Matt Pegis

I bought a serious fixer upper 1987 corvette, my first corvette.
this is my second crack at this post as I type slow and got logged off before I finished.
i am redoing this car and am comfortable with the mechanical aspect of things, not so much with paint and body.
i got three quotes and all were north of 10 large which I don’t have.
a friend in the business took a look and told me I need to get the crappy repaint off of it first.
so I have a few questions....
1. One rocker panel has what looks like rust stains that do not sand off, are those going to bleed through?
2. Front and rear bumpers have issues, stress cracks in rear, minor stuff in front, what can I use for filler on these flexible panels?
3. Large hole in passenger footwell, likely caused by the bypassed heater core which I need to replace, how to fix an 8x10ish area eaten away by antifreeze or gremlins?
4. Is there any primer/sealer I can use after sanding/rezorblading/citristripping the paint that is in a spray can?
i suspect the answer is no but I am not an experienced body guy for sure.

any advice is greatly appreciated!

Matt

Matt Pegis

so if these pictures actually go through, there is front and back of the rejected fender, and front and back of the weird rust looking stain, hopefully I will figure out how to remove a seat without an engine or battery to get a shot of the floor issue.

DUB

I know that when dealing with urethane parts. They can be rather sensitive to what you do to them and how you do it. I know that when I deal with issues like this I try to get the urethane as clean as possible using the CORRECT products that ARE NOT SOLVENT based.

Many of today's sealers can stop any bleeding of the rust...but you have to try to get it off....or sometimes...buying good used ones that do not have this problem can actually save you time and the fear that it may come back.

Contact SEM and talk with them on what to use. Liek I wrote....side stepping the process on any repair to a urethane bumper CAN cause for that repair to fail. SO get ready to spend some money on specific cleaners and prep agents.

http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/...ched-pics.html

It is NOT wise to use aerosol paint products on this. So ...in my opinion the answer is NO. Keep in mind I have evolved to using current products that are catalyzed...so...using a product that is not catalyzed for a primer.... seems to me...to be taking a step backwards. Will it work...more than likely it will.....BUT the question is how long is it going to last.

If you have a friend in the business...why not have lunch with that person and ask them questions. I do not have any problem with you asking these questions...so ask away.

I can say this...and take it for what ever it is worth to you.

If this is your first attempt in doing this. Do not jump in and go crazy and work all over the car in different spots. Concentrate on ONE issue/panel and deal with it. Then move to the next. The reason is this....if you do not know what you are doing...and you have numerous panels stripped and exposed to the environment...and it takes you a while to complete just one issue...then all of those exposed panels can absorb stuff that you do not want to deal with later....which is why working on one thing and completing it may be best for you.

And covering your car if it is outside with a cover or plastic is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. If at all possible..the car need to be inside a good building.

DUB

Matt Pegis

I appreciate the response, the car is up on home made blocks in my little garage. I am focusing on the removable stuff
first. The rust stain corresponds to an area under the door that has surface rust but it did not bleed through the lousy repaint. I qualify it as lousy as I am the first to pull these rockers as the rivet was intact on both sides, I also removed
a huge amount of debris behind the rockers and noted areas in the paint and clear with junk in the finish, the closer to the rockers, the worse it got. I have a msg or two out to my friend but he is notsohot at returning calls....

i asked about the primer/sealer as I was worried that as I finished cleaning up and sanding panels, they had no protection
from exactly what you said...

matt

DUB

You are correct in your assumption that the panels that are exposed need to be protected....and the urethane parts are even more sensitive that the SMC panels.

Obviously you can do as your wish....but honestly...having you car up on 'blocks' can be something that can come back and haunt you....depending on what these block look like and where you have them positioned/located. I ALWAYS prefer to never raise or support a car that I am working on unless it has to be for a specific repair. When the repair is completed ....then it goes back on the tires.

The reason I have such a strong belief in my process and how I do things is that these cars are getting older and older and 'who knows' what the car has been through or subjected to. Assuming that 'all is good'...in my opinion...is the 'kiss of death'.

DUB

Matt Pegis

i’m a lot better with wood then paint/bodywork, that being said I grabbed some PT 2x12 and made a bunch of 18 inch pieces, epoxied them together and cross bolted them as I don’t trust PT to bond as well as KD lumber. So I jacked the car up quite high and all 4 wheels sit on an 18x10 block of wood. Overkill? Yep that’s how I like it, I needed it that high to slide the old transmission out but as soon as the floor is fixed, down she goes.

matt

picture is some of the stuff I make when there isn’t a corvette in my workshop!

DUB

IF you are supporting your car by the tires...you are good to go!

DUB

Matt Pegis

This is where I left off today, did not get a return call about filler for flexible parts so no progress there, good news is
some engine parts are due to arrive tomorrow and I figured out how to move the power seat to get to the other bolts.

here are a couple questions for the day;

does anyone one know where to get the rubber thing that goes around the fuel fill? mine was super dry and came out
in chunks.

when fixing a footwell, how do you make it look like nothing happened and how many layers of fiberglass is safe?

thanks

matt

DUB

Willcox should have that rubber filler boot for your fuel filler area.

https://willcoxcorvette.com/corvette...eck-boot-84-96

You can do it as you wish....but If I were painting your Corvette. I would remove (sand off) all of the paint off of the wide flat area of your rocker panels...instead of having it being kinda splotchy in the sanding. The reason is that even when you paint it and it comes out looking great. Give it time and you might find that one day that you can see the paint has a ghost effect of rings due to the different layers you sanded through.

