Alright getting this show on the road, I threw 3 coats of 2k high build primer and a guide coat on my front fenders today. I was needing more a/c hose and pulled just a little hard (gotta get out of the gym, too huge for my own good... just kidding). Anyway long story short I broke my regulator. So I'll have to fix that before I can paint again, but that's ok, becuase I have blocking and bondo laying to do. So anyway here's the pic of one of my fenders, the other looks just the same.

Alright, my dad has his camera (which is what I use) so I can't post pics now, but will later. Today I removed the 36 grit scratches made by the 7 inch rotary sander I used to remove all the ten layers of paint. I removed them with 120 grit, and ended up with fairly smooth panels. I also got the old rear hatch lift and closing actuators off and replaced with the ones I pirated off of Luke. Man those things are great, they life that hatch like it's a joke. I looked at my old actuators and could have played them like a well lubed trombone. lol. They were so tuff to install. I ended up bolting them up to the post on the car, then pulling with all my might, against that post to compress em', after that I had my friend line up and bolt the other end to the hatch. I sanded down my rear bumper and found it was covered in bondo, that's why it was all cracked. So I now have a wavy bumper that I refuse to cover in bondo, andy ideas?

DacMan

Alright, I've been working at night, becuase I'm working full shifts at work since it's spring break. The first pic is my door jam, there were rails, that held the t-top gaskets in, so I took em off, I dont' know but I feel like that was a bad idea. Should I have done that? The second pic is simply my drivers side rear quarter, I cleaned it up the other day with 120. The third pic is one of my fenders that's bee mostly blocked and finaly bondo'd now to block the bondo, primer, block, then re-prime.

Dac

So I now have a wavy bumper that I refuse to cover in bondo, andy ideas?

DacMan[/QUOTE]

i suggest a dolly spray bottle (with water) and a heat gun. if you know how to do body work u should be able to use that technique

Easier said than done, I'm not taking the bumper off the car so that means I can't get to the back, also that heat and water method only gets rid of little things and it usually comes back, the best thing I've found is forcing the plastic into the place I want it, heating it every other day and waitng a week or two, this let's the plastic gain memory, water and heat just get's you close not perfect, and often goes back. Thanks for the ideas, but in this situation I deffinately need a bondo or some sort of flexible leverler.

Thanks, DacMan

well now that u mention it i didnt know it was that bad..if you are gonna be using a filler i suggest poliflex. that wont crack or peel off as bondo will

I would strongly consider going over everything with 220 grit really good before primer. 9 out of ten you will see the scratches left with anything lower then 200. As a rule of thumb I always go 220 to be on the safe side.

Thanks guys! Good info.

Dac

Alright today was my day off, so heres what I've got done so far. Here's a pic of my passenger side fender all blocked out bondo'd and almost ready for primer. Just some monotonous pics of the work I've got done.

Alright, so the first pic is my wavy rear bumper. I threw on the door after putting new hinge pins in it and also threw the front fender on it and hey, guess what, it looked kinda like and 83 camaro!!! . Also my third pic is that I got the hinge pin pack with my camaro, and they came with these weird bushings aside from the main bushings used on the pin I replaced, any ideas what they go in.

Thanks, DacMan

Ohh, and here's a quick shot of my Trooper, not nearly as exciting, but reliable and practicle (sighhh, I always despised the guys that drove cars that were practicle) lol.

Alright I got my front fenders done today, I havn't touched the camaro in forever because of school, but now that I'm on break I have got to work. Let me know what you think, It's about a 15 to 20 foot paint job, I can never keep it from orange peeling like a mother.

Dac

Looks like things are coming along, I really need to start on my trans am lol

Thanks, Since when did you get a trans am? Or is that a joke?

