C3 'restore'/repaint update

[ButchN]

The original Lacquer on my 82 wasn't in the best of shape, especially since someone tried to cover it with clear.
The car has been in my pals shop about a month & a half now.
Not only has he smoothed out the low spots that C3's have, he's been filling dings, & most importantly, sanding & steam power washing in places that sanding did not help.
I opted to change the color from Spectra Red to Torch Red as the original color is quite dark IMO.

Here's a glimpse of the small parts painted ahead of time so my pal could get my 'approval' on the color before doing the whole car.

As you will see below, we've gotten allot accomplished in such a short time.

As we all know, C3 lines weren't the best but we were able to make the hood look allot better by removing shims in some places & adding in others.
He also 'worked' the doors a bit do the lines looked better & so the new door handles fit the curves of the door (as you all know, repro, 'eh' at best fit quality).
For 30 yrs old it's as good as it's gonna get w/o throwing obscene time & money into it.
All the weather stripping has been removed with new weather stripping already delivered.
I have new seats, door panels & carpet coming as well.

 

[ButchN]

Trim & sealer update

My pal redid the front & rear window trim.
The driver side front had some dings as if it had attempted break-in at one time, he was able to straighten most of it & the pass side was dented which he fixed.
Now both sides are barely noticeable, except for the driver side which had the dings too deep to make look smooth.
The rear trim paint was chipping away & he was under the impression the trim was painted by the previous owner(s) & came factory shiny.
So I did net search it seemed most all trim came black, I saw some not black.
Was it a give & take from the factory, shiny or black?
Mine are now black anyway.
Pardon the quality, he used his iphone to send them to me:

As you see, I removed the wheels for 2 reasons.
1: To have NO chance of over spray &:
2: I need to work the calipers & put then put them in paint with the POR kit I got, then put the Kinetic crossdrilled/slotted w/ceramic pads.

He sent me this pic because I had told him of an 80 I saw repainted near my condo & the shop that sprayed it did a good color job, but poor masking job.
There was overspray on the mufflers, spare tire well & the frame rails were painted red with the car!
I told him to please make sure that does not happen as I don't want to do black touch up on the the rails & when the lower trim its back on it'll look dumb with red showing up under it!

 

[ButchN]

Jammin! update

Here's another update & I'm not gonna do allot of typing:

I left the strikers on for a few reasons.
1: I did not want to mess with realigning the doors so the'yd close good like they do now,
2: It's easier to keep closed when spraying &,
3: The car is a driver.

 

[ButchN]

It's red!!

It was painted last Saturday night & these picsa re with no wet sanding yet.
My pal used an extra quart of clear, & it paid off.
Very little orange peel & very little wet sanding is being needed.

I'll post more pics this weekend as it's being wetsanded now & I still have to swap rotors & paint my calipers.
I'll have it out this Sunday.

 

[Toms007]

Looking good there Butch.

 

[trhao]

Outstanding!!!

 

[Vette D.R.S.]

Fabuloso........man I'm lovin that red, nice job.

Keep the updates coming, I always like to see how others projects come along.
Here's one for a pal like you have




Dave

 

[bill81vette]

Very nice!!!!!

 

[6880 Mike]

...The original Lacquer on my 82 wasn't in the best of shape, especially since someone tried to cover it with clear...

All 82s were painted with acrylic enamel base coats, followed by clear coat.

The "someone" was GM Bowling green.

 

[ButchN]

All 82s were painted with acrylic enamel base coats, followed by clear coat.

The "someone" was GM Bowling green.

My 1st post was a cut-n-paste & I forgot to change it.
I know it was originally enamel, but no, my car had a repaint of the nose & a poor clear application on the rest of the body.
The enamel paint of the day back then was single stage, not 2 stage like today.
Here's a few pics to show how it looked when I got it & you'll see what I mean.
Here you can see the clear cracking.

Here you can see the red over spray in the parking light grill areas, & when I removed the light/grill assy's, lots of red over spray on the grills, parking lights & the cornering/side marker lights as well. You can also see the clear peeling away on the fascia!

Trust me, in this case I, & my body shop pal, know it was re-cleared later in its life.

Look how bad whomever painted applied the paint on the nose!
He had to use a hot pressure washer to get the paint off as sand paper wasn't doing the job!

 

[Sunstroked]

Love those red corvettes. Your wheels will really look killer with the new paint too.

 

[ButchN]

It's done!

Sorta.
I still need to put on the emblems, drill out the rivets on all 4 of my original 30 yr. old discs & put the new ones on.
I also need to get the replacement carpet, door panels & seats & lastly, figure out how I'm gonna get my T-roofs on since the new weather strip is keeping me from pushing down on the glass, & I don't want to exert too much pressure & have 2 panels shatter on me.

I know there are threads, but it really does seem like a pain & they do sit kinda high compared the the B pillar.
I hope they compress a bit & end up being flush.

Now also comes the task of getting all the wet sanded clear, now dried white, out of all the cracks.

Other than that, is was a good day to take it out, 79 & sunny, & also not being able to drive it for 6 weeks.

And for comparison, here's 2 shots, one of the original color & the new color.

 

[Sunstroked]

I love how the new paint brightened up your tree in the background. looks great!

 

[black_81_vette]

If you look at the assembly and or service manual the roof panels do not sit flush with the roof.they sit about a good 1/8 inch higher than the body.If you try to compress them down you will break them.The adjustment is done with the shims under the glass to latch assembly on the tops.

 

[ButchN]

Yeah, I looked at some pics I took when I 1st got the car & remembered how that sat.
All seems well now.
Whomever is going to Carlisle will see it.
My Mass plate is my username here, BUTCHN, hard to miss.
Please stop by & say hi & critique for me so I can make it better!
I'f I'm not there, (good chance as there's lots to see & I love Carlisle vendors!), drop a note in the car w/name & ph & I'll call to meet up.