After over 5 weeks of switching bodyshops, part ordering, and waiting, we finally got to pick up my sister's Z28 from the dealership today!

They did a great job on the rear quarterpanel repair (see pics of the damage here if you don't remember them: http://rides.webshots.com/album/554164129UczmBX), and the new door looks great. Overall, they did a pretty nice job. It isn't perfect, but they did a good job. I'd rate it 8 out of 10 right now. Maybe more, maybe less, I need to sort through it this weekend.

There are a few areas of the paint that they need to touch-up, but we're going to wait until Thanksgiving to have that done. Also, someone (either the flat-bed tow truck guy or one of the bodyshops) wrecked the front end of the car into something. Fortunately the license plate and license plate bracket took seemingly all of the damage. I will have to further inspect this in the next few days. The collision guy at the dealership said he'd order the bracket for us and charge it to the insurance or something. The car got pretty close to being totaled! $3796.39 to the insurance company!

We learned something new about the car today also; we thought we had a slow coolant leak because of an occasional green spot on the garage floor, but it turned out being a seal leak in the A/C compressor. Apparently the compressor has a green dye added to the oil inside it, and it just so happens to match antifreeze perfectly. (Now wonder my dad and I could NEVER find the place the coolant was leaking from). This needs to be repaired ASAP, because if the A/C is running, and the oil is all gone, the compressor is going to seize up and snap the belt on the alternator. Good to know ahead of time.

(It also has a few oil leaks, but they are at the crankshaft, the rear of the intake manifold, and at the oil pan -- very common for a 12 year old Camaro). They are quite common for a car of its age. No need to worry about them as they are very slow leaks, and we'd prefer to change all of the gaskets on the engine at one time... like when there's a quart of oil on the garage floor instead of 2 drops...)

Also, I learned something else new today; on at least the '93-'97 Camaro Z28s, the handbrake is used to readjust the rear brakes. There is a piston and spring in there that will adjust them. Since the car is an automatic, we've never used the handbrake except two times in the past 11 years that I remember. The mechanic (who has owned 3 Camaros interestingly enough -- currently a 2002 SS with 20k miles on it) said that we should use the handbrake everytime we park. He wasn't sure the LS1 cars had the same setup; he said he's never worked on the brakes of an LS1 car yet. Cool stuff, I wondered why the brakes didn't feel like they were working well... New pads, brake fluid, and a lot of brake bleeding could have been prevented


pretty good repair job

damage fixed

I'm not sure the paintjob is completely up to snuff, but it works!

Mom's happy

Back in its rightful place next to its buddy!

f'ed up license plate and bracket thanks to a random act of carelessness (tow truck guy? the first bodyshop? the second body shop?)

ughhhhhhh

no rust! but a few leaks a couple years old...

 

It looks like they fixed it up nicely.

 

WTF kind of stupid *** garage design is that? Let's just put a wall between the two bays that goes halfway, so not only can both drivers smack their doors every time they get out, but we'll remind them of it by only putting HALF a wall there

 

yeah, it's kind of annoying, but it is better to have two single door garages next to each other than one 2-car garage. At least the doors hit the foam things on the walls instead of each other.

We live in apartments, so the garage apparently needs that wall for supporting the 2 floors above us.

It's nice having the electric outlets on the middle wall as well when we want to vacuum the cars out.

 

Oh yea the two small doors could be nice, it's be nicer for one 20' door (standard is 16) instead of two 8's... I didn't notice the foam

 

I'm a little disappointed I didn't get more responses to this topic. Maybe I should have posted better quality pics

 

About the parking brake, that is true. You should you the parking brake eery time you park because it keeps the rear brakes adjusted and working properly.

 

Looking real nice!