I have 4 3rd gens dac lol. I have 2 camaros and 1 trans am and 1 bird. 2 are hard top and 2 are t top, sadly no convertables
I'm about tired of the maro. An old friend of my dads had a trans am sitting out in his field for 10 years so I offered him $450 for it and took the car home.
The plug wires were cut for some reason so I replaced them and it literally fired right up, it throws a code 15 but that's it and it runs and drives amazingly. Turns out it's a WS6 too
I've been slowly working on it ever since

The fenders look awesome from the pics.. I'm shortly going to be bringing my maro down to metal and painting also.

looking good i have not had internet for awhile so i have missed alot of your build so i m going tocheck it all out i like that color u picked keep it up lookin great here is what i have done to my 86 firebird mines going good too i pulled the old 2.8 out built a 350 4 bolt main one regret i used some heads that had been sitting around now it is smokin the engine build came out great other then that so today i m pulling the heads and replacing them with a set a friend has that were on his engine that he was running a month ago that dont smoke the engine has been bored out 30 over redid the rods new flat top pistons new crank oil pump dobble roller timing chain push rods lifters cam bearings cam hi pro of corse lunati that makes the car lobe awesome new summit 600 cfm carb headers flowmaster exhaust and a shift kit in the 700 r4 trans replaced gas tank painted under the car and engine area gloss black replaced the rear sway bar with one off a iroc z bigger is better bigger radiator out of the iroc z also duel fans too gauge kit oil temp alt need tach yet redoing a 3 in. cowl hood for it thats where im at now it has been alot of work as you know but still there are things i need to and want to do to it one little step at a time ill post pics when i learn how sketter MY FIRST THIRD GEN BUILD

Way to go mark, I'm excited to see pics of your car painted, also congrats sketter, sounds like your going to have a sweet ride. I could be posting more pics but they'd just be boring since the work I'm doing isn't too exciting, however I did do somthing a little exciting today. I got my first wheel off the camaro and painted it. In the first two pics you'll notice some paint lines, I could have taped the wheel perfectly and spent forver getting it just right, but instead I simply taped it mostly, and as most of you know paint won't stick to a surface that's slick smooth, and un-prepped, so you'll notice in the third pic I simply went back with a razor blade and my finger nails and scraped off what overspray was on the wheel, and it came off really easily. I used duplicolor's wheel paint on it and wet sanded the painted areas with 320 before application.


Dac

I got the floor and under carraige as well as inner fenders sound proofed and rust prevented with some napa rubberized paint. Here it is:

Damn dac those wheels look unreal

Thanks man they took a lot of work.

Throw enough clear on and color sand it.

This is a single stage paint, so clear is not an option, however I could cut and buff it, but then I would have more money in the proper tools and compund than in the paint. I appreciate the comment though, one of our members used this paint and cut and buffed it and it looked great. I just don't want to go through the hassle though.

You could also let someone else do the buffing. Or...I bought a Porter Cable 7424, foam and wool pads, compound, and buffed them out myself. Just stay away from edges and corners. SS takes awhile to fully cure though.

Yeah I could, I don't want to pay anyone cause it's a budget project, and I know how to cut and buff, I don't know if anyones familiar with the paintucation serries by Kevin Tetz but he has a great dvd on color sanding and buffing.

Well Chainshot you talked me into it,
I ordered a makita high speed buffer and polishing compound and went to work on my fenders. They are coming along a lot better than expected. Thankfully I'd spent a lot of time edjucating myself on color sanding and buffing previous to this project so I know what I'm doing. Here's some pics of one fender. It's not complete, I decided to take some reallly bad orange peel all the way down till it was gone so I will have to go back in and re-paint the bottem left square. Here they are:

Good job ! Color sanding gives you a show car/mirror finish. It's well worth the effort.

Yeah that was my thought, and the orange peel was astronomical, it isn't perfect, but I'm not completly ashamed to put my name on it anymore.

Yeah that really does look nice. If I did all the bodywork on my car how much would you charge to paint it, Dac? lol

Awsome, I like you way too much to curse you with my poor quality paint jobs lol. But thanks for the compliments, the orange peel is so bad I'm having to go back and re-shoot some parts because to cut past the orange peel cuts into the primer, the good news is I bought a new paint gun and shot a very clean pattern with it so my hopes are high!

