There is absolutey nothing better than driving down the road....in your own paint! Don't ask me how I know. If you search my threads, you may pick up a tip or two! Have fun...it is worth it!!

 

Thank you sir, I will check out some of your threads looking for any little trick I can find. But I do know the feeling of driving down the road in my own paint. I have done a few of my toys over the years but I really got to know the feeling in a previous life about 25 or 30 years ago when I owned a small fleet of 6 of class 8 trucks. I painted them all, and some of the trailers too. It always got me excited to see one coming down the road with our name on it. SO yes. I am into this full bore. Thx.

 

Do you think you will paint on quickjack?

 

Subscribing for the next update!

 

Wow! Pretty dang cool. I see I’m not the only one who is a bit ocd about my projects. Looking forward to seeing this one done. Kudos on your work so far @kanvasman

 

Thanks for posting your guide, I'm ordering the eastwood sanding blocks !

 

Interpon, yes it will be up on the Quickjacks. And I will have an update by the end of the weekend. Thanks all for tuning in...

 

This is a pretty awesome thread so far but I’d really like to see some pics of the C4 center console you fitted, if you get a chance to. Thanks

 

Can't wait to see the progress pics! Good Luck Jim!

 

My how time flies. It seems like yesterday I was posting then I realized it was way back in January. Here is what i have been up to and for those that care I will try and keep the sentences short and make paragraphs out of different thoughts.

One of the delays I encountered was I tore a bicep tendon in my arm which meant no sanding for awhile. I found myself doing more body work than anticipated. As I put the car together I knew I would be coming back to take it all apart for paint, so I wasn't very concerned about how things fit. Now is the time, before the paint, to get it all correct.

In addition to fitting the front and rear fiberglass bumpers, I wanted a 73-74 look with my 78 bumper. In SC we have no front plate so how hard could it be to just cut that center part part out? It is actually pretty hard to do it and make it look decent. Once I realized what was involved t I ended up buying a cheapo ebay 73 donor bumper to cut and paste into the nice ACI 78 bumper I had. My plan was to just put the 78 side grills back in place. FIrst I had to put the 73 center grill in. Once that was in place I discovered that the lines of the 73 do not match the lines of the 78 grills. The 73 slats are thicker. SO I have to buy some 73 side grills. They will just fit in the existing holes, right?. At first look they have similar attachment points so what could go wrong? About 2" could go wrong. It seems that the 73 grills are longer by about an inch, which meant I had to now cut some more out of the ACI bumper. Why didn't I just buy a 73 bumper when I started doing this? Because I had no idea I would be going down this road. And I had already done a nice job of fitting that little strip in the enter of the 78 bumper.. SO let this be a warning to anyone that might think a slight change to the center section of the bumper couldn't be that complicated.

My inspiration thanks to a forum member who posted his pics.

Not much left

The 73 bumper I got was only about $125 but it was paper thin. This is the section I cut out and glassed into the 78 bumper. I put some more layers of glass behind it

Finished on the bench after I cut out the 2 outside corners to fit the 73 grills

the almost finished product. Since I took this picture I fine tuned the alignment of the grills from left to right. Note the Camaro rectangular headlights. They were one of the first mods I wanted to make on the car.

