in January. My off in Hallet looks to have dinged up my passenger inner fender slightly.

I picked up a 4th gen front clip from a junkyard a while back. Looking at everything, 100% of these parts are held on with spot welds. I'm thinking i'd just practice by using my spot weld bits on the junkyard piece to pull it apart for practice, then replace the inner (outer) fenders and core support. Just curious if anyone on here has tackled this on 4th gens themselves, or at least have good knowledge of what has been done for them.

For the quarter/rockers, I also have entire rocker/quarter combos that I took off a 4th gen (thanks Gary). Again I will practice/prep on these by drilling out the spotwelds around the perimeters, but may pony up to pay someone local to do the actual job on the car.

For those that have had their quarters replaced entirely, what was done about the section that tucks in under the roof skin? The only thing I could find online was one guy hacking away from the inside to reach those spotwelds:

http://ls1tech.com/forums/paint-body-work/1219495-quarter-panel-rocker-replacement-98-camaro-pics.html

I'm thinking leaving that chunk of QP attached to the car and sectioning out/in that piece to the replacement could be easier...

[AI#97]

for that much work....buy a new tub.

[Pranav]

I have thought of it. I would be buried alive in my parents' backyard if I try to build another tub in their garage.

The core support and inner fender skin (not the inner frame/structure) isn't that bad. The quarter/rocker from what I could tell is a matter of drilling/welding a ton of spot welds, the mystery part is what to do about the roof connected section.

[BryanL]

I have thought of it. I would be buried alive in my parents' backyard if I try to build another tub in their garage.
.

Let us know when the tear down party is-seeing them bury you alive sounds like it would get plenty of people to come help to see that part. You should just buy a spare race car-I know of a good LT1 car in texas for sale but not advertised.

[Supercharged111]

Once you factor in the cost of a cage, I fail the see the fiscal advantage over fixing what he's got.

[Pranav]

I'm not sure who you guys are overpaying for body labor, but as it sits I can have it all done for less than $1500. Paint doesn't count as the car has been overdue for its first paint job since 2012.

I at least think I'll do the front end myself and maybe sub out the QP/rocker work for a $1k job. The interesting thing about the QP/rockers on our cars is it is all easy spot welds except for the pain in the ass part under the roof.

Will see how comfortable I am once I get my hands on a welder and deconstruct the spare parts, really curious if anyone on here has been through it.

Getting a new tub and caging it is $3k+ easy and I will get killed on nickle/dime stuff that goes with building a car all over again.

I need seat time, not wasting time building a car again.

[AI#97]

Buy v6 roller $500. Gut it. Cut roof off. Cut out old cage at 6 points from old floorpan. prep the plates. Place in new car. Weld 6 plates to floor pan. Weld roof back on. Paint new race car. Swap over all your old driveline. Take old chassis and un-used spare parts to dump for beer money.

As much damage as you have done to "Pranav Chassis #001", you should seriously consider a new tub especially if you are finally going to start chasing setups and expect the chassis to be solid and reliable.

Of course, this IS coming from someone who does all his own work....

Other option is cut your losses, part out the existing car and buy a nice set of golf clubs and drive golf carts. They are a more proper pavement/off pavement vehicle! ;)

[Pranav]

I guess where we are not seeing eye to eye is the chassis part. All of my "damage" is cosmetic. The affected radiator support and inner fender is up high and far away from the frame rails and shock towers. The car has and will continue to hold a solid alignment, and I just got done reinforcing the trans/floor panel area before Hallett, no more cracking.

Cutting the roof on these cars involved destroying the roof skin on the process; can't replace those...

[mach1]

Make it a convertible for future chassis swaps

[Supercharged111]

And a bolt in cage, you can get the process down to a weekend after a few more tubs. :D

[Pranav]

Honestly a lot of the hesitance on doing a tub swap is my working conditions won't allow it. If I had more storage and shop space we'd be having a different discussion.

Back in '12 I turned down a clean black v6 hardtop roller for $400 due to a lack of storage space.

I just think fixing up what I have now and continuing until I actually total/bend/fatigue the tub in the future is the best way to go. Build a "Pranav 0002" after a good number of years of beating down what I have like Zimmer/Landrum/Allford/Liebbe have all done. By then I'd hope to have a more permanent domicile and/or shop space.

