87 Firebird painted at last
 

Hi, I got my Firebird painted at last.


Here are some pics of the car prepped before I looked for a shop to paint it (I was going to use Maaco as it's not going to be a show car)

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

The local Maaco here in Canada wanted near on normal shop price for a bc/cc job, so I searched Craigslist for something else local.


I ended up getting a fairly reasonable quote and I had a look at some of the work they did. A little bit more than Maacco but they were going to use good paint materials and do primer sealer, any other bodywork they found and blocking. They also ended up painting all my jambs and took off the body kit (I never asked them to do it, they just wanted to do the best job they could.


When I picked it up it was raining. So pictures do not do it justice. However when it dried off it looks really good. In a couple of weeks I will colour sand it. The painter said he laid 3 coats of really good quality clear.


The painter was not happy with the front bumper so he is re-doing it (his own request, looked ok to me).
Have started re-assembly. Will take more pics after its all back together.

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

My helper.
Maybe if he is lucky he will get to drive it.

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

This is it after it dried off a bit in the garage.
Crappy dark cellphone picture. Once I have it together I will post some good ones.

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

Looking good!

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

Seems my wheels do not have clear coat on them, so hopefully some elbow grease will bring these up ok. You can see where I polished the bottom spokes of the rim

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

Your car is looking good!

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

Got the front wheels cleaned up on the weekend. They looked really bad before I started on them and thought I might have to do a repaint and everything on them, but I didn't have to.
Turned out pretty good and it wasn't a lot of work once I figured out what to do in order to get the best results. There are few curb marks etc. left on them, however I'm not after a show car just want it to look half decent.


Will do the same to the rears shortly.


Next thing to clean up are the rear louver. I'm not sure if it will clean up but I will give it a go. Will post pics of the progress on that

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

post up some dried out in the sun pics..she looks real nice!

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

Turned out nice

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

Whats your secret on the wheels? They look really good to me

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

Cleaned them with soapy water and a scrubbing brush. Paint came back good.
Then for the polished faces I sanded the machine marks off with 400 dry, then went over the polished faces with the 400 wet.
After they dried off I rubbed on mothers aluminum/mag polish and cleaned that off. Done.

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

Thanks, I'm going to give that a try. I think the paint is still good just needs some polishing on my 2 stripers

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

easier to take the wheels to a big rig truck stop, they usually charge around $15 per wheel to fully polish them, and you can chill inside grab a beer and a dog and not worry one bit

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

That's an interesting option.

Re: 87 Firebird painted at last
 

Been tinkering for a while with a bunch of stuff: Brakes, Louvers, Stereo / Speakers install and a rough idle issue.
Just got it all back together and put new tires on it. New battery too.

If the weather co-operates this weekend, gonna get a weekend permit and go cruising in it for the first time in 'many years'. Hopefully it will behave itself.

Here's some pictures of what it looks like put together (sun was going down, so not the best pictures of it).

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.thi...e4746823f6.jpg


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.thi...a6fab62642.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.thi...dc8891412a.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.thi...00fc5a0f82.jpg