Ok, we bought this car in November as a project and have finally got her ready to paint.

This is what we started with:













Basically, she is a clean 1991 RS 305 TBI automatic car in medium teal with peeling paint. To get her running after sitting for a few years we replaced the fuel line between the pump and the sending unit which was completely disintegrated. We then did a complete tune-up, Hooker headers, y-pipe, and brake rebuild.

 

Here are some shots of the work we did to get her prepped for paint:

 

All of the prep work is done. Now she is ready for a coat of primer and then paint. We are keeping the medium teal color and doing a base coat-clear coat refinish.



Scored a nice louvered hood:

 

Here's the Iroc wheels I have been sanding and polishing:



And this is the engine bay after adding some chrome and cleaning/painting:







Once I get her back from paint I will work on the interior.



It's in very good shape. The PO had seat covers on her so the seats are actually quite nice. I'm going to deep clean the upholstry and carpet and clean the plastics/dye as needed. The dash and console are in awesome condition. The headliner is good and the dash pad is not cracked.

Other projects I need to do include painting the trim around the rear glass, painting the trim around the t-tops, replacing some of the weather strips (especially on the door bottoms), and smoking the corner lenses and parking lights. I've also got a Z-28 front bumper grille to put on when the paint is finished. I'll post updates as these get done.

 

Sent her off to paint this morning. It's gonna be a long week.

 

Looks Good! Clean project! I absolutly hate polishing metal, to time consuming. I'm in the process of getting my 92 z28 stripped for paint. What grits did you do? Thanks and goodluck

 

Thank you! I hope it turns out well. I can't wait to see it done. I think I probably have 100 hours of wet sanding with 400 grit on the body.

I don't mind polishing the metal so much- it can be very theraputic! For the wheels, my husband grinded off the clear coat with 80 grit on an orbital sander and then I dry sanded with 120, 220, and 320. I then wet sanded with 400, 800, 1000, 1500, and then 2000. I then hit it with some rubbing compound. I still plan to polish again with the orbital buffer and a wool or foam pad with rubbing compound and then a metal polish (probably Blue Coral). I need to hit the gray painted areas with some rubbing compound and a power ball as well to get them cleaned up.

Good luck with your project and post some pics.

 

Nice i love seeing these cars get painted, and that engine bay looks alot better then before.

 

I finally have a few updates to post. Here are a few pictures of the car coming together. She turned out quite well. There are still some touches that need to be done but she should be ready to enjoy soon!

Heading off for paint:




And the result is....

 

Some more:











Hopefully we can get her out in the sun and do a photo shoot soon. I will update with more pics when she is finished. Thanks for looking!

 

WOW! came out looking great

 

Thank you! I'm really disappointed with the picture quality from my Nikon Coolpix camera. I'll try and take some with the good camera tomorrow. These pictures do not do the car justice. She really is stunning!

 

Thanks again! There are a few things that could use done such as the pulleys and shine up the hoses but I didn't want to use a lot of chemical cleaners before paint because 1) I knew it would get dusty and 2) the potential for chemical contamination. Now that the paint is done I will use some rubber shine on the hoses and vac lines.

 

Here is a picture of the T-top cleaning/painting. The one on the left has not been touched and the one on the right has been polished and the trim painted.

 

Here are some pictures of the final results:

 

And here are some more:

 

And more:

 

your cra looks amazing!! i have but only one very tiny suggestion , the bowtie in the front i think would look nice painted either a.)color of car or b.)red ... just my opinion would be a nice but subtle accent good job and great choice of color i only hope to get my 91 z28 to look half as good!!

 

Thank you for the compliment! She isn't totally done. I want to paint the bowtie teal as you said and replace the hazed front parking lights. There are a few other minor things she needs (dye the faded rear cargo cover, replace the cracked shifter panel, paint the hatch lift cylinders, etc). But she is drivable and looks amazing so now its just these details I have to work out.

 

Wow how did you do that to the t tops i have two thirdgens and both t tops and are all messed up i wanna try cleaning them up like yours. So if you don't mind telling me what you used i would really appreciate it.

 

Car turned out fantastic, great job!

 

Looks absolutely great, really nice interior too.

 

wow awesome resto job! she looks brand new!

 

Thank you for the feedback everyone. We took her for a drive yesterday and had such a great time. I'm hooked on T-tops after having sunroofs, convertibles, and a targa top 'Vette.

They probably look a little better in the picture than they do in real life but they are 100 times better than the hazy mess I started with. The spider cracks cannot obviously be removed but a good cleaning with some plastic polish will make them less noticable. I used Maguiar's Plastic Cleaner (in a black bottle) with a foam pad on my orbital buffer. I then taped off the trim pieces, sanded them with 400 grit, wiped with Prep-All, and then hit them with some satin black trim paint. Now that the trim has dried i will hit the transparent plastic with another shot of cleaner and then some plastic polish to shine them up.

 

pm sent i dont want to steal the thread

 

Wow!!! It looks like someone put alot of hours into that beauty.

 

It sure does! Thanks!

 

Ha Ha....it figures!

Got her done and it has pretty much been raining, sleeting, hailing, or snowing every day since! She has been confined to the barn for safekeeping for a week now. Hopefully soon we can get some nice cruising weather so that I can enjoy her. What a bummer!