Just your average 92 base firebird, l03 auto 3:08 open complete with rust, dents, scrapes and paint peel. Got it cheap, decided to get some daily driver use out of it.


So i got me a big ol tub of "dyna filler" and sort of "fixed" the issues. Somebody decided they would jack the car up by the fender and smash it outward, then take a hammer and beat it back in and completely ruin the door to fender edges.





Then i bought some cheap black valspar single stage enamel, not rustoleum lol and did the dirty work of painting it myself in a buddy garage. It has a nice texture of runs and orange peel lol.

Primer


Paint




OHHHH the runssssssss


So I've been waiting on the paint to set up good and hard so i can begin the oh so dreaded task of sanding and buffing.





Current pic


Love it? Hate it? tell me about it....... You cant hurt my feelings lol cheap paint, terrible craftsmenship, lousy painter? I want it all!!!!! lmfao

 

More paint pics

 

Well, I'm not going to cut on it. I think you did a decent job, probably spent more time on the prep work than a body shop would have.

 

Well, we did D/A the whole car , and take it down to steel where the paint was flaking lol Anyway, thanks for thums up

 

I like it, and honestly if I were to paint mine, it wouldn't be much better.
Kudos for the work you have put in to save another third gen

 

I think you did a pretty good job. The pics aren't the greatest, but it looks purrty.

Wanna paint my car?

 

Nice job on the new paint ! I will be posting my finished job soon.

 

The nice thing about a non metallic paint is it can always be fixed by sanding and buffing. Parts of it look pretty ugly now, but I bet you can fix them

 

lets do it!! I did manage to get some more wet sanding and buffing done today, not very happy with the results, cant seem to bring the shine back all the way, still looks inda dull. I used 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000, then foam pad with light compound and it still wont come back. Oh well, heres some pics. I might just have to respray it with some better paint.

 

might take one of these with a wool pad to really bring out the shine. It also might not be cured yet. Enamel takes a LONG time to fully harden

 

would the paint not being 100% cured yet make it hard to polish? how much longer should i wait? Also ive got a nice high speed buffer already, its just not bringing the deep shine back.

 

Yes, and it might take weeks,, maybe months...

 

ok, thanks for the info, guess ill wait a while lol

 

You could "burn green paint" with a high speed buffer, you could test the paint in a inconspicuous place with a fingernail like under the fender well lip.

 

what does burn green paint?

 

He means don't buff fresh paint with high speed. It will burn the paint instead of polishing it

 

ohhh ok, lol thanks for the definition

 

when u use enamel paints adding some hardner to the paint will help out alot.
when i did my car with the cheap stuff it took over a month for the paint to fully cure

 

when i sprayed it i used a 4:1:15% mixture, 4 parts paint, 1 part hardner, 15% reducer.

 

for what it is, its looking really good, especially for being a driver car

 

few pics after washing the road grime off today.....

 

I think it looks pretty good for a cheap do it yourself job!

I can think of a couple things that might be causing the buffing to not shine it up as well as you hoped - The white pad and compound is only the first stage, you need the black pad and compound after that. There is also a blue pad and compound that I like to use after the black on dark colored cars but you don't really need it. You might also not be sanding fine enough before buffing. 1000 grit shouldn't really be necessary except on the runs. Like said above the paint may not be fully cured, if you press your finger into the paint and it leaves a faint finger print (in an inconspicuous spot of course) then it is definitely not cured enough to buff.

 

From all of us with real Formulas, thank you for taking the decals off that clone. But what will you do when you bump the front or rear and it flexes and cracks your new paint?

 

i just wont bump anything.......... lol but seriously, i don't care if it cracks on the bumper if i bump something, after all it is a "bumper". But you bring up and interesting point, the guy i bought this car from swears up and down its a formula, lol yeah right, i cant seem to convince him its a base model, oh well, the stickers are gone, and never coming back

 

Looks great, nice polish job. Im going with the rustoleum paint job myself on my 86 Trans Am (mosty because the last owner used it and i don't want to take it down to bare metal and it'sway more cost effective). I see they have a clear enamel paint, that i might use after it's all polished to help stop fading.

 

I decided i would experiment on my 1/4 panel with some clear, decided im going to shoot the whole car with some "acme finish 1 ultimate overall clear coat"



And heres the results after shooting the "test spot" lol

 

and thats dry to the touch lol pretty glossy

 

That is not bad! are you gonna wet sand the clear now?

 

Got the whole car cleared today. turned out good, minimal runs and average orange peel.









And yes, i cleared my tinted tail lights

 

Thanks!
and yes, ill sand and buff the clear once it is good and hard.

 

 

Turned out nice! Looks like the car I saw on craigslist for awhile

 

it was on CL for a while. it was on the western il cl listed for 1600 i believe

 

I had to to have the rear driver's side of my box replaced on my Daily last year. The body shop told me not to wash it for 45days and no wax for 6 months!

 

That clear coat brings out a mirror like finish on top of the gloss black.,

 

Hey no way! I was going through this thread, and I am loving the work you did on this car. I've been wanting to get mine done for a while but engine work and just generally getting the car to be a daily driver has proven enough of a challenge before a paint job happens. So anyways as I'm going through the pictures, I notice some of the houses and such on your road and I thought hey, that looks similar to where I live, and what do ya know, you're from Flanagan too! It also looks like you might live across from one of my friends (The Durre's) Had I not been looking at the background of your pictures, I'd have never noticed Anyways, the work you did on this looks great! I can only wish that it could be done to mine but still being in highschool and only a part time worker, my money is focused for a while on the smaller things to get my 83 trans am running smoothly! Maybe you could go into detail of all the steps you went through, and everything you used for my future reference? Lol that'd be much appreciated.

 

Looks pretty damn good IMO

 

That looks really good.
Great job!!

 

Thanks guys!!

did a little wet sanding and buffing on the pass side 1/4 and door today.....










And here's a buddys 74 amc amx javelin that i painted two years ago..