El Rust-a-mino

Primer going on

2008-04-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

Just started spraying some K38 and blocking out a few small pieces. Also just started working on doing some filer work on the fenders. Next step is to wipe them down , shoot another coat of epoxy on them then 3-4 coats of primer and bloxk sand.

Old roof out.....

2008-03-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

Just got done cutting out the old roof, now in the process of prepping and painting the supports.

GOT RUST

Giving it a bath in some etch
.

New Steering Box (Grand Cherokee)

2008-03-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

Just got finished tearing apart the 94 Jeep Grand Cherokee steering box. Got it rebuilt in a day or so. Here she is all nice and shiny. This box has a bigger t-bar and fast ratio for better road feel. Picked it up for $20 and grabbed a $30 seal kit. Looks great now....

Before:

After:

New Roof on the way

2008-03-06T11:19:00.001-08:00

Just ordered up a new replacement roof skin. Hopefully I'll be able to take the skin off this weekend, clean up the rust, and then epoxy the inside.

Time to get Cracking...

2008-03-02T19:02:00.000-08:00

Just got done working on the frame tonight. Welded up the shock towers and smoothed out the welds. Still need to grind down the front frame rails and smooth them out, then apply some metal filler on the top.

In the next few weeks, I'll finish the welding and grinding on the frame.

New Press!

2007-07-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

Just picked up my new 12 ton press today, hopefully be able to get the rearend put back together now. Needed the press to install the pinon bearings so I don't have to run back and forth to the shop.

Things I need to finish:
1. Press in bearings on new Eaton posi unit
2. Press off bearing from pinion
3. Press on pinion bearing and shim
4. adjust backlash
5. install gearset

Quarter Panels Off

2007-04-24T15:30:00.000-07:00

Time to bust out the air chisel and rip off this rusty quarter panel. Not to bad on the inside.

A nice fresh coat of SPI epoxy

Smugglers Box Going in........

2007-01-26T21:50:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of the smugglers box gettting welded in. I drilled holes every 2" along the top and bottom of the panel and will plug weld all along the top and bottom

Welds are getting better too, nice and flat with no blow thru

Trial fitting the back panels....

2007-01-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

Here are a few shots of the back panels getting fitted. This is the lower smugglers box panel that gets welded to the back. This piece fits amazingly well for a repro piece. It's made by Dynacorn and will work much better than the old rusted piece.
Sprayed with good coat of zinc primer:

Next, put a nice thick coat of seam sealer:

Trial fit the new smugglers box piece:

Welding in the Center Strip into Floor Pans

2007-01-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

Spent part of the morning getting the center piece trimmed and fit for the middle of the floor pan. Seems stupid they don't both to make the pans wide enough to weld together. I just need to finish up the piece on the tranny hump and it's good.

Here is after it's trimmed:

Here the strip is tacked:

I used a piece of blue masking tape to mark off how much to cut:

Now here is the piece tacked into place:

Firewall prepped and painted with POR

2007-01-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

Spent the evening getting the firewall ready for some POR15 silver. I like this product but it has it's good and bad sides. The area is not that rusty , just a bit of surface rust at most. I prefer to use POR on this since its a strong tough finish. I will be topcoating with some epoxy when the floors are finished. Here are a few pics of before and after.

BEFORE:

After:

Pans are both in

2007-01-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

I just finished putting in the right pan. Went in pretty well and pleased with the results. I have become a much better welder now as a result. The only thing left is to get the center strip cut and tacked into the middle. Then grind down the welds and it should be ready for epoxy.

Here are a few pics of the progress:

More pan action

2007-01-07T09:10:00.000-08:00

I have been spending lots of time trying to get this done right. I learned the hard way on the left pan. If the pan is not sitting right on the brace, when you weld the floor to the pan it wants to lift up. I have a few spots on the left side that didn't come out well. I have been using some small sheet metal screws here are there. Also, start welding from the middle to the out side. I made the mistake of taking the outter edges. By the time I got to the outer edge, there was no room for the metal to go. So a little pounding with a BFH fixed the problem, not perfect but it will work.