Right now I have the inner loop bachelor pad and parents' garage up north going on...

[Al Fernandez]

I've had pretty good luck with a porta power just pushing stuff back into some semblance of reasonable. After David's deal at Hallett I could fit my finger between the quarter and the trunk lid (the bumper cover pushed in and pulled the inner fender and quarter down wit it). Now it's back to a more reasonable gap after pushing here a bit and there a bit. Same with the front fender. It got pushed in and back so you couldn't even open the door. A little pushing here and pushing there and it's pretty ok. The door opens and the panel gaps are reasonable anyway.

Just a thought that maybe cutting and welding isnt quite necessary yet.

[Rob Liebbe]

I've had pretty good luck with a porta power just pushing stuff back into some semblance of reasonable. After David's deal at Hallett I could fit my finger between the quarter and the trunk lid (the bumper cover pushed in and pulled the inner fender and quarter down wit it). Now it's back to a more reasonable gap after pushing here a bit and there a bit. Same with the front fender. It got pushed in and back so you couldn't even open the door. A little pushing here and pushing there and it's pretty ok. The door opens and the panel gaps are reasonable anyway.

Just a thought that maybe cutting and welding isnt quite necessary yet.

I agree, patch it up. Maybe you could pop rivet a quarter skin over the old edge of the damaged area. Keep driving it until you get to where you are comfortable and stop running off the track so much - no offense :). Then build a new car.

[Pranav]

Yeah we'll definitely be porta powering the inner fender back into place. That RF corner had been wrecked before as a street car and pulled back out, so a chunk of inner fender outer skin and rad support should be replaced now that it has crinkled again.


Talked to the body guy and looks like I'll have him do it all while I vacation in July. Startimg in August, budgeting 6-8 weekends of work to finish building out and setting up the rest of the car and getting some seat time in before we resume racing. Race rest of the year then blow car apart for paint inside and out Nov-Dec.

That's been the plan since 2012...

[Supercharged111]

I've had pretty good luck with a porta power just pushing stuff back into some semblance of reasonable. After David's deal at Hallett I could fit my finger between the quarter and the trunk lid (the bumper cover pushed in and pulled the inner fender and quarter down wit it). Now it's back to a more reasonable gap after pushing here a bit and there a bit. Same with the front fender. It got pushed in and back so you couldn't even open the door. A little pushing here and pushing there and it's pretty ok. The door opens and the panel gaps are reasonable anyway.

Just a thought that maybe cutting and welding isnt quite necessary yet.

What do you measure by? My gaps never changed from my contact, but I do wonder if I knocked it just a smidge out and don't know how to check myself. Seems like a 101 thread on this matter should be a sticky in this forum. :D

[Fbody383]

I've had pretty good luck with a porta power just pushing stuff back into some semblance of reasonable.What do you use for the anchor point? What do you push off of with the ram?

[Pranav]

Anything that won't move. On Craig's car when we started on the quarter panel, we used the cage.

[AllZWay]

Like Pranav said... use the base of the cage. That sheet metal will bend easily with the portapower.

[Al Fernandez]

Exactly. If you're moving sheet metal that holds exterior panels and or the quarter, the cage or frame are your best bets. When pushing the lower unit body metal under the bumper cover side, for example, I was able to use the rear frame. what to measure to see when it is right? Well, I just eyeball the other side of the car lol. Race car body work and street car body work is not the same thing.

[Pranav]

Finished the suspension repairs and got the front fenders and bumper off to survey the newer damage from Hallett before dropping it off with the body guy.

Happy to find the drivers front had very little damage, just need to replace/bend a fender mount apron/bracket and bend a lip back out on the inner fender structure and that corner is 100% straight. The rear quarter panel on the driver's side will need a good amount more work, but appears to be repairable/sectionable on car according to the guy.

He is going cut the passenger front corner inner fender and upper rad support crossbar, as it is not only bent from where I punted Craig back in January, but was previously bent/repaired from whoever last drove this car on the street; time to cut/replace. Also having him replace the driver's rocker and section/repair the driver's quarter from that parking lot incident at MSRC in 2014 along with the aforementioned driver's side issues from me backing into the tire wall at Hallet.

