The black powdercoated wheels are temporary until I can afford new ones, but I don't think it looks to bad!

 

damn...i love how that looks.. nice job man!!...more pics please

 

Nice looking car!

 

Nice, what color is that? My car is Syracuse orange and I thought the black wheels went well with it, so I had them painted. Its not a black gloss, more of a flat black, a lot of people ask me if it's paint or brake dust?

 

very very clean man. Get us some more pics :P

 

heres a couple more and it's corvette torch red with medium metallic silver stripes

 

Man that looks clean! Good work man.

 

Yeah! Nice Job!

 

terrible, horrible, awful, now will you come help me paint my car?

very nice, and is it bad that i like those black wheels?

 

 

Sweeet! I'm still undecided on the wheels, but the rest of the car looks great! A nice angled shot so that we can see the wheels and stripes would be awesome!

 

This is the best one I got right now.

 

nice!

 

Admittedly, the wheels are the only question mark. But your right they don't look bad, and could probably grow on you.

The car looks magnificent! I've never been much of a fan of red, but your scheme has me considering painting my 88 the same colors. you should get some more angle shots on a sunny day and get them posted to the pictures section.

 

just need some white lettering on the tires and your good to go as is IMHO

 

U guys think I should put the IROC-Z stickers on the doors or not?

 

I say keep them off...it's a cleaner look and plus you have the Z-28 badges/emblems or just get yourself some new IROC-Z badges/emblems, that's all you need

 

I don't know about the white lettering. I think it looks sleaker with blackwalls.

 

Thats kinda what I was thinkin too!

 

How would you put white letters on anyhow, woudn't they just wash off if u painted them or something

 

Leave the tires "Blackwalled"

 

My thoughts exactlly

 

Nice car my friend...............

 

How many coats of red? What brand of paint? And, is there a specific procedure you used to get the results you achieved onyour wheels?

After looking the pic some more I agree ith the other writer that white letters would look quite good.

 

Okay first off, I used a Gray build up primer it fills in the little nicks and scuffs on body panels very nicely, allthough u have to sand it no matter what because it lays on thick and has a coarse finish. Second I used red sealer to give the red a better base to stick to. Then we did the silver stripes and let that paint get to its tape free stage, this is when the paint is dry enough to mask off with tape and paper and not peel off with it when removed, then masked the stripes off and sprayed 3 coats of the 2003 Corvette Torch Red, we then waited two hours and applied three coats of clearcoat, give a good day to set and started the gruelling job of wet sanding. The paint is all Martin Seynior, I got it at my local Napa Auto parts store but you should be able to get it anywhere and in any brand name paint system. As for the wheels, I used aircraft stripper and a stainless wire brush to remove the clearcoat, stay away from scrappers they make bad sratches, then my buddy took them to his work and put them in a huge sandblaster so they were all a uniform rough finsh, then I spayed them with carb cleaner to remove any oil residue, then I pre-baked them or outgassed them as powdercoat people call it. Then I just used my Eastwood Hotcoat gun and powder I got from Caswell Industries and baked them at 390 degrees for 10 min. and leave them cool down for a couple of hours. I did not coat the backside of the rims I just spraypainted them gloss black to keep brakedust from sticking and building up behind the wheel, I hope I answered all your questions, if not ask some more!

 

Okay first off, I used a Gray build up primer it fills in the little nicks and scuffs on body panels very nicely, allthough u have to sand it no matter what because it lays on thick and has a coarse finish. Second I used red sealer to give the red a better base to stick to. Then we did the silver stripes and let that paint get to its tape free stage, this is when the paint is dry enough to mask off with tape and paper and not peel off with it when removed, then masked the stripes off and sprayed 3 coats of the 2003 Corvette Torch Red, we then waited two hours and applied three coats of clearcoat, give a good day to set and started the gruelling job of wet sanding. The paint is all Martin Seynior, I got it at my local Napa Auto parts store but you should be able to get it anywhere and in any brand name paint system. As for the wheels, I used aircraft stripper and a stainless wire brush to remove the clearcoat, stay away from scrappers they make bad sratches, then my buddy took them to his work and put them in a huge sandblaster so they were all a uniform rough finsh, then I spayed them with carb cleaner to remove any oil residue, then I pre-baked them or outgassed them as powdercoat people call it. Then I just used my Eastwood Hotcoat gun and powder I got from Caswell Industries and baked them at 390 degrees for 10 min. and leave them cool down for a couple of hours. I did not coat the backside of the rims I just spraypainted them gloss black to keep brakedust from sticking and building up behind the wheel, I hope I answered all your questions, if not ask some more!

 

very nice work =D need some pics outside!! with the sun hitting it!

 

How do you make those nice signature pics like the one u have?

 

Nice looking car one of the better one's I have seen.

 

I didn't make it...some from another forum made it for me!

 

I'll figure it somehow, then maybe someone else on here knows, anybody, go ahead let me know! THANKS!

 

Nice car!

Any power numbers?

 

This is probably a stupid question, but you wet sanded the silver also and then clear coated it all together, right? What grit did you use when wet sanding? 400?
----------
Why did you set sand after the clear coat?

