Well, we have a '67 Camaro come into my buddies body shop. I help out part time doing fabrication & welding work.

This Camaro had a bunch of new panels put on by a supposed experienced restoration/body man. The owner pulled the car from his shop after not being happy with the progress or the quality of the work.

He had these panels replaced...

full quarter panels
outer wheel wells
innner wheel wells
shock mount repair panels
trunk floor
trunk floor side extensions
quarter panel extensions
rear tail panel
rear bumper brackets
gas tank support brackets

This thing was a terrible mess. My first job was to see what this guy did and what he hadn't completed and evaluate if the work was done correctly. The first thing I noticed wrong was the tail light panel was installed crooked. The trunk floor was not finished welded, nor were the inner/outer wheel wells or the shock repair panels.

I also quickly noticed this guy didn't use very many plug welds, rather he liked to put a series of tack welds on the edge of panels...a big No-No IMO as they lack strength, plus look terrible. His welders were also not very great either with burnthough on many I looked at.

The next step was starting to remove the rear tail panel. Once the tail panel was out, I noticed the trunk foor was 1/2" higher than the rear inner cross brace and not attached to it in any way! Once that was out I began removing the trunk floor center section...taking car to not reuin the panels so they could be reinstalled correctly.

The trunk floor was sitting on top of the side trunk extensions which were sitting on top of the shock patch panels which all were sitting on top of the original trunk floor left attached to the top of the frame rails. What a mess!

It makes me sick to think that the owner of this car could possibly been driving this car down the road with very little structural integrity this butcher had done. Just imagine how the car would have crumbled if hit in the rear, or just squeeked and twisted just driving. I'm sure he would have had issues with panel joints cracking or maintaning panel alignment over time....not to mention possible leaks, etc.

The sad fact is the owner now has to pay twice to have this work redone which costs him alot more in the long run...it took me 8 hours to carefully remove the trunk floor & tail panel and another 3 hours to remove the trunk extensions & quarter panel extensions (remember, being careful to save the panels for re-use). I still have to remove the shock patch panels...hope we can leave the quarter panels & wheel wells though...will wait and see to decide that.

Another scary thing is that I bet this isn't the only car this old guy did like this, and I'd be willing to bet there any many more out there done by inexperienced enthusiasts who have good intentions, but lack the knowledge of how to properly reinstall these panels and make sure the cars structure is still structurally sound.

Many of these magazine articles you see on panel replacement make it sound like it's such easy work and all you need is time, a cut-of tool and a small 110v welder.

Sorry to rant, just a bit shocked at this cars poor workmanship.

You know whats even worse is some of these hacks work in collision shops and "fix" cars that actually see the road.

I worked with one guy who had no friggin right to lay his hands on a car. Anyway I remember he was fixing a 01 Ford supercrew right in the front right corner. The core support and upper rail were mangled, rips and tears everywhere. I asked him if he planned on replacing those parts and he simply said
"Once you put the fender on you"ll never see it" :eek:
Total lack of understanding of what he was doing to that truck and the dangers to the PEOPLE riding in it.

As much as I hate the insurance companies running this industry something should be done. It gives the TECHS who actually care a black eye