After having him look at it, the work is a lot less involved than what I first described here. No need to fully replace the quarters which is what I was sweating the most.

Car will get a nice fresh coat of gloss black, then hopefully later this summer I'll plasti-dip it in a super secret color I've been sitting on for three years now...

[Wade]

Will stickers adhere to plasti-dip?

[Pranav]

Yep; I'll need to order a full set from you again.

[Pranav]

This guy moves fast, dropped car off complete at 9pm Sunday, 3pm Monday he sends me this:

[Pranav]

Admittedly I was a bit surprised at how much was cut out, but considering that I'd also brought him an entire front clip off another car, and with the rad/support and inner fenders all needing pushing/pulling to get straight again, looks to be faster/better to just replace it all in one piece.

[Pranav]

Bam, front end done in less than 48hrs from dropoff:

[marshall_mosty]

I wish my mechanic worked as quickly as your body man. I dropped off the car and trailer and the car is STILL on the trailer and the only thing that has happened is the spark plugs have been pulled.. Damn lazy ass.. :)

[Pranav]

Lol, just trying to force myself to get ahead for the summer. Put fresh shocks on the truck last week, tires/alignment on truck this week, car at the bodyshop rest of this month while I'm out of town for vacation three weekends in a row.

The list of requires stuff to be race ready again is fairly minimal, but hoping to finally finish the rest of my electrical and go through and clean up a ton of nagging items, get my gear/stuff organized, and get some extra seat time before MSRH.

[Alien]

Admittedly I was a bit surprised at how much was cut out...
Can't say I didn't laughed a little at this, not at you, but in that it now seems to be a theme at that shop.

[Supercharged111]

Can't say I didn't laughed a little at this, not at you, but in that it now seems to be a theme at that shop.

Maybe the shop's not to blame. :D

[Pranav]

Can't say I didn't laughed a little at this, not at you, but in that it now seems to be a theme at that shop.

LOL, they didn't touch my shock towers though!

[Pranav]

There's nothing more refreshing than being able to work and vacation while watching the car progress along via picture updates. Looks like both quarterpanels, and the pass rocker are all done. Few tiny details left then full car repaint.

1590
1591
1592

[Pranav]

One more
1596

[Rob Liebbe]

Cool, you can join the "don't hit my freshly painted car" club at the back of the pack with me.

[Supercharged111]

The sooner you break in that new finish, the sooner you can lose the fear.

[Suck fumes]

Thats a ton of bondo haha

[Pranav]

Yeah it's a 96% job. Good enough for our purposes.

[Pranav]

Paint tomorrow, looks like it's back to work for me this weekend.

1597
1598
1599

[Supercharged111]

Lots of consumables in that room.

[Pranav]

Yeah back in '12 some kid off craigslist parted out a back v6 car for cheap. Wanted to take the whole chassis but didn't have a place to store it.

Fenders are cheap for our cars too...

[Rob Liebbe]

Looks like you are planning to wreck a lot in the future.

Also, what are the white dots on the edges of the doors?

[Pranav]

Rivets, the fiberglass door shells have a tendency to separate apart at the edges so rivets go in to keep them bonded.

[Pranav]

It's done, wasn't as cheap as I'd originally intended, but having a full month away from the car to relax and de-compress on vacations was worth the extra expense. He cut me a break so it looks like I have my first sponsor now. Also seeing just how damn well the paint came out, tempted to just leave it as-is and run no plastidip. Not sure yet...

1600
1601
1602

[AllZWay]

Looking good Pranav.

[ShadowBolt]

You did tell him what you are going to do with the car right?

JJ

[Pranav]

Yep; told him I only wanted rust protection, in turn he said he wants me to run his sticker and have the nicest looking car in CMC.

Really having second thoughts about coating it in camo green plasti-dip, looks too good as is although Im sure Glenn doesn't like being confused for me every time he has an off. Maybe some plasti-dip or vinyl accents are in order. Did gloss black since that was the original color and I wouldn't spend months lamenting over any other color choice...

[dtanker65]

The car looks great Pranav! Now you have a blank canvas for some cool vinyl graphics. No need for PlastiDip, just don't hit anything and the finish will last a long time :-)

[GlennCMC70]

Nobody will recognize my car the next time you see it.
It will have 4 tires on the ground.

