I have a friend who has been in body work for a while now.. a few years maybe 5 and his dad has been a body mechanic forever. he used to do work mostly on porsches and now does everything. My friend mitch and i will be doing the body work and getting it ready so his dad can spray it.. here are some before pics it probably wont be painted until around may or june.. because of money reasons. yes i know the bumper/front gfx are not correct!!! i have the correct ones not on the car in my room and correct tail lights! grid style






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Looks like fun. doesn't seem like you have a ton of work. Keep us posted with pics.

 

Looks good so far

 

its been a while since i have done anything.. i actually need some help..

alright i have started body work with a friend, hes gone to school now so im stuck all alone and dont know that much, he was real into autobody and did most of the work himself, i barly helped and plus he did it on his days off which were not the same as mine... anyways... theres really not much left to do besides a few panels flush and i have one spot on my door thats rusted... so obviously ill have to use like 40-80 grit until the rust spot is gone and then primer it so it doesnt rust again and then sand the paint flush with the door, now i have a couple dings in my driverside door from a**holes who dont know how to get out of their cars... whats the best thing to do? just sand it down to metal and mix up some bondo and sand it flush?,

and the only other thing is my front main fascia where the headlights sit in have small spiderweb cracks in it from the old paint, whats the best way to get rid of that? sand or use the sem stripper?

also the paint in the rear hatch is chipping out.. ill have to sand that all down also... but its nothing major.. when sanding down the paint chips what grit should i use? something like 180? or go high to like 320 since im not trying to cut deep into the car just getting the small cracks/chips in old paint out. then when im ready for paint ill have to go over the car with a high grit like 500 to make sure all the hairline scratches are out and its ready to take in the new paint?

sorry for the big read but figured i would get it all out at once! thanks for your time everyone and help!

 

doesnt seem like he knows how to tape off a car right, theres tape lines everywhere, your car looks like a frankenstein with the mix and matched parts

 

lol there was no taping off involved.. and yes the mix and matched parts look bad i know.. i have the right ones right next to me actually just figured i would wait to put those on just incase

 

keep the fx they look good

 

im keeping the fx's! just i have the correct front fx for an rs right next to me that will be going on it and thanks! =D

 

np u just doing a basic spray or u pullin the doors and etc off?

 

not sure yet, ill end up pulling the fx's off and some other misc parts spoiler, probably the hatch considering i have to make srue i get inside that jamb but will most likly leave the doors on because im doing the same color and my jambs are not really all that bad on the inside

 

awesome cant wait to see it keep us posted

 

^^^

 

when sanding out the paint chips Id go with 180, and for the door dings, just bondo it and sand it flush, not sure about the spiderweb cracks though.

 

alright, i have not used bondo before.. so i guess ill have to do some searching and askin around, i know you are supposed to sand it down to bare metal right?

 

I dont think you have to sand it to bare metal, I only do when I have a fair size dent from rust I sanded out.

 

Keep us updated! I like transformation posts

 

been a while since i have had time to work on the car, now all of next week! it will be getting worked on!!! and painted, i will be posting pics as we go, one thing, i need the paint code for silver gfx! i have the color blue im going to paint it, just need to know which paint code i should use for the silver gfx

if these are not the paint code for a 1991 Chevy camaro RS then someone please let me know! =D

Silver Metallic 12/WA8535
Silver Metallic Clearcoat WA9021
Silver Metallic Clearcoat 16/WA9004
Silver Metallic Accent 30/WA9005

 

sand all the spider web cracks out till they are gone! unless you want too repaint your bumper again in 6 months

 

Obviously try to pull out dents as much as you can. Thick bondo is bad.
Also, don't mix it like you're making cookies, you DON'T want to whip air into it and get nice little air bubbles. Use the bondo spatula and smear it around (with the hardener). As if you were applying the bondo to your spreading board. That will minimize the amount of bubbles you "whip up".

Spiderwebbing sucks. Sand it all away and use a slight amount of bondo to bring it back to shape. Maybe look into the plastic bumper filler stuff. I'm not wise to that stuff, but I know there is specific fillers/glues to use on your type of bumper. Maybe a real autobody guru can list a brand for ya.

 

as said get all the cracks out of paint first.you can sand or strip , but if you strip make sure it is for plastic not metal .
bondo should be applied to metal .
as far as the chips ,make sure you feather the edges or sand the whole area or it will show through .depending how straight you want it block sanding may be required.
do a search on each step you are uncertain about will be helpful .
one last thing , please post pics when done.