The next bit of body work I needed to get correct before I painted was the marker lights. At one time I came across a story about a project from Heartland Customs about the Menace C3. That was way above my bank account but one item I could do was put C6 marker lights on my C3, the same as they did. I also am lucky enough to have a 2012 C6 so once again I figured, How hard can it be? In my previous work life I have done a fair amount of work on boats using fiberglass so I know how to do things like that. But rather than making a mold I thought I would just put an ad in the C6 WTB section and ask if anyone wanted to sell off their marker light sections from a trashed quarter panel. It worked. I found a forum member who would sell me 2 sections for $50 each. All I needed to do was glass them into the rear quarters. My plan was working perfectly until I realized ( once again) that the front marker lights on a C6 are about an inch longer than the back ones. FYI, the rear quarters on a C6 are easy to come by. The front marker housings however, are part of the front bumper. Those bumpers are impossible to find, and even if I could find one complete and was willing to shell out the money, the shipping charges would be more than the bumper. I went to plan B. I made a mold for each side of the car, using some old marker lights I had from my C6. Once I had the molds done, all I needed to do was glass them in place. Thankfully my wife has a good eye because I could not get them horizontally straight no matter how hard I tried. Lots of curves in the fender and there is not a straight line anywhere in the light. But I got it done. Then I had to source all of the different plugs and connectors that GM put in those housings. They were not as simple as an 1157 bulb I can assure you.





All of this body work was throwing my time line off, but I am having fun so who cares? I had most of the car down to bare fiberglass except for where the mirrors and the door handles are. In order to get the C6 mirrors off I needed to remove the side windows. And I wanted to keep those on the car for as long as I could in order to keep the sanding dust out as long as possible. But it was now time to pull the rest apart. I went and pulled the glass and the mirrors. And with the glass out it was easy to get the door handles out, and while I am there...I might just as well take all the track out and the door latches so I can give them a final cleaning and lubrication.

Another item that I kind of passed over was my A/C system. I had the compressor mounted and all of that, but I neglected to get a condenser. At the time I put the engine in I wasn't really concerned but I now realize that the hood needs to be off before I can put one in. Again, more time finding a parallel flow condensor and making up my custom A/C lines so it all looks neat. I am really glad I am not paying a shop rate of over $125/hr for all of these "little things".

Now the hood is on, and I got all of the gaps pretty straight. Maybe not NCRS tight, but in my old eyes, they look good.











This is where my project stands as of today. But this morning I came across another bump in the road. My right rear caliper is leaking so I need to take that apart and rebuild it. The car is up on my Quickjacks and I plan on painting it in that position. The booth is a little too narrow right now but I designed it so that I can move the long wall out about 2 feet by just removing some screws holding the joists in place. The reason I did this is because I have a really nice garage. A REALLY nice garage. And I have a really nice C6. A REALLY nice C6 and I wanted to be able to keep it in the garage as long as possible. Once I am ready to paint, the C6 goes outside, the wall gets pushed out and the car will be put in diagonally so I can have plenty of room to open the doors, then it will go up on the Quickjacks.


For now I just have some minor finishing up to do before I put on the G2 Polyester. But I can already see somethings that might throw my schedule off again. I have some doctor appointments coming up in the next few weeks that are going to take priority over my fun. Getting old is so much fun! And it is car show time here in Charleston. One big one in Myrtle Beach about 2 weeks ago ( 3200 cars), I went to another small show today and there is the DOING THE CHARLESTON show on April 12, which is an all Corvette show. We have a great time at that one but I need to start cleaning the pollen out of the C6 next week. But don't worry, I am comitted to getting this done, no matter HOW LONG it takes.

P.S. A few of you have asked for details about my C4 console that I put in the 78 and I am getting my pics together and will start up a new thread about that in a few days. Nowhere near as long or detailed as this thread is but some of you might find it interesting. Thanks for following this. I hope you are having as much fun as I am.

 

Nice work! I’m subscribing as I am in work stripping my 73 vette for bodywork and paint. It’s been 19, almost 20, years since I’ve done any body work paint!

 

Thanks for reminding me that I haven't finished yet!!! I was actually ready to spray my G2 but had some health issues in the spring. Then the South Carolina humidity came. It is starting to cool off but now my 37 yr old son has some serious health problems of his own and as much as I want to start painting, I can't focus the way I need to. Maybe before Christmas if his recovery is that quick. At this point we aren't sure. But I haven't given up, just postponed a little longer.

 

I know when you actually start spraying, all the stars need to line up just right as it is an intensive process best done quickly. Good luck on that all happening for you when it's time and not before.