OK boys and girls; now that you have the patch panel built let’s prep it for the welding process, first you need to grind a 45 degree angle, or as close as you can get on the outside edge of the patch that you built all the way around it.

You’ll do the same around the hole in your corvette frame; this is to help the weld penetrate all the way through the frame on both sides; both sides being the patch side, and the frame side of the rust repair, once this is done we need just a little more prep work.

You’ll need to clean the top side of the patch panel that you made with your grinder, and the frame side of the area that your repairing; you can’t get the weld area to clean, if you have contaminants on the metal it will make it a lot harder to weld.

Now we need to get the mig welder set-up to do the welding; as I have said earlier you’ll need at least 60 amps to weld the frame properly and at least .035 mig wire, now that you have this part finished we’ll set the argon regulator, I usually use about 30 LBS.

Although you can play with the regulator to get it where you desire it to be, I’d recommend that you have a piece of the frame steel to test weld on, if you have the amps on the welder set to 60 you’ll probably want the wire speed close to 6.

This is why you need a test piece of frame steel, run a few weld beads on it until you get a good looking bead; make sure that it penetrates through the metal by looking at the other side of the weld to see if it did; if it penetrated your ready to go.

You need a magnet to hold the patch in place as you weld it in the frame; use the magnet until you do your first two tack welds, then it’s safe to remove it; I’d suggest that you don’t just run a straight weld all the way around at once.

Run a one inch bead on the top of the patch, and then move to the bottom of it; after that move from side to side to keep the heat as even as possible, you’ll have less of a chance to damage the frame steel this way, remember it’s just mild steel.

After your done welding the patch in; it’s time to smooth out the weld around the patch area, but first I’d let it cool down a bit, after it cools for about fifteen minutes you should be able to start grinding the welds that you made around the patch area.

Don’t get in a hurry; if you think that your in a hurry it will be your first mistake, take your time and don’t over grind the weld it will just make more work for you; at this point you should be able to grind the weld smooth, it should almost disappear if you done it right.

If you need to you can use a little body filler on the weld, but it would be much better if you don’t have to; if you just take your time and pay attention you should not need body filler in the weld area, just use a smoother grit stone, or disc and the grind marks should go away.

At this point your done; you have successfully repaired the rust in the frame of your corvette and your ready to move to the next step, but that is for another article; I hope that this will help your with your corvette frame rust repair.

Technorati Tags: corvette frame rust repair, corvette restoration, muscle car restoration, classic car restoration

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I have been to almost every web site trying to find reliable information on running hydrogen as gas in your classic muscle cars, these is no doubt that it’s a better fuel for your car, it burns cleaner; and makes your engine last longer.

I can’t find proof that anybody is actually running hydrogen as fuel, I have found quite literally hundreds of sites that claim it to be the best thing out these, but about half way through ninety percent of the sites comes the sales pitch.

I have not with in the last year and a half found one single site that studies this fuel without trying to sell it to you, I can’t really put any trust in a sales site due to the fact that they will do what it takes to convince you that you need it, that it’s the best thing ever.

While I think that the idea of using hydrogen as an alternate fuel is a great idea, I cannot prove that anybody has come up with a reliable to use it as a fuel for your car, I will keep looking in to it, and if I find any good information I will relay it.

When I first started seeing hydrogen appear on the market as a fuel for cars I was excited, because there is no doubt that it’s a better fuel then fossil based fuels, I’m sure that somebody will develop a reliable way to use it as a fuel, but the water converters are useless.

I truly hope that none of my readers got ripped off on the purchase of one of these converters; the idea behind them is a good idea; but to this point it has not been proven to be a good replacement for fossil based fuels.

Technorati Tags: hydrogen fuel, alternate fuel for muscle cars

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However this is not a license to be stupid; don’t bare in to the frame with your grinder, take it very easily and take small amounts at a time, you don’t want to weaken frame as you try to take off the surface rust; or you will be cutting it out and patching it.

OK now that we have discussed the easy stuff, it’s time to bare down and get to the hard stuff, I of course won’t be able to cover everything in this one article, you’ll have to look for the next one to finish you learning, but I will get as much as possible in this one.

The most obvious thing is to closely inspect your frame; make sure it needs to be patched before you go cutting in to it, you’ll hear some people say that you should just go look for another frame rather then cutting and patching your frame.

This statement could not be less true; unless your frame is beyond repair you absolutely should use it, it is very herd to locate another frame to replace yours with that will be in better condition, you should make every effort to fix the frame that you have.

Since you corvette’s body is made from fibre glass your frame is very important to your safety and you should make sure that it’s done right; put the time in to repairing that is required, do not take short cuts to save time, or money it would be very stupid.

Now we’ll get to the nitty gritty here, you’ll need to make sure that you have access to a air die grinder to cut the rust out of the frame, you should never use a torch to do this, if you have a plasma cutter you can use that, a plasma won’t weaken your frame.