 

http://www.autobodystore.com/

there is a LOT of information on that site

 

alright this week will be the work on car body week, my friend who started the car got a hold of his dad to help me out, hes going to be finishing it with me, ill most likly post up pics every night or every other night(should only take a week) so i got the car a cheap wash for 5$ through the touchless wash place(early bird special) and took a few shots for the before paint pics





and here are the rims i am refinishing, i have 2 done now, itl be a little while till i have time to finish the other 2

stripping clear coat

non fished product

finish product

 

rims look good .
how did you get to the finished product as i have my iroc rims stripped and ready to polish but am not having much luck.

as of now i have scrubbed them w/ a green (scotch brite pad ?) and cant find anything to bring them to a smooth shine .

thanx in advance , Mike

 

honestly its a pain in the ***!!!, im sanding them down 180 grit dry, 220 grit dry, 320 grit wet, 400 grit wet, some people go higher i dont im using 3 polishing compounds and small wheels, the order im doing it is a harder cloth material with emery compound(black), then i use a softer cloth with tripolli compound(red), then i use a soft cotton with white rouge(white) and then just use mothers alum polish, then i masked off the areas that i wanted to keep polished and then sprayed the others with gloss black spray paint,

some people just sand right up to 1000 grit and use the alum polish, i found this way and i like it so its what im using =D and these are not anywhere near as shiny as a lot of people get them!
thanks for the positive comment! they have been about 5 hours to each rim and thats long enough for me lol
also im doing it all by hand(no power tools because i dont have any and not buying any!)

 

Car is looking great, try not to continue to wash car as primer is not waterproof and rust can actually start to form under the primer. To acheive a super smooth finish, finish sand all primer spots by hand with a sanding block, start with 320 grit paper and finish with 500 or 600grit. Leave no shiny spots on old paint as this will cause peeling later on. Did you fix your cracking on your bumper? If not clean off all old paint down to the rubber. Fusor makes a bumper repair two-part putty. I believe the # is 114. Hope this info helps keep us posted

 

also wouldnt have hardlined the primer as was done, not going to be a major problem, just make sure you feather the edges out...and there is no right or wrong way to make primer "super smooth"... if you put alot of material on, you can block it out by hand (dry)with anything from 220-320 and finish it off with 400-600 by hand wet or with a D.A. (orbital sander) with a foam hook it pad...
theres numerous ways to achieve quality work, have someone experienced show you several and pick one that works up to your skill level...if you were blending and such i wouldnt imagine you would use a d.a. due to burning through factory base, however, you are doing the whole car so anything thats efficient

 

yeah my friend hardlined it that way, hes going to be in school for body work just to get his certification papers, but he has been working on cars for about 5 or 6 years and his dad has been in it since he was young and hes around 40-45 now. they do good work and are guiding me in the right direction, its not only me thats working on it, a lot of it is his dad

 

You’re probably actually going a step backwards using the emory before the Tripoli, the emory is intended for polishing harder metals like steel and stainless and is probably scratching the aluminum worse then the 400 grit left. Depending on the piece, 320, 400 or 600 is usually where to stop with the sandpaper and pick up the Tripoli for the least amount of work depending on how hard the aluminum is. Going farther (like 1000, and in some cases even the 600 or 400 might be) looks great as you’re going along but it ends up burnishing the aluminum surface and then it doesn’t want to polish out evenly or polishes out cloudy.

What kind of primer is that that you’re using? Some can and some can’t be wet sanded…

 

some updated pics =D sry for being so dusty! all the hairline cracks removed/sanded out of front facia, also shaved the tenna!
imageshack is down so i uploaded them to a yahoo pictures account thats just for my car, sorry no thumbnails

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/quitdotc...60762397852678

 

looks good.

 

all is going well, i made a webshots account so i could post thumbnails instead of you ahving to click the link and search for yourself heres a few pics
fixed front piece with the cracks


shaved off tenna




fixed up front gfx piece

 

quick question, what do i have to use to reattach the body molding? 2 sided tape? glue anything in particular?? cars almost done pics will be up soon! a few days!

 

Your Camaro is lookin really good! How long have you been working on it?

 

when i have the time and when i can borrow vehicles, its been goin on for a good 3 months but really only about a week or two in reality. at the last finishing stages, its completed in paint, just buffing it up and need to attach the molding piece that i had to take off, just dont know what to attach it with, either 2 sided tape or glue or what specificly!
and thanks! finish pics will be soon when we get some sun and non cloudy weather/rainy weather!

 

Im pretty sure you can re attach the molding with 2 sided tape.

 

got any finished pics?

 

well its not finished yet.. but here are some pics.. still needs to be finished buffed, he has to redo the hood not for any reasons you can see in the pics but other than that its pretty much done

sorry for not getting them sooner, i have been real busy with trying to get the car running right

 

The paint looks beautiful but it looks like you just bought some gfx for it & haven't had time to paint em yet. When he does the hood - do the GFX!

 

I like the 2 tone, looks great, but I would of painted the spoiler blue.

 

He said that he is doing the blue over silver two tone....and I think it looks good. Once he gets the door gfx on, it will be one nice looking RS!!

 

lasher what do you mean the door gfx on?, and yes its ment to be a 2 tone job... i personally asked for the door not to be a part of the 2 tone to be different and because i personally like it better that way =D thanks for your opinions! and complements!

 

I guess since it wasn't silver along with the rest of the ground effects, I though they weren't installed yet. my bad. It still looks great man!