on the bottom, we trimmed both pieces to match, since the original rocker was bad on the passenger back we will end up having to zig zag the cuts and merge them together. also made a backing strip/ alignment strip to help guide the two pieces together along the rocker

 

the trickiest cut and one we really thought about long and hard was the final cuts between the original roof and new back end qtr b pillar interface

in doing this project with the back end being replace since you have quite a few things having to come together at once, you need to think about not only the end state, but also how it is going to slide together

this meant we had to have the actual b pillar cut be not only true for a good final finish but basically a parallel to the lift / level cut as the two pieces needed to slide past themselves

i don't want to overstate this as in the end it is just metal and you can make a filler piece if you are way off, but we strove to have the two pieces join right

ok so in the end what we did was knowing the back window hatch slopes and will be the same from original to new back end we created a baseline template out of thin aluminum for each side

then using this "molded" piece we had a guide that fit both original and new in the same place and then measured from that guides top edge to the points front and rear where we wanted to make the cut.

as you will see in a future post, this worked great

 

then it was time to slide the two ends together

to do this we used a ratcheting strap on both sides and tightened them in unison...

in the end we did this a couple of times to get the final placement and this method allowed us to control the movement and made moving the section relatively easy

before you weld anything, you need to make sure all the doors open / close, hatch fits, etc and every thing is square... we did some measurements for example from the hatch mounting bolt locations on the original roof which are symmetrically spaced and then various points on the new back end at its rear, etc

all the doors close good with the right gaps, etc

 

we ended the day doing the outside welds on the roof / qtr panels b pillar interfaces. they both fit like a glove and came out real good

my friend rich is a great welder, but the basic idea is use good gas shielded thin wire (.023) with controlled heat. pulse the mig and jump spot to spot to control heat... we had no warpage or burn through with this method... pics show the weld line just after i finished a light first pass rough grind on the weld with a flapper disc

next week it is welding up the rockers and inside of the b pillar etc...

 

impressive.

 

Great work! Nice tractor you guys are getting me all fired up to restore one of mine now lol

 

Thanks guys, yes this project in reality requires some heavy duty equipment... metal work/restoration is also a lot of technique, even just the fixturing... luckily my friend Rich has a lot of it so between my son and I and Rich we have the right amount of debate on how to do things which really helps

 

yesterday we focused on getting the alignment and welding done of the rockers / sill plate area, etc... it is really starting to come together now at least being one whole car again!

getting two split rocker sections joined back together right requires quite a bit of technique... some of things we did include

- Good bracing of true flat planes, ie thick backing plates on the pinch weld areas for example that can be then clamped
- Using a ratcheting strap to apply pressure to pull in / let out slightly one rocker section vs the other
- Selective use of proper metal forming tools hammer / dolly when everything was very close for that final smoothing of the joint
- Used backing strips for all joints to allow good frontal welds and then also allow a stronger joint eventually in the back when it is welded

The pics show some of the semi-finished results where we ended the day yesterday

 

Here are some from the other side... all of these will require some final finish work, but as you can see you can pretty much make everything join back up and look factory original if you take the time on good prep work

 

Making good backing plates that fit right on these types of welds, ie follow the curve, etc allow good welds to be made

 

Starting to become rust free! Getting time to work on the rest of the floor!

 

Awesome work! Nice work with the backing plates, or "sleeving" as it's often referred to in the collision industry. That is the proper/safe way when sectioning structural panels like the rockers, windshield posts, ect.

 

Incredible build.

 

Very interesting build

 

so the past couple weeks been working on getting the rest of the floor out from the front toe board all the way back to where we made the splice to the new rear section

since the inner rockers are bad in spots that is all coming out as well and will be replaced by the donor floor

lots of spot weld drilling, air hammer / chisel, etc!!!

here are some shots with most of the floor out and just the drivers front remaining... the front corners are the most challenging since the spot welds are all over the front and down the sides, etc

 

once i got the floor out, it was time to work on the donor floor...

on the donor besides the floor i am also going to take the inner rockers along so it is about separating the outer rocker etc...

 

the tools of the trade in this job... air saw, air drills with various bits including spot weld cutters, air chisel/hammer, cut off wheels, and good old seam splitters

for panels where i don't care about the back panel i have been taking one drill and drilling a pilot hole all the way through first and then using the other drill with the spot weld drill... this prevents any slipping of the drill and makes drilling the spot welds a lot faster and steadier!

 

any updates?

