Your Car Looks like This???

Answer... You paint it of course....

	Now, There is no doubt the car looked really nice when I got it. Oh sure, It had its little problems but all in all it cleaned uppretty well. These shots were taken soon after I got the car - while in Virginia - note the Thompson ASTRO top..
	But the cars biggest problem, was a previous paint job applied by one of the last owners. The car was only poorly prepped and the paint was put on too heavy. This has caused the paint to chip, flake and blister (in very small quantities) but all over the car.

So once I decided I had to paint the car, I was forced to make a decision, well several decisions actually. First of all, I had to decide, was I Going to make any changes to the body itself. I personally am not overly fond of the tail cap on the late model C-3's, I love the rear end on the earlier, chrome bumper cars, and I am also fond of teh ZR-1 tail of the C-4. So I decided I was going to replace the OEM tail cone with an aftermarket cone that emulated the ZR-1 tail. Frankly, I also dislike the nose cone, primarily the bumperettes, and tried to find out if someone made an earlier style nose, such as one with the grill in the center portion where the license plate goes now. But alas, no-one makes such a creature. So I kept the nose.

Here is the tail cone From American Sports Car Design. I purchased this one over the flexglass unit sold By ecklers due to the 3rd brake light opening that came in the cap.

The tail Fit rather well, requiring only a minimal amount of body work to match it up with the rest of the car. I strongly recommend new bumper fasteners when installing a fiberglass or flex glass rear bumper. I like the overall effect, I think the sweep up at the tail gives a nice 'built in' rear spoiler effect, and it differentiates the car from most other Corvettes of the same year. I plan on installing a letter set made up of individual letters (i.e. 1974 or earlier) for the Corvette text on the rear above the license plate recess.

 