Floor Pan Fiesta

2007-01-05T23:41:00.000-08:00

Been working on getting the floor pans prepped and ready to weld in.
Both braces have been cleaned and stripped to bare metal and some Eastwood Rust Encapsulator has been sprayed on both. I sanded down the edges and sprayed some weld thru primer for where the pans meet the braces.
Here is a shot of the pans getting ready to go in:

Left pan all welded in now...

Firewall all prepped and now straight as its going to get. Had to hammer and dolly the booster area.

front left fender epoxied and ready to get sprayed with last coat of epoxy.

More Cowl Repair

2006-09-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got a good days worth of work in to repair the rusted area in the front cowl.

Here is a shot of before some of the welding. The rust pretty much ate through two layers of metal over the last 30 years. I fabbed up a small patch and welded over the top of the hole.

Here is a pic of getting the patches just right before welding them into the cowl.

Side patch now welded into place. I tacked this into place and then used some large spot welds with the MIG.

Here is a shot of the patch panel now welded into place and the lower and right patches welded into place. This took lots of grinding and patching to get it just right.

Here is a final pic of the area welded into place and painted ready for the outer cowl to get welded into place now. Before this is done the inside of the cowl will get a good coat of epoxy paint before I proceed.

Patching fender

2006-08-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics from patching the left fender of the Camino. The patch didn't come out as well as I had hoped. The patch warped a little when it was tacked. Still a noob with welding.

This is a pic of the area that's warped. A little hammer and dolly work and it should be ready to go.

Block Beat down!!! YEEE Haww

2006-03-15T22:29:00.000-08:00

Faster than a mullet burning out in his camaro, I was ready to get into tearing this motor apart. It's got about 15k miles on it since the last rebuild. I was keeping my fingers crossed everything looked okay inside.

Motor Shot

Here is a shot of the block with the pistons and rods

Here is a shot of one of the rods. Not sure if this amount of wear is normal?

All the pistions and rods out now.

Well here is what I was affraid of, I got a cam lobe that looks like it's chipped off a piece of metal. The lifter looks fine but not sure how this camshaft will do now. This was a great street cam, Ultradyne 280/288 112d. Maybe a new roller or Solid cam for the new motor.

New bday toy!

2006-03-13T11:57:00.000-08:00

Well, after a long time of having the old 92 CR250, I decided to splurge and get something with a little newer technology. Here is my new ride!

Windsheild is out....

2006-02-26T16:06:00.000-08:00

My buddy Phil came over again to help pull out the front window. He didn't get a chance to grind on the rust though, which is his favoritve pastime.

It's a good thing I pulled the motor when I did. The freeze plugs started to corrode and rust. I tapped the screwdriver into the hole and punched a huge hole in the plug. This time I think we'll need to use the brass plugs.

Cowl Repair.....Ugh

2006-02-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

The previous body repair guys didn't have a clue how to fix this area. The easiest fix was to cut the area out and then hammer it out. I got it knocked out about a half inch but it still needs to come out more.......
Here is after shot:

Here is where the cowl area is pushed in.

Unortunately, the area has several layers of metal and would not budge with a hammer and dolly. Next step is to get a slide hammer and weld a piece on there to pull it out.

Pulling da Mota

2006-02-22T08:05:00.000-08:00

Finally got some time to get the motor out of the engine bay. Good thing the motor came out. The freeze plugs were starting to rust and a few of the plugs had some signs of leakage. My buddy Phil came up to help pull the motor. We got it pulled in a few hours without any problems. Next phase is tearing apart the motor and checking the main/rods.

More Floor pans/ Metal Working

2006-02-20T08:17:00.000-08:00

Spent some more time over the 2 weeks I took off to get the floor pans out. This is a much bigger job than I had originally anticpated. In the end it will be worth it though. New metal vs old rusty treated metal.

Here is with the right floor out now, I just need to spend some more time trimming and rough fitting the panel to fit better. The right side fits a little better than the left side:

I also have been working on getting the cowl area fixed. The car was hit on the front left side and pushed the firewall in about a 1/2 inch. I had to cut out the area on the cowl and pound out the area so the fender bracket sits straight. You can see in this pic where I cut the cowl area out:

Fitting the pans

2005-12-31T09:12:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pics of the floor pans

Floor pan destruction

2005-12-30T09:12:00.000-08:00

Well, this was a tough call. Keep the floor pans or put news ones in. For $99 a side, I think it's best to cut out the old metal and put in some new ones.