 

we have taken the summer off pretty much and been focused on having fun driving my other camaros... i have been doing a lot of tuning on my TVS2300 LS3 '85 IROC as well as prom burning on my trans am doing test and tune...

not to fear we will be back at it this fall and should make a lot of progress this winter... i would like to have it done and able to go to the rod shop for paint this spring

thanks
alan

 

Awesome build with an incredible story - I would have done the same thing if I found my old Camaro in a junkyard! A car like that always represents more than just a means of transportation - it represents a snapshot in time, the effort you put into it, and the people that were part of your life.

Then again, perhaps I'm a bit heavy-handed...

This summer I found my 1988 Sport Coupe / IROC Clone that I built in higshcool. I had sold it in 2008 and always regretted it. I searched around for another IROC and the owner of the last one I looked at knew where my old car was. Within a week I had her back.

I should start my build-thread tonight. :-) It'll be slow going...

Good luck and have fun!!

 

Quote worthy for sure



Awesome! Have fun man

 

you are right, this is a lot more than just the car itself... the great thing with these types of builds and stories are you get to rewind your life a little bit by remembering what you had when you were young and now also make some new memories with your son as you rebuild it together... i have already told my son so many stories i had with this car so many times now i know he thinks it is like he was there

thanks and good luck

 

ok with winter back and Christmas activities behind us, we are getting back on this project

over the last two weekends got the donor floor all stripped down taking off the outer rocker panels and the front sub-frame connectors

lots of spotwelds for sure, but cleaning off the area, marking it with a paint pen and then taking a self starting dewalt 3/8" drill bit to make a good divot and then the eastwood spotweld cutter makes them go pretty good

i then use the seam splitter and air chisel and start working through the area to get everything to separate. the key thing is to be patient and take your time, it will come apart

 

today we took the donor floor over to the rod shop were we are having them clean / blast / epoxy primer it... this will make it nicer to work with and also insure that the inner rocker panel is well painted prior to reattachment as it will be hidden after that

now we will be working on getting the outer rocker in good shape while we wait for the floor to return

 

so sometimes to go forward you need to take a step back...

with the donor floor over at the rod shop, today the focus was on the outer rockers... the question was how to tackle the pinch weld at the bottom to make a good connection to the floor as they were not in great shape on either side especially as you move towards the front. in addition on both sides the front corner pocket was pretty rough.

had a couple of ideas including cutting the pinch weld connection area off and splicing in a new piece, etc

however after looking at the outer rocker that we had removed from the donor floor, immediately it was pretty obvious, with the floor out you can fully take out the whole outer rocker including the hidden sections so lets just cut the bad one out and get it right

 

original out rocker cut out, completely in the front, back to where the new back half of the car meets it

still have some final clean up to do, like cut out so more where the back weld was to the new back half of the car, but you get the idea from these pics

 

and here is the out rocker from the donor floor being prepped for install, as you can see the front part of the rocker will be 100% complete just like the factory vs making other types of cuts and splices

hopefully next Saturday some pics of it installed

i will be happy when we get this phase all complete and have the body over to the rod shop for blast and paint... i am already starting to think about LSX options but don't want to get ahead of ourselves!

 

I was wondering if you two were still at it. Looking forward to next update.

 

This is awesome. I found my 89 IROC we got new as well. You're going to hate me. It took me 4 hours to find it once I started looking. That was a Monday. I brought it home Friday. This is what it looked like when I found it in 2008. Paid $5000. 100% original, 82,000 miles. Sorry dude. . It's going to go to my son as well. He's only 2 now.

 

I love it. I miss my first car and i also love father son projects.

 

good for you! you'll have to do a LSX or LT swap when your son gets older! they are great projects!

 

I'm actually throwing around the idea of getting an 89 GTA. I have 2 sons so one can get the IROC which is pretty much mint for a 25 year old car with almost 90,000 miles.

The GTA could be a father/sons project.

Now, I have decided, if the motor ever goes in the IROC, is like to do an LS/M6 swap.

 

Looking good Alan! Doin it right, doin it once. Great work thus far!! It takes a lot of time and patience for that kind of restoration

 

i got one of those air powered needle scalers, it works great. as i was cleaning up the drivers side sub frame transmission mount extension i found that it was a little more worse than i thought after using the needle on it...

