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This will be a overall restoration/paint thread on my 1986 IROC-Z that can be used to help others and serve as a reminder for myself down the road.
The car has about 200K on the body. I drive it everywhere, so its got its share of dents, dings and imperfections. I'll also be doing a few subtle cosmetic mods.
The car is at my dads house two states away, so it will be a slow and steady weekend project. This will be the first car ive ever painted. My father has painted and done major body work to almost a dozen cars, so most of it will be done under his watchful eye.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 11-26-2018 at 01:09 PM.
The car may look good in pictures or from 10 feet, but under a close eye, there are some issues with it. First step is obviously disassembling the car and finding out the issues i have and taking them down to metal.
Hard to see, but there is some rot i will be fixing under the impact bar.
Passengers side A pillar
Crack in the roof/B pillar
Dent from me not paying attention when backing up.
The main issue i have with the paint - This spot here is causing a water leak over he mirror.
This WAS the very first paint bubble i had in the paint. Theres a strange satisfaction in taking a grinder to the rust on my car.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 11-26-2018 at 10:54 AM.
Removal of the windshield weather strip showed moderate rust under it. The windshield will have to come out to repair this. I will pull this last in attempt to keep most of the dust out of the car.
First round of cosmetic mods are drip rail delete.
To get them out, you must pull the window weather strip. They are pushed in, and glued. If yours are 32 years old like mine are, you dont have much of a chance of getting them out in once piece.
Once the gaskets are out, there are philip screws holding in the weather strip guide.
After all of the screws are removed, you can pull the trim out. it is held in with double sided tape, so you will need to work it.
After that, there is 5-6 screws holding on the drip rail
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 11-26-2018 at 10:56 AM.
The car has been painted once before, so theres a few layers of paint on this puppy.
Im deleting the door lock and antenna holes this time to give it a more sleek look.
Drivers door:
Passengers door:
Passengers fender.
They are tack welded in place. A steady bead would cause major distortion of the metal. Tacking them, cooling it with a wet rag and then adding another tack prevents the metal from warping.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 11-26-2018 at 11:00 AM.
Didnt accomplish as much as I wanted too this weekend, but I suppose Rome wasn't built in a day.
Found out both fenders arn't worth saving between damage/filler to one that was in a accident long ago and cracking on in multiple spots on both of them, so looks like I'll be getting two Goodmark fenders and starting fresh.
Ground out all the obvious dents in the door. For filler I'm using Evercoats Chrome-A-Lite.
Cleaned the spots of any contaminantes (Wax/oil/grease) to ensure good adhesion and then hit them with filler.
After sanding and blocking the filler, I applied guide coat to find my high and low spots on the door.
Hard to see between quality lost in the photo and the door originally being black, but the low spots revealed black guide coat left over.
And last but not least, a second coat of filler on some of the spots I had not seen before. The garage had started to get cold, so inside they went.
After blocking these out next weekend, They will be primed, guide coat applied, and then any minor imperfections will be filled with spot putty.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 12-03-2018 at 02:47 PM.
Started working on the roof and rear quarters this weekend. Roof is sanded, and low spots/dents ground down. The rear quarters are about 85% done, just need to jack the car up to help in getting to the bottom.
After kicking up a huge amount of dust, i decided to try and tackle some of the only rot on the car. After removing the interior, i drilled out the spot welds with a spot weld bit to get the trunk latch mounting bracket out of the way. Handy little bugger, and its much better than drilling them out.
You use a punch to dent the center of the spot weld. Then you take the bit (its got a button on the inside of it - it almost looks like a mini hole saw almost) and then push. Its a handy little tool that works wonders and saves a ton on time.
With the trunk latch mount out of the way, i was able to evaluate the damage from the inside out.
Cut out a square section 13.75X4"
Put a bend in the piece of steel i had and it fits almost perfect.
I ran out of time, so next weekend i will be welding it in.