Thanks, Dac

how long did you let the paint dry before you wetsanded/buffed it out? I just painted my camaro with single stage black and have some overspray that needs to be blended but i cant seem to get a solid answer.. looks great btw.. more satisfing when you do it yourself

I have always been told that color sanding and buffing should be done a day or two after paint, because the paint is more maliable and is easire to buff out, however I find that being an amateur I like waiting for the paint to cure; a harder paint is less seseptable to getting burnt through.

Check the paint mfg. spec sheet.

I've heard 6 mos. for single stage and within two days for some types of clear.

Good Point Chainshot

Been a while since I've posted on this thread mainly because i've been so damn busy between priming, blocking, and work!!! lol. So anyway here's a much needed update, I had to color sand both fenders down and try again, may not do it at all considering how it turns out. Anyway bottom line is I have a month to get this car done, that means paint and extensive interior. So the first pic is of my hood before I cut out my inserts were I'll be putting hopefully a chrome mesh and running some plumbing underneath for a cold air intake. Second pic is self explanatory, and the third pic is of the maro as sits, blocked with drivers fender, can't seem to get the gaps right, car's been t-boned pretty bad, they looked good when I bought it, but I cut a lot of bondo off the edges of the door, so I think somone actually made the gaps perfect with bondo.

Why do you only have a month?
How are you gonna keep water out of your cold air intake?
Whats the "extensive" interior work you have to do? That stuff is hardcore easy lol
Looks like its coming along though!

I only have a month because I go to collage in a month Seat bracket welding, carpet, t-top headliner, all plastic moldings, dash, a/c, everything!!!! It will curve down, and around, much like a horizontal U, at the flat part of the U that is parallel with the ground there will be holes drilled to allow water to drain.

Welding one of those seat brackets doesn't take too much time. It probably took me 2 hours from start to finish

Yeah, it's just a pain

Where are you going to college at Dac?

Dont put any chrome on the car, seriously. Chrome just doesnt work on these cars.

Purdue, going to be a farmer some day (hopefully). What are you thinking of then InfernalVortex? I'm wide open to creative ideas.

Alright here's what's been happening in the past two days, been working so not much lol. Anyway I started getting my front bumper insert looking presentable. The first pic is a before krylong gloss black, second is after, third is with silver lettering. I had some mistakes and although the silver looked good, I wanted to match my hockey stick stripes to the lettering since it should tie it together quite nicely. So in light of that I went ahead and wet sanded and painted it again, i am currently re-lettering should be done tonight, will update after dinner.

Dac

Alright here's some pics of what I just finished, not perfect, but acceptable. The last two pics are of my bumper badge, looked really bad to begin with so I gave it a quick wet sand and buff with mothers chrome polish, not perfect but will do until I can find a more suitable one.

Dac

And here are my headlights

The front cover turned out well. good job

Thanks

Alright here's a desperately needed update. A few days ago I got my fourth gen firebird seats installed, with drivers side power tracks, super sweet and comfortable, I bougth them from LukeJ and to no suprise the price was extremely reasonable, and ofcourse it was an enjoyable transaction, no suprises everything was like he said. So they were in and mocked and now out again, today a big step was taken, I got my camaro in paint. FINALLY!!! I recieved some great tips, and a 30 gallon craftsman air compressor to borrow from a good friend at napa who's name will remain unmentioned. I can't tell you guys how excited I am to have gotton this far, and would simply like to say thanks to lukej and my friend at napa for all their time and help so far, and in the future. That being said lets get down to talking about the paint pics, the car looks about a million times worse in person, but this is what it looks like on camera.

Anyone ever read this thing anymore lol?

yep I read it the other day. I was gonna say it looks like there is alot of overspray. Besides that it looks good

EDIT: nvm on the overspray. Looked again. Looks good man. I hope Im at the stage one day.