Inner Rocker panel replacement and front subframe mount repair 1968 Firebird or Camaro
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- čas přidán 5. 05. 2022
- Replacing welded in rocker panels and subframe mount repair the step by step process on a Firebird. First stages of a complete overhaul all done in a garage at home proving its possible.
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#Pontiac #Firebird #restoration - Auta a dopravní prostředky
My 67 Firebird is bad in the exact same location as yours. Thanks for the great video!
These old birds rarely rust the same,
But most of them in the rust belt here need floors and rocker repairs.
Great to see the old Birds being saved. I have a 69 convert. that I bought in 1980. I am going thru the process of putting a new floor pan. Have put on LH/RH rockers and OEM clean torque boxes. Lots of work. Two stall garage full of parts. Keep up the great work. P.s. Star wearing a mask when using the 2 part primers.
That’s awesome, you are into my favorite part, metal working. Keep up the good work!
I'm glad my 67 Cougar's rockers are galvanized! 😂😂😂
I had a 65 mustang the floors nearly completely rusted away but the rockers were nearly mint, they were galvanized of course. Take the win when you can
Great video as usual Jon, you make it look too easy.
Much appreciated, I might make it look easy because I have had a little practice but it truly is not too difficult, make a plan, lots of measurements, photos, and keep it fun. Most of all know that you will make a few mistakes. I have, but the thing to take away from that mistake is the lesson learned and improve. That is how I make it look easy i have made a lot of mistakes but l dig into the why and make adjustments and now it’s time for me to share those experiences and maybe speed up or reduce the number of mistakes you have to make to get the job done.
Lol, well maybe i said to much. I love these old cars. Thanks for your support
Very informative, you make it look easy. Thanks!
Thank you. Years of Practice and many mistakes. Now I can share what I leaned so you can look like a pro sooner
I have a 69 camaro, but all the tips are relevant, great video, you deserve a lot more subscribers
Thank you. I do appreciate that, I figure subs will grow with time but if not no worries my goal is to share what I have seen and Learned over the last 25 years playing cars. Thanks for checking us out.
Just found your channel have to say im impressed. I just picked up a 69 firebird that's gonna need a lot of panels. Love the tips/tricks. Thank you for showing all this. I know it'll come in handy.
Awesome, Glad to help. 1969 is my favorite year. I have two of them wish I could save them all. Thanks for joining the team! Gotta save them bird s
Just discovered your channel, great job, keep it up especially for us restoring rust bucket cars from Ohio
Thanks for finding us. Indiana cars aren’t much better still in the rust belt. I assume you have a Firebird too.
Thanks for the good tips! You make a man with a rusty bird more confident it can be saved !
You bet! this stuff is fun to me. and even cooler to share it now with me fellow bird friends.
Big thumbs up here brother I use your Style of screwing the floor Pan and then using a 1/4 drill bit boy what a difference thank you for everything that you do you are a special person in my life because we share the same Passion for these cars Gotta save them birds
Glad to hear it’s working good for you. It was a technique that I came up with, i may not be the first but I have never seen anyone else l do it that way. I love the results super clean and strong.
@@VinylVillageGarage That's right clean and strong and if you pay attention to the new panels the spot Welds are not big at all
Very tiny way smaller then factory
@@VinylVillageGarage Is there a method to your madness on how far the spacing is between welds are for certain areas?
Spot welds from the factory are spaced 1-3” depending on where. Rocker panel welds across the bottom are like 1.5” and then the ones on the top are more like 3” These cars where welded by people not robots so the locations and consistency of the spot welds very a lot from car to car. I keep mine about 2” apart for most locations. I am sure opinions vary on this but a will say the plug welds i do are much stronger then the factory spot welds.
You're killing me with all these great firebirds. I just watched a numbers matching very nice condition 67 400 hardtop sell for $23k on ebay. I would have guessed $30 - 35K price, so maybe the market's cooling off a little.
Wow $23k is cheap, I would have like to have seen that one. If the market is becoming more reasonable maybe I can pick up a real 1969 Trans Am. It’s on my wish list of cars to own.
Awesome vid and thanks for digging into the abyss of major restoration work. I love working on them old cars but shy away from serious pan replacement. I love fabrication and welding. Maybe it's time I dig deep to help these old birds like you do.
Thanks!! I say go for it, keep it fun and do it in small projects and set goals to prevent it from becoming overwhelming. My favorite part is cutting, welding, and fabricating too. Gotta save them birds! So get started
Lots of work, looking good.
Thanks, I see it more as playing if it turns into work not nearly as much fun.
Great video. I'm glad I mostly got to leave my rockers alone on my bird, but this a great tutorial for anyone replacing them....especially in a home garage.
Thanks man, looks like you are making good progress on your bird too. Thanks for doing your part, gotta save them birds.
The left hand inner rocker in position with screws like it is. I was thinking you could drill small holes for the welds through both layers. Then enlarge the near side to say 1/4 inch for welding. Use a vise grip next to each hole as you weld it. Then inspect the far side holes for good penetrations, before moving on. It might be faster way.
I thought about that and might try it too. See if it is quicker
Nice video. Thank you for sharing
Thanks again.
as always Jon good tips and knowledge about these body panels i’ve never gotten to do this but i love metal work. look forward to your next vid good to see you home again seems you got to work with Brian and that was a big deal replacement of the swiss cheese roof.
Thanks!! That roof was a hot rusty mess but she is pretty now and ready for him to finish it up too.
Some good tips in this one, Jon, thank you for those. I decided to replace the floor pan, subframe brace, and seat pan, on the drivers side as the "patch" panels from years ago just wasn't safe enough. I also have to do some repairs to the body mounts in the subframe so I took the plunge and invested in a welder and it will be here soon. Yeah.....I'm in deep now. Wish me luck!
