Just about there..

Back on the Camaro today. Yesterday we started the body work on the last few pieces that go on the car. The lower valence, the header panel and the two fender lower extensions. I spent a few hours yesterday on the header and the lower valence, finished them up today and knocked out the fender extensions too. When Chase finished up priming the Chevelle parts, we slid these Camaro parts in so he could lay down the last coats of primer on them. Next we will start blocking out these and other parts and start the FUN part. Laying down some color! We have an approval on the color so its a go.

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OK, I’m back

Sorry for no update yesterday. It was just one of those days. But welcome back!! We have been working on both the Chevelle and the Camaro all week this week. Lets start with the Chevelle. The doors are off and the trunk is off. Chris has been removing all of the old seam sealer from the drip rails and the rear body panel. That stuff needs to come out to be sure that we seal up all the areas where water can get in as best we can. The bottom and top of the trunk and the inside and outside of the doors have all been sanded prepped and primed. Epoxy primer on the inside and out and slick sand on the outside only. Next step for those panels will be to star blocking out that slick sand to remove the waves and ripples from years of use and the ones that were put there when the metal was stamped out. Once that is done we will start fixing the dents in these panels. While Chase was priming these parts, Chris kept plugging along by sanding on the body. Its dirty work I know, but Chris just loves sanding.

Color combo’s

These are spay out cards for the Camaro. We do these to make sure that the customer is happy with the color that will be on their car. Its much easier to get it approved and make changes BEFORE the car is painted . This Camaro will have racing stripes on it so I thought I’d give them options just so they can see what the stripes would like in different colors. Now they can just pick the one they like the best or make suggestions and we will make the changes to fit their wants.

Booth time

Today was a great day! We sprayed some epoxy primer on some Chevelle parts and slick sand on the fenders. The epoxy is great for bare metal. It fully encapsulates the panel with a tough water proof coating that sticks to metal better than glue. Over top of that we sprayed 3 coats of slick sand super high build primer on the outside of the fenders. There is no reason to put that on the inside parts of the jambs. The product is costly and its very labor intensive to sand. So we dont use it on jambs. The Slick Sand is used to have a thick film build to have something to block. Blocking ensures that the panel is straight and free from waves and small dings. Its a long tedious process but it pays off in the long run. 

 

 

 

We were also able to get the doors off and taken fully apart today. Here you see Chris cleaning up some edges on the jambs. The hinges were sandblasted today too. Tomorrow we hope to get the doors to the same point the fenders are to today. 

Sanding my life away

Back sanding on the Chevelle today. We spent most of the day sanding the both sides of the hood, finishing up the  fenders from yesterday and prepping the radiator support and upper tie bar for paint As you can see we did get them painted today but I didnt get a picture of them black. What you see on them is the epoxy primer that we use on bare metal to ensure that the subsequent layers of paint adhere properly. These parts were first sanded very well, and wiped down with our cleaner to make sure they were clean. Then chase started making them look good. Ill be sure to post a finished picture of them tomorrow.

Prime on

This morning we jumped on the Camaro first thing to get the final coat of primer on the body. We masked off the areas that we didnt want primer then started with a coat of epoxy on the bare metal spots. After that had plenty of time to dry Chris laid down 4 coats of urethane primer.  The next step here will be to start blocking out this primer to prepare for paint. We should get to spraying some color on the body parts later this week. Its always fun times when the color starts going on. This is when the hard work really pays off.

And here we go

With every great paint job there are hours upon hours of sanding. So today we got started sanding the Chevelle that was blasted last week. Like all projects we do, we started with 80 grit sand paper on a dual action sander. Chris and I sanded the fenders until they were smooth and shiny. This will ensure that the layers of primer and paint that are to come have a good clean substrate to stick to. We spent the better part of the afternoon on the fenders and were able to almost get them finished. We will have to go over some nooks and crannies in the morning but they are just about ready for the first steps of primer. We will probably wait until we have several things to go in the booth before they are primed though. Headlight doors, hood, doors will probably all get ready and primed at the same time. Being that this car is in great shape, it should move pretty quickly.

What dent?

We completed the repairs on the very nice 2013 Accord today. This is the one that a restaurant umbrella fell on the rear door of. The repair went smoothly and the customer was very pleased, especially with the quick turn around time. Now, if I can just keep myself from driving by the Honda dealership and trading in my wife’s ’07 Accord on one of these. Did I mention how nice this car was?

Guess who’s back…

We got the Chevelle back from the blasters today. And just as we suspected this is a very nice car. There were no surprises here. A nice solid body. We will get to sanding on this one next week and start the priming process. Once you have a system that works, you stick to it. So this car will get the same treatment as all the others. Epoxy, slick sand, block, body work, final prime. Its a tedious process but it yields great results.

What a difference

Today was P day. Paint day for the Jeep. We started by blowing it off really good. All the nooks and crannies that can hold dirt were blown out to ensure a good clean job. After that we started taping it up to keep paint off of areas that didnt get painted. Then we rolled it into the booth, covered up the wheels and prepped it for paint. After it was all clean Chase applied a coat of sealer. This is to provide a uniform base color to make coverage easier and it increases adhesion. Once that dried 4 coats of the turquoise base coat then 3 coats of clear. The job turned out great. Its a 1000% improvement of what we started with. Tomorrow we start putting it all back together.