Was my nose repainted? It's an 86 Z28. I had always thought that on the earlier 3rd gens the headlight section was black. I had an 86 sport coupe also, and this was black. What do we call that little dip anyways? Thanks!
-Greg

 

I was hoping you were going to ask about prices! I didn't take my own new nose in due to size, but they said just a paint that can likely show imperfections requiring additional labor, would run $375 to $400 to go from red to white. My nose remains red while I tackle prior debt. I don't think all Camaros were, but look for shade changes and possibly any behind section done haphazardly. There are any number of body shops out there and I can only speak with experience from one local shop that I can still remember
I'm not sure about your final question

 

I have seen them called headlight pocket, a pocket, Headlight bucket, and the most technical "the cutout for the headlights"

John

 

Final question; YES. It looks as though your headlight pockets were repainted. The came black from the factory unless it was an RS/SC... IIRC.

 

Actually looking at your front facia, compared to your fender it looks as though its a shade different... Probably due to a repaint ... Granted Metal flake is a tough one to match exactly, doable, but not as easy as a non-metalflake...

John

 

Well, judging off the replies, I was holding back on the seam diffence due to shooting pic variables and I prefer the name of a recessed headlight as such... others being retractible for Firebirds.
If the headlight is above the hood like a Porsche 928 (retracible but vintage styled) , I refer to them as 'bezels'. For a molded hump in a fender for the light, I guess at that stage I might be stumped hehe
Bill 'headlight bulge' guy

 

The paint is damn close to looking original. I think it's the picture that throws it off. But I have looked at it before and pondered the question of was it repainted, but I'm not sure. My windshield was sand pitted and needed to be replaced. I wondered how the windshield could have gotten so trashed but the nose have been so perfect? I dunno. But back to the question... Were the headlight cutouts always black? I had an 86 SC and they were black. Is it possible that on the Z28's the cutouts were not black?

 

No Z28's were always black. Your nose has been repainted.

 

They are headlight recesses and yours are supposed to be semi-gloss black. The front bumper might not match the rest of the car, they really didn't too good even from the factory, but there is no doubt yours was repainted.

 

I thought the only non Z28 or IROC cars to get Black headlight pockets were the Heritage Edition RS' in 1992... Your SC with black headlight pockest would be a first for me...

Could be wrong tho..

John

 

FWIW all 85-87 Sport Coupes have black mirrors, and headlight buckets.

 

****, I wonder if my whole damn car was repainted. The mirrors are also gray. I do remeber that they were black on my SC. Is there anyway I can get a free Carfax report on my car? I wonder if the damn thing was wrecked. Its a norwood car, there shouldn't have been any paint peeling problems. How can I get a FREE carfax report?
-Greg

 

Flex agents were mixed in with the paint for the bumper covers, thats one reason they never quite matched.

 

Hmm.. I never had much of a problem with paints with the flex agent not matching the car....

With Metal flakes this would be a problem, but not uwually with solid colors, like yellow red, white & Black...

I do know that if you paint a car while it is in pieces the panels do not match as well as if you painted them together...

John

 

You guys have seen my car many times. The front urethane doesn't match my front fenders.



Also, the SC had black headlight pockets up to 87. Z28s had black headlight pockets and body colored side view mirrors. Many dealerships are repainting the front bumper covers due to stone damage and bug damage. I wouldn't too much about it though.

 

Like scott tried to say, don't worry about it much... as long as they got the flex agent you will be ok, get some SEM Semigloss black spraypaint, mask off your car and paint it black if it bugs ya!

John

 

Did I forget the word "worry"?

Yeah, what John said!!!

 

I've always been nervous about my car, even though I've only had it since the end of july this year lol. I got a pretty darn good deal on it. Only 3k for it. Before I found this one I was looking at an 89 IROC with half the options my car has and he wanted 6k for it, and it had 10k more miles too (it was a 5 speed also). Rust free cars can be expensive up here. You southern boys are lucky I'm still so happy with my car.

I'm sad that its parked for the winter. I haven't driven it in such a long time Can't wait for spring!

 

3k isn't a bad price for a Z28. The IROC-Z is the premium model for that year, so the Z28 will be lower priced. Depending on options and overall condition (mechanical also), $3k could be high priced!

 

I feel your pain

John

 

Scott,
The other Iroc did not have power windows, 4 wheel disc brakes so no G92, TPI (although my car does not either ), power drivers seat, overhead console thing, or fog lights (the guy had removed them). It had about 110k miles or so. The body had dings and the paint was spider webing. But it was a flordia car and had no rust. The guy was kinda nuts on his price but hey, I couldn't have pointed out anyother rust free camaro's for sale at that time. Wow I really wanted to buy that car at the time. I nagged my parents like no other! I just didn't have 6k. It was such a change from that automatic 6 cyclindar sport coupe I had. This was the first Z28/IROC I had driven.

My car had only 94k miles and has almost every option besides the L69 motor, the IROC package, rear window wiper, louvers and power antenna. I love my car so much, any time something bad happens, I always think, whew I've got my car Nevertheless, I'm totally happy the way things turned out.

Both my car and that other IROC were in excellent mechanical condition though. Very solid cars. Hey it's a camaro though, they never have problems

 

It sounds to me like you got the better deal. $6k for the IROC-Z sounds high and your price sounds dead on. Good luck with it.

 

has anyone ever seen a car like mine? Gunmetal gray metallic with silver g/fx and red interior?

 

You said it there SM!

My IROC-Z has the stock Van Nuys paint from 18 years ago also. (except for driver fender, right side door GFX, front bumper GFX, and I think front bumper, not sure on that) While the car looks great as does yours, the paint on the steel does not match the bumpers, GFX, and rear spoiler. The repainted fender doesn't match all the way either. In some lights and angles you can't see it at all, but sometimes it can be noticable. I am meticulous so others might not see it but I definetly do. Red can be a difficult color to match and IIRC fades the easiest too. It'd be nice if the factory paint didn't have that "peel" look when viewing closely too, but it still looks good.

 

I have seen a lot of Z28s in that spectrum. I personally don't care for the red interior, so I never looked for one like yours. In their day, there was plenty of grey with red cars.

 

I mentioned this once, but a co worker insists GM's Chev Camaro and Pontiac firebird are not even related enough to consider them the same car. I think that's laugh out loud funny. I go; you have different exterior/interior, same parts bin and chassis by and large, that's not enough to say Camaro outclasses firebird does it? hehe
I've always preferred the less audacious Bird as it seems more stealthy I guess,
Bill

 

 

Well, I know it's drifting off subject, but since Camaro and Bird fans share space here and reading the above posts sparked this question being asked in my mind, do you appreciate both F cars, or only one? Am I right versus the guy I work with...that's the meat and potatoes Q hehe
Bill