i have a similar thread like this out somewhere, but its not with the finished product....so i'm making this thread to show ya guys the finished product.....

4 or 5 years ago i purchased an 87 Trans Am....it was probably the fastest car at my high school (kinda sad cuz its only a 5.0) and always had dreams of re-doing it....i wanted to repaint it blue and gray and put a nice big gray phoenix on the hood, then it was painting it burgundy and getting a slightly darker colored phoenix custom made for the hood and the same with the door emblems, but i finally foudn the color i stuck with, its based off the color of the dodge daytona trucks: "Go-Man-Go". anywho, heres the pictures:

heres the best picture of the car in its original blue skin:

(yeah i am doing the weatherstrip lol....and it didnt seem to help lol)

heres a scratch that i got from someones door hitting mine....jsut shows how brittle the paint was


the hood with the paint chipping off and the smashed bumper


more chipping paint


bondo work on the driver's side


bondo work on the passenger side


paint was too faded on the arm around the windshield and the roof to salvage, i had to bring it down to bare metal and re-prime it

 

the new bumper had to go on....first the old one had to come off




next up was time to get rid of the splitting spoiler and replace it with an overcharged fourth gen spoiler lol



after that spoiler then the insides of the doors had to be done in order to make the paint not look like macco did it lol



the hatch and doors painted (you couldnt see the paint color change really so i figured i wouldnt even include it lol)



then time for under the hood:



i'll leave ya with the wonderful looking trans am....

 

as per the continuation of the picture show...heres the wonderful looking car so far


i was so proud of my first car project i brought it to a local weekly car show



then came the final sanding:




everything has to be taped off

 

alright, and continuing.....heres the paint process and finished paint

the first coat with camera flash

first coat without the flash


second coat


third coat:


and the final fourth coat of base color


heres it after 3 or 4 coats of clear....i forget how many i actually put on:


the first outside picture with the tape and paper off


the first good picture without anything put on except for the fender vents


after getting the fourth gen wing on

 

Wow, very very nice! Love the color.

 

first car show pictures:


you cant really see it but on the other side of my car is a '69 challenger...i won a trophy (even though its not a placement trophy, just like a consolation trophy that all the "best in show" get)

heres a little photoshoot i did down at the beach...it was simple once i got past the strange looks from driving on the "boardwalk" at the beach





and heres my favorite....you can see the metallic shine in the front




hope you have enjoyed the pictures of the paint/bodywork process....hopefully soon i'll have the money to re-do the interior and the motor to a 305 and a new t-5 transmission

thanks,
-brian
----------
thanks...yeah, its my daily driver so it took me from about march or april till September to finish the entire thing

 

looks great, the 4th gen wing looks really nice with orange paint and gta rims.

 

thanks....yeah, i wanted to try to keep it stock-ish looking but with a modern feel to it....i want to repaint the gray on the rims to black...i want to try to keep the color scheme to just black and the orange-y color

 

Are you expecting any issues with cracking/peeling where the pastic panels (front/rear bumper, GFX) are attached? I see most people removing all that stuff, and treating it different since it needs to flex. And so the seams dont crack...

Just curious. My 86 is blue with silver GFX, but I want to color change it at some point. And even though thats not going to happen for quite some time, Im mentally preparing for it already. haha

Looks great by the way! I love that color...if for nothing else its cool name! "GO MAN GO!"

J.

 

They sell a rubber additive called 'Flex', for rubber bumpers and stuff like that.

 

they do sell the flex additive for just basecoat paints, but i was by a couple different paint shops i went to and also a book about bodywork, that you dont need the flex additive if you are using basecoat/clearcoat, its already naturally flexible enough to put on the rubber/plastic panels, ive seen a lot of people just using the basecoat/clearcoat with no flex additive

 

Yeah I realize about flex additives... When I repaint my car Ill definetly be using them on the front and rear bumpers. Probably not the GFX though.

But...my question leaned more towards the seams... where the plastic stuff meets the body. Along the GFX, and around the front/rear bumpers... Technically, at those lines, the paint is bridging the gaps.

Ive heard of people having issues when the body flexs or what have you with the paint cracking along those seams, and eventually having flake problems.

I was just curious if you expected to have any issues with that... I see a lot of guys usually take all that stuff off and paint separate...although thats a TON of work.

J.

 

oh gotcha....well on the doors and such theyseemed pretty tight on there enough that i just said 'hell with it' lol and on the front fender the gfx kidna pulled away from the body by itself but its not too too noticeable soit didnt have to gap anything cuz the gap was too large already

 

Looks great man, I love that spoiler, I would like to find one, currently I am wingless. Nice ride.

 

thanks....yeah my suggestion would be to go for a used OEM 4th gen....i bought my 4th gen replica from hawks, almost 500 bucks with shipping and then i had a truckload of problems after the purchase....probably better off with a 50 dollar junk yard wing lol

 

nice....that color really attracts the eye

 

haha thanks....when i take the car off the road and turn it to a 'car show only' car, then ithink i'll go for the REAL go-man-go color, and then i'll probably dismantle the whole car and do everything again and stuff...but now that its painted it seems to just attract problems, like someone hitting the door so i had to repaint it, and the latest problem of the cheapo bumper sagging and needing to be replaced