SFA BOSTON SURF SKATE SNOW ( BOSTON MASS )

Kirby's 1987 Pontiac Trans Am and new project 1969 Camaro

Here is Kirby's 69 Camaro when we first brought it to his new garage, the car was in shambles with a ton of metal work needed. Check out the updates and pictures below to see the progress.

Project Update October 4, 2006

Here are some pictures of the shop which we recently organized in order to prepare for installing the new quarter panels. The doors have been replaced and are hung in order to align the new quarters. The rear glass has been removed and the motor and transmission have been transported to the shop. After the quarters, rear panel and new rear wheelhouses are installed we will start on the installation of the engine and transmission. Kirby has also began to gather parts for his 283 which will be his back up engine that will be swapped in for road race events and some drag strip use.

(click on the thumbnail images to see larger versions of the photographs)

When the Trans Am was first put together it ran 13.90's @ 104 without NOS first pass ever, car would have easily gone in the low 12's. The Trans Am was originally built about 6-7 years ago and later stripped as extensive frame damage was found. A complete 1969 Camaro was located and soon it was purchased. The car had a hacked up cage, needed all the floors and of course quarters and wheel houses. New floors were installed in 2002 and the car has sat in storage until December 2005 where it is now housed in a nice work shop and will undergo a complete restoration. The first project was to install a new trunk floor and repair sections of the shock towers. You can view the before and after pictures below. Keep scrolling down to see the progress.

Dashboard repair - The dashboard had 4 holes drilled in it from where gauges once were, new metal was welded in and body work was performed in order to repair the mess. The dash will now be block sanded and sprayed in the correct factory black finish. Dan did all the body work on the dashboard as Kirby removed the last pieces of the old roll bar which was hacked in place, a new full cage will replace it. The trunk was also seam sealed at this time and was touched up with trunk paint. The trunk was painted prior to seam sealing in order to protect it in the week between working on the car. The trunk will be seeing more touch up as the roll cage down bars will soon be in place and be welded to its base plates which will tie it in to the rear frame rails in the trunk.

Sunday Feb 5, 2006 most of the cage mock up is done and alot of the welding has been completed, still have to fit the side door bars and cross bar for the hoop behind the seats and across the two down pipes going into the trunk, a cross bar will be installed across these two down pipes, above the rear speaker shelf. As the garage is 30 minutes away from where we live, generally we only work on the car 1 day a week, we start all day and have been fortunate to have a crew of 3-4 people every time which makes alot of the work go quickly, having various people work on various projects. The deal is, Kirby helps me do the finish body work on my Camaro after work during the week, I will help him on the weekends. Dan has been a huge help, taking his hand to welding and fabricating and learning fast, getting some more knowledge prior to purchasing a 1954 Chevy hot rod project of his own.

Here in the first thumbnail you can see Dan laying down a bead on the roll cage floor plate, the cage mount plates are welded to the trunk floor and frame rail, after welding they are seam sealed and will also be covered with the correct trunk paint so that they blend in.

While I started to weld in the floor plates, moving them past simply being tack welded, Kirby worked on seam sealing the trunk cage mount plates, then worked with Dan in fabricating the cowl repair panel. Instead of using body filler and body work to cover the welds, we opted for seam sealer so that it matches the factory look, where seam sealer is irregularly spread across the cowl panel. It will be covered with a rough finish stone guard to further seal it, make it look uniform, and retain a factory appearance. None of which you will be able to see when the fenders are on, but we will know its there!

Monday February 20th, 2006 The roll cage is entirely welded in, though we had to notch the door bars in order to clear the deluxe door panels. They have been notched, new metal has been welded in place to reinforce the side bars. They will be shaved smooth for a clean look. A couple more mounting tabs will be made up for the cross bar across the dash, as this is where most of the cars gauges will be mounted.

Alot of time was spent fitting the tubing, especially the curved cross brace behind the front seats. This section was snipped out of an old main hoop we had, and with some tweaking is a perfect fit for the cross brace of the main hoop. Seat belt mounts have been included into this cross brace and like the rest of the cage is ready for finish grinding and paint work.

We also finished the replacement of the dash/cowl panel section which was found to be even more rotted than we anticipated. We removed the windshield and fabricated a replacement panel. The replacement of the metal panel and body work has been completed on this as well. It was sprayed with a heavy duty rough finish stone guard which has not been covered in flat black.

Dan fabricated some small patch panels for the drivers side rocker panel which was also found to have some rust, though overall it is a solid panel, merely a couple small mouse holes were present.

Next will come the replacement of the quarter panels and rear wheel houses, if we are lucky, we will be able to have the new quarter panels and wheel houses on the car by the end of March. The replacement of the panels is a detail entailed and messy job, alot of time will be spent trimming the replacement panels and removing the old ones to ensure all body lines are correct.

Sunday March 12, 2006 The roll cage was finished the prior week and we will now start on the doors, they are in really good shape. They need only a couple small patches and we are lucky to have solid doors to start with. The doors that came off the car were completely rotted but will be good for parts such as window regulators, glass, etc. You can now buy the OER reproduction doors and they are decent, however the metal is substantially thinner, these aftermarket doors, even though they are approved and licensed by General Motors and then reproduced by an aftermarket company can no way compare to the quality of original pieces.

Below you can also see pictures of the completed cage, the interior floors have been seam sealed and have been coated with trunk paint. They will get another couple coats of paint, not that you will see it under the carpet anyway, we just want to make sure it is sealed and is done to the best of our abilities. After the new doors are fit, we will cut off the quarters and begin to fit the new ones.