1973 Chevelle SS Re-paint

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.
 
Just went through my abrasives cabinet and there isnt much there. So I need to restock. I only have a roll of 180 and 320 6" DA paper. And some 1200 wet/dry. I also have to get some 2 3/4" wide rolls of paper for my durablock kit.

What grits for what job would be best? Recommended brands? Any good places to buy from?
 
I would think that the car needs to be stripped down to the metal. If we were doing it, we would use a soft pad on a buffer with 8" 40 & 80 grit discs to remove most of the paint, followed by a good sanding with 80 DA.

If you use modern refinish materials over that lacquer, you are asking for trouble down the road. If all you want to do is freshen it up, you could wet sand it down with some 600 and shoot it with a sealer that has good substrate isolation properties, then just base and clear coat over that. I don't think there is a good in-between method, it's either scuff and shoot or go all in.
 
I'm looking to take it down to metal especially since there isnt much on it. Then do a nice bc/cc and put the original stripes back on the wheel wells. I'm toying with the idea of letting my friend dustless blast the fenders, header, trunk lid and maybe the doors and then I'll epoxy them. Then I'll DA the rest of the body down myself. I would just try to limit the amount of the crushed glass that gets into the door itself.

So 80 would be the way to go for the bare metal and then the epoxy to bite?
 
A lot of guys here use a heat gun and razor blade scraper to get close to the metal. Then finish up with DA 80 grit.

I bought my 3M sandpaper rolls from Amazon. They have decent prices on 3M and Mirka paper. I was thinking about trying http://www.eagleabrasives.com/ which is also sold through Amazon.
 
I've never been able to do the heat gun thing with lacquer, but maybe it's worth a try. No matter what, the metal needs an 80 scratch prior to epoxy.
 
I'm thinking of using my buffer with some sort of disc or pad on it. Maybe a larger (7") flapper type pad in the 80 grit ?? Should be good for the flat areas.
 
Whatever ends up working for you that doesn't heat the metal or take too much off, but we think it is always good to finish with 80 DA with 80 by hand in the hard to reach areas, no matter what other method is used to get the paint off.
 
Definitely follow crashtechs advice, good stuff there. Just my experience but I have not had much trouble removing laquer paint with a razor blade but the laquer primer
frustrates me to no end. It refuses to scrape off and clogs any abrasive by hand or machine. Have had some success with the clean/strip discs and occasionally have
used a chemical stripper. If I am really tired of it I have cut it down with 40 grit on a grinder until just before bare metal and then a slow 80 grit DA to bare metal. (Then a
fresh 80 grit to finish with.)
 
Forgot to mention that media blasting works good too if you can find a competent blaster familiar with sheetmetal. (Don't know anything about the dustless blasting.)
 
Cool car! Swivel bucket seats? 4 speed? 350? Try the razorblade scraper without heat-if the lacquer is dried out/brittle enough it will rip with some effort. Once you break the surface and get it going it can go fairly fast. I have a cheapy razor scraper made by Titan? that came with an extra thick blade that works good. I took a file and dressed the corners a little so they don't gouge the metal. Heat with the scraper works too but if it gets too hot the lacquer just turns to goo. Nothing wrong with chemical stripper either, coat a panel at a time with a heavy layer of stripper and set some masking plastic on it to keep it wet longer, test it after and hour and a lot of times the paint will scrape off to bare metal. Make sure to do a water wash after the stripper then DA off whatever is left with 80 grit.
 
Guys, thanks again for the help. Yes, Bob, factory 4 speed, 350. Its a factory bench seat, 4 speed car, but the original owner put the swivels in and gave me the bench. So I have it in storage.

So my goal will be to get it finished to an 80 grit and then epoxy. Just ordered some 7" 80 grit discs for my grinder.
My buddy with the dustless blaster business does quite a few cars. From what I've seen theres no damage tot he metal or even fiberglass when he does vettes. It basically fine crushed glass and a very small amount of watter as a carrier. He gets 850 to do the exterior of the whole car nose and all. Interior is additional. But it does get stuck in every nook and cranny. I'm thinking of letting him do the nose, trunck lid and doors. But I would stuff rags tightly into the openings on the trunk lid and doors to limit the amount of glass getting inside. And cardboard the inside of the door as well. It would be a real time saver to have those parts stripped and epoxyied all in day.

Then I basically would have to deal with the quarters, roof and jambs.

Thanks again for the help guys. After the floor is stripped and sprayed this is the next job on hand. At least I know I dont have bondo work or rust to address. Just going to be lots of blocking and guide coat.
 
Out of curiosity and please correct me if I'm wrong. Lets say I strip my bolt on parts and finish all the blocking, epoxy and such.

Could I spray a coat or 2 of base (metallic) and put the part aside?
I assume went I get back to that part I would sand the base and be able to reshoot more base??
And with a part to bare metal and epoxy on it. After all blocking and such whats the best before topcoat? Epoxy ? Epoxy as sealer ? 2k primer?

Thanks guys.
 
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