Decisions on 1970 RS/SS L34 with LS 6.0 swap... restore or let go.

[jkhall]

the Camaro in my profile picture is at a cross road. I made a horrible mistake and let a very horrible shop paint my car ... its the worst paintjob I have ever seen, it was horrible, I show up 6 weeks later and my car was not at the shop and would not tell me where it was other than at another friends shop. I called police and had it recovered a few hrs later. this was 18 months ago I have not even wanted to look at it because the paintjob was so freaking horrible so it has sat in my garage. this last weekend I decided to evaluate the car and see what it will take to get it back on the road where I would be happy. Bubbles though the paint and I have a few rust pinholes in rear quarterpannel. FML. :/

the VIN comes back 1970 Chevrolet Camaro V8 SS 396 series (L34)

I have done an LS swap.. LS2 w/Trickflow 220gen x heads, titanium rockers, stout cam, 1 3/4 long tube headers, LSXr intake and fitech computer/harness. L60e built transmission at monster transmission, horseshoe shifter, Vintage air AC put in but never charged it. Dakota Digital instrament cluster, Painless wiring harness, 22gallon fuel tank with electric pump.. I am sure other things I am forgetting at this moment.

So do I start over from scratch, Media blast or dip car. invest another crap ton of money ,time, effort.. or Do I let it go and start a new project.

 

[75Maro]

Damn hate to hear the paint story. If it was my car I would be inclined to fix it given how much time and money you have already put into it. Just my .02

 

[VA/SC Gamecock]

For me it would depend on how sentimental the car is to you. If its special to you for whatever reason then fix it and be happy but if its just another car you've had then cut it loose.

 

[John Wright]

I'm with 75Maro, I'd scape the paint off and redo that part of it. After all it sounds like, most of the hard, expensive work is already done, now it just needs to be prettied up again. With all of that crap with the paint story, it's easy to get frustrated and I completely understand if you throw in the towel and find something else.

 

[Twisted_Metal]

the Camaro in my profile picture is at a cross road. I made a horrible mistake and let a very horrible shop paint my car ... its the worst paintjob I have ever seen, it was horrible, I show up 6 weeks later and my car was not at the shop and would not tell me where it was other than at another friends shop. I called police and had it recovered a few hrs later. this was 18 months ago I have not even wanted to look at it because the paintjob was so freaking horrible so it has sat in my garage. this last weekend I decided to evaluate the car and see what it will take to get it back on the road where I would be happy. Bubbles though the paint and I have a few rust pinholes in rear quarterpannel. FML. :/

the VIN comes back 1970 Chevrolet Camaro V8 SS 396 series (L34)

I have done an LS swap.. LS2 w/Trickflow 220gen x heads, titanium rockers, stout cam, 1 3/4 long tube headers, LSXr intake and fitech computer/harness. L60e built transmission at monster transmission, horseshoe shifter, Vintage air AC put in but never charged it. Dakota Digital instrament cluster, Painless wiring harness, 22gallon fuel tank with electric pump.. I am sure other things I am forgetting at this moment.

So do I start over from scratch, Media blast or dip car. invest another crap ton of money ,time, effort.. or Do I let it go and start a new project.

I don't believe a VIN will decode your car to a 1970 SS Camaro.

How did you determine this?

Trim Tag info will show it was a big block car, IF it was a Norwood built Camaro.
A Van Nuys Camaro will not.

Stegmiller's Second Generation Camaro: Cowl Tags

If it IS a Norwood Camaro AND the trim tag shows "L34", it was built as a big block SS.

However, much of the value of a 1970 SS has been lost without the original drive train.

The paint/body work is still an issue.
If it's as bad as you say... You probably have to go to court to make things "right".

 

[72BIGBLOCK]

The card does not look bad in the pictures. It looks like it was straight to begin with, but that’s just a small picture that I’m looking at in your avatar.

I would probably agree with some of the other posters and fix what you have

If you take the whole car apart, you’re not gonna finish it at least not in the next few years and then who knows in the middle of the restoration. There’s a possibility you could give up if the car is running and driving I would just square out the body make it a nice looking driver. A lot of these cars look very nice and they do not need to show paint job, but that’s what I would do.

 

[73Z L92]

I help at a body shop a couple days a week for for car parts money. LOL. I'm retired. Last summer I helped with 73 Camaro that owner bought on-line and the "new" paint was total junk. The new owner got took big time. The shop owner is a hot rodder so what they agreed to was block sanding the paint to get it a bit straighter. One round of sanding primer, sealer and lower cost base/clear coat paint. Cut and buff. The owner removed all trim and reinstalled all the trim. I don't know what the final bill was but I'm guessing between 8K-9.5K. Materials are really expensive.
It really turned out pretty good. The owner was very happy.
One thing the shop owner made clear to the car owner since he couldn't provide details of the previous primer and paint there is a chance the new paint could lift. Didn't have any issues thank goodness.

 

[danbrennan]

Without seeing the car in person, I'm inclined to agree with the others. Sand it down far enough to get all the blemishes out, maybe even everywhere down to the primer, seal it with an epoxy primer, then repaint. Do you know how many of coats of paint it has on it, and what kind of paint the coats are? If it has multiple coats of lacquer I would think you'd want to get rid of those, but if it's just one topcoat of urethane that's not too bad. A few pinholes of rust could be fixed easy enough, unless there is a lot of rust behind them. Sanding may take a few months, depending on how must time you have available. A air powered DA sander makes it go quicker than hand sanding.

 

[jkhall]

I don't believe a VIN will decode your car to a 1970 SS Camaro.

How did you determine this?

Trim Tag info will show it was a big block car, IF it was a Norwood built Camaro.
A Van Nuys Camaro will not.

Stegmiller's Second Generation Camaro: Cowl Tags

If it IS a Norwood Camaro AND the trim tag shows "L34", it was built as a big block SS.

However, much of the value of a 1970 SS has been lost without the original drive train.

The paint/body work is still an issue.
If it's as bad as you say... You probably have to go to court to make things "right".

I used ClassicDecoder.com to hunt down the data.

Now i am a little more curious as I am looking at the trim tag underhood and it has something i had not seen before..

The "454504" in the middle lower identifier.

 

[jkhall]

Without seeing the car in person, I'm inclined to agree with the others. Sand it down far enough to get all the blemishes out, maybe even everywhere down to the primer, seal it with an epoxy primer, then repaint. Do you know how many of coats of paint it has on it, and what kind of paint the coats are? If it has multiple coats of lacquer I would think you'd want to get rid of those, but if it's just one topcoat of urethane that's not too bad. A few pinholes of rust could be fixed easy enough, unless there is a lot of rust behind them. Sanding may take a few months, depending on how must time you have available. A air powered DA sander makes it go quicker than hand sanding.

Unfortunatly right now its not red. the factory color was blue, but I made a mistake and hired a non-reputable shop in the Tampa area to paint it. Currently the paintjob is so bad it really turns my stomache and the red is showing through the new color. I found in the rear quarterpanel rust right above the tire well that is going through. THis car needs a complete going through now.