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(Jimmy)>> You're watching Powernation!
(Jimmy)>> Today on Carcass we make our 1972 Camaro a hard top once again, but first we'll show you how to remove the glue and remnants from the old vinyl top.
(Jeremy)>> Plus we hit the road on another Driveway Rescue helping a father and son team keep their Camaros on the road. [ Music ] [ engine revving ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Hey guys, welcome to Carcass. Now Jimmy and I are super excited to get our hands dirty on our 1972 road course Camaro again. It's been a hot second since we've touched this thing. We've done a bunch of work so far to get it to this point, but if you guys are just joining us for the first time or you just need a quick recap let us show you what we've done. We started with a well used stockish Camaro R/S that had some really good bones. We got to work stripping it down to just a shell so we could see what we had to work with. After finding a couple of issues we dug into the body and added a set of mini tubs so we could fit up some wider tires along with a fuel cell in the trunk. Then we laid out the groundwork for a race inspired roll cage to stiffen up the car and to keep us safe.
(Jimmy)>> The next thing to do is add some upgraded suspension in the rear along with a nine inch axle to handle the horsepower. Up front we cleaned up the sub-frame, did some mods, and replaced the suspension with some tubular upper and lower control arms.
(Jeremy)>> The engine and transmission install came next, which included moving back about a foot and adding a front motor plate. To get it to fit in the Camaro we grabbed some cutoff wheels and trimmed the firewall to fit. Then we added a rear firewall to block off the fuel cell from the passenger compartment.
(Jimmy)>> The last thing we did was lay out a set of custom quarter panels and fender flares to fit our wheel and tire setup. That included some work with some expanding foam, body filler, fiberglass, and most importantly some carbon fiber. All that work leads us to today, and something that you guys may have noticed over the last episode or so that these panels have made their way into the main hoop structure. The reason why I made these is just to give the interior of the car a little bit more of a finished look. So I made these out of some aluminum sheet metal, gave them a bead roll pattern just for some rigidity and some style, but they aren't quite done yet. I will have to cut some holes in these two panels just so our harnesses can attach to the harness bar. And you also may be wondering, how are we gonna see out the back of this thing with these panels blocking our view we are gonna be using a rearview camera like a modern race car would, but all the work on the inside that I wanted to get done with the roof off has now been completed. So we can finally get the roof back on the Camaro.
(Jeremy)>> Now with the cage work and the panels that Jimmy just showed you installed inside of the Camaro, now is a good time to weld the roof back on the car. Now we know we gave you guys a little bit of a heart attack when we cut this off, but it allowed us to weld all of the seams on the Camaro's roll cage to make it nice and safe. If you guys remember, when we picked up the Camaro it had a vinyl top on it, and when we pulled that off it left all of this fuzz and all of the glue on the top. So now is a good time to tackle this and get rid of all of that fuzz before we weld it on just because it's sitting here on the table. We have a couple different ideas on how we're going to tackle this, some techniques that we're gonna try. Let me go grab some stuff and we'll show you how we get that done. [ Music ] So one of the methods that we could use to try to get the glue and the fuzz off of the roof here would be to use a d/a. Now we don't think that's gonna work very well because as we start sanding into the glue and the fuzz we think it's just gonna load up the sandpaper. Sandpaper's expensive! Just doesn't seem cost effective to do it that way. Second method includes a Scotchbrite, and we could just sit here and try to rub on the fuzz itself to get it off. Just doesn't seem like that's working either, and it's kinda loading up on the Scotchbrite already. Third method involves just a rag and some lacquer thinner. So if we saturate the rag here a little bit we can set it on top of the glue and kinda hold down on there, and just let it chemically react and release some of that glue, and then come back and try to rub it and wipe it off. That seems to be doing the job. The fourth method, which we think is gonna be the quickest, is to use a grinder with a bristle disc. Some people call them a roll lock disc, and we could sit in here and just grind all the fuzz and the glue off. Now our plan is to use a combination of both of these. What we're going to do is soak our rag full of lacquer thinner. We're gonna let it rest on the fuzz and on the glue for a little while. Then we're gonna come back, grab the roll lock disc, and we'll start taking all this off and get this whole roof skin cleaned up. [ Music ]
[ grinder buzzing ] [ Music ] [ grinder buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> So let's go over a scenario where you guys do want to keep your paint in good shape as soon as you get all of this stuff off of here. We figured it out. If you use your rag that's soaked in lacquer and you just let it sit on the panel for a couple of minutes it actually does a really good job of releasing all of the glue, and if you rub it, put some elbow grease into it, you can actually just rub all of the glue clean off the roof skin here and let you save your paint. But we're gonna keep moving forward. We're gonna use a combination of both of these. We're still gonna use the lacquer and the little angle grinder there. We're gonna go ahead, get this all prepped, taken care of, and then we're gonna move on to getting this thing welded back on the Camaro.
