So I took it it the shop last Saturday before Sandy hit. We had a few days of rough weather wih clean up to follow. Work on the car started Thursday evening. This is how she sits as of this afternoon. It is coming along.

Now I really have to decide on a color. Those paint chips are so hard to visualize. I want a darkl dark blue. I thought I found it 2009 Mazda Kona Blue. The paint chip looked pretty dark, but when I looked it up on line and saw some 2009 Mazdas in that color, it is a pretty bright blue. Not what I was thinking...

Before:


Today:





Will Update as we progress

 

Here's a nice blue



or this blue

 

I have found my blue. 04 Corvette Lemans blue or Luxo Blue. Now do I go with some racing stripes or not? I have seen some C3's with racing stripes that I liked and then I see others and I say "that messes up the lines and curves of the body"

 

Hope this helps about the racing stripe, it is not a Camaro it is a Corvette and it's lines speak all that needs to be said about the car.

 

Yes I do tend to agree with that. I have seen a few that look good, but most take away from the car for sure.

NO STRIPES it is!!!

 

Yipes! No stripes!

 

Any last minute advice before I get too deep into it?

 

My advice would be to "get deep into it." What I mean is to break it down and take care of all the small details now. Take those doors off, the front air dam and nose to include the headlight assemblies and mirrors. Take off the rear bumper cover. Removing all these parts gives great access to hidden problems that would just be covered up with a shiny paint job. Examples would be door handle assemblies, mirrors, power window tracts, motors and switches, electrical lighting issues, horns, headlight assemblies and vacuum system components, etc. The body is flexible so choose your paint wisely to avoid stress cracking.

Be careful on old paint removal especially if using chemicals...make sure they will not harm the fiberglass or urethane. Choose many different sandpaper grits from 180 to 4000. Above all realize that a decent paintjob will run your $4,500 - $7,000 (if done by others). My car was in the shop for over 4 months. I will admit that mine was not the primary project, but just saying. The positive side of the long wait, was time to "fix" and/or "replace" parts and systems.

 

For 1980 they had a dark metallic blue , my car is that color origionally and it was repainted that color several years ago .. People always comment on it

 

After being recently injured in a car accident where the other driver didn't see my Vette against all the other traffic, I had to go with a bright color--it took me months to decide between blue and orange. Finally went with orange though I wish I could have both!

It's goanna look like this when it finally gets outta the shop:

 

Nice looking L82

 

I had a camero back in the 80's that looked pretty close to that color. Very Nice!!!

 

One of GM's colors for 87 or 88 was called Dark Sapphire Blue, metallic and just plain gorgeous

 

Color can be SO difficult to decide upon. I know exactly where you're coming from. Been through it several times myself. You can get a lot of opinions from people but at the end of the day, what really matters is what YOU want/llike. What I always find helpful is to walk through a car lot, or even better yet, a car show (Corvette show preferred) and try to gauge by what I see on the cars. If you have a paint program that is any good, you can download images of a white car off the internet (white works really well, but any color will do) and make color changes that you can try to judge by. Walk down in your garage and try to visualize what the car will look like sitting in your garage. Try to imagine how it will look to you in 2 years, 5 years and so on. For example, I like yellow corvettes, but I felt that, to me at least, yellow would not be a color I would like as much 3-4 years down the road as I might when it was new.

OTOH, I once sold cars at a car dealership many years ago. I was always amazed that most buyers would enter the dealership insisting right away they had to have a certain color car, but would eventually settle (on their own) on a car of a completely different color. The point is, I think me, you, or most people, could become satisfied with just about any color corvette if it were in their or my garage. So, while color is important, I don't think there is a 'perfect' color out there.

 

See what I mean the color I posted has been well liked even 2 people in here say so LMAO .. Thanks scorp and jpish

 

That shop works very quickly!

 

Two retired men. It is the only car in the shop right now. They just finished up the two that were in right before the storm hit, they did not work for 5 days and they were ready to go.

They do really nice work. I have seen a few corvettes, cameros, mustangs, trucks and motorcycles they have done and it is pretty work. One camero the owner was happy with the paint, but they would not let it go because they were not happy with it and started it all over again.

 

It looks like your car's front nose is pretty wavy. Now would be the right time to replace it with a new one if it is something you've considered. Reason is: the replacement nose pieces almost NEVER fit properly and require some bodywork (on the car-side, and nose piece) to get them to fit properly. You definitely DON'T want to paint the car now thinking you'll replace the nose sometime down the road when the time is 'right'. Just my .02. Other than that, it looks like they're doing a good job prepping it.

 

You are blessed! This job took four months. We do not have speciality shops here so it was a side-line for a collision shop. They took in 2-3 classics per year as training for young people. I was very pleased with the outcome.

 

That is nice, love that color.