partially tore her down yesterday and dropped her off at the body shop today, the guy said it should be ready next week, I'll post pictures of the paint when I get her home

 

some more

 

and as torn down as I could get in a day

 

Thanks for the pics. I'm working on a 87, same color, and I'm at the same stage as you, taking the plastic bits off... which reminds me I need to get out there and get to work!!

Andy

 

Hey, do you have to take interior panels off to get at hidden fastners for the ground effects on the side?? Couldnt figure mine out today. I got the ones off behind the back wheels and the one that wraps around the front bumper

 

Found a good video How to... Thanks anyway tho :-)

 

Supp with the notchback in the garage?

 

Cant wait to see the photos. One week, that's fast.

 

sorry for not answering sooner, yeah you do need to take off the rear cargo plastics to gain access to the nuts that hold on the gfx, Im glad you were able to find out how to do it without having to wait for me

 

haha, she's no notchback, just has the perfect spoiler for putting crap on top of, I need to stop piling boxes of parts and now my interior on top of her

 

Oh man, I cant wait to pick the car up already! I've been saving up and driving it around like you see it for a while now and it will be nice to have an actual paint job again. The body shop I took it to does a real good job at keeping up with their work and finishing it in a timely fashion. They straightened out the quarter panel and the front fender in 2 days for me about a month ago and he gave me a pretty good price on the paint so I figured it was worth the week of not getting to drive her. Plus I've seen the work that they do there and it seems to be pretty good quality.

 

well c'mon! you cant just mention her and not post pics, lol... and good job! it makes me happy to see these cars being restored to their former glory, and not just get tossed because of their age

 

btw, please excuse the pvc pipe used to keep the hatch up, it was 32* out here, and the old hatch shocks dont really like to stretch out at anything under 60, haha

 

If there nice enough guys they should allow you to drop in periodically and document the work with a camera. I did that with mine and I have some killer photos.Of course I do that allot with just about any thing.

 

It looks so . . . . . . Harmless and Naked and not so Mean anymore LOL.

P.S. if I was taking my Camaro to get worked on whichever shop I choose Better get with my rules otherwise I'll take my business elsewhere get it? Got it? Good!. My baby gets only the best of care from people I trust and I can walk in any hour I choose while their open and Flash Away as many times as I want while their working on it, Even if I blind a few of the guys working that's their fault for looking into the flash, and on top I just stand there inches from the work surveying the situation like a hawk and if I get on their nerves well if you can't handle the pressure then you shouldn't be working on MY car then should you? Go work on a soccer mom minivan instead BOSS


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yeah the owner said I could drop in whenever I wanted to see how it is going so he's not afraid of letting me see their work. And I agree, it does look less mean and harmless... kind of like a sport coupe, haha

 

went down to check out the progress on her so far

 

so far im pleased that theyve taken all the moldings and side view mirrors off so it should be a pretty sharp looking paint job, he said by either Friday or Saturday it should be done

 

Looking good so far! I'll be painting my Trans Am in the spring.

 

That's so funny. You chose about the same spot I did on the sail panel to make a masking line, only I was painting my roof and not the rear quarter. I just chose it by chance, but I've seen some others done the same way since. There's nothing there to define it, but people seem to pick it as a natural boundary.

 

Looks good so far. So your going to two tone it ?
This door that's leaning against your car is a bad habit. That car is already past the "its OK to lean my door against it." phase.I'm not trying to belittle your project but a Coke can sitting on the rear deck and a open gas can under your paint (vapors) will need to stop quickly. Having new paint will/should change the way you handle the car.

 

I just showed up to the shop and all that stuff was already there, I didnt bother being a dick about it because the guy would just be getting himself more work if anything turned out bad on the car, and its just being repainted the stock color, but the top half was taken down to bare metal because there was fish eye and orange peel from a previous repaint. I didnt get to see if they sanded the bottom because today when I went in it was already in the booth, but the owner said that if for any reason I was unhappy with the paint, or any issues arose he would take care of it

 

Thats good to hear,some one standing behind there work.
A very expensive B/C paint job seemed to change the way I act around my car and protecting the paint. Everything from keeping hands off/no leaning on it/never setting anything on it/parking in the safest place posable/etc.,etc.,etc. so don't be surprised to find yourself behaving in the same manner or close to it.
I am looking forward to seeing your car with new paint.

