J
Joe 73
Well, its zero degrees here this morning in new york. Getting ready for warmer weather and tackling my chevelle paint. First will be removing the undercoating (thanks for the tips on that one). Then it will be onto the body. I will be using SPI on everything and either metalux or Prospray for the base.
A little background on the car. Its my first car and I bought it in 1982 right out of high school. It was my daily driver til '86-'87 when I decided to give it a nice re-do. It only had the usual rot on the rear wheel well lips. I was able to locate a set of aftermarket quarters for it. Not full quarters, just the ones that go to the upper body line. With the help of a buddy of mine I replaced the quarters, ground down the weld edge and applied filler. Came out real nice and still looks great today. I also replaced the tail light panel with a new GM part. $28 for the tail panel back then. I also added an L88 fiberglass hood made by Fibre-motive in Florida (if I remember correctly). The remainder of the car had the usual door dings but nothing big.
The whole car was sanded down or paint stripped to bare metal with the exception of the door jambs and maybe small areas of the roof. Those areas were brought down to the factory primer which I remember was real hard to paint strip off. With the exception of the filler on the quarter weld area there is almost no bondo on the car, just some putty on the door dings and any other dings I found.
This painting process took place in '88-'89 and bc/cc was new to me so I chose to stay with ALL lacquer products. The panels were sprayed (Sharpe siphon gun) with lacquer primer. Putty work was taken care of and more lacquer primer on top of that. Everything used were Dupont Products. Color is 1979 Camaro Z28 Bright Blue Metallic Lucite 45807L Code 24, Clear is 380S, Fill and Sand 131S but I dont have the primer number I used. Reason I have those numbers is that I still have 3 quarts of color and 3 quarts of clear sitting on a shelf for the car. Dont know what I'm going to do with that.
So painting took place and 4 coats of color and 7 coats of clear were put on. Came out pretty good. I let it sit 30 days and wet sanded it with 1200 and buffed it out with Perfect-it compound. Reassembled the car, took it to a few shows and it pretty much sat til last summer. Maybe took it out 2-3 times each summer but thats about it. Its been under a cover this whole time AND NEVER BEEN WASHED. I'd just dust it off with a California Duster and take it out.
The body is off the frame and I have the nose hanging from my ceiling to get it out of the way. After the undercoating is removed and SPI black epoxy (like recommended) shot on the floor. I plan on re-uniting the body to the frame and get ready for paint prep. BTW, the frame has been sandblasted and epoxied. All new lines, clips, rebuilt rear, etc. is done and waiting. I have my skinny front tires on the rear and some 3/4" plywood wheels I made for the front. I take a lot of ripping about the wood wheels but they work.
Here is a pic of it just out of paint
Pic with the cut and buff done
And how it looks now (before I took it apart)
This is the firewall which was stripped and sprayed with epoxy
This is the hanging nose
Thats the background on the car. BTW, the silver chassis is actually galvanized steel. I had the frame acid dipped and then dipped in hot galvanize. That frame is out now with a new one waiting.
I need some help and advice on which way to go and what do I need to get this car into some bc/cc the right way. I figure since the lacquer is basically like water anyway, I'd like to sand down the car, epoxy it, guide coat it and shoot. Whats the best way to go about this? DA the car down ?? Use an air file ? Or block it with long Durablocks?? What grits should I be using ? Brand of paper ?? Best prices and where to buy paper and materials ?? Need info on what steps to follow and how.
I figure this is the best place to ask about the steps I need to take and then I'll hit up Barry for my SPI order.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks alot guys.
A little background on the car. Its my first car and I bought it in 1982 right out of high school. It was my daily driver til '86-'87 when I decided to give it a nice re-do. It only had the usual rot on the rear wheel well lips. I was able to locate a set of aftermarket quarters for it. Not full quarters, just the ones that go to the upper body line. With the help of a buddy of mine I replaced the quarters, ground down the weld edge and applied filler. Came out real nice and still looks great today. I also replaced the tail light panel with a new GM part. $28 for the tail panel back then. I also added an L88 fiberglass hood made by Fibre-motive in Florida (if I remember correctly). The remainder of the car had the usual door dings but nothing big.
The whole car was sanded down or paint stripped to bare metal with the exception of the door jambs and maybe small areas of the roof. Those areas were brought down to the factory primer which I remember was real hard to paint strip off. With the exception of the filler on the quarter weld area there is almost no bondo on the car, just some putty on the door dings and any other dings I found.
This painting process took place in '88-'89 and bc/cc was new to me so I chose to stay with ALL lacquer products. The panels were sprayed (Sharpe siphon gun) with lacquer primer. Putty work was taken care of and more lacquer primer on top of that. Everything used were Dupont Products. Color is 1979 Camaro Z28 Bright Blue Metallic Lucite 45807L Code 24, Clear is 380S, Fill and Sand 131S but I dont have the primer number I used. Reason I have those numbers is that I still have 3 quarts of color and 3 quarts of clear sitting on a shelf for the car. Dont know what I'm going to do with that.
So painting took place and 4 coats of color and 7 coats of clear were put on. Came out pretty good. I let it sit 30 days and wet sanded it with 1200 and buffed it out with Perfect-it compound. Reassembled the car, took it to a few shows and it pretty much sat til last summer. Maybe took it out 2-3 times each summer but thats about it. Its been under a cover this whole time AND NEVER BEEN WASHED. I'd just dust it off with a California Duster and take it out.
The body is off the frame and I have the nose hanging from my ceiling to get it out of the way. After the undercoating is removed and SPI black epoxy (like recommended) shot on the floor. I plan on re-uniting the body to the frame and get ready for paint prep. BTW, the frame has been sandblasted and epoxied. All new lines, clips, rebuilt rear, etc. is done and waiting. I have my skinny front tires on the rear and some 3/4" plywood wheels I made for the front. I take a lot of ripping about the wood wheels but they work.
Here is a pic of it just out of paint
Pic with the cut and buff done
And how it looks now (before I took it apart)
This is the firewall which was stripped and sprayed with epoxy
This is the hanging nose
Thats the background on the car. BTW, the silver chassis is actually galvanized steel. I had the frame acid dipped and then dipped in hot galvanize. That frame is out now with a new one waiting.
I need some help and advice on which way to go and what do I need to get this car into some bc/cc the right way. I figure since the lacquer is basically like water anyway, I'd like to sand down the car, epoxy it, guide coat it and shoot. Whats the best way to go about this? DA the car down ?? Use an air file ? Or block it with long Durablocks?? What grits should I be using ? Brand of paper ?? Best prices and where to buy paper and materials ?? Need info on what steps to follow and how.
I figure this is the best place to ask about the steps I need to take and then I'll hit up Barry for my SPI order.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks alot guys.