Ok, I'm ready to spray filler primer. Everything is clean. All the bodywork is as done as it's gonna get.

But now we're having August in June and it's too hot to shoot, and looks like it will be too hot for several weeks. Bummed. At least I bought a couple boxes of these plastic disposable car covers to keep it clean until the weather cooperates.

 

I'm loving this resurgence in build threads. Hopefully that'll help give me the kick in the pants to get started on mine! It looks great so far, that POR-15 is some great stuff. I've used it on many restorations at work, and it's a life saver.

 

Got lucky. Had one night with a two and a half hour window where it was under 80 degrees but still below 60% humidity.

Filler primer is finally down. This is probably the first time this thing has been one color in decades.






Now on to even more sanding.

 

Progress!

The filler primer did its job. Most of it is on the floor now. The targa top is sanded out to 800 grit. The rest is out to 320. I still have a few rough spots to smooth down with the guide coat, then block the rest to 400, then 800.

Then we can seal it and lay down some color.

 

Finally a break in the weather! I've been waiting nearly two months for temps in the 70s and humidity below 60% and I got it.

Sealer went down this morning:



Of course, nothing ever goes smoothly. I had my HF reel air line burst, and I rubbed my *** on the fender when it happened. So off to HF for another hose reel and then I had to wait a couple of hours for the sealer to cure enough to wet sand it. But wet sand it I did, then cleaned it up again and hit the insets for the corner lamps and turn signals:



Another hour until the black was hard enough to take masking tape so I could cover it up, and then the actual color went down. This is Summit Racing's Deep Cherry Red Metallic. I've never shot a metallic before, so I was a bit nervous, but my nerves were not necessary, it came out great:



And the coup de grace - the hood emblem that came with the car is destroyed. I'm going to be racing this thing. Soooo Corvette Racing?




I'm floored the logo came out this well. I was sweating bullets using a dental pick to the pull the stencil up.

Sadly, it's not ready for clear. Home shop and novice painter, so I've got some bugs in the paint, a few runs, and some orange peel. so I'll have to wait a week, then wet sand the color and touch up a few spots.

But I'm happy. Really happy. This thing's gonna pop.

 

OH, and don't mind the gray circles in the black on the logo. It's adhesive from the stencil. It'll wipe right off with surface cleaner.

 

You gonna be able to get that peel out?

 

Yup. I laid the clear down pretty thick. There's plenty of material to wet sand the peel out. It'll be a project, but no worse than the body prep was. I'll give it a month or two to fully cure and get to work on that.

 

Signs point to yes.

 

Moving right along. It's slow going reassembling things. A lot of the hardware was horrifically corroded, so it's a dance between cleaning it up and just replacing it, but I'm moving.

Headlights are back in:



Passenger side window regulator assembly and I've fished the wiring back through (which sucked):


Rear glass is in and the reassembly of the headlights cleared out the second to last paint stand, making enough room in the shop to walk all the way around the car:

 

Hi,
Enjoying the thread. I was wondering what you are using for a compressor and gun set up

thanks

 

It's all what I could get a Harbor Freight with a coupon. It's their 27gal compressor and the $60 HVLP gun. Using their disposable filter/air separator jobbers. Sprayed great. The orange peel is my fault. I haven't mastered the balance between putting it on wet enough it flows out well but not too wet I get sags. I also think I was too far from the hood when I sprayed it. I'm short and it's big and it was hard to hold the gun in the right spot.

 

Thanks
I think it looks fantastic!

 

Refinished the headliner in alcantara!



Waiting on the brackets to dry. They spent a half hour in the sonic cleaner and got a fresh coat of enamel. It's 100 degrees today and about 0% humidity, so they'll be dry before dinner.



The value of getting the targa top back on is clearing out the last paint stand. Next step after that is wiring. The factory radio bits are long gone and I need to figure out where to tap in for the new radio. I also need to run all new speaker wire, plus I'm hiding a sub and amp inside the storage bin behind the passenger seat so there's wiring and fabrication in store there.

 

Ok, diving into this interior now.

Have the Sub and amplifier mounting figured out. I'll need some L channel something to hold it down and cover up the rough edges of the fabric, but the hard part's done:


I also have almost all the sound system wiring done, plus the backup camera. Waiting on some Micro-pack connectors to tie in the radio harness to the OEM speaker runs going to the four corners. Next step is the steering column. That has to go back in before I can energize the car and test everything before buttoning up the dash and the interior. My column had a really badly worn tilt mechanism. I bought another column that was supposed to be "good" from a a scrapyard and it turned out to no be good. So, I punted on OE. I grabbed this 32" generic Saginaw column off Ebay:



It's got tilt, turn signal, key, and flashers. I'll need to move the high beams, cruise control, and wiper controls to somewhere else, but this will allow me to energize the car and eventually drive it. I'll need to move the VATs lock cylinder from my original column into this one, but it should fit. Getting it to mount to the car looks pretty straightforward, too. I cut the mounts off the junkyard column:



I'll get this thing hung in place using baling wire and clamps, then I should be able to tack the brackets onto the new column, then pull it back out to finish weld and touch up the paint. Then I'll need to pick out a steering wheel.

 

Oooo yeah

 

Tunes are in! I'll probably have to pull it all back out when I energize the car and find out I wired something wrong, but at least I know it fits!



Still waiting on a few odds and ends to finish the steering column.

 

And it powered up!


The stereo shoves. The package cavity turned out to be just about the perfect volume for the sub. The Android auto works perfectly on this cheapie $99 Amazon Special head unit, as does the reverse camera. I tried to be clever and use the factory speaker wiring, but that didn't work. It sounded like absolute garbage. No interest in de-looming the body harness to troubleshoot it so I ran all new wires to each speaker and it all cleared right up.

I've got lights (and both pop-up mechanisms work perfectly!) and turn signals, wipers, radio powers on. The gauge cluster is finicky. The ECM and BCM aren't getting power. The BCM will power up if I hook up a scantool to the ALDL connector, and that gets me the gauges and the trip computer buttons. No climate control yet. The radio's +12V ignition trigger is connected to what should have been the ignition switch signal from the delay module, but it's on all the time right now. Sort of. That trigger gives me 10v all the time, and 12V if the key is in accessory or on. Still a signal difference, but 10v is enough to get the radio to come out of standby. So? Anybody know about the delay relay? Does it shut off the signal completely or is the 10v drop what it does?

I have the wiper and cruise connected to switches hanging in the driver side floorboard, as well as the original key in the original lock cylinder so the VATs doesn't lock me out. I'll need to figure out something more pretty and I need to rig up something to run the cruise and wipers. I'm going to switch the high beams to a floor switch, too.

There's also a dead short in the nose of the car somewhere. The lead has a 10amp fuse in a standalone fuse holder near the driver side headlight. It goes into the bumper support, I've pulled the fuse for now until I can track down what's up with it.

I've bundled and zip tied all the stereo wiring. I think I can put the interior panels and carpet back in the hatch area. Then it's a full court press to figure out all the rest of the wiring and get everything to power up, at least as well as it can power up with no engine in the car. I also need to order new window sweeps so I can get those back on and reinstall the glass so I can test the windows and locks and then hopefully button up the doors.

 

All the carpets were like this.

 

Got the hatch area done.