 

Haha... I hear ya. My cars are always at the outer edge of every parking lot, I dont mind the walking...:-)

 

I've noticed this before too, must be due to the bend in the sheetmetal, or maybe the window line?

 

well I've always taken very good care of my car even when the paint was trash just because I know that if you start letting it go to hell its a lot harder to bring the car back to good shape. The car hasn't had any new dents since I've owned it. It also helps that I'm 20 years old and a little longer of a walk from the back of a parking lot doesn't bother me any.

 

I'm 50 and walking a little farther hasn't killed me yet. My car lives outside, but I still try to take good care of it. I always kept it clean and waxed with good quality products, but when primer and base don't adhere to each other, the inevitable happens. Wish I'd got in on one those free repaints that GM did so many of, but my paint outlasted the company before it failed.

 

yeah these 80's paints really were garbage, I've noticed that dark red metallic really likes to get rid of its clear coat, and the only paints that survived were on the cars that never left the garage

 

It looks like in '89 they moved away from the peeling clear to a new waterbased process that separated at the base and primer junction. Really cool, check where I pulled the masking tape off of what appeared to be good paint. I'm stripping my whole car because of this. I don't trust any of the paint above the primer.

 

holy crap thats terrible... btw I have a surprise guys..

 

I dropped by right now and this is her before getting wet sanded and buffed

 

im excited to finally start putting her back together

 

thats a good looking color when new. the color maroon and teal never caught my eye on 3rdgens, but freshend up like that looks amazing

 

Why weren't the front driving lights, emblem and door ground effects removed? All three are very simple to remove, especially when it appears everything else was removed. Be sure to repaint the hood louvers before reinstalling. Nothing looks worse than a fresh paint job with old discolored louvers. If the shop is painting the headlight pockets, have them respray the louvers at the same time.

 

If you mind Answering.. How much did the paint job cost..
Lookin to paint mine soon

 

yeah it does look great, I've always liked the dark red but its hard to find in good shape, it should look even better when I get the new vinyls and emblems put on the car

 

end of the day im into it about 1800, so its pretty reasonable

 

Where are you getting the new decals? Thanks

 

I was assuming they would pull these things off as well just so they wouldnt have to mask off so much, but I didnt get a chance to see the car before it got sprayed or I would have told them to do so, and the louvers are already glossy black so that wont be an issue here. I need to find the right color for the buckets, would you happen to know where I could find it by any chance Scott? Last camaro we painted we just used a paint called rally black which looked close but was more satin then semi gloss

 

http://www.phoenixgraphix.com/gm/8890iz.php
$220 for all the decals, but I also ordered the application gel and after shipping it came out to like $250

 

$1800 and they cut and buff too?? Wow, paintwork is cheap up there. Looks real nice as is... they should have took the side mirrors off dontcha think?

 

If the paint has laid down nicely, and the booth was clean, you may not need to "cut and buff". Just throwing it out there...

 

they had them off when the car got sprayed, but put them on so I could get the car home tonight, and the paint went on really smooth so we probably wont have to cut and buff, but the missed a dent on the driver side fender so they will be stripping it down sometime next week and fixing it and re-shooting it. But the owner wants to put the car back together first so we can see if there are any other issues, and in case of accidents while putting it back together he can touch it up then. Overall im very happy with the outcome and am glad at how different it looks

 

The hood louvers are painted? I took mine off today and they appear to just be molded in color, but I'll check them out good tomorrow in the sun light. They match the satin finsh the "grill" insert has. I just use something like meguires cleaner wax on them and they look nice again. Used to use blue poly on them, same effect. I really need to clean mine up again.

EDIT: Instead of satin, more like semi-gloss.

 

Definitely looks great!!

 

I can't wait to see it put together. It looks great.

 

thanks man, it feels great to have a nice looking car again

 

me either, unfortunately I will only get to work on it tomorrow morning because were gonna be heading out of town so progress will be limited

 

No need to rush... you already got you car painted in record time... Im still sanding mine!!

 

Very nice paint indeed. Got yourself a head turner there for sure! Agreed that it is strange they did not remove the front driving lights as it would have made for a cleaner more complete job, also weird that they didn't spray the rear where the tails cover. However these are small details which wont be noticeable once the car is fully reassembled again. Enjoy (: