Corvette Body Work Part 1

Everything written here is based on my personal experiences as a painter. I’m sure not everyone will agree with everything I say here.

First off ~ Whenever you are working on your Corvette, and using flammable or combustible materials be aware of your environment! For instance, if you are working in your garage at home, make sure all natural gas pilot lights are out and the gas is turned off.

First thing I do is jack up the car and give the entire car a good power wash. Putting your car high in the air will make it easier to work on. If you look at CorvetteDan22’s post on his painting of his Corvette it shows exactly how you want to dismantle and work on your Corvette. If you take all those pieces off like he did, you can work on those parts on your bench, which is much easier than down low on a car. After you get your car disassembled, before you begin any sanding, you need to clean all the surfaces with a prep solvent first. This will lift all the grease and grime. If you don’t do this you will push all this grease and grime into your paint as you sand. Starting in 1984 Corvette’s were built using a different process. Prior to 1984 it was more of a straight fiberglass composite. With the 84 they switched their manufacturing techniques to SMC. This requires different types of repair material than the older Vet’s. When you go to the paint store you need to make sure you are buying materials compatible to 84 or newer Vet’s. If you look at CorvetteDan22’s posts on his Vet, the entire car was covered with spider cracks throughout the paint. Dan had to remove all of those cracks because if he wouldn’t have they would have came back after he painted it. If your Corvette has a sound paint job your job is much easier.

Let’s start with the easy process first.
Your car looks good. The paint doesn’t have to be shiny, but no flaking. For this is best to rough up any chips with 80 grit sandpaper. Anytime you work on your Vet make sure all the products you buy can be catalyzed or hardened. Including spot putties. Lacquer putties will shrink after you paint your car. Catalyzed putties will not shrink. Your goal here is to fill these chips up to the level of the paint on your car. Sand your car with 220 grit on a rubber block wet by hand after you have filled any chips. I never use a DA sander or any type of electric sander on a Corvette. If you don’t know what you are doing you are going to dig holes and your car is going to be very wavy.

If your car looks like Dan’s Vet, the way I would do it would be to block sand the entire car until you have sanded off all off the cracks. This is going to be extremely time consuming. I never use paint stripper on a Vet. If you are somewhat experienced already, and know what an air file is, sometimes I use this with 80 grit to remove the paint. If you are not familiar with the air file, I would just block sand by hand, that way you won’t make any mistakes.

If you have any broken exterior pieces, I would recommend replacement. If you know how to use Kitty Hair or its equivalent, you can repair these parts. For the novice it’s best just to replace. I use the air file with 80 grit dry to shape any composite repairs. If you are not familiar with the air file use 80 grit on a rubber block.

Before you do any sanding always cover glass, trim parts or anything that need to be protected with tape before you sand. If you accidentally hit any of these items with the sandpaper, you will have a lifetime scratch on these. The final sanding before priming use 220 grit wet/dry paper wet. Anything rougher than 220 will leave sanding scratches that your primers will not be able to fill. The main thing is to take your time and don’t rush nothing. View it as a set of steps to reaching your final goal. If you rush or try to take a shortcut you may be looking at that shortcut every time you look at your Vet.

I’ll write up the primering post in a couple days.

Thanks to my wonderful wife for typing all of this and her support in helping me will all my Hotrod projects.

CorvetteMike

 

Good starting point.. Thanks for the info..

 

Keep it coming Im learning here.....Thanks for the post

 

This is good stuff. I'm looking forward to the long version. These kinds of posts are extremely helpful and keep us less experienced types from screwing up as bad.

 

Great info...

BTW, are you the Corvette Mike of the dealership in Anaheim??

 

I have no relationship or connection with Corvette Mike of Los Angeles area. He is a vette dealership. He has some of the most pristine corvettes you could buy.

 

Yep, eight years ago I drove there (from Mesa, AZ) to inspect and close the deal on my 35th.
Though the car had >90k on the clock the engine compartment was just spotless; I have not had it as pristene since.