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I am enjoying watching your thread. I like custom builds. I built a custom 68 corvette back in the 80's. I sure miss this car. Wish I would have hung on to it.
I am enjoying watching your thread. I like custom builds. I built a custom 68 corvette back in the 80's. I sure miss this car. Wish I would have hung on to it.
Man, that was a sharp looking 68! Love the combo of the L88 hood with the turbo style vents on the side.
Were those mirrors off a Monte Carlo? They fit the custom vibe perfectly.
I'm not taking the easy way out. Already started gathering some of the paint for the car. I'm waiting on final color samples from HOK to pick the red, orange and gold candies.
Already have the Orion Silver base coat, followed up with 2lbs of .025 silver metal flake that'll be sprayed through HOK flake carrier. After that sits about a week, I'll knock it down smooth with 800 grit and begin laying candy. Once the color is on, it'll get topped off with around six coats of HOK high solids clear.
Wont be easy, but will be awesome.
I'm currently shaving the firewall. Everything from the booster/master to the passenger fender is cut out, and being remade with a combo of sheetmetal topped with fiberglass. Should look pretty sweet.
I think they shaved the firewall on the #1 car back when they did a restore/redesign after its watery accident in Australia. The #2 car here in the states remains nearly original. Can't wait to see yours.
I think they shaved the firewall on the #1 car back when they did a restore/redesign after its watery accident in Australia. The #2 car here in the states remains nearly original. Can't wait to see yours.
So basically everything you see in that pic from the brake booster mount all the way to the end of the passenger side of the firewall will be smooth. Same with the parts that wrap into the door jambs. I'm still contemplating if I wanna ditch the wiper cubby area under the windshield and go full smooth everywhere. I think I might.
I think someone else alluded to this earlier, but the paint scheme is so elaborate on the car with bass boat size metal flake throughout, which I'm sure would be astronomical to replicate today - Even back in the day I'm guessing it was very pricey, as those are not decals. Even if you do it yourself that is almost unfathomably labor intensive. Can you do it with a wrap?
Proper two-part paint that you buy from a jobber has always been expensive (choose your favorite brand here), but even more so the past few years. I could see paint being one of the most expensive costs for this project, if not the most... Ive seen guys spend 30K on paint jobs (paying someone to do it), and that was one color with no designs! Of course, much of that cost is labor - disassembly, block sanding, priming, more block sanding, painting, wet sanding, repeat repeat, and then re-assembly. As you know, lot of labor -both and prep and post - goes into a stellar paint job.
Last edited by Corvette-ZL1; Jan 18, 2023 at 12:15 PM.
The paint scheme is so elaborate on the car with bass boat size metal flake throughout, which I'm sure would be astronomical to replicate - Even back in the day I'm guessing it was very pricey, as those are not decals. Any idea how much it will cost to replicate that today? Can you do it with a wrap?
I dont like vinyl wraps, on anything. I'm a paint only type of guy.
Just a rough estimate of materials:
2lbs of .025 metal flake $100
1gal High build primer $150
1gal HoK Prion Silver $400
2gal HoK flake carrier $400
6qt HoK Candy red $600
2qt HoK Candy Gold $200
2qt HoL Candy Orange $200
2gal HoK Show Clear $550
So it's not cheap, but not the end of the world. It'll take a while to lay it all down. After the silver base is laid, I'm thinking it'll take 6-8 coats of intercoat mixed with the .025 flake to get the coverage I want. After that it'll have to sit for a week or so, and then I get to sand it down flat with 800 grit before I can start laying candies over it. The flames are gonna be a nightmare. I forsee lots of rolls of tape being used lol
I dont like vinyl wraps, on anything. I'm a paint only type of guy.
Just a rough estimate of materials:
2lbs of .025 metal flake $100
1gal High build primer $150
1gal HoK Prion Silver $400
2gal HoK flake carrier $400
6qt HoK Candy red $600
2qt HoK Candy Gold $200
2qt HoL Candy Orange $200
2gal HoK Show Clear $550
So it's not cheap, but not the end of the world. It'll take a while to lay it all down. After the silver base is laid, I'm thinking it'll take 6-8 coats of intercoat mixed with the .025 flake to get the coverage I want. After that it'll have to sit for a week or so, and then I get to sand it down flat with 800 grit before I can start laying candies over it. The flames are gonna be a nightmare. I forsee lots of rolls of tape being used lol
Oh, for sure. Wow, this is probably going to be the most labor-intensive part of the entire build. I could not even imagine how much time it would take to replicate this paint job.... Dozens, if not hundreds of hours, from start to finish after all is said and done. and if someone had to actually pay a shop to do this - I wouldn't even want to see the estimate.... Have you done anything so elaborate before?
Last edited by Corvette-ZL1; Jan 18, 2023 at 12:28 PM.
Oh, for sure. Wow, this is probably going to be the most labor-intensive part of the entire build. I could not even imagine how much time it would take to replicate this paint job.... Dozens, if not hundreds of hours, from start to finish after all is said and done. and if someone had to actually pay a shop to do this - I wouldn't even want to see the estimate.... Have you done anything so elaborate before?
I've played with candies and large flake before, but nothing like this with major body graphics. It'll definitely be a learning experience for sure.
But that's what makes it fun. It's different from a typical paint job.
Keeping true to the movie, the car was painted in a high school auto body class so it’s not supposed to look like Chip Foose did it……. That car is so over the top as long as you get coverage and wet-sand and rub it car will look good. I’m excited to see it !!
I've played with candies and large flake before, but nothing like this with major body graphics. It'll definitely be a learning experience for sure.
But that's what makes it fun. It's different from a typical paint job.
Just a heads up that the original had a gold metal flake underbase, according to the last paragraph of this Chevy Power article from the time. I'll dig up the MGM spec sheet that listed specifics.
Just a heads up that the original had a gold metal flake underbase, according to the last paragraph of this Chevy Power article from the time. I'll dig up the MGM spec sheet that listed specifics.
I've seen them done a few ways. I was worried gold flake on top of silver base would look like dirt from far away. Flake colors on top of different color base becomes very tricky to avoid looking funny.
I've also seen pictures documenting a very in depth build and it was silver base with holographic flake.
I'm still toying with the base color and flake combo. I have a bunch of little jars of flake on the shelf that I use on spare parts to play with colors. I'll figure something out.
From what I remember reading , is the gold car was the back-up that hadn't been finished painting, so it would make sense that it had a gold base. I don't remember anything about a watery accident with the Australia car, though.
From what I remember reading , is the gold car was the back-up that hadn't been finished painting, so it would make sense that it had a gold base. I don't remember anything about a watery accident with the Australia car, though.
Ed
Yeah, the #1 car was sold to a company in Australia and while on a car transport with the teacher's vehicle from the same film, wound up in a drink down there. It was eventually restored / modified. You can see many, many photos of it, including the restoration/mod, on their FB page (search for "Corvette Summer car in Australia").
From what I recall, both cars had the gold metal flake underbase upon which the candy clears were applied. The edges of the flames are where the tape covered the gold, from what I remember. The #2 car bounced around the USA for decades, wound up at Mid America in Effingham, Illinois when last displayed, then sold to a private collector in Louisiana where I believe it currently remains.
Thanks for the article. While the #2 ( gold car) was at Mid America I got to sit in it. Mike had restored it and maybe (?) painted it to red with flames like the movie. Iy was difficult to get into because the steering column didn't tilt and seemed to stick farther in than mine. Mike had a good time driving mine though . I still have photos . It was a good time .
Have you done anything so elaborate before?