 

If u use a basecoat clearcoat system your base coat will dry to a dull finish the clearcoat is what makes it shine, 9 out of 10 times u will get orange peel in the clear coat or little wee ripples if you've never heard that word used before, so you wet sand the clear to smooth it out, when your done u should be able to read a newspaper [ backwards of coarse] in the finish very clearly. I wetsanded with 1500 grit just to break the glaze of the clear then went to 2000 grit for a super smooth finish, now this will leave your clearcoat dull, that is where the variable speed buffer comes in, if u do this be carefull u don't burn your paint it can mess it up, anyhow I used Wizards Turbo Cut buffing compound on a cotton buffing pad for the first cut and it does a good enough job for most people but i went a step further and hit it with meguires number seven on a foam pad for deeper shine, u can even hand glaze after that if you want, but your finish is so smooth that it seems like even your fingerprints will scratch it. Hope that kinda answered your question, the clearcoat will blend the two colors together after wet sanding it you won't even be able to feel the transition between the two. the picture shows how masked off the stripes went wide on the silver then just painted red over top of what was left outside the taped area.

 

no power numbers yet, its pretty crappy in pa right now and its not even close to running in good tune yet, so I gotta wait until the weather clears up and get it out on the road and tune the thing i'll post some when I get 'em.

 

It looks like those are 10" stripes with 3" in between them. Is that correct?

 

NO but your really close, they are 12" stripes with 4" in between them, I just sat down one day with my tape measure on my hood and I thought that looked good so thats what they are, I have no clue what the true SS stripes are spaced out like!

 

Is one gallon of red enough to do the job? And 1 qt.silver enough for the stripes?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm considering doing the bulk of this myself, (maybe everything except shooting the red and clear).

I feel capable enough to do the prep work, shoot the door jambs and the stripes. that I'm sure would save me a bundle of doe.

 

I painted my car peice by peice and a gallon of red was more than enough I stiil have some left over and I only used about half a quart of the metallic silver, but yes I did buy a quart of it, after you put the reducer to the paint it will go a long way. I also got some black tint for the silver and eventually my buddy, who I helped paint my car, no I didn't paint my car but I was there for every second helping and learning the hole time, is going to airbrush some ghost chevy bowties onto the stripes on the hood, the tint will darken the silver just enough so people will really have to look to see them, just like ghost flames, but we haven't gotten to it yet because of the crappy weather in pa right now I'll post pics when we do it, and oh my god you'll save a pile of money doin it yourself, just dont rush it and it'll turn out great!

 

Thanks for all the info on this. I'll get started in a couple of weeks ghetting sanded down to metal and primed, then wet sanded. the I'll get under the hood and door jambs with base color. I'll keep you posted on my progess and no doubt have more questions along the way.

Kevin

 

Looks like a really great job. I had my rs painted silver after I bought it about a 1-1/2 years ago. The guy did a really good job. But, I want to put stripes on it as you did, although stripes will be on top of existing paint. Any suggestions? I want the stripes to be a dark blue.

 

Very nice job.....be proud of that car!!

 

Hey man just so u know u dont have to wet sand your primer, just sand it with 320 grit, u dont want to put any unessecary moisture onto your car save the wet sanding for the clear coat , good luck!

 

very, very nice. one of these days i'm gonna pay someone on TGO that knows what they're doing to take my car in and give it the beauty treatment.

awesome looking camaro.

 

Man, that certainly something I didn't know. Should I hand sand it with the 320, or DA it?

 

You can use the da on the flat areas but I would use a foam block with 320 on it and use your hand on the curved areas

 

I notice you removed the wheel well trim. Why did you decide to do that? I also noticed that your door handles are red. Mine are currently black. I'm thinking about painting them gloss black, and keeping the wheel well trim. It will make a nice contrast on top of the torch red, I think.

I have sanded my car down to the primer coat. I plan to paint it myself. It will be a color change, the factory color is burgundy. I'll have to do the jams and trim, so how do you recommend I proceed with that? I was thinking about painting and clear coating them the day before so they would be dry enough to close for the main painting the next morning.

I also noticed you removed the molding on the doors. What are your thoughts on why. A smoother look perhaps? I'll post a before pic of her soon, then post some during and after pics.

What are your thoughts on removing the ground effects? Thanks for all your help and suggestions.
Kevin

 

Looks good

 

the brake dust thing is one of the reasons I hate black rims. Very nice car, tho.

 

Well like I said Its almost done, I haven't reinstalled the wheel well splash panels yet but I am going too, Why I painted my door handles red I don't know, they were all beat up and just figured why not paint em red. I did remove the side trim because it was falling off anyhow and I saw one without it and liked how clean it looked. And I painted my doors on the car, we masked off the whole door opening and sprayed the jambs at the same time we sprayed the rest of the car, I taped off the window glass and rolled it down inside the door and of course anything else you don't want paint on just be carefull that your airhose dosen't run into them when their open. I love the factory ground effects I'll never take mine off, it would be too much of a pain to fix all the holes in the body afterwards anyhow