Not a very productive weekend, but i got the panel welded in. Used a couple of sheet metal clamps (Right side of panel) to tack it in place, and then weld it all in. Its a thin sliver that pokes through the gap in the metal, and you put a square block behind it and tighten the wing nut to hold the panel in place. Also serves as a good ground strap. After it was tack welded inplace, i was able to run a few beads around it and then seam seal it to prevent water from entering through any small pin holes.
Unfortunately I didn't get much accomplished this weekend, had to clear the ice from the driveway to move my fathers GTO to the upstairs garage and head home early on Sunday for some personal reasons. Ill get a "finished" picture next weekend.
Good work youre doing there.You gonna shave the door handles?
I wanted too, but my father shaved them on the GTO and wishes he could go back(Good luck finding doors for a 73' GTO). I have a key fob for the locks and never use the lock cylinders, so i think (as of now anyway) im keeping the handles and just ditching the lock cylinders. My battery is in the trunk, so if it ever dies getting in shouldnt be a problem.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 12-19-2018 at 08:42 PM.
Fully welded in the repair panel this weekend. Had to shim it a bit as the original panel has a curve to it.
I also installed the mount for the trunk latch. I put two pop rivets in it initially to hold it in place and test to make sure it closed ok before welding.
I welded up the old spot weld holes and ground them flush.
A bit of seam sealer to ensure no small pin holes let water in. Decided to seal around the plate bracket mount too.
After letting all of the fasteners soak in PB blaster for a couple of weeks, I decided to disassemble it. Luckily there was no damaged to the bumper or valance itself. Definitely going to need to clean and lubricate the hardware when it goes back together though. Started sanding it with the palm sander and 180 grit. took it down to this in a hour or so.
I checked the valance and its got a bunch of cracks in it which I thought were paint cracks, but it goes pretty deep into the plastic itself. (I didn't grab any pictures after sanding it) so I might end up having to plastic weld it (open to suggestions on what product to use)
Hope everyone had a good Christmas
After a long conversation with my father, I decided to take the car all the way down to primer to make it uniform. It may not even make a difference on the final paint job, but I would rather spend a extra hour here than not be satisfied on the outcome.
Here's a spot where you can really see some of the damage/uneven metal from when I bumped into by coworkers truck. All the bare metal are high spots and the spots with still paint on them are low. A skim coat of filler will be needed in this spot.
Ground down all of the metal to ensure proper adhesion for the filler. I intend to get the garage nice and warm and do all the filler on one day so I don't run into any adhesion issues.
Moved on to the trunk spoiler. started with the palm sander but started to burn through the edges, so i did most of it by hand.
Time for soda blasting! I got a hand held soda blaster from snapon and a 50 lb bag of soda blast material from harbor freight. It works really good, with the exception of going absolutely everywhere. I masked off a big area in attempt to keep it contained, but I got the plug pulled on my when my dad saw dust in the kitchen (garage below kitchen - Connected through the basement) . Note to self: do this step outside next time.
A light hand sanding should address any missed spots. Also, next time I'll be using duct tape on the inside of the plastic. Blaster found a few weak spots and I don't even wanna tell you what my interior looks like.
A fan with a filter taped to the inlet helps with the dust control, but as you can see, it can only do so much.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 01-02-2019 at 10:48 AM.
Short weekend, but got the rear bumper sanded. Never realized how many curves this puppy has. Lots of time hand sanding here, alot more than I expected.
Theres one small spot that will need some 3M plastic repair (the side of a pen tip) but other than that, its pretty much done.
Decided to clean up the garage a bit as there was literally 1/8" of dust/soda blast material over the entire garage floor.
Anxiety was killing me so I pulled down the plastic covering the doors (or should I say non existent doors) and evaluated the soda damage.
Luckily most of it come out with a vacuum cleaner and blow gun once it was out of the car. Took he dash, seats and other stuff I had left and the car and put them in the other side of the house.