(Jimmy)>> Coming up, we show you how to remove old lead body filler. Then we put the roof back on our Road Course Camaro.
(Jeremy)>> So we have the top prepped and it's ready to be welded back on the Camaro, but there is one thing we have to take care of first. Now when Jimmy and I cut the top off of the car we cut right through the factory seam, and what GM did and what a lot of car manufacturers did is instead of using a body filler in here to make this all nice and smooth they actually used lead. There's two ways to get the lead out of this thing. One is by grinding it, but we really do not want to make it airborne, and the second step, which is the way we're gonna be doing it, is we're actually gonna be using an oxy acetylene torch and we're gonna be reheating up the lead and making it flow. Then we're gonna go ahead and use some scrapers, and maybe a wire brush here, and we're just gonna brush this off and let it hit the floor. One thing I can't stress enough here is your personal safety. Make sure you've got a good pair of glasses on. We've got a good respirator, gloves, and I'm even gonna be wearing a jacket. Plus we have an exhaust fan here in the shop. So we're gonna turn that on and make sure we pull all the fumes up and out. So to get started here I'm gonna get all suited up. We'll fire up the torch, and we'll literally try to get the lead out. [ torch hissing ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> When you're doing this you want to make sure you move around the panel a lot. We don't want to put a lot of heat onto the panel to the point where it starts to distort. Just head it up enough to make the lead run off. [ torch hissing ] [ Music ] [ torch hissing ] [ Music ] [ torch hissing ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> So now all the lead is out of the back of the car. We're actually gonna transition up here to the A-pillar. What I've done is bent up a couple of tabs that fit the contour of the A-pillar on the inside. The idea behind these tabs is we're gonna drill a couple of holes and do some rosette welds and keep these tabs in place. Then we're gonna come back, and when we set the top on we're gonna engage the other side of the A-pillar into these tabs with a couple of rosette welds and we're gonna weld it on that way. Then we'll also come in and weld up the seam. Now this is a nice, strong repair on the A-pillar, but one thing to remember is that the top is just solely for aesthetics at this point. It's just to make the car look like a Camaro again. Our roll cage is doing everything we need in the safety side of things and just to stiffen up the chassis. So we'll go ahead and get started here. I'll pull the tabs back out, grab the drill, and we'll drill some holes for our rosette welds. [ drill humming ]
(Jeremy)>> Once the holes are drilled we'll remove all the paint to give us a nice, clean welding surface. [ Music ] So we've got Jimmy on one side. I grabbed Joel from Detroit Muscle. He's gonna hold the back, and we're gonna try to engage the A-pillars into these tabs. Alright, I got mine started.
(Jimmy)>> Let's see!
(Jeremy)>> Pushy, pulley here.
(Jimmy)>> I'll just need to tap these with a hammer to get them to fall in. [ hammer tapping metal ]
(Jeremy)>> Mine's in. Perfect! There we go. That'll work! [ welder crackling ]
(Jeremy)>> With a combination of rosette welds and stitch welding I moved around the car making sure I didn't weld in one place too long and distort all the metal. [ welder crackling ]
(Jeremy)>> What's better than one Camaro, two Camaros! We help a father and son team with a few minor parts on their projects in another Driveway Rescue.
