While I've got a few minutes I thought I'd try to summarize by pointing out some mistakes made and lessons learned here...

First, I didn't really think much about exactly how I was going to accomplish this-I just knew that my car needed a repaint, fretted and worried about it for a few years, then just kinda knee-jerk pulled the trigger one day by stripping a roof panel. For the sake of organization and neatness, that might not have been the best course of action. Probably would have been better if I'd consulted a few forum paint gurus first about the best way to remove three previous paint jobs beforehand. It also would have helped if I would have straightened up the garage beforehand and gotten some real usable storage space set aside; that might have lowered the stress level a bit.

Over the years I have always had some kind of car project going, and I like to start the big ones in the spring. When I started this one I was hoping to turn it around in a year but it wound up being a lot closer to two, mostly from passing fifty. It becomes a lot more difficult to peel yourself up off the couch once you're past the half-century mark, like it or not.

The biggest mistakes that I made, in order of occurrence, were as follows:

1: I didn't spend enough time filling waves and irregularities prior to applying primer, and as a result the bodywork isn't as smooth as it could be.
2: I used a 1.8 mm tip for the primer, and got huge orange peel in it as a result. A couple months ago I painted my son's body kit and I used a 1.5 tip with MUCH better results. The primer went on so smooth I barely had to sand it. With the 1.8 tip on the Vette I wound up removing 75% of the primer just getting the orange peel out when I could have been leveling the surface instead...
3: I somehow stupidly neglected to reduce the base sufficiently...it's pretty much a universal rule that you BEGIN at 100%, and I only reduced the first batch about 50%. When I ran out and had to go get more I then realized my mistake, but the damage had been done. I had so much orange peel in the basecoat that it compounded itself into the clear. And...
4: When I shot the clear, I didn't pay enough attention to the direction I was pointing the gun over the rear fender tops and rear deck spoiler. The result of that was that even though I went over the entire car four times I still didn't get complete coverage in those areas and went through the clearcoat when I color sanded.

Those were pretty big mistakes, and the end result would have been noticeably nicer if I'd been paying closer attention. These cars are so gorgeous though that you can actually make big mistakes like that during a job of this size and the overall attractiveness of the car itself kind of diverts your attention away from the boo-boos. So the overall effect is still pretty good in spite of the mistakes.

And now, at my age, I know I would never again attempt a job on this level. A friend who is building a Mustang race car is bringing his car over for me to paint, wire, and finish construction on in a few weeks but that job just isn't nearly as intimidating as this was. It's actually a HUGE relief finally getting it finished with some level if success, because for almost two years I was really worried sick that I was gonna screw something up really bad...whew!

Thanks again for all the kind remarks and compliments, and hopefully this effort by a tired old fiftysomething dude will inspire some of you to get up off the couch and learn a really rewarding new skill!

 

Dave--

You've done an outstanding job!! Don't think anyone in the history of man has ever done their first-garage paint job and thought, "Well that came out perfect!!!" We really appreciate the documentation and honest "I wish I would've done this" or "Man I really screwed this us by..."... You've probably helped and inspired many that this is definitely doable... I'm about to hit 49 this year so know what you're saying about the couch, but my temper has really calmed down over the years... So I think it balances out...

You're car looks great and thanks for being a great source of motivation for us other newb's out here...

Rogman

 

Thanks Roger...now when can we expect to see work resume on your little beastie?

 

Dave--

It's a little tricky now!!! Will get a long weekend at the end of April...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...few-years.html

Rogman

 

Dude, the best paint job I've ever done was a car that was stripped to bare metal. I used a chemical stripper covered it overnight with a piece of plastic. The next morning all the paint came off in one shot.I'm hoping the same will happen when I strip the paint off the front nose of my 76.

 

 

Was cleaning my garage the other day and found the invoice for all the parts that I ordered from Corvette America last year, along with a couple return forms. A couple days earlier I had called them (Thursday) and inquired about their returns policy, explaining that the door felts that they sent me were useless. The guy on the other end was very polite and kindly explained that he would look into my order and call me back the following night (Friday, March 8). Friday came and went and of course no phone call...