Best of luck to you, plus if you need any help I am all ears and i am sure Luis is available too. I enjoy playing with metal and fixing the panels keep it fun is the best practice too. I am home from Arizona so back to the great pumpkin and get it done
Good luck. And hope all goes well
@@VinylVillageGarage I appreciate that, Jon, and I may take you up on the advice you're always willing to give as this is my first welder. I know it's going to be ugly, but I'm ok with that as long as I the welds are solid/safe.
@@eightbll1017 Thanks to you as well as I can use all the luck I can grab!
Grab some scrap pieces of metal the same gage and practice on it. Learn the settings on the welder first then practice Plug welds. They will be the one you will need the most and not as technical as butt welding. Butt welding sheet metal is a bit tricky at first but with practice you will get it.
nice work. Work smarter...not harder.
I am all about that, don’t like working harder then I have to
U have a video on front bumper alignment, fenders to front bumper gap, 68 firebird? Thanks
This covers a good bit of it.
Front bumper and grill installation 1968 Firebird
czcams.com/video/fSwg7qxtW1Q/video.html
Thank you so much Jon for your DIY 68 Firebird video's! I bought a rust free 68 firebird 400 a couple years back in pieces even the Quarter panels were cut off. I've taken it to 3 different body shops trying to get new quarters aligned and welded in but it's been a nightmare trying to get this parts and pieces back on in the correct position. I go months not touching it because it's overwhelming trying to figure it out with no DIY video's showing how it's done until now... The last shop I took it to had me order all new front finders and quarters and doors because the other new parts that came with the car didn't fit. I've got 3 of everything even some camaro finders and 2 front bumpers that have the same dent in both oddly.
Okay so my request is can you show us how to place and align the front fenders? Also would like to see how to rebuild the doors from the guts to the inside panels. Any markings on the car or vin I could confirm it's an original 400? Wish you lived closer! I'm down in south Georgia it would be nice to see your setup also think you could use all these extra parts I have laying around. Thank you for all that you do keep up the good work!
Very welcome. I love these old birds. I actually just returned from a trip to Arizona to replace a roof panel on a 1967 bird. While it was there we where able to find enough clues to say his car was in fact a 400 car also not a 6cyl like he was originally told by other people. Unfortunately there is no way to prove by the body tag or vin if it was a 326 or 400 car. The only engine info in the VIN is if it was a 6cyl or V8 originally. The only way I know of is contact PHS “Pontiac historical society “ and have them send you a copy of the original build sheet. I have a video on how we determined his car was possibly a 400 car should be up this week. It will tell you what to look for.
I am working on a 1968 bird in my shop at home and will be doing videos on all the things you requested as i come to those parts. So stay tuned
You could film the righr inner rocker in case there is something different or special. If nothing soecial shows up just add it in fast fwd play to the next video.
I have a little footage to add it’s super clean and rust free, weird how this car rusts so different side to side.
@@VinylVillageGarage very well could be the cover that was on it. I remember this thing sitting in the back of a driveway with a heavy canvas cover for quite some time. After years I’m sure it held water pretty easy. It was shielded by a large tree on one side for many years before being garaged again.
my question to you John is, have you ever thought of using cavity wax to fill in the voids in the rocker panel areas.
Yes and it’s a must on replacement rocker panels for convertibles, even though they charge $700 for each one they are bare steel on the inside no coating or edp at all.
@@VinylVillageGarage ok good to know thanks John
For a 67 convertable, we're or what part do you recommend for replacing the inner rocker ?
The only way to get an inner rocker for a convertible is purchase an entire assembly for a convertible and remove it, unfortunately it isn’t available separately on the aftermarket. Can you make a coupe inner rocker work with some modifications? the answer is sort of it will look the part but it isn’t really as thick of metal of original. Definitely better than rusted out of course.
Do you think any existing rusty metal or bare metal will continue to rust in any significant manner if the car never sees rain again?
Keeping a car out the weather will greatly
Reduce or stop further rusting for sure. Sadly no matter what you do corrosion will still show it’s ugly
Head again unfortunately.
@@VinylVillageGarage I have two 67 birds in the garage with bare metal spots on the sheet metal and the rust on them hasn't changed in 20 years. It likely is also related to humidity. We are pretty humid here in Ottawa Canada though.
I have a door shell from the transmaroado project that was media blasted 5 years ago that still hasn’t rusted yet in my garage so I know like you it definitely slows the process keeping it out of the weather
Hey Jon I have a question concerning a trunk lid! I have 3 different trunk lids for my 68 firebird one with spoiler holes and 2 without. None seem to fit. Do you have an original deck lid you could give the top measurement from edge to edge on the back corner where it starts to drop down over the tail light panel? I don't know if my rear quarters are off or if I have cheap stamped deck lids. It's just hard to believe out of 3 deck lids I have half inch to 3/4 gaps on both edges. Any suggestion on which brand deck lid, you mentioned AMD which seem out of stock evey where. There is a national parts depot a couple hours drive, I just hate spending more money on a part that won't fit. As always thank you for your time!
absolutely I can get you that measurement for you when I get home from work, gotta make some money somewhere to pay for the toys. I have 3 original factory stampings and one after market. 3/4” gap is way out of wack, I have had some poor fitting trunk decks but none that bad. I believe your assumption that something was assembled wrong with your body might be right.
51 3/4 - 51 7/8 was the max and minimum width of the trunk deck at the rear. Just for fyi trunk opening corner to corner at the rear 52 1/8”
@@VinylVillageGarage Thank you so much that helped a lot!
@@MrShiggdiggy glad to help, good luck on your project