(Jeremy)>> Alright guys, it's Driveway Rescue day. Jimmy and I are out in the back country roads of Tennessee, and we're gonna go help a family of Camaro owners. There's a mom, a dad, and a son, and each of them own a different generation of Camaro. Now they've worked on the cars a little bit but they need a little bit of help buttoning these things up. So that's what we're gonna do today.
(Jimmy)>> Dad's is a 1980 Camaro, which we're pretty familiar with second gens at this point. The son's is a 1991, which we're also familiar with third gens cause we built one of those, and mom's is a 2020 and her car is very nice. So we're just gonna pay attention to the dad's and the son's Camaro. This is a pretty cool thing for us just because we're both familiar with working with our families in the garage turning wrenches and stuff like that. Growing up I was always in the garage with my dad and my brother doing stuff. You work with your son and even your wife turns wrenches from time to time. So we've all clocked a lot of hours doing this, and this is a nice opportunity to kind of extend a helping hand and try to get these cars in a little bit better running condition.
(Jeremy)>> They've done quite a bit of work on these cars already, but everybody can use a helping hand to kinda just finish this stuff up. So us together with RockAuto, we've got a bunch of parts, bunch of tools. We're gonna go help them just button these cars up.
(Jimmy)>> There we go! I see three Camaros in the driveway.
(Jeremy)>> Let's go meet them and see what they're all about. [ Music ] Ethan, Josh, Nice to meet you! So you guys have got a pair of Camaros here. Ethan yours is a '91 correct? And Josh?
(Josh)>> 1980!
(Jeremy)>> We've got a bunch of parts and stuff in the van. I think it's best if we just get at this.
(Jimmy)>> Put up some tents, get some shade up.
(Jeremy)>> Get ready and we'll get started here.
(Ethan)>> My car is the 1991 Camaro RS that we basically pulled out of a field. We were really looking for a project car for my first car. I was really looking for a second gen. My parents convinced me that I should be a third gen cause they're better suspension, and better drivetrain. We found this one online. We went out near the edge of Kentucky to get it and brought it back here. We've just been working on it ever since. When we first got it back to our house we did not trust anything on it. Since then we've done the brakes, the back axle, and all the suspension on the front and back.
(Josh)>> It was actually as advertised. They didn't try to upsell it. I think they were very honest with the listing. We knew it was gonna be a good project but it needed everything. It showed it had been sitting.
(Ethan)>> I was just excited at that point. It was my first car, and it was an older car that was pretty cool for 14, 15 year old.
(Jeremy)>> Guys got a couple of parts to get started up underneath the hood here. Jimmy's got a radiator, and I've got the blower motor. We've got a couple more things for up front here, but gonna get started on all this.
(Jimmy)>> We'll get this drained out and you guys can get the blower motor in it.
(Jeremy)>> Sounds good. We'll put the hose on here, this little drain. Vent tube really if I can get it in there. There we go, and then we'll go ahead and slide it in.
(Ethan)>> I've been helping my dad build the '80 Camaro since I was little, and I've always just like building cars. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> That should wrap that up! [ Music ] [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ]
(Josh)>> Just as easy as it comes out. [ Music ]
He's done really well with if he didn't know how to do this or that. Hey, here's how I've been taught to do it, and I've showed him, and he's taken to that very well. It's been awesome watching him grow and learn how to do these skills, and then also take a lot of pride in the project that he's working on too. Just seeing him do it is the best.
(Jimmy)>> Final piece, cooling system will be all wrapped back up. We help create a few more memories before this father and son hit the back roads.
(Jeremy)>> So we've got a bunch of work done on Ethan's car, and you being the dad we didn't want to forget about you either. I know you've got some issues going on with your car as well.
(Josh)>> Yeah, sometimes when it rains real heavy we'll have a little bit of water get in through the T-top seals and into the seat.
(Jeremy)>> So we've got some new seals up here for the T-tops. We also grabbed some sill plates. So we'll go ahead and replace all that stuff. If you want to grab the door, get that open, get your top off, and start getting these seals out of there.
