Ronnie Brennan

I am recently returned to TGO so will take this time to backtrack and update my slow rebuild of my Camaro. Picture heavy posts so hope you guys enjoy where I am going with my Hot Rod So far I am 3 years into the build but each summer I drive it and take it to car shows so all work is completed over the winters.


This car was a disaster when I bought it, but only reason why I bought it was because the floor pan and body was solid as heck!!! One real dirty old car but a diamond in the rough for sure.




Gonna be a lot of work but pulled the ground efx off of my other car that I am parting out to build this one and already under way.

Ronnie Brennan

Started stipping the car down for body work and painting.:

Back bumber needed a small patch where a little bit of rust was forming so scraped it down, cut out the rust and put in a patch.

Started pulling out the interior and find that this interior was in worse shape than I had originally thought. Has lots of rips and cuts, but dont really care as I've got some nice leather seats and black interior going back into the car

Interior is now out of the car and is now burning in a barrel behind the garage And now for the best part!!! 25 years old and the floors are almost pristine!!!


There's a couple spots around the drain plugs that were a little rusty colored so I cut them out and welded patches over any drain plugs so no water can get into car

Ronnie Brennan

now that all the interior is now pulled out of car and prior to paint I place all new body parts onto car to check for fitting and lined up all new parts. Can already see that the car is going to look pretty beasty

Time for some sanding... and lots and lots of it at that... Hard to believe the large number of colors and layers of paint that were on the car. These colors were Maroon(most recent), purple, blue, light grey, yellow, red, white, and then what I believe to be the original color charcoal grey. Not a single sanding was done between some of the different coats.



Onto painting next!

Ronnie Brennan

After pulling car out of the garage and a thorough cleaning and then hanging some plastic over the walls to create a paint booth the painting has begun.


The following pictures were taken moments after the paint gun was unhooked from air line. Paint dust is still visible in the air and paint is still wet.







Total cost of paint job... $75.00!!! Single stage paint and is a LOT easier to work with!

Ronnie Brennan

Interior is now in the car and is starting to come together. Almost done for this winters project
To help the car stay dry the whole floor was covered with 3/4 inch insulation front to back, even all the spots that didnt have insulation from factory. Was a bit more difficult to get the interior back into the car but it all went in with only a few hickups!



Looks like I missed a spot on the steering wheel....... hahaha

Wheels stick out a tad more than desired but not by much but at least I know they'll work. Now for painting up the wheel wells haha!!

Car is already looking baaaadaaaassssss already and its not even out of the garage!

Ronnie Brennan

Now that the sun is out and snow is gone, and a wet sanding and buffing has been done, its time to pull the car out of the garage for its first summer of duty!!






I really like the way the car is looking already. Went to a bunch of car shows with the car the way it is and got some great feedback and even won a 1st place trophy for 80's class. I was very humbled and even more surprised!!!

Now onto winter session #2

Ronnie Brennan

Winter session 2 was more about cosmetics. I was quite short on cash this 2nd winter and had to keep my projects to a minimum but in the end I was still able to accomplish a lot

Project #1 is my engine bay. Its hard to go to car shows and open you hood when your engine bay looks like this!!!



And yes... before anyone says anything..... I did clean that mess up a bit prior to painting but it was still a MESS!!! Picked up a new Cam, double roller timing chain, new intake and carb and new air cleaner. Notice that I am for some reason and dont know why, a fan of Edelbrock. so almost all my goodies are edelbrock.

This thing is a disaster!!!!


Now after some cleaning and new parts going back on its less of an eye sore!!

Nooo.... that air cleaner is NOT staying on the car hahah.. that was just something I put on it to keep dust and unwanted's from getting into the carb while it sat on my shelf. hahah!



The following day we were ready to fire it up!! I had a mechanic come out and install the cam for me because I didnt know what I was doing and wanted to make sure it was done right. upon attempting to fire the car up it was backfiring through the carb and just didnt want to start. After playing with the timing, we were still unable to get it to fire. Heard some pining noises and pulled the valve covers off and checked push rods...... I had a bunch of hockey sticks after digging further I find that the timing chain had been put back on wrong and was out by 90 degrees!!!!!! Some pro!!! Lucky for me he had a package of new push rods for his race car engine he was building so I made myself at home with them Put everything back together and after some minor tweeking we had life!!!!

Ronnie Brennan

towards the end of the winter it was time to work on cosmetics again, so dug out the buffer and gave the car a real good buffing and then installed my new hood louvers Of course after paining them I couldnt figure out what I was going to put in the hood vents but I definitely knew what ever it was was going to be a chrome finish.



Then just prior to the first car show of the summer I was cruising around the auto detailing shelves at our local Canadian Tire store and the idea literally hit me in the head... While looking at a shelf with pin striping and 3M 2 sided tape a roll of chrome door trip fell off the shelf and hit me in the head!!! Like I said.. it was literally!!!

and voila!! after some warming up I was able to mold the strips around my vent holes in hood!

Ronnie Brennan

Now this brings me to the 3rd and current winters project. My car looks good and screams muscle but to me it just didnt have the giddy up and go that I needed, and now that I've been into my new house for a couple of years, my wife and I decided it was time for a new engine... (well the deal was I get what I want, she gets what ever she wants for furniture) Works for me but was only going to happen if I got my engine first hahah!!

The engine build post is long so will link the new thread here and post the engine build on the appropriate thread ----> Engine and Engine Bay build thread https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...ml#post5175249

'87IROCZOWNER69

iTrader: (1)

Exterior is looking awesome! Good work!

Ronnie Brennan

Thanks!! was one heck of a lot of work, and being my first build..... I made some mistakes along the way, which made even more work, but its close to being done exterior wise.

Ronnie Brennan

Trying to decide..... Thinking of having a chrome decal cut for my doors. Was thinking either ghost chrome or chrome... If I did ghost chrome I was thinking I might also put a Ghost chrome "CAMARO" decal on my rear spoiler so that when my hatch is up you can see it from the front of the car.



I like my car the way that it is.. but dont know if it would make the car look too busy..


Anyone good with photoshop willing to take a stab at both chrome and ghost chrome Door and wing decals mentioned above?

1SICK90RS

that car looks great! was it a berlinetta when you bought it?

Ronnie Brennan

Unfortunately it was lol but other than a few people here.. No one really notices that