It's begun! Despite the fact that people say that once a "temporary" rattlecan job is put on a car, it's never replaced later with a real paint job, that's exactly what I'm doing.

Today I took off the side mouldings, the weatherstrip around the windshield, and sanded about a 3rd of the roof. I've got some hail damage on that side, so I'm going to have to build up the low spots before I can go any father



I hope to be totally done with my car in time to enter it in the State Fair of Texas Camaro day, and that's in October. We'll see if I can get it done by then. I'm doing all the work myself, including the painting.

Here's how the car looked "before"... not too bad except for the paint, but it's a 10 footer for sure. since this pic was taken the front fender got dented. the right fender is also messed up from some idiot jacking the car in the wrong place, so both are getting replaced. I actually have a mint bumper cover, a very good chin spoiler ready to go on, and I might replace the hood too so I don't have to mess with all this hail damage there too

 

Mark if my paint looked that good I would not worry about painting it.
That's a really nice paint combo!

 

its look good from a short distance, but you get close and the metallics look blotchy. That's a huge problem with rattlecan. plus the lacquer based ratle can needs a ton of upkeep. I'm constantly buffing it and polishing it, which makes the paint ever thinner, and you guessed it, more blotchy

but thanks for the compliment. I still haven't decided if I'm going with the same paint job or a more modern look... like this...

 

Looks good man. If you go with that sort of two tone look, I'd recommend just sticking with the two colors, no pin striping around the stripes. It'd give it a real clean look.

 

more like this?


my wife has the same concern, but truthfully the stripe would have to be very small to take those corners. I doubt you could see unless you were within a few feet of it

 

now that I start to sand down the roof and see how beat up it is, I probably should stick with anything other than black on the roof. black shows EVERYTHING, and I'm no master paint and body man

 

Exactly like that. Looks awesome IMO.

 

When in doubt, just do a couple extra coats of clear, and wet sand with a real high grit paper. 1500 or so grit, and go easy with the final buffing. I'm thankful for T tops, the hardtops seem to get dinged very easily. I looked at an older Firebird for sale once, and it looked like someone took a hammer to it just in back of the windshield.

 

Very true, black is a real hard color to maintain. Always dirty, dusty, finger marked.
But I do like the pin strip.

 

the red one or the black one?

 

DO a photoshop of the bottom stripe in black too, and lets see if that makes a difference.......

 

I've got a whole thread of photoshops... see if there's one in here like you're talking about
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...highlight=tone

 

Nope...im talking about the very last pic you posted on this post, but with the bottom stripe in black.
I do like stopping before the end of the hood, though....

 

Then again, I don't know about all of this Mark. You may want to keep it 100% stock looking.

 

yeah, you can't go worng with stock, and a medium grey roof will show flaws a lot less than black.

not that i'm not going to try to fix all the dents, I am. but the chances of me getting every one perfect isn't good

 

Heres what i mean...sorry, i had to use paint......

 

not bad, but I like a touch of red somewhere. without it the car looks like a picture printed on a black only printer.

Also, my wife would resend her support of this project if I lost the stripe. She's always said it's one of her favorite parts of the car

 

Looks good, will definitely be following this.

 

Cool!

ran into a slight problem today. the lacquer stripes I painted with real dupont lacquer are TOUGH to get off. They are thick, and they clog the sandpaper. I'm going to have to strip the deck lid with acetone or paint stripper, and Iv'e got a good used hood that I can put on instead of messing with mine (the hood on the car has hail damage, but those dents were filled with primer filler) If I strip the hood, I then have to go in and fill the dents again too... The amount of labor that would take isn't worth it. I was hoping to keep the original hood because it didn't need repainting on the underside, plus it has the matching VIN sticker on the underside. Oh well, still not worth it

 

Will be following your progress!

 

thanks!

BTW another argument i'm having with myself it if I should use the heritage stripe vinyl kit I bought, or paint a more aggressive stripe.

what do you all think? this...



or this:

 

I held my breath today as I removed the spoiler. I hear those things are bad about having rust form under them.

spoiler came off, and it was clean! looked brand new under it!