(Josh)>> My car is a 1980 Camaro Z/28. I got it from my uncle. It was his car before mine. I think he was the second or third owner. So it hadn't changed hands too many times, but he got it when he was out in California. He offered it to me and I kinda wanted an early second gen, but because he had one he's like hey, I don't want to keep that around. Do you want it? Yeah, I couldn't turn it down. When I got the car it was almost completely stock. There was almost nothing done to it but it was in very good condition. Like 45,000 mile car, but I wanted to do the resto-mod sort of thing. One of the things we had to do was the engine. It was losing compression. So we plucked it. It's 30 over, 350 small block. It's got Flowtech cylinder heads, a Lunati Voodoo cam, Edelbrock intake, and a Holley Demon carb. That's the biggest part of the engine that we did. It's got lowered suspension, and wheels and tires, and not much else I don't think.
(Jeremy)>> Alright Josh, we can start in the back. We'll start up top here and work our way down, and we'll follow the corners however they fit here. It's got a locking channel in it. So if we get in the channel it goes underneath these T-top clips there. It fits really well. This should hopefully keep the water off your seat too, or your wife's seat.
(Ethan)>> My dad was into cars, and he taught me everything I know about how to work on them. So I owe all that to him. My dad had a '67 Chevelle that he built for drag racing when I was a kid. I kinda learned a lot from him.
(Jeremy)>> Josh this seal is so much better than your other seal. So we might have to fight this a little bit cause there's definitely a lot of expansion here, I guess. We'll get this in, get it to latch here once, and the trick with new seals is always set everything in the sun. So once we get the other side done we'll take it out, set it in the sun, let the sun really beat on all this, and everything will form itself into shape, and hopefully no more water leaks.
(Jimmy)>> Alright Ethan, just to wrap up the front end on your car your marker lamps were looking a little crusty. So we got some new ones from RockAuto, and we got you a brand new grille insert. It's just the gray coating that comes in the box, and whenever you paint your car you can match it or paint it black. However you want! [ Music ] [ ratchet clicking ]
(Jimmy)>> Got all the new parts install. This thing looks a little bit better than when we got here.
(Jeremy)>> And not to leave you guys completely empty handed RockAuto's got this cool little section called tools and universal parts, and you can go on there and find odds and ends or stuff you really don't think you need. Kinda like when you go to a hardware store. You always seem to find something that you can pick up from every isle. So knowing that at one point Ethan you are gonna paint your car we got you guys a bunch of buffing stuff. So we've got buffers, and we've got some orbital polishers here. We've got all the compounds and stuff for you guys to help. Once you get your car painted, and I know mom's got a really nice Camaro. So you can always go over and help her clean up her car. Once last thing that we got for you guys is since you guys are working on your cars by yourself that's a manual for your car and Josh we got you a manual for your car. So if you guys have any more questions you guys can look through there and find everything else out. We do have a couple more parts we're gonna leave with you Ethan. We have a weatherstrip kit for your car. We've got some sill plates for your car. We'll leave those with you guys and you guys can button that up, but the last thing I think you guys need to do is since the car's put together now take it for a little bit of a test drive. We'll put this in the garage, get it out of your way, and you guys can go for a little rip here. [ Music ]
(Josh)>> So what do you think about all the new parts they put on?
(Ethan)>> I really like what they've done. It made it look a lot better. I'm guessing that new cooling system's gonna do real good.
(Josh)>> The new radiator's gonna do a lot to keep this thing cool in the summer.
(Ethan)>> Now people will be able to actually see my blinkers.
(Josh)>> Absolutely.
(Ethan)>> That new buffing kit will come in real handy once we actually get some paint on it.
(Josh)>> It didn't hurt that the RockAuto was able to get us manuals for both our cars either.
(Ethan)>> I couldn't find mine anywhere online.
(Josh)>> I really appreciate what the Carcass guys did for all their help this week.
(Ethan)>> Yeah, definitely. A lot of this stuff would have gone undone for a long time if they didn't come out and help us.
(Josh)>> It's really cool of them to do that. Appreciate it very much.
(Jimmy)>> That's what it's all about man.
(Jeremy)>> The father and son team, dad kinda passing the torch on to the son. They should be able to keep that car on the road for a long, long time with the help of RockAuto.
(Jimmy)>> And it makes us want to work on our car again. Work on a couple of Camaros today, pretty cool.
(Jeremy)>> Let's get back to work!