The reason you should never use a torch is very simple, as the torch heats the metal until it’s glowing red, or moulting which ever you prefer, it weakens the metal that in the glowing area, and a die grinder will not do this, nor a plasma cutter.

You will also need a welder preferably 220 volt mig welder that has enough balls to weld the frame of your corvette, to smooth out the weld you’ll need a electric, or an air grinder which ever you prefer to use, I would say that the welder needs to do about 60 amps.

Now we’ll locate the rusted area and cut it out, using your plasma cutter, or your die grinder either one is fine, you’ll want to cut about two inches out from the affected area, after you have located; and cut out the affected area you need to gauge it.

You must replace the metal that your cutting out with the exact same gauge of metal; take a sample to the place that you plan to purchase the replacement metal from and let them gauge it for you; don’t get exactly as mach as you think you need, get more them you need.

If the affected area includes an angle you’ll also need to get the angle bent back in to the metal; since you probably don’t own a metal break that’s capable of bending frame steel you’ll need a shop to do this also; but make sure that you measure the angle right.

Frame steel is not horribly expensive, this is why I say get extra, get twice, or three times as much as you need so in case you make a mistake, and you probably will the first time around so be ready for it; it’s up to you to do the job right.

Technorati Tags: corvette frame rust repair, corvette restoration, muscle car restoration, classic car restoration

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After you know what car you’d like to restore start to plan out the parts strategy, familiarize yourself with all of the after market suppliers that deal in parts for the car your restoring, you should also try to find OEM parts if at all possible.

Auto Revival’s goal is to help as many people as possible with their muscle cars, and the restoration of them, obviously it’s a long time consuming process, so be ready to put the time that it takes in to the car to finish it, if you think that speed is key, restoration is not for you.

You’ll spend many hours inspecting parts to see which one you can save, and which ones need to be replaced, you’ll spend even more time locating that parts that you need to restore your muscle car, and then comes the repair work.

An average restoration job on a car in good condition is around 800 hours of work at a professional shop, that adds up to 20 months of work on the car, or just shy a one and a half years, so as I said earlier be ready to put the time in.

If the car is not in good condition the amount of time that you have to dedicate to the car will obviously go up, so beware of thinking that the $2,500 rust bucket will save you money, it will not, it’s best to spend a little more money and get a better car to start with.

Also is you can have a knowledgeable mechanic, and body restoration man look at the car, this will save you some time and agony in the end, if not just make 100% sure that you inspect the car thoroughly before you buy it.

Don’t get over excited and buy the first one you find, take your time and search for better cars to start with, don’t let the owner of the car play any games either, like the obvious one, I have ten other people looking at the car, you’d better buy now, or it will be gone.

It’s usually a game, and it’s usually not the truth unless the car is a really rare and hard to find limited production model, in that case you probably should listen to the guy selling the car, these cars tend to generate a lot of interest, if they are the real thing.

It’s all about getting exactly what your looking for, buy books and take some time to read, and learn all you can about the car your going to restore, the more you know, the less of a chance you’ll have of getting ripped off.

Technorati Tags: muscle cars, muscle car restoration, classic car restoration

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I’m sure that if you think back to your past you can remember a car that you just loved, usually that’s a good place to start, if you spend some time looking you can find exactly what you want, and that is when the fun starts.

I know that I talk about the restoration of the classic cars all the time, but this article is going to be a different, I guess it will be more of a promotion for classic cars, something to show the fun you can have, and the fun that you family can have.

I know if your a car guy at some point you’ve heard that you spend to much time on your car, but if you were to get your family involved in the process of finding the right cat, and then keep them in the loop as you restore it, you may never have to hear that again.

Everybody in your family will have a different part that they can do to help the process along, you wife may be good at sewing things, give her the interior work to do, your kids may be the mechanical, and artistic types, there will be a lot for them to do also.

If you let them in on the project, they can have fun right along with you, and then when the car is done they can say that they helped restore it, people enjoy accomplishing things that seem hard to do, it just feels good to them.

After you have completed your classic car restoration it doesn’t end there, that is when the real fun starts, you can enter your work of art in the car shows, and take your family along to enjoy the accolades of their work also, and look at all the other cars.

The whole process of restoring cars is fun and interesting for most car guy, and can be a lot of fun even if your not a car person, there is something for everyone to do during the process, and the end result is vary cool also, but believe me it won’t be your last one.

\It doesn’t matter what kind of cars you like, rather it’s Ford, Chrysler, or GM, all of them are a lot of fun to restore, and you can usually find a good one to restore, it may take some looking, and it will take some money, good starter cars run about $10,000 to start.

The days of the $2,500 car are long gone, sure you can locate a car to restore that only costs $2,500, but you’ll more then likely replace every single sheet metal panel on the car, usually not a great idea for a beginner in the restoration world.

