Well, after some problems causing a few weeks delay as I mentioned in my thread the other day I finally got to see BABY in the shop today and some progress that has been made this week.
After talking to my guy, I think late winter or early Spring is a more realistic time schedule until she is going to be done.......SIGH
Oh well, it will be worth it.
So far he has started disassembly and has most of the trim and chrome pieces off the car. only thing left to remove that I know of is the front blinker lights, sidepipe covers, and trim rails that run along the top of the sidepipes. Pretty much all other chrome, badges, trim pieces, rear lights, gas cap cover, wipers, front and rear glass trim pieces, door panels, side mirror, door handles, windows, bumpers, grill, etc are all removed.
He has also started stripping the paint which he says will take about a week and than it needs to be rubbed down with something (i forget what he said he uses) and washed. After that it needs to "vent" for about a week to let all the paint stripper dry out of the 'glass before anything else.
After that he can start on all the fiberglass work in areas he will be repairing and rebuilding and correcting. there is a guy directly across from the shop that does media blasting and the body could be stripped in an hour or so but he doesn't like to do that on 'Vettes as he said the blasting tends to round off edges.
Already, just from the area he has already gotten the paint stripped off we have found some interesting things. First, I already knew that throughout the years 3 of the 4 fenders have been replaced but now it looks like at some point the car has a bit of rear-end damage and a new rear section was bonded in - not a whole rear clip, just the section that holds the taillights, bumpers, etc. Also, while the car has definetly been repained before it looks as if it was stripped down prior to the currebt paint as the existing paint on thr was not very much. The current lacquer paint he is removing is fairly thin but even more interesting is that at some point someone painted the car green as we can see the green underneath the current maroon color. I'm not sure how the green is still showing up if it had been stripped before this current paint job but it's there alright underneath.
After everything is stripped down, and than vented he will work on the 'glass repairs and rebuilding where it's needed. After that is the sealing and priming.
He will let that cure for a bit before spraying the base color. He is planning about 6 coats of base with wetsanding between each coat and than letting that cure for a while again before spraying with 2 or 3 coats of the clear and wetsanding again.
It looks like the only parts I need to order as replacements ( i already knew anyway) is new trim pieces for around the windshield.
I'M THRILLED!!! Finally some progress on the car after 5 weeks!
UPDATE: pics posted now.
After talking to my guy, I think late winter or early Spring is a more realistic time schedule until she is going to be done.......SIGH
Oh well, it will be worth it.
So far he has started disassembly and has most of the trim and chrome pieces off the car. only thing left to remove that I know of is the front blinker lights, sidepipe covers, and trim rails that run along the top of the sidepipes. Pretty much all other chrome, badges, trim pieces, rear lights, gas cap cover, wipers, front and rear glass trim pieces, door panels, side mirror, door handles, windows, bumpers, grill, etc are all removed.
He has also started stripping the paint which he says will take about a week and than it needs to be rubbed down with something (i forget what he said he uses) and washed. After that it needs to "vent" for about a week to let all the paint stripper dry out of the 'glass before anything else.
After that he can start on all the fiberglass work in areas he will be repairing and rebuilding and correcting. there is a guy directly across from the shop that does media blasting and the body could be stripped in an hour or so but he doesn't like to do that on 'Vettes as he said the blasting tends to round off edges.
Already, just from the area he has already gotten the paint stripped off we have found some interesting things. First, I already knew that throughout the years 3 of the 4 fenders have been replaced but now it looks like at some point the car has a bit of rear-end damage and a new rear section was bonded in - not a whole rear clip, just the section that holds the taillights, bumpers, etc. Also, while the car has definetly been repained before it looks as if it was stripped down prior to the currebt paint as the existing paint on thr was not very much. The current lacquer paint he is removing is fairly thin but even more interesting is that at some point someone painted the car green as we can see the green underneath the current maroon color. I'm not sure how the green is still showing up if it had been stripped before this current paint job but it's there alright underneath.
After everything is stripped down, and than vented he will work on the 'glass repairs and rebuilding where it's needed. After that is the sealing and priming.
He will let that cure for a bit before spraying the base color. He is planning about 6 coats of base with wetsanding between each coat and than letting that cure for a while again before spraying with 2 or 3 coats of the clear and wetsanding again.
It looks like the only parts I need to order as replacements ( i already knew anyway) is new trim pieces for around the windshield.
I'M THRILLED!!! Finally some progress on the car after 5 weeks!
UPDATE: pics posted now.
And he is taking time for the primers to vent so you don't get any solvent pop.