I sanded off the stripes today... took a long time because the lacquer I used kept clogging the paper.
roof and rear deck are sanded... next is sanding the drivers side, and then I've got some body work to do to the passenger door

 

The herritage looks better with hood blisters i think, the ones you have now look good. Maybe you can use vinyl stripes that way you can remove them & change it if you want to, just an idea. That way you dont have to sand it off.

 

well the whole car is painted in lacquer, including the stripes. I have to get rid of the lacquer before I can put anything on top of it. the rattle can stuff is easy to get rid of, the black stuff I sprayed with the gun is not. it was beautiful, but they have to go.

it's funny you mention the blisters. I actually have a z28 hood available to me with blisters already, but I'm not planning on using them because I think that crosses the clone line. I'm already pushing it with the fog lights and the blacked out buckets.

 

Ahh i see, yeah im looking for a new/used stock z28 hood myself, mines is rusting under the blisters. Those hoods weigh a ton though.

 

i bet those are hard to come by in hawaii... is it even possible to ship one?

 

Yeah it is, you can ship anything here. It all depends if you want to pay for the shipping.

 

im following buddy!!

 

one of the things I dreaded about starting this job was getting rid of the stripes on the doors, quarters, and back bumper. They were like 9 inches tall, and I knew they would take forever.

well, not forever, but it did take about 4 or 5 hours of hard work. Had to go get a 4 inch razor scraper, and use that in combination with my rotary sander with 100 grit. I bought some 3M decal remover (freaking expensive stuff!) but it did nothing except make a mess. oh well, I can use it as a paint stripper. It melts lacquer paint

very productive day! It seems like I'm getting a lot done, but making it ugly is the easy part. Making it pretty will take a lot longer

 

wow you really attacked it good job. cant wait for the finish product

 

Looks good Mark!!

 

Nice! I think I remember your thread back when you just got it.

 

Hey Mark, Really looks like a big job! I also want to paint mine, well have someone do it. I just have not decided what color to do. I really think i want to go as close to original as possible. The two tone is pretty scary to me on mine, black top. lol
I think i read the color was flame red or something. My original in the sun has a beautiful gold fleck in it. I hope that yours turns out AMAZING!!!

 

I love your paint scheme the way it is! two tone, gold pinstripe, maroon (or is more of a copper) on bottom, gold wheels.... Love it!

you could do quite a bit to dress it up... IROC or Z28 hood,(sorry, I can't stand a flat flain hood with no stripes) fog lamp grill with lamps, maybe even single stripe iroc wheels (gold of course) your car would look AMAZING

 

Thanks Mark, Yeah I could do all that, but i am one of those people that like original.
Not sure why, future investment i think! But like most people on here, they fix them up to their liking. I might someday, just don't like sporting something that's belongs on a Iroc. I did have a guy ask to buy my car at a car meet last weekend. He wanted to drop a powerful motor in it for the track. He said my body was really clean! I would not have sold it. we didn't talk price though. Did have fun, watched some illegal street racing!! lol Can't wait to see your finished paint job!

 

everyone is entitled to their opinions and respect and appreciate yours. I wish more people were mindful of the heritage of classic cars

that being said, I consider an RS more of a blank canvas than the IROCs. If I had an IROC, I would be much more concerned with keeping it 100% original. for my RS V6, there's not much I do to hurt its value, so I don't feel guilty changing a few things on it to the styling cues I like. For example, fog lamps and balcked out headlight buckets.

I will not cross the line and put a IROC badges on it, about the farthest I would go would be a IROC/Z28 hood.

 

you know i have owned many an automobile. i have done some the way other people said would be the best. and later i wish i hadnt. it great to ask opinions and the more the better. but in the end it is yours and you drive it. you have to look at it. and you are paying for it. do what you want the most or feel in your heart. and no matter how bad it may sound take all opinions with a grain of salt as well. people keep asking me why i dont do a lot of things to mine. but the outside is going to stay purley rs. all the way down to the exact nose emblem. heck i might even keep it drum rear to. now the heartbeat and a few interior parts may be changed. but the outside is going to rermain the same. to me when someone pulls up to it and sees RS on it they may think one thing. but when it takes off they will see something totally different.