Show Full Transcript
(Jimmy)>> Today on Carcass we make our 1972 Camaro a hard top once again, but first we'll show you how to remove the glue and remnants from the old vinyl top.
(Jeremy)>> Plus we hit the road on another Driveway Rescue helping a father and son team keep their Camaros on the road. [ Music ] [ engine revving ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Hey guys, welcome to Carcass. Now Jimmy and I are super excited to get our hands dirty on our 1972 road course Camaro again. It's been a hot second since we've touched this thing. We've done a bunch of work so far to get it to this point, but if you guys are just joining us for the first time or you just need a quick recap let us show you what we've done. We started with a well used stockish Camaro R/S that had some really good bones. We got to work stripping it down to just a shell so we could see what we had to work with. After finding a couple of issues we dug into the body and added a set of mini tubs so we could fit up some wider tires along with a fuel cell in the trunk. Then we laid out the groundwork for a race inspired roll cage to stiffen up the car and to keep us safe.
(Jimmy)>> The next thing to do is add some upgraded suspension in the rear along with a nine inch axle to handle the horsepower. Up front we cleaned up the sub-frame, did some mods, and replaced the suspension with some tubular upper and lower control arms.
(Jeremy)>> The engine and transmission install came next, which included moving back about a foot and adding a front motor plate. To get it to fit in the Camaro we grabbed some cutoff wheels and trimmed the firewall to fit. Then we added a rear firewall to block off the fuel cell from the passenger compartment.
(Jimmy)>> The last thing we did was lay out a set of custom quarter panels and fender flares to fit our wheel and tire setup. That included some work with some expanding foam, body filler, fiberglass, and most importantly some carbon fiber. All that work leads us to today, and something that you guys may have noticed over the last episode or so that these panels have made their way into the main hoop structure. The reason why I made these is just to give the interior of the car a little bit more of a finished look. So I made these out of some aluminum sheet metal, gave them a bead roll pattern just for some rigidity and some style, but they aren't quite done yet. I will have to cut some holes in these two panels just so our harnesses can attach to the harness bar. And you also may be wondering, how are we gonna see out the back of this thing with these panels blocking our view we are gonna be using a rearview camera like a modern race car would, but all the work on the inside that I wanted to get done with the roof off has now been completed. So we can finally get the roof back on the Camaro.
(Jeremy)>> Now with the cage work and the panels that Jimmy just showed you installed inside of the Camaro, now is a good time to weld the roof back on the car. Now we know we gave you guys a little bit of a heart attack when we cut this off, but it allowed us to weld all of the seams on the Camaro's roll cage to make it nice and safe. If you guys remember, when we picked up the Camaro it had a vinyl top on it, and when we pulled that off it left all of this fuzz and all of the glue on the top. So now is a good time to tackle this and get rid of all of that fuzz before we weld it on just because it's sitting here on the table. We have a couple different ideas on how we're going to tackle this, some techniques that we're gonna try. Let me go grab some stuff and we'll show you how we get that done. [ Music ] So one of the methods that we could use to try to get the glue and the fuzz off of the roof here would be to use a d/a. Now we don't think that's gonna work very well because as we start sanding into the glue and the fuzz we think it's just gonna load up the sandpaper. Sandpaper's expensive! Just doesn't seem cost effective to do it that way. Second method includes a Scotchbrite, and we could just sit here and try to rub on the fuzz itself to get it off. Just doesn't seem like that's working either, and it's kinda loading up on the Scotchbrite already. Third method involves just a rag and some lacquer thinner. So if we saturate the rag here a little bit we can set it on top of the glue and kinda hold down on there, and just let it chemically react and release some of that glue, and then come back and try to rub it and wipe it off. That seems to be doing the job. The fourth method, which we think is gonna be the quickest, is to use a grinder with a bristle disc. Some people call them a roll lock disc, and we could sit in here and just grind all the fuzz and the glue off. Now our plan is to use a combination of both of these. What we're going to do is soak our rag full of lacquer thinner. We're gonna let it rest on the fuzz and on the glue for a little while. Then we're gonna come back, grab the roll lock disc, and we'll start taking all this off and get this whole roof skin cleaned up. [ Music ]
[ grinder buzzing ] [ Music ] [ grinder buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> So let's go over a scenario where you guys do want to keep your paint in good shape as soon as you get all of this stuff off of here. We figured it out. If you use your rag that's soaked in lacquer and you just let it sit on the panel for a couple of minutes it actually does a really good job of releasing all of the glue, and if you rub it, put some elbow grease into it, you can actually just rub all of the glue clean off the roof skin here and let you save your paint. But we're gonna keep moving forward. We're gonna use a combination of both of these. We're still gonna use the lacquer and the little angle grinder there. We're gonna go ahead, get this all prepped, taken care of, and then we're gonna move on to getting this thing welded back on the Camaro.