Wont make that mistake again.
Also let the old girl run for a bit. https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...F6bFBXdHZVTnRn https://photos.app.goo.gl/AopzWtyV63aHHHsC8
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 01-07-2019 at 09:50 AM.
14* in Maine! Woo hoo! The garage is unheated other than the 2 1500W space heaters and lamps I have, So the first bit of saturday consisted of a 3/8" layer of foam and 1/2" layer of foil going on the door. It helped quite a bit actually, so worth the time and financial investment. Might even allow me to shoot color on a warmer day as we get closer to march hopefully.
Started on the ground effects. Sanded down the rear quarter pieces. minor work with the palm sander and 120 grit, but ended up switching to hand sanding due to the curves.
Started on one spoiler piece and the gas door flap.
Cant forget about the edges! They are the most likely spot to get chipped, so making sure they are clean is crucial for good paint adhesion!
The drivers side rocker is savable. Started sanding the it and cleaning up all the cracks/holes with 80 grit sandpaper on the back side to ensure a good fiberglass repair.
The rear of the piece had a crack in it, and the mounts are damaged. Someone put some epoxy in there to hold the panel in place. I cut a section of the epoxy out to make sure it gets a good flush mount to the body. Decided to leave the bottom half instead of cutting it out and risking damaging the rocker. Test fit proved good fitment on the body side so I sanded the cracks with the 80 grit.
This was my main concern with that rocker. It was just barely noticable on the outside. No idea how it got there, but it wont be there for long!
cleaned all the panels with soapy water, let im dry, Mixed up a batch of resin and coated the panel. Layed the fiberglass on it and coated the glass mat.
Worked out all of the air bubbles with a acid brush, and let it dry in the basement.
Next weekend I'll be repairing the mounting tabs with epoxy and then possibly doing a second layer of fiber glass. The front side will take a coat of body filler to conceal any damage.
Really happy with the progress at this point, I'm still hoping the car will be ready late April/May.
After a long hiatus of due to a blizzard and a birthday I finally got some time to get back to the car.
I picked up some stuff thanks to JohnInRi. Drivers side rocker, left rear spoiler end piece and a new impact bar!
Unfortunately this weekend I didnt get much done due to freezing temps and not being able to feel my fingers, but I did get some done.
The old rear impact bar definitely had seen better days thats for sure!
The thing literally was just falling apart holding it.
The bracket on the new GFX was rotted, and ofcourse both screws heads snapped right off. Ended up cutting the body, pulling out the screws and i later filled the fiberglass with fiberglass resin and rebuilt it back up. Next week ill drill/tap the treads and reinstall the bracket. Another little thing that should have taken 1 minute but took a whole hour to fix!
Sanded down the new spoiler end piece and test fit.
Masked off the mirror glass and went to town on the mirrors.
One note, you will have to neutralize the metal that you soda blasted or the paint will not stick.... A hot water/vinegar douche will be in order, the metal will flash rust and you'll have to sand it with 180 grit to clean it before you primer it.
One note, you will have to neutralize the metal that you soda blasted or the paint will not stick.... A hot water/vinegar douche will be in order, the metal will flash rust and you'll have to sand it with 180 grit to clean it before you primer it.
Thanks. I have a gallon pre prep treatment I plan on going over the entire car with before paint, never heard of water/vinegar though.
Thanks. I have a gallon pre prep treatment I plan on going over the entire car with before paint, never heard of water/vinegar though.
If it's like a wax and grease remover, or Pre-Kleano solvent type of cleaner, that's not good enough. Can you post a pic of the can so I can see what it is?
I usually have my cars blasted with plastic media. I did a 67 Chevelle for a guy who had the car soda blasted, he prepped the door jambs and epoxied them, and I did the rest of the car. It was a nightmare using the vinegar/water douche to wash the car, then all the sanding to get the metal clean after it flash rusted. A year later, guess where the paint was peeling... yep, the door jambs where he didn't wash with the vinegar.