Due to you breaking through the clear coat...and then the basecoat color...and then the e-coat primer for the urethane..and gettign down to the raw urethane. All of these different layers react to what you apply on them. AND can show up in time.

I am sure you have seen cars that have been obviously painted on and you can see the rings in the paint that look like a topographical map. I am sure the car was perfect when it left the shop...but give it time and when things settle and cure out...this effect can occur.

DUB

Matt Pegis

My plan is to do the worst of the grunt work, and leave the skilled stuff to a yet unknown pro, is sanding down to 220 ok
to do to everything or do I need to go finer? I will get all the remaining layers gone, I just bring them on the porch as no way are they going in the garage to get contaminated.

DUB

220 grit is OK.

And as for the floorboard problem you have. I need to see photos of it so I can see what problem you have.

DUB

Matt Pegis

well I think this picture may not be a big help but I have not got the seat out yet, to me it looks like someone did not repair it well in the past....this is passenger footwell from under the car.

DUB

I agree...this photo is doing nothing to help me see the full picture of what you have going on.

I need photos taken further away so I can see what is going on and then if oyu want to take some close-ups is fine also. As long as you mark the panel in some way so I know where the problem is that you are taking a close up of.

DUB

Matt Pegis

I can’t really get further away under the car as I don’t have a lift, I did get busy on my day off and pulled the seat and the carpet, it looks so bad I am pulling the drivers seat, I need to check that one two. Two oddball connectors were basically powder when I took the seat out, they are so disintegrated pictures are pointless, they connect three orangish looking tubes together and they were white in another century, does anyone know which ones I mean or if they can still be had anywhere?

here are slightly better pictures I hope!

matt

DUB

The photos are fine.

I believe ( if my memory serves me correctly)that your floor pans are SMC and not metal. Am I correct???

Repairing these can be done once you get off all of the previous repair that someone applied.

I know you wrote that some connectors powdered away...but I still need to see what you are describing as 'orange tubes'...and where these tube are located.

Knowing the location of any component or part that is damaged or broken is a must to better identify what it is. Because when you wrote 'orange tubes' I am having a problem in trying to remember where I have seen them.,...so knowing where they are located help me greatly. And when you wrote that they were 'white' in another century..I am wondering if what you mean by white is white or.... clear.

If these are GM vacuum hoses.....general rule of thumb on how GM does stuff...they do not use one color for several vacuum ports....they change colors of the vacuum hoses so we can trace a vacuum hose routing for repairs and diagnostics of that particular system.

DUB

Matt Pegis

I guess my description was a bit vague, if you pulled the seat cushion from a c4 power seat there you would find them.
orange tubes, in groups of three, connected by small whitish fittings. The fitting are double female and the orange tubes all end in male. I assume the power seats won’t work without them connected as there are two sets per seat. I could take apart a seat and take a picture of the tubes if that would help.

matt

DUB

Matt,


I would bet that you have sport seats.

Do you have controls made into the seat bottom cushion on each side...if so...you have sport seats?...and NOW what you wrote makes complete sense.

For what it is worth...the more you can be very detailed in your posts help us out. If you give us vague...then you will get a vague answer or no answer at all due to lack of information. I know you are learning about this stuff...which I understand....but the more you give the more you can get back.

Do you have SMC floorboards???

DUB

Matt Pegis

I did notice controls on the sides of the seat cushions, so I guess sport seats, hopefully parts are findable.
as far as the floorboards, I don’t know what they are made of, not entirely sure what the difference is between
fiberglass/smc floors in terms of touch. I grabbed a piece of the fiberglass mesh from the previous repairs
and removed it with my fingers, that’s not a good bond. Local paint/supply store said I should not use reg
resin as it may not bond, they recommended some smc panel adhesive with two types of fiberglass mesh.
i wrote it down somewhere if it is of interest.

matt

ps. I should also say I made 1.26 cents by doing that job today, one penny, one quarter, and one dollar bill tightly rolled up with a trace of white powder, other then that, a dead lighter, a plastic spoon, 2 small sockets, and a French fry, that’s what was under the passenger seat.

Matt Pegis

Well I wasn’t ready to call it a day so I went out to the garage to see what I could learn.
what I did it remove the old repair, tools needed-one reh screwdriver to pop it up and out and a bit of cutting
where your feet go. However the hole is much larger then I thought, I also removed some bondo in two different shades,
‘and a loose piece of rusty metal. I stuck a magnet to the area the seat studs are, that’s metal. After that no metal, dark colored kind of plastic looking stuff.

the product I was steered towards is evercoat smc panel adhesive, right stuff to use with fiberglass mat?

Matt Pegis

did a little work, took a few pictures, time to clean up garage and self, Happy Thanksgiving all!

seems I need to remove the panel at the very end of the footwell that goes up at an angle behind the dash, I don’t even
see any fasteners...