You should start out with a car that is in decent condition to start with, this will be less of a hardship for a beginner, and you’ll have a much better chance to complete the work, and have the outcome that your envisioning at the end.

Technorati Tags: classcic cars, muscle cars, custom cars, hot rods

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Things like why do I love classic cars so much, how did I get in to this industry, and what keeps me coming back, I have tried other things, as one time I gave it up to go be an electronics engineer, and then it was computer networking.

But I always came back to my first love, classic American cars, and the restoration of them, through all this I discovered that the best thing that I could do, is to bring the joy of classic cars to as many people as I possibly could.

I chose to do this with the power of the web, my company now runs seven sites that are related to classic American cars, and muscle cars, I get asked hundreds of questions a month, and have written over two hundred articles on classic car restoration.

I do it not for money, all though my sites do generate income, I do it for the love of classic cars, and the desire to make sure that people can always find the answers that they need as they restore their cars, the desire to keep them on the road.

I do it to help people get their projects finished, along the way most people that restore cars for the first time have a lot of questions, and that is the reason I keep up the blogs, and web sites, that is the reason that I live and breath, that is why I do it.

I can’t even begin to describe the pleasure that I feel when a person tells me that they were able to finish their project car because of one of my articles, it so far out weighs the money part of it that It’s hard to tell you about it.

The blogs and web sites take up literally hundreds of hours a month, but on top of all the other crap that goes along with life I keep up the writing, if it helps just one person get their car on the road, then I have done my job.

Technorati Tags: muscle cars, car restoration, classic car restoration, muscle car restoration

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Obviously you’ll need to keep your list that you created during the inspection of the car handy, because you will be adding more parts to it, it will probably grow at a quick rate, depending on what condition that camaro is in.

First we need to be sure that you have the tools that you’ll need to preform the tear down of the front sheet metal on the camaro, below I will add a short list of just the essential tools, nothing fancy, or specialized it’s all just simple hand tools.

• Full Set Of End Wrenches
• A 3/8 Drive ratchet & Full Set Of American Standard Sockets
• Floor Jack
• Full Set Of Screw Drivers
• Pliers & Vicegrips
• An Electric Drill With A Full Set Of Bits

This should be a good enough tool list to get you through the removing of the front sheet metal on your first generation camaro, it really is a pretty basic step in the restoration process, but the better you do this step, the better your car will look in the end.

First of all we’re going to remove the hood from the camaro, this is vary easy to do, at the back of the hood on each side are two bolts that hold the hood to the hinges, we’ll be removing those bolts, starting first with the one at the front on each side.

These should be either ½ or 9/16 inch bolt heads, it’s been a while so I don’t remember which for sure, now that you have removed the front bolt on each side, be sure that you have a friend there to help with this, and remove the two back bolt on each side, and the hood will slide right off.

The next thing we’ll do is remove the hinges that held the hood on thee car, these are held in by two bolts that go through the side of the hinge at the bottom, they usually have 9/16 bolt heads on them, you need to determine if you need to replace them now.

We’ll move on to the front bumper next, the bumpers are usually bolted to the frame rails in the center of the car, I usually unbolt them from the frame rail rather then the bumper, they’ll have a bolt at each end of the bumper also, and this is up to you on the way you unbolt it.

Next we’ll remove the grille, and please don’t get in a hurry here it’s easy to break a perfectly good grille, the grille is held in place with Philips screws, make sure that you remove the head lights first, I get a head of myself sometimes.

Once you have removed the head lights, and all the little Philips screws from the grille, it should just pull right out with ease, if it seems to be stuck, it usually means that you have missed a screw somewhere along the way, take a second look at it.
In my next article I will discuss the removal of the header panel, and the valence panel, from there we’ll move on to the radiator support, then the front fenders, and the rest of the front sheet metal on the car, after I get done you should be able to do this tear down.

Technorati Tags: 1969 camaro restoration, first generation camaro restoration

1969 Camaro Restoration

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For this article we’ll assume that you have already bought the car that you want to restore, we’ll also assume that you have the tools to perform the work, although I will out line a basic list of tools that you’ll need to perform the restoration work on your car.

First of all let’s do an inventory of the damages on the car, the things that you’ll need to repair, and the things that you have to replace, this in my opinion is one of the most important steps in planning the restoration of your car.

1.The Inventory Process: This is basically a walk around, you need to take your time do this, do not get in a hurry, your going to be evaluating the work that need to be done on your car, get out your notebook and pen.
2.Divide a page in your notebook in to three coulombs, you’ll be naming the first one repair work, and the second one you’ll name replace parts, this is a list of parts that can’t be fixed, and the third and last coulomb you’ll name repair parts.
3.On this page you’ll be defining what needs to be fixed, or replaced, and the general repair work that needs to be done.
4.You’ll need to look at every system in the car including but not limited to, brakes, drive train,, mechanical, electrical, interior, in other words you’ll need to evaluate the entire car looking for things that need to be fixed, or replaced.