Just trying to save you some heartache with you doing all the hard work to put a nice paint job on your car. I've been working in shops for 35 years...
If it's like a wax and grease remover, or Pre-Kleano solvent type of cleaner, that's not good enough. Can you post a pic of the can so I can see what it is?
I usually have my cars blasted with plastic media. I did a 67 Chevelle for a guy who had the car soda blasted, he prepped the door jambs and epoxied them, and I did the rest of the car. It was a nightmare using the vinegar/water douche to wash the car, then all the sanding to get the metal clean after it flash rusted. A year later, guess where the paint was peeling... yep, the door jambs where he didn't wash with the vinegar.
Just trying to save you some heartache with you doing all the hard work to put a nice paint job on your car. I've been working in shops for 35 years...
OP, great thread. Most of the pics you stated the process and sandpaper grit you used. I'd really appreciate if you could go through all of them and add the grit you used and maybe even the equipment...hand, DA, etc...on the others. Would help all us novices out. I don't have a good resource for this info other you guys. Again, appreciate it if you have time.
Thanks, So far I've used mostly a black and decker palm sander with 180 grit on the metal. Most of the plastic stuff I've done by hand is 220. If I notice it starts doing uneven sanding I switch to hand sanding to avoid low spots. I started using a DA but the palm sander worked much better for me and I didn't have cold compressed air causing my hands to freeze. (mind you its 35* up here on a good day)
Also I forgot to mention, i got a good deal on "flexible bumper repair" kits from 3M for the lower valance. Autozone had marked them down so low on accident, I grabbed the kits figuring why not, so I'm also gonna take a shot at that. Worst comes to worse, I find a new one and start over.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 02-06-2019 at 09:41 AM.
Can you post a pic of the can so I can see what it is?
Ask and thou shall receive.
Had a really productive weekend. Got alot of stuff done.
Last weekend before I left, I started on the lower valance with the flexible bumper repair from 3M. Left it in the basement to let it cure.
Door rollers have seen better days, so with a second hand from my dad, he heated the large pin cherry and I used a pair of vice grips on the small pin. Used a hammer and pulled them out. Be careful to not hit your thumb, It hurts pretty bad (ask me how I know)
They did come out though.
The passengers side had a pretty good crack along the bend in the shape of a T. I put a piece of sheet metal behind it and used the spot welder to get it into shape. After using a ruler to confirm it was the correct shape, I tack welded it in various spots, Ground it flat and repeated until all of the pin holes were gone.
Drivers side fender got wacked in a hit and run 3 weeks after the car was painted about 10 years ago. Again, same thing, crack on the edge of the fender, but also dug into the mystery of the fender.
Pretty happy with the way it turned out.
There was alot of filler on this (roughly 1/8th inch) I had a slight crack in the filler so I opted to bang the fender out [after the picture was taken] in attempt to use less filler this time around. I don't wanna do this paint job over in 10 years again.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 02-11-2019 at 09:51 AM.
Back to the rocker panels. Did a second layer of epoxy of resin. Let it dry Saturday night, Ground the top flat and drilled it out for the hardware.
Fit perfect
Started to sand off the paint from the "new" rocker panel I got from JohnInRi. A couple of layers were on this bad boy.
Merica.
One spot I found was from someone trying to repair a crack. It was built up and stood out with the paint on it. Someone didnt take the time to sand it flat, so I knocked it down with a small flat board, used some guide coat and switched to a longer board.
On a side note, anyone else having trouble posting? TGO just said im limited to 12 pictures per post and that i had 13, i cut it down a few pictures to put on another post and it said i had 18 pictures, then would let me post any. Weird.
On a side note, anyone else having trouble posting? TGO just said im limited to 12 pictures per post and that i had 13, i cut it down a few pictures to put on another post and it said i had 18 pictures, then would let me post any. Weird.
yeah I had basically same thing trying to post several at a time. Took a couple off and waited a minute, then they went thru.
