Z/28 crunch, part two

Well I got started on that Camaro today. Also fixed a dent in a red '55 Chevy door this morning, so it was a double-dip Chevy day!

 First I removed all the necessary exterior items, then I corrected a slightly misaligned decklid by moving the latch, then out came my various hammers, for fixing that nasty little dent. With the bumper off, you can see some more sheetmetal damage where the bumper bracket bolts on. That was actually the hard part, its three or four layers thick.

 Theres a brace behind those bumper mount holes, too. It limits access to the backside (inside the trunk). If you can tell from the photo, it was actually pretty messed up right there. In the photo above, the holes are facing towards the camera instead of straight back, and there are dents above and below that beyond the mount area. No problem, I say!

To straighten the mount area, I used a door skinning hammer (for long reach) held against the back of the mounting area inside the inner brace, and struck the opposite end of the hammerhead with a ten pound sledge hammer (many times), standing over the open trunk and swinging toward my knees. I also had to use a smaller pair of  hammers to do the last of it. Since theres so many layers its difficult to get the top one completely flat but the mounting face is back to the correct position. I want to fit the new bumper and brackets before we paint, but it should be good to go and fit fine. The damage was contained to a small area there, luckily.

The quarter panel, however... had been previously repaired in the same spot as the dent. There were three holes under the bondo on that corner, and a previous crease plus a new one in the middle of the dent where it turned the contour inside out! Dang. Knocking the dent out from the inside was a piece of cake, so I don't know why the previous repairman would have drilled holes and pulled instead. Maybe they didn't take the tail light out?

Anyhow, this photo is after I did the metal straightening:

 

A closer look-

Here it is, ready for bodyfiller after welding, filing, grinding and sanding:

You may have noticed in some of the other photos, that this quarter panel is awful wavy. I am going to fix some of that while I'm there. Keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter and thanks for stopping in!