[Pranav]

No more flat black? Can I run flat black wheels now?

[AI#97]

Yep; told him I only wanted rust protection, in turn he said he wants me to run his sticker and have the nicest looking car in CMC.

Really having second thoughts about coating it in camo green plasti-dip, looks too good as is although Im sure Glenn doesn't like being confused for me every time he has an off. Maybe some plasti-dip or vinyl accents are in order. Did gloss black since that was the original color and I wouldn't spend months lamenting over any other color choice...

you do know about the newly painted CMC car curse right? LOL!

[Supercharged111]

you do know about the newly painted CMC car curse right? LOL!

You did see all those spare fenders and bumper, right? :D

[Pranav]

Yep, don't wanna bust these out for a while:
1603

[Supercharged111]

So does this sort of mark the build as being complete?

[Pranav]

Nope; wanted to wait until the end of the summer to finish out paint/body work before taking care of the below, but I knew I would be out for 30 days for work/vacation so I took care of that first.

Getting closer to the "build" being done, although I've had the bottom 2/3rds of this list hanging over my head since 2013:

8/14:
Batt cable/box
Remount oil cooler + h20 reservoir + ps/oil hose routing/trim/swap
Fuel + coolant senders
Engine bay wiring trim/clamp/wrap/tuck start
Test start/idle + Oil filter swap

Replumb brake line + bleed
Pass bracket + pass tie rod + regrease pass hub + swap/chase hub bolts + swap rotors
Regrease/set/boot LBJs
Swap rear springs + swap front shocks/springs
PHB rod ends + tow hooks

Drop torque pressure
Wash bay + test drive

Alignment
Dyno test

Measure/inventory/org trailer + Trailer work/fix + Kent drop

Truck strip/prep + air system work
Dump trash + third garage + Cleanup/org/inventory


8/14-28:
Truck body shop drop

Reinstall fenders + fenderliners + hood/pins align finish
Rad remount
Front end cleanup/assemble: front bumper honeycomb swap + tow hooks + trim beam + expand inlet + finish/cleanup ducting/mesh + airdam/extension
Install rear tow hook*
Relo mirrors
Reinforce hatch pins

Column repair/cover
Fire system + extinguisher swap
Interior hose/line clamps finish
Door pull cables
Net collar
Pull wilwood + Firewall plugs

Engine bay wiring trim/clamp/wrap/tuck finish
Finish interior hookups + iq3 lights + remount ECU/OBD2 + hide GPS tracker + relocate master switch
Interior electrical cleanup + reroute battery wire + coolsuit/wiper/defogger prewire + switch covers
Dash/wire labels + rebuild/cleanup box + steering wheel rewire
Swap/lower dash finish
Cool suit box
Wipers/defoggers

Truck body shop pickup + work/fix/air system

9/5:
Cleanup spoiler mount
Detail + stickers*
Gear/Spares/Prep for TDE
Trailer work/fix + give to Kent

9/12:
TDE Practice/Shakedown

9/26:
Gear/Spares/Prep Finish


Fall:
Trailer work/fix finish
Truck work/fix

Winter:
Truck work/fix finish
Tools/Garage work/fix finish

Strip interior + pull doors
Shift boot rivnuts
Fuel panel cleanup
Repair floor finish + Plug holes finish

Mask/Prep/Repaint interior

Flock/cover dash
Reassemble interior + doors
Cleanup rollbar padding

2016:
Axle upgrade
Rotor upgrade? + Weld caliper spacer + weld pass duct crack
Good/New Shocks

[Storm Trooper]

WOW, now I am tired!

[Supercharged111]

Glad I'm not the only one who found self tapping screws insufficient for that pesky shift boot. After rebuilding my motor I've taken a more minimalistic approach to car prep. Just enough so it doesn't break. And then it breaks, but never on the stuff I felt I slacked on. My car's been a work in progress the whole time I've owned it, I almost think it would have been quicker to build one from scratch!

[Pranav]

Yeah I think I only have 4 screw holes with any "bite" left. That shift boot has been on/off too many times to count. Hoping to have a 100% sheetmetal-screw-free car.