Intresting, I'll be sure to give it a good cleaning before I prime it. I only did the door jams so it shouldn't be that bad to go over. Was gonna do the trunk jam but now I'm second guessing it.
Got a fair amount done this weekend but forgot to take alot of pictures for it. Girl has my head all messed up. Oh well, more money for the Camaro!
Coated the drivers side fender where i had the low spots.
And both front fenders where i had issues.
I ended up sanding the passengers side fender to where I feel good about it. Drivers side fender needs alot of work. I spent a few hours on it and its still not where I want it to be, even after working the metal. Might end up looking for a new fender that's got a decent shape to it with minor imperfections.
The drivers side roof/b pillar crack I had I ended up drilling a small hole at the end of the crack to prevent it from further expanding. Tack welded and ground it down a couple of times and its as good as new.
The drivers rear quarter had a slight chunk taken out of the rolled lip on the inside edge, so I cut out a square section and welded that in and cleaned it up.
I went over a majority of the rust bubble spots with Eastwoods fast etching solution. It started to turn most of the spots grey, but the entire "spot" of the rust isnt completely grey. Should I keep soaking it until its gone? I wet it down 3x and it seems to not be working much anymore.
I also started on sanding the hood, got about 1/4" of it done before I ran out of time for the weekend. Thinking about doing a functional louver mod - I would really like to lower underhood temps.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 02-18-2019 at 07:29 AM.
Was pretty warm this weekend (40's) so I took the opportunity to warm up the garage and do some filler on the body!
Ground down the spots with a 80 grit scotch lock, cleaned it with some prepsol to clean of any oil, then mixed up a batch.
Did the door pins, bushings and rollers this weekend. Doors should close nice this year! Took the chance to clean/sand in the center of the hinges. Doorman has a nice kit for upper and lower hinges. Short cash too.
With the help of my dad, we used a ball joint press to install the door rollers. When you get close to bottoming it out, spin it and make sure its night too tight! Just enough to make sure there isnt a ton of play so its not gonna wobble.
Used a dremel and cut out the rivets for the upper hinges.
Not many pictures this weekend. Went over all of the guide coat/body filler spots on the body. All of the A-pillar and B pillar trim came out good. Here is a prime example of being able to tell if the filler is too high, and The guide coat to the right shows a spot thats too low because of it.
Sanded the other doors gfx.
I went over the rest of the hood with a palm sander. Knocked it down till i started to see primer and went over it by hand. The hood and roof are the two largest panels, and also the most easy to see flaws in. Long sanding strokes help prevent any low spots/imperfections.
Another minor setback i didn't forsee is that the drivers side fender is untrustworthy at this point. I picked it up to do a second coat of filler and it cracked twice on the front of the fender near where it bolts to the front bumper. I don't trust it at this point. There is a yard in NH on my way up I'm going to see if I can salvage a good fender from. At this point I'm running out of time (yes John, I should have grabbed that fender from you )
After a long talk with my father who thinks I'm out of my mind in spraying a entire car (or anything for that matter) for the first time, I've decided ill do the primer and let him do the base and clear coats as much as I want to say "I did it all", I'm not willing to do this much sanding again! He also said he feels comfortable spraying light metallic paints which will give it more depth. As of now, I'm stuck between torch red, blew me away blue, or even victory red (09 ZR1 Red). Only thing that stinks is my seats are all black and red, so I'd need new interior too. Probably still going to go red to be honest. Not sure I'm committed on blue as of right now, I'd really like to find a bright red metallic but I'm not sure it even exists.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 03-05-2019 at 07:29 AM.
Nice work Dan, I've been following this thread for the beginning and very impressed by the level of your attention to detail. FWIW, I vote for the BLUE color.