(Jimmy)>> Coming up, we show you how to remove old lead body filler. Then we put the roof back on our Road Course Camaro.
(Jeremy)>> So we have the top prepped and it's ready to be welded back on the Camaro, but there is one thing we have to take care of first. Now when Jimmy and I cut the top off of the car we cut right through the factory seam, and what GM did and what a lot of car manufacturers did is instead of using a body filler in here to make this all nice and smooth they actually used lead. There's two ways to get the lead out of this thing. One is by grinding it, but we really do not want to make it airborne, and the second step, which is the way we're gonna be doing it, is we're actually gonna be using an oxy acetylene torch and we're gonna be reheating up the lead and making it flow. Then we're gonna go ahead and use some scrapers, and maybe a wire brush here, and we're just gonna brush this off and let it hit the floor. One thing I can't stress enough here is your personal safety. Make sure you've got a good pair of glasses on. We've got a good respirator, gloves, and I'm even gonna be wearing a jacket. Plus we have an exhaust fan here in the shop. So we're gonna turn that on and make sure we pull all the fumes up and out. So to get started here I'm gonna get all suited up. We'll fire up the torch, and we'll literally try to get the lead out. [ torch hissing ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> When you're doing this you want to make sure you move around the panel a lot. We don't want to put a lot of heat onto the panel to the point where it starts to distort. Just head it up enough to make the lead run off. [ torch hissing ] [ Music ] [ torch hissing ] [ Music ] [ torch hissing ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> So now all the lead is out of the back of the car. We're actually gonna transition up here to the A-pillar. What I've done is bent up a couple of tabs that fit the contour of the A-pillar on the inside. The idea behind these tabs is we're gonna drill a couple of holes and do some rosette welds and keep these tabs in place. Then we're gonna come back, and when we set the top on we're gonna engage the other side of the A-pillar into these tabs with a couple of rosette welds and we're gonna weld it on that way. Then we'll also come in and weld up the seam. Now this is a nice, strong repair on the A-pillar, but one thing to remember is that the top is just solely for aesthetics at this point. It's just to make the car look like a Camaro again. Our roll cage is doing everything we need in the safety side of things and just to stiffen up the chassis. So we'll go ahead and get started here. I'll pull the tabs back out, grab the drill, and we'll drill some holes for our rosette welds. [ drill humming ]
(Jeremy)>> Once the holes are drilled we'll remove all the paint to give us a nice, clean welding surface. [ Music ] So we've got Jimmy on one side. I grabbed Joel from Detroit Muscle. He's gonna hold the back, and we're gonna try to engage the A-pillars into these tabs. Alright, I got mine started.
(Jimmy)>> Let's see!
(Jeremy)>> Pushy, pulley here.
(Jimmy)>> I'll just need to tap these with a hammer to get them to fall in. [ hammer tapping metal ]
(Jeremy)>> Mine's in. Perfect! There we go. That'll work! [ welder crackling ]
(Jeremy)>> With a combination of rosette welds and stitch welding I moved around the car making sure I didn't weld in one place too long and distort all the metal. [ welder crackling ]
(Jeremy)>> What's better than one Camaro, two Camaros! We help a father and son team with a few minor parts on their projects in another Driveway Rescue.
(Jeremy)>> Alright guys, it's Driveway Rescue day. Jimmy and I are out in the back country roads of Tennessee, and we're gonna go help a family of Camaro owners. There's a mom, a dad, and a son, and each of them own a different generation of Camaro. Now they've worked on the cars a little bit but they need a little bit of help buttoning these things up. So that's what we're gonna do today.
