My car is in the paint booth!
06-04-2014, 10:47 PM
#1
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My car is in the paint booth!
I bought this 89 Trans am about this time last year for just under $2,000. It was pretty beat up and the clear coat was falling off but it had almost no visible rust and only 60,000 miles on a rebuild engine and trans. It turned out to be a pretty big project - the whole car has been stripped down to the metal and plastic and fixed. I probably have around 200 hours into it, and lately a couple 19 hour days (9 hours of customer work then work on mine afterwards). I'm pretty excited to be just about finished!
Its painted with PPG waterborne and cleared with PPG glamor clearcoat
Its painted with PPG waterborne and cleared with PPG glamor clearcoat
06-04-2014, 11:14 PM
#2
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Car: 88 Firebird Formula
Engine: LO5 5.7 TBI/Ebl Flash
Transmission: 700R4
Axle/Gears: 2.73 stock rear end
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Oh my god! Beautiful!!!! Jealous as hell over here!!!!! 
06-04-2014, 11:18 PM
#3
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Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Heres a few pictures of how it looked up until I started working last fall.
the car got broken into, probably with a pry bar by the looks of it
Typical spoiler problems. The ends of the spoiler were wired on to keep them in place.
Busted headlight and the other side had to be zip tied to stay up
The clearcoat on the whole car was like this
So the car was a little rough when I got it but in my opinion it was a good buy for 2 grand and I haven't regretted it yet.
the car got broken into, probably with a pry bar by the looks of it
Typical spoiler problems. The ends of the spoiler were wired on to keep them in place.
Busted headlight and the other side had to be zip tied to stay up
The clearcoat on the whole car was like this
So the car was a little rough when I got it but in my opinion it was a good buy for 2 grand and I haven't regretted it yet.
06-05-2014, 03:09 PM
#5
Supreme Member
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
WOW, that's really something you don't see too often on here! Usually it's a backyard paintjob, driveway rattlecan job, or someone's garage at best. Nice to see a third gen getting it done properly in a booth.
Looks great, especially for Black and considering what it looked it looked like before. Well done!
Looks great, especially for Black and considering what it looked it looked like before. Well done!
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06-06-2014, 03:28 PM
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Car: 84 SC Camaro (92 Tribute)
Engine: V6
Transmission: M5
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Looking great. I remember the feeling when I had mine painted a couple years ago. Can't wait to see it put back together
06-07-2014, 05:22 PM
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Car: 92 Formula WS6, T-top
Engine: 5.7L T.P.I.
Transmission: 700r4
Axle/Gears: Limited slip, 3.23 10 bolt
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Dang, man I wish I had a paint booth like that.
06-07-2014, 09:23 PM
#11
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Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Painting cars for a living has its perks 
Thanks for the compliments guys, I appreciate it!
Still not fully assembled but I found a few pics of the repair process I thought Id post up in the mean time. I have some bodywork experience but I havent done any bodywork on customer cars in over two years, only painting, it so this was a challange for me. Especially with the car being black it would show every mistake. After the car was primeded I did a full sand down and reprime just to be sure it was straight.
One of the trickiest dents I've fixed
Had to cut out a bit of rust here, brand new experience for me
Extended the posts on my new 4th gen spoiler
Thanks for the compliments guys, I appreciate it!Still not fully assembled but I found a few pics of the repair process I thought Id post up in the mean time. I have some bodywork experience but I havent done any bodywork on customer cars in over two years, only painting, it so this was a challange for me. Especially with the car being black it would show every mistake. After the car was primeded I did a full sand down and reprime just to be sure it was straight.
One of the trickiest dents I've fixed
Had to cut out a bit of rust here, brand new experience for me
Extended the posts on my new 4th gen spoiler
06-07-2014, 10:52 PM
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06-07-2014, 11:00 PM
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Car: 92 Formula WS6, T-top
Engine: 5.7L T.P.I.
Transmission: 700r4
Axle/Gears: Limited slip, 3.23 10 bolt
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
How's that work? You weld the stud and then use a slide hammer to pull the dent out?
06-08-2014, 07:39 AM
#16
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06-15-2014, 09:17 PM
#17
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Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Finally took some pics! There a couple of small things to finish up but its pretty much done, and I'm very happy with how it turned out
Last edited by ZsTransAm; 06-15-2014 at 09:20 PM.
06-15-2014, 09:36 PM
#20
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Car: 92 Formula WS6, T-top
Engine: 5.7L T.P.I.
Transmission: 700r4
Axle/Gears: Limited slip, 3.23 10 bolt
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Looks awesome. Wish I had a paint shop like that......
06-16-2014, 03:21 AM
#22
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Car: 1989 Iroc-Z Camaro
Engine: TBI,5.0
Transmission: Automatic 700R4
Axle/Gears: Eaton Posi,3.42,LPW Ultimate Cover
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Nice Job.
Beautiful !!!
Beautiful !!!
06-16-2014, 08:02 PM
#24
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Car: 92 RS
Engine: LT1
Transmission: 700r4
Axle/Gears: 3.73
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Painting is the "easy" part. Your body work is amazing, great job. Black shows all flaws and even though it from pictures it looks as smooth as glass. Wish I had your skill set.
06-16-2014, 08:07 PM
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Car: 72 nova/ 90 camaro rs,04 suburban
Engine: blown 327/ 355/306/355/5.3
Transmission: muncie 4 speed/T5/powerglide,4l80e
Axle/Gears: 342/411/456/ moser axles
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
looks awesome!
06-16-2014, 08:29 PM
#26
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Car: 88 Firebird Formula
Engine: LO5 5.7 TBI/Ebl Flash
Transmission: 700R4
Axle/Gears: 2.73 stock rear end
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
point blank beautiful, just beautiful!!!
06-16-2014, 09:50 PM
#27
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Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Thanks for all the compliments guys! WTR388, I didn't do any sanding and buffing yet. I want to eventually but it probably won't be until next year. Mostly because my wife is tired of me working on this project
06-16-2014, 09:59 PM
#28
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Car: 88 IROC Z/28-under re-construction
Engine: 5.7 Tuned Port
Transmission: It's in there....
Axle/Gears: 9 bolt Borg-Warner
Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Mine WOULD be if i could get it to run....
06-17-2014, 09:05 PM
#30
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Re: My car is in the paint booth!
Thanks! I looked at dozens of sprayout chips to try to get the darkest black I could find, I ended up picking the darkest variant of GM's standard black. Its noticeably darker than my grand am which has the same paint code.
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