The whole month of January (weekends)   Disassembly  All trim pieces including emblems were removed and set aside. New emblems for nose and gas lid purchased off E-bay. Stripping of existing paint. The amount of stripping was based on the condition of the existing paint and the body underneath. Basically both doors were stripped to the gelcoat. The hood was stripped down to the factory primer. Rear quarters were sanded down to the original primer. The previous owner had so much paint on this car it was amazing. New rear tailcone required only minor sanding in preparation for primer.
	The whole month of February (weekends)   This whole month we, sanded, primed, blocked and repeated the process over and over until we were happy with the resulting bodywork. The primers surface is now smooth enough to see reflections in. Made the final color decision, all of my see-sawing came to an end and I selected GM 1999 PPG# 5273 Sunset Metallic red.
Saturday & Sunday, March 4 & 5, 2000   No work due to weather and impending trip on Sunday to the Pomona Swap meet. Did go to the swap meet - the rain of course dampened the festivities and a large number of vendors left early. Didn’t get anything for the vette although a friend did get a radiator for his big block Nova. Saturday & Sunday, March 11&12, 2000   Bad weather again - no work done Saturday & Sunday, March 18 & 19, 2000   Man this weather is really pissing me off! Friday, March 24, 2000   Completely disassembled both doors in preparation for Saturday, mirrors removed, weather-stripping removed etc… Touched up primer and sanded at mirror mounts. Painted and clearcoated the black rubber (plastic) mirror spacers. Saturday & Sunday, March 25 & 26,2000   Our work site is not available, darn it… nothing accomplished this weekend Rear bumper letter set received from Orange Coast Corvette. This letter set is the same set as found on a 1973 corvette (i.e. it is comprised of individual letters not one single emblem) Create drill template for letterset on rear bumper.
	Saturday, April 01, 2000 Finally, we started shooting color today.  We began with small parts (removed from car) and jambs. We shot the following.   Door jambs and sills - All hardware was removed from doors as well as all weather stripping. Sills were hit with a DA sander and wiped down thoroughly w/ lacquer thinner. Thin a layer of sealant was shot and then two (2) layers of color. GM 1999 PPG# 5273 Sunset Metallic red. Over this two layers of clear were shot. Hood jambs & Underside of hood - preparation and application as above. Gas door lid - removed from car - shot top and bottom. Spoiler - The two end pieces of the three-piece pace car spoiler on the car were shot - as above. The center section will be replaced with a new piece. The new piece ships with a flat black finish, which will be retained (provided it looks ok). The purpose of this is to eliminate the problems I had with it under the previous paint job. Basically, the center section of the spoiler hits all manner of curbs, wheel stops etc.. During the process of driving and the existing paint was cracked, peeling and otherwise in just horrible shape. If the color of the replacement part is "built -in" then this would not be a problem. Rear View mirrors. Headlamp bezels. This portion of the work was shot outside, now it is time to rent a booth and shoot the remainder of the car. Sunday, April 02, 2000   Reassembled both doors Temporarily reinstalled the drivers side mirror (until rest of car is shot) Repainted both T-top brackets (mounted to top of B-pillars) and reinstalled. Installed new door weather stripping Installed new hood weather stripping Reattached chrome doorsills over carpet. Lubricated door lock. Realized that I got the wrong letterset for the rear - so I purchased a set off E-bay for $18. Now I have an OEM set for sale.
Click images for larger version Friday, May 12, 2000 Noticed that there were 3 stress cracks at the nose that appeared, these were cracks that we tried fixing before - do not take shortcuts on these types of cracks or they will come back and soon. Used a dremel tool to route out the crack. Drilled hole at end of crack to relieve any stress in fiberglass Backed up the new openings with fiberglass matting (roving) using Resin Gel (the gel type will not run all over) ? Once the backing was set I came back with mat and gel resin in the opening (body side) once this set - sand down flush and use Sikens filler to remove any low spots. Re primered over the fix with the same epoxy primer used on the car. Sand, prime, sand, prime etc.. Until smooth. Saturday, May 13, 2000 Finished up all the work started above. Bought paint stripper in an aerosol can and stripped the paint off all the original chrome trim, this on the window trimming and the rocker Panels. Drilled holes in rear cover for new rear letter set emblem. Friday, May 19,2000 Prepare for tomorrows work - took the day off so I could….. Finish repairing a few stress cracks that appeared Wet sand whole car w/ 400 grit wet /dry paper Wash car thoroughly to remove any sanding residue Saturday, May 20, 2000 God, did we really wait this long after jambs? Anyway, we shot color and clear today. Disassemble door to remove drivers mirror - again! Remove side markers Remove license plate, rear gas filler door and chrome surround, taillights & headlights, grills Mask off car Shoot PPG sealer over whole car Shoot color - approximately 5 coats (almost a whole gallon) Shoot clear -  approximately 5 coats (almost a half gallon) After drying unmask car and reassemble There is some orange peel in the clear but that will be resolved by the final step of wet sanding and buffing the paint out.
	Friday, June 16, 2000 What a coincidence. A fellow CorvetteForum member who I had previously communicated with via e-mail saw my car during lunch this week. After a few e-mails back and forth we discover that we work directly across the street from each other. It is the only fact that since he comes and goes at different times than I do that we never noticed each other before. Well, he had a set of chrome rockers that I wanted and we met up for lunch and I was able to get them. Hopefully they'll clean up really nice. Saturday, June 17,2000 Started to wet sand the car today, but due to my sisters graduating from UCSD I had to cut it short and only got half the car done.  Start sanding with 1000 grit wet/dry Do from front of doors forward. Finish blocking with 2000 grit wet/dry Buff & Polish Install new nose emblem  Install crossed flags on fenders Back to top
Saturday, July 1, 2000 Today we finished up where we left off in the sanding and buffing department. Process much the same as last time. A friend of mine was able to go to Bloomington Gold this year and he picked up the only emblems I was missing, that being the L-82 hood emblems.   Sand and buff as last time Wax with Mothers Gold Carnuba Install L-82 hood emblems Sunday, July 2, 2000 Time to finish the job up. Drop exhaust from Catalytic Convertor back. Install power antenna - epoxy a bracket to the inside of the fender to provide a side to side anchor for the antenna body and motor. Install rear letter set. To do this I had to remove and slide to one side a portion of the bumper bar. Paint spare tire bucket. We removed this piece since we painted the back half of the exhaust while it was out and it seemed a good idea to paint this as well. It turned out that the pins on the back of the 74+ letter set were not long enough for me to use the provided acorn nuts (due to the thickness of the fiberglass rear cover I presume) So I was forced to epoxy the letter onto the car. This worked great