(Jimmy)>> Dad's is a 1980 Camaro, which we're pretty familiar with second gens at this point. The son's is a 1991, which we're also familiar with third gens cause we built one of those, and mom's is a 2020 and her car is very nice. So we're just gonna pay attention to the dad's and the son's Camaro. This is a pretty cool thing for us just because we're both familiar with working with our families in the garage turning wrenches and stuff like that. Growing up I was always in the garage with my dad and my brother doing stuff. You work with your son and even your wife turns wrenches from time to time. So we've all clocked a lot of hours doing this, and this is a nice opportunity to kind of extend a helping hand and try to get these cars in a little bit better running condition.
(Jeremy)>> They've done quite a bit of work on these cars already, but everybody can use a helping hand to kinda just finish this stuff up. So us together with RockAuto, we've got a bunch of parts, bunch of tools. We're gonna go help them just button these cars up.
(Jimmy)>> There we go! I see three Camaros in the driveway.
(Jeremy)>> Let's go meet them and see what they're all about. [ Music ] Ethan, Josh, Nice to meet you! So you guys have got a pair of Camaros here. Ethan yours is a '91 correct? And Josh?
(Josh)>> 1980!
(Jeremy)>> We've got a bunch of parts and stuff in the van. I think it's best if we just get at this.
(Jimmy)>> Put up some tents, get some shade up.
(Jeremy)>> Get ready and we'll get started here.
(Ethan)>> My car is the 1991 Camaro RS that we basically pulled out of a field. We were really looking for a project car for my first car. I was really looking for a second gen. My parents convinced me that I should be a third gen cause they're better suspension, and better drivetrain. We found this one online. We went out near the edge of Kentucky to get it and brought it back here. We've just been working on it ever since. When we first got it back to our house we did not trust anything on it. Since then we've done the brakes, the back axle, and all the suspension on the front and back.
(Josh)>> It was actually as advertised. They didn't try to upsell it. I think they were very honest with the listing. We knew it was gonna be a good project but it needed everything. It showed it had been sitting.
(Ethan)>> I was just excited at that point. It was my first car, and it was an older car that was pretty cool for 14, 15 year old.
(Jeremy)>> Guys got a couple of parts to get started up underneath the hood here. Jimmy's got a radiator, and I've got the blower motor. We've got a couple more things for up front here, but gonna get started on all this.
(Jimmy)>> We'll get this drained out and you guys can get the blower motor in it.
(Jeremy)>> Sounds good. We'll put the hose on here, this little drain. Vent tube really if I can get it in there. There we go, and then we'll go ahead and slide it in.
(Ethan)>> I've been helping my dad build the '80 Camaro since I was little, and I've always just like building cars. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> That should wrap that up! [ Music ] [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ]
(Josh)>> Just as easy as it comes out. [ Music ]
He's done really well with if he didn't know how to do this or that. Hey, here's how I've been taught to do it, and I've showed him, and he's taken to that very well. It's been awesome watching him grow and learn how to do these skills, and then also take a lot of pride in the project that he's working on too. Just seeing him do it is the best.
(Jimmy)>> Final piece, cooling system will be all wrapped back up. We help create a few more memories before this father and son hit the back roads.
(Jeremy)>> So we've got a bunch of work done on Ethan's car, and you being the dad we didn't want to forget about you either. I know you've got some issues going on with your car as well.
(Josh)>> Yeah, sometimes when it rains real heavy we'll have a little bit of water get in through the T-top seals and into the seat.
(Jeremy)>> So we've got some new seals up here for the T-tops. We also grabbed some sill plates. So we'll go ahead and replace all that stuff. If you want to grab the door, get that open, get your top off, and start getting these seals out of there.