 

If your done painting yours before mine is back together Im gonna be mad

 

I doubt it travis... I'm aiming for october to paint the car. I might get it painted by the end of the summer, but that would take some very productive days

 

All Ive got left to paint on mine is the front and rear bumper covers, the hood, and the decklid. It turns out my flat black paint I ordered isnt flat black, its semigloss. It still looks good though so Im sticking with it. I havent had time to get out and do any work on it in the past week or so .

 

shoot me the name if it. I'm looking for a good semigloss black. I don't need much. you got any left over? I'll buy it off you

 

Mark I completely understand what your saying. Fix it like you want it!
My Iroc was all original, and I loved it. I am still looking for a reasonably priced one.
I run into good body's here in Az but the motors are bad. But I love everything about the 3rd gens, even when thay are mixed up parts! If i did anything would be the hood. I see a guy on Sunday about a paint job. I want to see his work.

 

actually i ran out, i only bought a quart. thats why i held off on the front and rear bumper covers. it was summits hot rod black acrylic urethane topcoat.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-UP607/

ill shoot you some pics after i cut and polish the GFX.

 

good, I think that's kirker paint. I was wondering if their Satin was actually a semi gloss. I don't want my stripes too flat (if I even paint them, I already own a set of heritage stripes)

 

Ok I changed my RS tail light today to the grid irocs. I am not original! lol

 

I think I'm about to have an IROC louvered hood fall into my lap for a very good price. If it's as nice as I think it will be, I have to decide if I'm going to use it, or sell it.

the stripes are staying either way, so it's a question of base hood with stripes, or IROC with louvers and stripes. I think in semi gloss black, the stripes and louvers would look good.

Today I removed the gas door assembly, and sanded down the left rear quarter and drivers door. tomorrow I'll do the rear quarter, and I'll be done getting the old rattle can paint off the car. I still have some prep to do on the replacement front clip and the rear bumper, but other than that it will be time to do a little body work by next week at the latest. I have to remove the passenger ie mirror to fix a problem with the door on that side

I have a goal. The Texas state fair camaro day is October 15th. I want to have my car done by then, and unveil it on that day. That's means I have to have it ready 4 months from today.

tough, but possible

 

here's a few updates...

got the hood, but I'm not going to use it. Leaving it as an RS

decided to go ahead and upgrade to prospray paint instead of using Kirker. Nothing against Kirker, but I decided to go with the exact GM shade instead of close to it. it's more expensive, but I hear it's very good paint, on par with the best of the best

I have the replacement front clip and the entire car sanded and ready for filler to fill little dings. not major body damage, but I'm going to use filler to fill dents, and then high build primer to fill pinholes and block the body down

I'm thinking about going back to the idea of using the heritage stripes. I already own them, so it would be silly not to use them.

had a few setbacks this week... AC in the house went out, so I lost a lot of sleep over that, so it was hard to get out of bed at 6AM to work in the garage while it was cool. I also need to make time to work on one of my other cars, that needs the steering column replaced

 

$750... I just spent $750 on paint, reducers, activators, clearcoat, primers, and wax remover.

I budgeted half of that, but at the last minute I decided to go with a better quality paint and clear.

I hope I don't screw up this paint job... that's a lot of money to spend on an RS v6

 

I know what you mean. I was planning on spending my meager funds on some wheel paint and the brakes in my truck went bad. Suprisingly all from lifetime warranteed parts that aren't. Ok buying all new again. I can not afford the time to waste arguing with them. Good brakes are a mustand it is my DD.

The temps here have been really hot lately. I have been trying hard to get things done in 105 plus temps and still feel ok.

So far the work you have done sounds good. I am waiting to see what you finally settle on for a paint scheme. I liked the red transition stripe but as was said earlier it is what you want (and the wife).
Good Luck with the body work and I will keep following along.

 

I decided last night to go tradtional... all grey, with black heritage stripes (assuming I can get the vinyl kit I have to lay down right) I'm going to keep a small red stripe above the rocker

in other words... almost the same as what I have now, just with better quality paint