I'm not sure if I'm going to go directly to the front end or if we're going to primer the rear first. I'm waiting for the spousal unit to decide.

 

If the repaired area would absorb moisture priming it to seal it would be a good idea. I dont know how hydrophobic the filler is. It couldnt hurt and it would show any tiny imperfection to fill before final paint. Glad your back at it!!

 

Refresh my memory...you are not modifying the nose. If not. the body work should go much easier

 

Correct, I am not modifying the nose. Other than fiberglassing the panel seams it shouldn't be too much trouble

 

I think the repaired area absorbs a little bit of water. I'd like to prime it now but I figure there'd be less primer waste if I did the whole car at once.

 

Hey Priya, nice to see you are making progress!
I finally got my project started.
There was an old thread that ran six of seven years ago by DUB and the discussion was about people should not leave these cars without primer for very long because it effected the fiberglass.
I don’t remember the details, but the consensus was that it shouldn’t be done.

 

Glad to hear you got started, I hope you make great progress
I started with the tail light panel, that part has been years without primer, I'll have to hope for the best. I suppose it would be good to get primer on it asap.

 

You do have a lot of hard work into that rear end. I would hate to see something affect what you have done

 

Yes, it was way more challenging than I thought it would be.

 

It's good to know that you are still hard on this. Keep this up and maybe you'll shame me into action!

 

 

that was a new tail panel? cuz i remember you bought a cut-off and gave up on it. pretty sure the repop stuff is gel coated, so way less of an issue. also sunlight beats up bare glass. but pretty sure that is an inside car also. so no primer is less of an issue in your case.

 

Yes, it's an aftermarket ACI tail light panel and the gel coat is mostly still on it. The Corvette has spent a few winters outside in a car box so no sunlight or water gets on it. None of it looks deteriorated anywhere I've worked on it.

 

I've started working on the front end of the 79. I figured I'd do the sanding on the front bumper cover and then loosen the nuts on the studs holding the front bumper cover to the body. I soaked the nuts and studs with penetrating oil because as you can see in the picture below the studs have an even layer of rust on them (red arrows) and I read about them commonly breaking off and I was hoping to avoid that. The six nuts I could get at weren't stuck at all and readily turned although they weren't so loose that I could remove the nuts with my fingers. To me it doesn't look possible to get at the other six nuts without removing the headlight buckets (although I did try) so that's going to be next. It doesn't look like I'll have any problems with broken studs on the bumper cover due to frozen nuts.



I sanded the bumper cover with 120 grit where it had stone chips and nicks and 180 grit where it was smooth (I've got extra 180 grit and not enough 120 grit). I had a go at removing the screws holding in the grills and got a couple screws loose but then the screwdriver slipped when I tried to loosen the remaining star screws with a lot of pressure. I called in the husband and he said GM like to use these special screws that looked like a star but I think he called a "Posi-drive". He found this tiny bit and it fit pretty tight in the screw head but I still couldn't get them to turn without the screwdriver slipping out of the screw heads. I was surprised to see him kind of bounce/lean on each of the screws and using some mysterious body english he got them all to start to turn with a "snap". I wouldn't have thought there could be some sort of trick to leaning on a screwdriver but I guess decades of working on cars teaches you how to do things normal people can't figure out.

You can see in the picture below I used too much penetrating fluid and even though I wiped it down once already it's creeped back onto the exterior where the bumper cover meets the body as shown by the blue arrows below. I'd like to take the car to a car wash once I get the headlight buckets out so the oil won't be a problem but that doesn't really seem practical right now. Other than dealing with the penetrating oil the front bumper cover is ready for primer. I want to loosen it off a bit before I fiberglass the bonding seams on the front fenders.

 

other 6 bolts? there is about 18 all told. here they are... https://www.ebay.com/itm/25188257016...evt=1&mkcid=28

 

Oh dear, I could only see 12. This promises to be more fun than I was hoping to have.

 

I just went though removing the front bumper cover off my 73.
You don’t need to remove the headlight buckets.
Just push the headlights up and you’ll have access.
It was that simple.
Once you remove the bumper cover the headlight buckets will easily pop out the front.
I used a 1/4” drive ratchet and long extension on a couple and a short extension for the others.
For some I used a 1/4” screw driver type handle and the nuts turned right off.
A prior owner for my car had replaced several of the nuts and used 5mm (if I remember correctly) metric speed nuts instead of the oem nuts.
So if your SAE socket doesn’t seem to be working try the metric size.
There were several U Tube videos that I watched that said to get to the far corner nuts, you had to cut access holes in the front inside of the marker light indents (after removing the side marker lights) to gain access to those nuts (BS).
One video I watched said it could be easily done without cutting the access holes.
Well I’m happy to say I’m glad I found that video, because those two in the upper corners were easily accessed using a box end wrench and came right off.
It turned out that after I laid down underneath and took a good look the bumper cover came off without no trouble at all.

 

I don't want to actually remove the bumper cover but just separate it enough for painting without having the paint bridge from the bumper cover to the body panels. I've heard that the used bumper covers can be difficult to get back in place once removed, you have to heat them up in the sun to get them back in place.

 

I don’t know anything about them not fitting back on after they’ve been removed.
You might want to start a new thread and ask that question.
It would be interesting to read the feedback.
If you look closely at the photos I posted you can actually see there is a metal frame that the screws go through and that metal frame would keep the shape of the bumper cover intact.
At least I would think it would, but I’m certainly no expert.

 

i believe pozidriv is an english "phillips". Jags are a PITA for that reason. the other advantage spousal unit has over you when fighting a screw is mass and testosterone. everything is easier when you know how, but a certain amount of power is still necessary. you are using this urethane bumper over? it is pretty enough? leaving it on and masking carefully may be more prudent. i assume the lower "valence" is removed to give you more room? and your set of front bumpers. you are not going to use them? there is a guy a bit south of you that may want them. still in canada. pale roader. he is about to dump his 73 cuz it isn't a 69. i am trying to convince him a paid-for car that isn't rusty is easier to convert than doing from scratch a beat hulk he hasn't even found yet.