1971 Chevrolet Camaro - Drawn And Quartered
New Flanks For A Second-Gen Camaro
When most people search for a project car they usually want the best one they can afford. The searchers at Goodmark Industries are a little weird, though. They've passed up many a potential candidate simply because it was too good, it wasn't a rolling pile with rusty quarters, lacy floor pans, dented doors, and a lot more. A car that needs nearly every panel and piece of trim replaced is Goodmark's key find.
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Though the '71 Camaro you see here seemed too good at the 20-foot mark, upon closer inspection, those rusty quarters, floor pans, trunk floor, doors, fenders, hood (and all the bad trim parts) made this lump just the right one to feed. Goodmark wanted a Second-Generation Camaro because of the growing interest in these cars and because the company had just come out with full-factory quarter panels for it. Goodmark again turned to Craig and Aaron Hopkins (C. Hopkins Rod & Custom) to rebuild the body and handle the paint. Although C. Hopkins replaced almost everything on the car, we are only going to demonstrate how the quarters were installed.
Here's a very important tech tip before beginning this or any project: Make sure that the door hinges are in good condition. If they are sagging with age, rebuild them or get new ones before you rip tin. Everything from the fender to the rear quarter is lined up with the door, so if you don't get the gaps right at the very beginning, you might as well forget it.
Once you install the doors again, set the gaps on the original fenders, quarters, and hood and trunk lid to make sure that everything fits properly. The door must maintain even gaps along the front and back and along the rocker. The doors always stay on the car as the quarters are installed. Once the gaps are set with the original parts, the trunk lid, fenders, and hood can come off.
For convenience, you are going to put the car on jackstands. Here's a big, serious hint: Position the car on the stands so that the vehicle's springs are loaded. When the back end of the car sags because the jackstands are in the wrong place, you'll never be able to get anything to line up! Now, let's roll.
Remove trim, marker lights, bumpers, etc...Take a good look at the car and the replacement parts it will require. You need to know exactly what needs to get cut off and what doesn't. For example, the gutter that holds the trunk weather stripping isn't part of the factory quarter; GM offered this as a separate piece. The Goodmark quarter is manufactured like the original, so keep the gutter. If you whack it off, you're going to have to put it back on. Know what you are doing before you start to save yourself grief.
Just like NOS panels, you may need to tweak the panel to get it gapped exactly like you want it. Since we are going to butt-weld our panel, we make sure that the trimmed area lands in the gutter where the panels come together. Butt-welding makes the strongest joint, so don't overlap the pieces.