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Garage Paint Job Done

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Old May 7, 2012 | 11:10 PM
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Default Garage Paint Job Done

Been working on the 81 since November. Got the mechanical work done, freshened up the interior then moved to the body.
The car had a good solid two stage paint job on it, with some very minor spyder cracks, chips scratches etc.
The LF fender had a previous Bubba repair and I had to rebuild the wheel well to bring it to the proper contours. I made templates from the RF fender as a guide and used long strand filler to build up the lip and rough it in. Ground out all the syder cracks, chips and scratches and filled with short strand filler then filler and glaze. Wet sanded the entire car with 320 then 400. Sprayed a guide coat on and blocked it to see how bad the panels really were and was pleasanly surprized that I had little filling and blocking to do. I used a high build gray primer on the areas that needed help and blocked them. After a few more guide coats to sort out the panels I was ready to mask and prime.



Since I was going with a single stage black urethane, I used a black epoxy primer/sealer. I used a hvlp gravity feed gun at 20psi, primer went on nice and smooth. It looked so good in primer I almost stopped there.


After some minor sanding on the primer and a good clean up I started in on the color coat. I used an Ebay "special" Single stage urethane from a bulk paint supplier. Came in unmarked cans with photo copied tech sheets, mixing cups, sticks glove and strainers. I mixed 4:1:1 paint, resucer/hardner/hot reducer. The leter was done because it was over 80 deg. when I painted. The paint flowed out very nice. I sprayed two wet coats on. I had one panel I had to re-do after mainly because I did not have the gun dialed in quite right when I started and the lighting in the garage could have been better. Word to the wise If painting with black you need a lot of lighting to see what you are spraying. I have painted several cars and bikes but never sprayed black.
After a day baking in the hot texas sun I started wet sanding with 1000 and 1500 to flatten out the finish. I had one run that I got to aggressive on and had to re-spray the panel. Took two days of sanding to get it where I wanted it.


I used Meguiars professional products for polishing. started with rubbing compound and wood pad, wahsed it down then went to foam pad with polishing compound washed again then final cut with glaze. Shine came up great. It's not a show finish but a ten footer and have had lots of compliments.
I finished it off with carbon fiber film on the roof, hood stinger, and rockers, blacked out the lights and made black mesh covers for the grills. Blacked out the stack Alum. wheels and applied a red stripe on the rim, rockers and outlined the stinger.



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Old May 7, 2012 | 11:14 PM
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Look out batman!!!!!
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Old May 7, 2012 | 11:23 PM
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Awesome job.....very impressive.
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Old May 8, 2012 | 12:41 AM
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Old May 8, 2012 | 06:12 AM
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I almost stopped after spraying the black primer, very sinister looking Looks like you did a great job
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Old May 8, 2012 | 06:50 AM
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Nice job!!! Looks great
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Old May 8, 2012 | 07:36 AM
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Old May 8, 2012 | 07:43 AM
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Hi tb,
Very nice looking 'at home' work!
It also shows that getting a very nice paint job takes more than just a 'quick spray'!
Regards,
Alan
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Old May 8, 2012 | 07:57 AM
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I like the wheels. Are they the stock aluminum ones?
If so, did you paint them or powder coat?
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Old May 8, 2012 | 08:01 AM
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Looks GREAT - Never painted but I've always heard that black was more difficult to work work with.
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Old May 8, 2012 | 08:34 AM
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very nice looking vette,

great job on the paint

Neal
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Old May 8, 2012 | 10:37 AM
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Great color and great job.
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Old May 8, 2012 | 01:23 PM
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Looks real nice!

Especialy considering you used a wood polishing pad!


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Old May 8, 2012 | 02:17 PM
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NICE! I like the color stripe added to the rocker panel molding to match the tire accent. Very sharp.
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Old May 8, 2012 | 02:20 PM
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Fine job
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Old May 8, 2012 | 02:31 PM
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Looks awesome! I love the wheels too.
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Old May 8, 2012 | 02:32 PM
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Looks great. Want to do mine next?
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Old May 8, 2012 | 02:47 PM
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Looks great - love the red stripe tire too
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Old May 8, 2012 | 03:46 PM
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I knew that color-combo looked familiar....

2012 Centennial Edition
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Old May 8, 2012 | 04:26 PM
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Great job!
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