 

so out came the spot weld driller, etc and got that off. for the repair piece i took the piece off the donor floor i had removed that is in like new condition.

i made sure to mark where the position was before removal of the original, plus my frame measurement book has a couple measurements between the other side and the back of the car to one of the holes on this piece so i can make sure the line up is good

after cleaning everything up and using some chassis black on the surfaces i would not be able to see again i lined up the replacement and re-checked all the measurements then clamped it on the sides and bottom very firmly and welded back in place

 

i would replace the factory crossmember "nuts" with something more substantial while you got it apart

 

The big accomplishment this weekend was getting the drivers side rocker back in. This was using the rocker from the donor floor, from the original front end all the way back to where the new rear is. I used a flanging tool to set back the back rocker piece

My friend rich helped with all the welding as he is pretty much a pro and we got it in stronger than the original factory as we welded along a lot of the seams in addition to where the original spot welds were...

pretty much now getting the drivers side in good shape... this really cleaned it up and it is ready for some chassis black

the key to getting parts like this to fit well is to take your time and accept you are going to have to take them in and out a couple of times to get them to fit. also it is essential to have good clean prep on the weld surfaces and good clamping so everything fits right... probably had 6-7 clamps on this at various locations before the first weld

what a difference now on the drivers side... same procedure on the passenger side next week is the plan

 

Very nice, thanks for the update.

 

I'm following along and I got to say, I'm as sentimental as the next guy about my car. Hell, I tracked it down and bought it back as well but this is A LOT of work, time and money. I mean, it's yours so have at it but if when I found my original IROC, if it looked like that, I'd have moved on and said oh well, wasn't meant to be.

Props to you tho!

 

Wow! You must REALLY like this car to do all of the repairs to bring her back!

 

Yes this one clearly is not about economics or collectability!

This one is about a family story that extends from my youth to my sons and building up some skills for both of us! To some extent it actually is nice it is this much work, although i readily acknowledge i am very fortunate i have the space, tools, and $ to be able to do something like this.

Also this one clearly is not a driveway project, but as hard as it is to believe now, some day to get a third gen this may become more necessary as it is with 1st gens currently, so i just figure we are leading the way and ahead of the curve!


hey, everyone needs something to keep them out of trouble with their free time!

 

Subscribed!
Nice work, the car obviously means a lot to you.

 

all i can say is WOW!

 

Great story/progress so far. Looking forward to more progress pics.

 

inside the transmission subframe extension the factory weldnut is actually mounted on a doubler plate and then is a pretty large weldnut... i haven't heard of any issues with these unless they or more usually the plate is rotted out... what have you seen / done in the past on these?

thanks
alan

 

so this weekend started on the passenger side. in general this side is the same procedure as the drivers side, but a couple more repairs to do...

one the area was cleaned up, it was very evident that besides the rocker itself, it was going to need some repair in the very front corner pocket

using the needler finds this stuff fast... at this stage you just want to find it if it is bad and fix it so don't feel bad looking for it, it is better to just get it all out in the open and fix it right than have it lurking there

 

so we worked on patching that corner first... after doing some good inspection we determined how to make sure with one cut out we got the bad stuff out in a manner a good patch plate could then be formed and welded in

the patch was formed from some new 16 gauge sheet and hand bent / trimmed and welded in

 

then followed the same procedure for the rocker. just got it this weekend to the point it was fitted up pretty good and now ready to come out one more time for proper weld prep... good weld prep makes a big difference don't skip taking the part back out, etc as you don't really save time and you certainly don't get good results if you don't prep both pieces

also have a lot of different good clamps on hand also really makes a difference getting things lined up and welded in properly... i fit up all the clamps several times to make sure i like how everything is set before the first weld is struck

 

so while doing this today and cleaning up the sheet metal in the general area, it was clear that the "wing" off the passenger subframe connector is going to need repaired as after needling it, it clearly had some holes starting and weak metal.

the good thing is that wing is a formed sheet metal piece welded on to the main subframe so my plan it to drill out the ~10 spot welds holding it on and replace it with the piece that is completely intact and in good shape from the donor floor.

another thing to note out of this experience is it really pays to take apart big pieces like your donor floor, etc with care so that you have the opportunity to re-think about what you really will need to use or not... originally i wasn't planning on using the rocker panels or didn't initially see that i would need this piece. by taking my time and taking the donor piece apart step by step left me with parts that really were great to have

at this point there are really not a lot of new sheet metal parts available for the underside, so you are either getting it from a donor or making it

 

so this weekend we worked on the passenger side firewall and the "wing" off the subframe as well as started on the rocker install

for the firewall, the rot was on both the exterior wheel well area along the seam and then of course the firewall itself.

for the exterior wheel well area since it was relatively small, i just cut out the affected rectangle and then made a piece out of sheet and welded that in

for the firewall itself after deciding where to cut the original one to get the rot out, i then traced that onto the donor piece and added 10mm around the edge to fit the flange i made on the firewall