I didn't know what I had done with the receipt, but managed to locate it while cleaning the garage yesterday morning, and it read thusly...
"25% restocking fee for all items returned 6 months after purchase, 35% after 9 months, and NO RETURNS after a year of purchase". The date on the receipt was March 5, 2012. $80 down the pooper.

I guess the moral of this story is that I should have somehow checked these things for fit as soon as I had received them, and I shouldn't have assumed that they would have fit properly...silly me. We all know what they say about assumptions...

 

I just read the whole thread, all I can say is WOW! Beautiful work Mr Birdsmith, I will have to consult with you when my car is at that point!

 

My hat is off to YOU!!

It takes a stand up guy with lots of courage to first take on this job, second publish the progress, good and bad, and finally to share what, oh well, wasn't quite right and I coulda, woulda, shoulda done different.

You got my respect!

Beautiful job!!!

Before tackling this same job, I have been following your thread for some time (and better get started as I am 10+ years older than you are, duh!) and I like printouts on paper, duh again! I have a question:

I would like to print out the whole experience, and use the thread tool "print" but the photos don't show up with the verbiage. Any suggestions on how to best print out the whole package? Maybe print the photos from photobucket in one package and print the verbiage in another package? I do not think these threads stay active forever, do they?

 

Thanks for the nice remarks, guys. 20Mercury, if you're 10 years ahead of me my hat's off to YOU!! I will say this- there are some old guys out there that have served as an inspiration to me- George Barris and Phil Remington to name a couple. Remington just passed and he was working for Dan Gurney up until about a year ago. He was 92!!! So we may not be able to tear through a job like this as quickly as some youngsters, but there's no reason not to jump in there and do it.

As far as printing this thing out, I've thought about it myself but haven't actually attempted it. maybe somebody out there in CF-land knows how to make the pics show up as well.

Best of luck with your projects, guys-PM me anytime and I'll be happy to share what not to do!

 

I just tried highlighting everything, to include pictures, right click > copy then paste into microsoft word and the pictures came through no problem...

 

Much thanks and that is the answer!!

(I usually ask the twelve year old down the street to help me with my computer questions, LOL's, but much thanks!)

 

You're very welcome, computers is what I do for the Army so I know a little bit about them

 

I recently installed these same felts, finding that the "buttons" didn't quite line up with the holes in my doors I removed the buttons that didn't line up (they are attached like staples to the steel strip). I then marked out the holes correctly for my doors drilled new holes for the button staples, fitted them back on the strips which then fitted perfectly

 

Cool deal, good tip

 

I don't know if these pieces were intended to be some kind of 'universal fit' thing or what. All I do know is that on a '70 (and my car does have its OE doors) at least two of the 'buttons' that are supposed to push into the door were mislocated so badly that they would have had to been relocated in order to fit properly. Additionally, they were one size larger in diameter than the ones that I removed from the car (like 1/4" instead of the 3/16" ones that GM put on the car).

When I fished up the old pieces and reinstalled them back on the car, they snapped into place just like they belonged there. After spending a couple hours screwing around trying to massage the CA pieces into fitting, they were bent and twisted and wouldn't have looked right even if I had been able to get them on, and I wasn't about to go adding or elongating holes in my doors to make them fit, which I could easily have done.

Again, when I called CA about their crappy parts, they said they'd call me back but never did. While I have no intention of trying to besmirch them or engage in any other sort of recourse, that is what they did. They sold me a bad product and they didn't stand behind it because the warranty had run out, even though I had three unused parts still in their original packaging.

After all the work, sweat, and effort I went through trying to make my car look as close to a new 1970 Corvette as I had invested over the last two years, I thought that having new felts on my doors would be a real nice finishing touch. Now, in order for that to happen, I'll have to go to another vendor and spend that money all over again...

Rant over...