(Josh)>> My car is a 1980 Camaro Z/28. I got it from my uncle. It was his car before mine. I think he was the second or third owner. So it hadn't changed hands too many times, but he got it when he was out in California. He offered it to me and I kinda wanted an early second gen, but because he had one he's like hey, I don't want to keep that around. Do you want it? Yeah, I couldn't turn it down. When I got the car it was almost completely stock. There was almost nothing done to it but it was in very good condition. Like 45,000 mile car, but I wanted to do the resto-mod sort of thing. One of the things we had to do was the engine. It was losing compression. So we plucked it. It's 30 over, 350 small block. It's got Flowtech cylinder heads, a Lunati Voodoo cam, Edelbrock intake, and a Holley Demon carb. That's the biggest part of the engine that we did. It's got lowered suspension, and wheels and tires, and not much else I don't think.
(Jeremy)>> Alright Josh, we can start in the back. We'll start up top here and work our way down, and we'll follow the corners however they fit here. It's got a locking channel in it. So if we get in the channel it goes underneath these T-top clips there. It fits really well. This should hopefully keep the water off your seat too, or your wife's seat.
(Ethan)>> My dad was into cars, and he taught me everything I know about how to work on them. So I owe all that to him. My dad had a '67 Chevelle that he built for drag racing when I was a kid. I kinda learned a lot from him.
(Jeremy)>> Josh this seal is so much better than your other seal. So we might have to fight this a little bit cause there's definitely a lot of expansion here, I guess. We'll get this in, get it to latch here once, and the trick with new seals is always set everything in the sun. So once we get the other side done we'll take it out, set it in the sun, let the sun really beat on all this, and everything will form itself into shape, and hopefully no more water leaks.
(Jimmy)>> Alright Ethan, just to wrap up the front end on your car your marker lamps were looking a little crusty. So we got some new ones from RockAuto, and we got you a brand new grille insert. It's just the gray coating that comes in the box, and whenever you paint your car you can match it or paint it black. However you want! [ Music ] [ ratchet clicking ]
(Jimmy)>> Got all the new parts install. This thing looks a little bit better than when we got here.
(Jeremy)>> And not to leave you guys completely empty handed RockAuto's got this cool little section called tools and universal parts, and you can go on there and find odds and ends or stuff you really don't think you need. Kinda like when you go to a hardware store. You always seem to find something that you can pick up from every isle. So knowing that at one point Ethan you are gonna paint your car we got you guys a bunch of buffing stuff. So we've got buffers, and we've got some orbital polishers here. We've got all the compounds and stuff for you guys to help. Once you get your car painted, and I know mom's got a really nice Camaro. So you can always go over and help her clean up her car. Once last thing that we got for you guys is since you guys are working on your cars by yourself that's a manual for your car and Josh we got you a manual for your car. So if you guys have any more questions you guys can look through there and find everything else out. We do have a couple more parts we're gonna leave with you Ethan. We have a weatherstrip kit for your car. We've got some sill plates for your car. We'll leave those with you guys and you guys can button that up, but the last thing I think you guys need to do is since the car's put together now take it for a little bit of a test drive. We'll put this in the garage, get it out of your way, and you guys can go for a little rip here. [ Music ]
(Josh)>> So what do you think about all the new parts they put on?
(Ethan)>> I really like what they've done. It made it look a lot better. I'm guessing that new cooling system's gonna do real good.
(Josh)>> The new radiator's gonna do a lot to keep this thing cool in the summer.
(Ethan)>> Now people will be able to actually see my blinkers.
(Josh)>> Absolutely.
(Ethan)>> That new buffing kit will come in real handy once we actually get some paint on it.
(Josh)>> It didn't hurt that the RockAuto was able to get us manuals for both our cars either.
(Ethan)>> I couldn't find mine anywhere online.
(Josh)>> I really appreciate what the Carcass guys did for all their help this week.
(Ethan)>> Yeah, definitely. A lot of this stuff would have gone undone for a long time if they didn't come out and help us.
(Josh)>> It's really cool of them to do that. Appreciate it very much.
(Jimmy)>> That's what it's all about man.
(Jeremy)>> The father and son team, dad kinda passing the torch on to the son. They should be able to keep that car on the road for a long, long time with the help of RockAuto.
(Jimmy)>> And it makes us want to work on our car again. Work on a couple of Camaros today, pretty cool.
(Jeremy)>> Let's get back to work!