Stopped in at Camaro heaven in Tilton NH this weekend. Got lucky as most the fenders were under 3 ft of snow and one foot of that was frozen. Got myself a decent fender (minor dents to the rear) for $100. Got to my dads at like 1 on Saturday so only burnt up half a day.
It was warm out (40) so on the heaters went and final (I hope) coat of filler on the body. I didnt expand it out far enough last time and in turn had two low spots - One to the top and one to the left near the fuel fill door. Again, hit the body with 80 grit on the grinder (going different directions give better bite) and I scuffed up the existing filler with 80 grit by hand (Again in various patterns)
Second coat of filler on the wheel well to take car of the one low spot I had.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 03-11-2019 at 08:29 AM.
Onto the windshield! After cutting the seal, and using two carpet knives to cut out as much of the seal as we possibly could, we came to the conclusion that who ever put the previous windshield in went overkill with the epoxy. It was everywhere to say the least. Even the windshield tool we had couldn't cut deep enough to free it from the body. Even piano wire and sawzall blades wouldn't free it in some spots up top. I cracked it on the way out, so at that point, we just man handled it. Luckily the piano wire made enough friction/heat on the bottom to the point where it started to melt the epoxy but that was already after the damage was done. We got it out after almost a hour of fighting with it, and only found rust in there! No rot! I went over it with a wire wheel on a die grinder and the sides turned out pretty good, The top I need to find "naval jelly" to eat up/clean up some of the rust.
The old man in action;
This was the source of my water leak.
There was a huge build up of epoxy holding in the windshield on the corner. Very crusty I assume from holding water there
After hitting it with the wire wheel.
Passengers side after wire wheel
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; 03-11-2019 at 08:34 AM.
Did you get the wheel-well ridge to show up again !!!
This thing is just about lost on many cars that have had a couple re-coats over time and this is your best chance to get it to 'pop' again !
Dude - I was thinkin' about you this weekend. Did you get a humidity gauge in your works space yet ??? I know - like a scratched CD that skips - but with the warmer weather arriving you gotta' stay vigilant about it. The ground is SOooooo wet right now that even on warmer days the humidity is going to be an issue till we can dry out a little.
You're makin' good time Dan,.... & Good to see the 'old man' again. Still remember him telling me to just "install a pair of vise grips" on the steering column so you could drive that ol' 86 Coupe back to Mass. It's good to see you guys gettin' dirty together !
Thanks guys! Trying to kick as much *** as i can! Might be switching careers in 2-3 months, so if its not done by then, it might be on the back burner for a few years.
Originally Posted by John in RI
Did you get the wheel-well ridge to show up again !!!
This thing is just about lost on many cars that have had a couple re-coats over time and this is your best chance to get it to 'pop' again !
Dude - I was thinkin' about you this weekend. Did you get a humidity gauge in your works space yet ??? I know - like a scratched CD that skips - but with the warmer weather arriving you gotta' stay vigilant about it. The ground is SOooooo wet right now that even on warmer days the humidity is going to be an issue till we can dry out a little.
You're makin' good time Dan,.... & Good to see the 'old man' again. Still remember him telling me to just "install a pair of vise grips" on the steering column so you could drive that ol' 86 Coupe back to Mass. It's good to see you guys gettin' dirty together !
I ended up doing more work to that after the picture actually. Needs a little bit more and it should be good as new. As of now the humidity in the house is VERY low due to the cold (There is a humidity gauge by the stairs). We have a ventalation system thats about to be installed to ensure everything is evacuated out of the garage while we spray. a good thorough cleaning will be done in the coming weeks.
As far as the old man, ofcourse he still getting dirty. What kind of project would it be if i didnt drag him into it.
All over the place this weekend! Lots of clean up here and there! Started using a shop vac to suck up as much of the dust as i can because in the next week or two I'll be shooting primer.
Started with some naval jelly on the window frame. This stuff is thick and pink, and works wonder on rust.
After first coat
After second coat
Third coat! Much better!
11-26-2018, 09:20 AM
