Ben's 77 came out of the garage 3 Saturdays ago. My 74 is back in and will be laid up for a while.

Everyone likes pictures including me. Except I don't like these ones of my 74's upcoming bumpers and paint expenses. This project is going to take a while, but that's okay.

One of the 24 year old stainless steel calipers gave up when moving the cars around. It's the right rear, you can see it's all wet from the sillycone fluid. I'm sure the other 3 caliper seals are dried and cracked. This will be interesting to see what Corvette World does. Will they only give me 1? I want 4 as the other 3 will start leaking and I don't want to drive the car and that happen later on. I think they'll give me 4 new ones as they know the other 3 are very soon to leak.

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My 74 is in the paint shop getting the front and rear bumper covers fitted and painted. Mine fell apart the same way. Can't wait til Wednsday it should be out of the shop.

 

I'm curious, would you tell me how much yours will cost at the shop? You'll get a better paint match (hopefully) at the shop than we'll get here doing it ourselves.

I already know the base / clear coats won't match the lacquer on my car.

 

I do not have a final bill. I will know more after it is complete. I had some areas fixed where the prior owner had a front and rear spoiler removed and a ding on my driver door repaired. My estimate with fitting, repair and paint is a little over $1300. I will let you know when it is done.

 

That's okay, you don't have to get back with the actual bill price. $1,300 is a good ballpark figure (less the other work you need).

I have a good idea now what it might cost me if I take my bumpers to a shop for painting. I still have to get a front bumper yet so I have time to think about this and getting estimates. A shop would be able to match the body color, I can't do that here. I'd sure hate to buy paint and it not match to even close.

Post some pictures of yours when it's done.

 

Will post some pics when done. The shop is having a little trouble on the paint match on mine but they have a specialist coming in to get the tint correct so I am hoping it will all blend together well.

 

That's the tough part even for a shop as you already knew before taking it to the shop. I've seen so many cars over my years where the paint doesn't match the body and that's the scary part of it all for us rubber bumper guys. Hopefully they'll get it right on your car.

On my 74 a little portion about the size of a quarter lifted off (lacquer) paint. I took gas door off and to a shop that had a paint reading machine. The machine read the lacquers ingrediants or formula. The newly painted gas door looked great. Put it back on the car. Standing on the passenger side of the car the gas door was darker than the rear deck. Standing on the drivers side looking at it, it looked lighter than the rear deck. It was all in the pigments and how they were standing in the new paint.

If you looked at my 74 pictures you'll see I got another gas door, stripped it's paint off, polished the metal and added an emblem. Well, I think that looks stupid, hahaha. I guess I'll put the newly painted gas door back on.

I don't want to scare you with you're newly painted bumpers. I honestly hope your shop gets them to match. I been wondering too, is your car lacquer paint? Or has it been repainted at one point with base / clear? If it is base / clear coats, I think they'll get it to match.

 

My car has been repainted in the past it is base coat clear coat. They are going to blend the rear section and may blend the front if they can't get the paint to match correctly.

 

Being your car was repainted in base / clear they'll be able to match the paint perfectly.

I have a friend who owns a little body shop and he has all the colors and tints in quart cans in the back room. They look up a colors formula and mix it themselves. They may have to tweek it some, but they always get the color match in the end. Your shop will tweek the color (or the place where they buy it from) and I'm betting your bumpers will match great.