Here is a pic of a prior repair made...

Here is some of the rusted toe pan..

New pan waiting to get installed..

Here is with the pan removed from the left side. I had to also cut out the rear panel that's used for the smuglers area. This piece was too beat up from taking out the rear panel below the window.

Front end Torn down

2005-12-26T09:07:00.000-08:00

Just got the front clip and most of the pulleys pulled off the motor. Rad support was drained and removed. Next step is to yank the motor and check the internals.

Interior Gutted

2005-12-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

The interior has been completley removed and the wiring harness has been removed. Now the fun part for taking out the floor pans and welding in the new panels. Still trying to figure out how I should install the new pans.

Metal Work

2005-11-28T15:59:00.000-08:00

I have been working on getting some of the patches made for the right fender. I sandblasted the inside of each fender trying to get all the old junk out of there. I got the first patch tack welded on, now it just needs to be smoothed out. Next step, get the metal work done and then lay down some epoxy/prime and filler work.

Got the rear ebrake lines removed and removed from the chassis.

What the..

2005-10-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

Derustification at it's best. I cut the back cab out so I can serve tacos better.

Anyone want tacos....?????

Air compressor is running!!

2005-10-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

I finally finished running my power to my compressor. HorraY!!!! Now I can spend time using it.
Took most of the day on Sunday to get it finished and took off half the skin on my knucles too.

Also, finished painting Claire's room. Now it's time to put up the chair rail mouldings and finish the room up this week.

JD

Interior Is coming out......

2005-09-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

Door skin is about to go on, but I can't do it tonight since it's past 10pm and my little Claire sleeps above the garage area. I'll try to do it tomorrow night or sometime soon. No rush. As soon as I get that on, I need to put on some epoxy primer on the fenders and door. Hopefully I can get that finished this weekend along with wiring my compressor.

Spent the last few nights pulling out the interior and some of the nasty old firewall padding. So thick old and nasty, it was time for it to make its maiden voyage to the trash. Here is what it use to look like

And here is a preview of most of the stuff getting yanked out and trashed....

Here is one more shot with the dash and the heater ducting out and the glove box/door. This is going to be a lot of work next spring:

Rusty gets some new graphics.....

2005-09-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some new pics from the past few nights. I have been getting the door frame cleaned up and ready to install the new door skin. I'm not sure if I'll glue that panel in place or use a few tack welds around each of the corners.

Here is a shot down the side of the car, need to make sure the body lines are straight and the skin gets put on correctly.

Door shell painting

2005-09-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a shot of the door before blasting

I just finished sandblasting the left door shell and cleaned it up for some rust preventative maintinence. I just applied a coat of POR15 silver to the entire door. Sure looks better than that
rust that was there.

After sandblasting:

Here is after the POR15 silver has been applied.

The next step is to get the door skin aligned and ready to glue to the shell. I'm hoping to get this done by the end of the week and then try to get the hinges back on.

I'm having a PITA of a time trying to get the new hinges to align properly. The lower detent cam is not aligning with the roller assembly. I need to either bend the hinge or the tab to get it centered.

I have also been measure the front end to make sure all the damage is fixed from the idiot who crashed this car long ago. The front left firewall is caved in and needs to be pulled. I'll either have to get a stud welding gun or use a BIG hammer.

Later.....Rustalicous.

Metal Finishing

2005-08-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

This step is required to get the metal flat and to use as little body filer as possible. I used a nice huge felt pen to mark the area and then use a fine tooth file to shave off the top. This shows the high and low areas of the damaged areas.

Here is a pics so far..

As you can see, this was beated pretty good by someone and someone drilled some huge holes in the front. These spots will need to get welded in and ground down.

Cut it out!!!!

2005-08-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

Here is the 'usual' rust patches that appear on these old rusties.

As you care see the rust patch. After drawing the outline get out the cutoff wheel and cut the piece out. I saved this piece for my friend Phil.

