One of the shortcomings of the early Camaro is the lack of room to stuff some serious rear tires under the stock rear quarter panels. The shock mounts are outboard of the framerails, and the framerails themselves angle outward toward the rear corners of the car starting at about the axle centerline. These two factors have eliminated the option of traditional mini tubs - that is until Detroit Speed & Engineering developed a kit to make mini tubs, and a 335 tire, possible inside the stock F-body rear quarter panels. The Detroit Speed kit comes with a DVD and detailed instructions for installing these parts in a solid body, but this car needed both rear quarter panels and a trunk floor which, in a way, makes things easier because removing those parts grants greater access to do the wheeltub and framerail modifications.
Because high-quality, accurate parts are essential to the success of any restoration, Muscle Car Restorations (MCR) in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, uses Auto Metal Direct (AMD) as its source for sheetmetal. The modified inner halves of the wheeltubs from Detroit Speed played very nicely with the outer halves from AMD. Although we're taking a pretty big bite doing the rear quarter panels, trunk floor, and mini tubs all at once, this is more than likely what most of you will be faced with. So let's go for it.
TOOLS DESCRIPTION SOURCE PN PRICE Norton 3-inch, 36-grit Speed-Lok TR discs NortonAbrasives.com 62328 $34.99 Spedecut Abrasives A60TBXX type 1 cutting wheels Spedecut.com S1260 $1.50 3M Green Corps reinforced weld grinding wheel 3 x 3/16 x 3/8 3m.com 1991 $28.69 Scotch-Brite Roloc Clean and Strip Disc XT 3m.com 7470 $9.97 Blair 3/8-inch Rotabroach Cutter BlairEquipment.com 11108-3 $20.00 Replacement pilot drills BlairEquipment.com 11097 $13.46 Arbor BlairEquipment.com 11122 $14.99 Replacement pilots for Arbor BlairEquipment.com 11121 $4.99
PARTS DESCRIPTION SOURCE PN PRICE '69 Camaro quarter-panel OE-style, left AMD 700-3569-L $449.95 '69 Camaro quarter-panel, OE-style right AMD 700-3569-R 449.95 '67 Camaro rear framerail left AMD 895-3567-L 249.95 '67 Camaro rear framerail right AMD 895-3567-R 249.95 '69 Camaro trunk extension (drop-off ) LHAMD 840-3569-L 32.95 '69 Camaro trunk extension (drop-off ) RHAMD 840-3569-R 32.95 Deep Tubs-'67-'69 Camaro/Firebird Detroit Speed 40401 399.00