1.The Tear down Process: During this process you’ll need to keep the notebook from the step above handy, because you will be finding more things to add to your list.
2.For safety make sure that your work area is clean before you begin the tear down process on the car.
3.It’s up to you where you begin this process, but I like to start from the front and work back, so I begin with the front clip of the car, I remove the fenders, bumper, hood, grille, valance, lights, and all of the rest of the components that make up the front of the car.

4.Once the front end is completely removed, I begin removing the engine, and transmission all as one unit is usually the easiest way to do it, make sure that you take a lot of pictures of the car as you remove the parts, it will help when it comes time to put the car back together.
5.If you just follow the car systematically from the the front to the back during your tear down, and continue taking a lot of pictures, you’ll find the this part is not all that difficult.

I said earlier that I would provide a list of tools that you’ll need, and that is going to happen next.

List Of Tools:

1.A ratchet and sockets to go with it.
2.A set of wrenches are a must.
3.Air tools, not a must, but vary nice to have.
4.A set of screw drivers.
5.A set of alan wrenches.
6.A drain pan.
7.Engine hoist.
8.Floor jack.

This should be all you’ll need for the tear down part of the process, when we get to the re-assembly process you’ll be needing more tools, and equipment, I will add to the list when we get there, for now this takes you through the tear down process.

Technorati Tags: muscle car restoration, car restoration, classic car restroation

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First we’ll start with the RPO code, this can be found on a machined pad just just in front of the passenger side head, the RPO code contains a lot of useful information about the engine in your camaro, like the date it was built, horsepower, and a few other things.

Below you’ll find a chart of RPO suffix codes t for you to use.

Below I’ll discuss how your vin code works.

When you look at you vin tag the first number represents the manufacture id, in this case it would be the number 1, any time you see a vin tag on a GM car that starts wit the number 1 it means that the car was made by Chevrolet.

So to begin with let’s say that the vin tag on your car reads 124379N109845 in this number the second position indicates the car model, and engine, in this case it’s a number 24 or a V8 camaro, as we move on through the number we get to position 3, which is represented by two digits or the number 37 which indicates that it’s a sports coupe.

Moving on through the vin code we get to position 4 which indicates that the car was built in 1969, as we move on to position 5 we have an N which indicates that the car was built in Norwood Ohio, the last 6 numbers are the line number of the car, or this war the 109845 TH car built in 1969.

As you see it’s really pretty simple, I’ll run through the positions one more time below, and then I’ll add the list of assembly plants so you’ll know them.

Number Positions

1.The number 1 is the manufacture id number, 1 is Chevrolet
2.In position 2 is the number 24 this indicates that the car is a V8 Camaro
3.In position 3 is the number 37 this indicates the the car is a sports coupe
4.In position 4 is the year in this case a 9 indicating that it’s a 1969 model year
5.In position 5 is the assembly plant, in this case “N” indicates Norwood Ohio
6.The last six digits indicate the production number, this was the 109845 TH car built in 1969

List Of Assembly Plants

N or NOR = Norwood Ohio (cars from Norwood came with the famous X code numbers)

LOS – Van Nuys (Los Angeles) California (until mid December on 1968)

VN – Van Nuys (Los Angeles) California (from mid December 1968 on)

Technorati Tags: RPO Codes, Vin Tags, Camaro, Chevrolet

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To get the deal above all you have to do is right click the image above, and click save as, and then print out a copy of the image above and present it to Clay Lyon ay Gus Paulos Chevrolet.

Click To Enlarge

Gus Paulos Chevrolet take delivery of the first 2010 SS Camaro in Utah, stop in and see this beautiful car.

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In cooperation with Atkin Internet Enterprises, we have come up with an idea to help you, and GM, over the years the big three have done a lot to help our country, now it’s time to help them.

If you come in to Gus Paulos Chevrolet and mention the Buy American promotion to Clay Lyon, he will work with you to get you the best deal possible, Atkin Internet Enterprises knows Clay personally, and we will vouch for his integrity,

Gus Paulos will do all they can to see that you get just the car that your looking for, stop by any time and take a walk around the lot, we betting that you’ll find the perfect car for you, when you buy American it helps your country.

It’s up to you to take the first step, no salespeople will pressure you to buy a new car, at Gus Paulos we are trying to build a life long relationship with our customers, come in and give us a chance.

When you com in to Gus Paulos be sure to ask the guy about the protection plans that GM is offering right, there really in no better time to put yourself in a brand new Chevrolet.

Technorati Tags: Chevrolet, 2010 Camaro, 2010 SS Camaro

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