Here is after the piece was cut out and the rust was ground down. My buddy Phil loves rusty cars.

I'm surprised there were no critters stuck inside this litte hole. Looks like this stuff has been in there for a few years eh!

This is what it should look like after you have cut a good section out and ground the rust down with a wire wheel. The next step now is to treat the rust and then apply some POR before welding up the patches.

Time for Stripper.....

2005-08-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

Before

After

Spent last night stripping the right front fender. Previously, I had some crack head fix the nice gash from backing out of my parents driveway (my neighbor used some long ass bolts that stuck out from the fence post, which caused my front fender to look like a tuna can lid). The dumbass that fixed it just slapped a huge coat of putty on it. After 15 years, the filler cracked and looks like poop now. Anway, time to fix it the right way with some hot welds and filler. More to come.....

Rustaholic....

Box into Main Panel

2005-08-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

Spent most of the day trying to figure out how to get this box in place. Decided to put it right above the main panel since I'm running the conduit up the wall. Most people in the 'hood are running theirs just the opposite. However, they are going into the ground and running the wire to their pools or hot tubs.

Here is another picture of the panel with the front plate off. You can see a 3/4" hole that has a lock ring installed. I was planning on using the hole right behind that one since it has a 1" opening. If I can get the wires throught the 3/4 hole I might do it.

More Rust....no way!

2005-08-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

Why else is it named the 'Rustamino' More rust was found on the back window and the lower right fender.

This is some bad mojo...... time to cut it out. And replace it with some new sheetmeat. :>)

The back window had to come out. As you can see, I'm glad it's out. Now I can spend some time carving up this back section. I have not decided to replace the full panel or just use the patch panel I already have now. It's not going in anytime soon though, I still need a welder!!!!

Amazing!!! I found a nice stack of old vintage leaves that have been preserved in my fenderwell. :>) These are aged to perfection and look great..

Thats a big stack o leaves.......

Until next time, I'll be working on some phase of the rustamino. The front clip is off the car now so I can clean the front up.

I also have the door skin off the shell and I'm getting ready to prep the shell. I tried using the wire wheel but that takes to damn long. Think it's time for a visit to Harbor Freight for the pressure blaster to get these bigger parts done.

Rust on......

Door Skinin'

2005-08-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the steps for skinning a door. The removal process is pretty easy and requires basic tools like a grinder and a drill. The first step is to get the door off.

2. Next, take off door panel

4. Take out window and side vents:

5. Grind outer edge of door skin just enough to see the internal door shell structure. Don't take off too much or else you will start taking the edge off the internal shell.

6. Drill out all the spot welds on the door with a drill bit or spot weld cutter. I had to use a drill bit and go slowly over the edges of the door

220V update

2005-08-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

I have about half the conduit installed outside now. Here are a few pics. The only left to do in finish the conduit around the corner to the main box and then run the wire.

The picture below shows where I need to cut a hole in the roof to get the conduit through. The angled box will run down

This is where the conduit will go through the wall into the garage.

New Toys

2005-06-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally started working on the Camino again after letting it sit for over 4 years up at the new house. Got a few new toys that should help me out.

This is the latest toy; a 7HP 80 gallon 2 stage compressor. I need something with more power to be able to run the blast cabinet I built and also some other air tools. This is the basic kit from TPtools. You just supply the wood and cut to preference.

220 Volt Line

2005-06-30T00:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of where I need to run 220v into the garage for the new compressor. Needs to have a 40A fuse, so I am planning on running a 100A subpanel out to the garage

Here is the main box:

Now I need to figure out how to run it up the side of the house. You can see the panel by the fence. I'll need to come up to the eve and then sneak it under somehow.

Where to run the wire? Under the eve and around?

Here is where the line would need to run to. The compressor is right behind the 3rd stall window. I would like to either go into the wall on the upper left side of the 3rd stall or run it around the side of the yard.

Here is an inside look at the garage:

Rusty Block

2005-06-30T00:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of the cancer in my car. This will need to get cut out and welded up with new sheetmetal.

This is a picture of the rust spot that showed up as a tiny rust bubble. After poking it a few times, I noticed it was much worse than I thought.

Well, left side is gone. Let's start working on the right side!!!