I guess restoring is a strong word, don't care if its original, just want to clean it up. Sorry if this is the wrong section please move if neccesary. Or if there are some good guides to do similar.

Either way 1985 Chevy Camaro z28, just pulled out a knocking 305. Car is in great shape minus under the hood. My goals are to clean it up. Any tips on the 30 yrs of dirt and grime? Some light surface rust, and a rusted battery tray. I figure I might cut out the batt tray and maybe bend up a new one and hi-lok it in.

Either way, what are the best ways for prep? Especially the cross member(and I might do the front suspension as well, take them apart, then clean them up and paint them) I guess sandblast, I do have an old compressor, not sure if its up to the task, but will look into it. Any tips doing this "on car"?


Also I know about Por15, I intend to do the cross members/suspension, maybe eventually the entire bottom of the car. But what about the rest of under the hood? And actually the bottom of the hood? I kind of want to go with a satin black look? Any suggestions on prep and paint? I kind of want to take care of the hood related stuff ASAP, so I can get the hood back on, (less chance of future damage) then get back to the rest of the car.

While on the topic of satin black, any tips for a satin black for some misc. trim pieces, like the headlight bezels?


Thank you guys in advance, I know have a bit of work ahead of me, and been putting it off for awhile, need to get back into it.

Pics I am working with.

 

I started with a good pressure wash, then removed everything I could then pressure washed again. I used a half dozen different sized wire brushes with a couple in my cut-off tool and cleaned everything up, sanded all the sheet metal then taped what I didn't remove up. I used Dupli-color for the red and Rust-oleum hammer paint for the black areas and suspension parts, the hammer paint goes on without primer and is good for rusty parts and hides imperfections in the surface.



I think mine turned out pretty well thus far;





I used satin black on the evaporator box.....

 

I prefer cars with body color under the hood.

If you sand blast, you will have sand EVERYWHERE. I agree that blasting is the fastest, easiest, most thorough way to prep, if you are willing to put up with the cleanup.

Otherwise; scrapers, degreaser, lots of sanding by hand, etc...

 

It takes time. I found it easier to just strip everything and go from there. I ended up sandblasting my suspension pieces. Then under the hood sand with the da, hand sand, sand blast.

Again it just takes forever but its worth it

 

Maybe I will do a body color... not full sure the color but i think it might be a late 90s factory GM green. Like on tahoes. I am familiar with hammered paint.

what are you guys priming with if you are wire wheeling?

 

Nice job racerkilla.....


In the battery box area where most of my rust was, I used a couple coats of Rust-oleum epoxy primmer then topped with the hammer paint.....

 

Lots of patience, take your time on each part and it'll come out great. It doesn't cost alot of money to make it look mint again, just some time and attention to detail. Get a small blast cabinet for bead blasting if you can for the smaller items, it makes life so much easier. I use Autosol polish on the aluminum parts with 0000 steel wool, looks very nice when done if you are into the polished aluminum look on certain parts.

Here is the motor in my old car that I restored. This car was a car that was very unkept and had over 100k miles on it. I replaced the motor with a GM crate one and restored everything on it and around it. I liked the look of the painted to match strut tower panels at the time so I did them in silver. It came out good and won me lots of awards at the time.

 

Also, for satin black I love SEM trim paint over a black primer. Looks completely factory, good stuff.