Random stuff I'm working on

It was a welcome diversion from my ongoing metal removal in the Camaro and I figured you guys could use some entertainment! Like Gallaghers Big Wheel I want an adult size one. Good thing I sold my race Kart or I'd be planning a new fiberglass body for it. And I've already got waaaaay too many projects.
 
Well, with my BMW assembly completed it was time to get back to cutting on the Camaro. Need to keep cutting pieces out till there's decent metal to work wth. I'd thought I might be able to save the inner splash pan but, no dice. Have to order one but I'll wait till I get the rest of the metal out from the trunk to the floor pan just in case I need something else also.







 
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Did you cut the whole rear subframe out to replace also? Not familiar with Camaros. Either way it looks good like you are really getting there!!!! And did I hear some thing about composite construction :Do_O:) I have some ideas in my head that involve structural adhesive and carbon fiber composite parts.
 
It will be interesting to see how this project progresses. It's more than I would ever tackle.
 
Did you cut the whole rear subframe out to replace also? Not familiar with Camaros. Either way it looks good like you are really getting there!!!! And did I hear some thing about composite construction :Do_O:) I have some ideas in my head that involve structural adhesive and carbon fiber composite parts.

Both rear frame rails are being removed.

I've worked with carbon fiber parts before and modern adhesives. I will be using structural adhesive for a lot of the final assemble with the new metal. It's quicker, cleaner, stronger and safer to replace a lot of welding however it is more expensive. Can't have everything I guess, but it will greatly reduce welding/grinding labor and reduce the amount of overhead welding necessary.

It will be interesting to see how this project progresses. It's more than I would ever tackle.

You're smart! I wouldn't recommend it for most car guys. It's very time consuming, dirty, dangerous, crappy, work cutting the car up that isn't any fun. It's just waaaaay too much project for guys with other obligations like family etc. and easy to get stalled.

Break time's over, back to the shop I go>>>>>>
 
Been working on some Trans Am body parts for someone. I sold my old front bumper from my 70 Firebird on Ebay because I'd modified another bumper for my car. An out of state buddy of mine won the Ebay auction and wanted the bumper painted to match his car (as close as possible). He also wanted to have several of the Trans Am spoiler pieces, wheel flares etc. painted because they get chipped up on cars that are used a lot. So he shipped me a couple boxes of parts after removing them from his car while I got started on the bumper.





When the boxes of parts arrived it appeared one piece was broken during shipping. All the other pieces also needed plastic/rubber repairs and stripping so they got stripped and repaired.











 
With the parts repaired and smoothed they all went through a couple rounds of priming and block sanding. Meanwhile I took one of the pieces to the paint store and had them shoot it with their special paint matching camera so they could mix up some color that would hopefully match fairly well. The whole car's going to be repainted in a few years so this project is just so the car will look better in the meantime. The inner metal structure of the bumper that has been on the car has been rusting and deforming the Endura rubber on the bumper over the years and isn't really repairable.





 
Time for color! Shot PPG OMNI single stage urethane with a SATA Jet 4000 with a 1.3 tip. Yes, I shot everything outside. Our air here is really clean and contrary to popular belief about FL there's really no bugs here where I am. I shot a mist coat first followed by 3 coats on all the pieces and not a single tiny bug. While I normally paint in the garage area it's just not possible till I get the Camaro out of there.







 
Oh ya, nobody's perfect! Should have turned down the gun just a little bit more before shooting this mirror housing. No worries though, fixed it right up.

 
thats damn impressive!
While its a fact all of us have different skills and experience,
I wish I had your knowledge & experience at painting
, interior , and body work issues,
as well as what I know about mechanics
 
Thanks Grumpy!

I wrote the posts about the TA parts today during the "flash time" between coats on these welting strips that go on the parts to take up the inconsistent gaps between the flares etc. and the body panels. Used the same paint and turned the gun way down low with a small spray pattern. To prevent the paint from gluing the welting to the cardboard by bridging from the cardboard to the edge of the welting I slid a small dental tool along all the edges when the paint was flashing over on the last coat. I paint in the shade but once painted they went out to the natural solar baking area!

The welting is packaged horribly and gets deformed so I buy it and then wrap it on a can so it can slowly relax a bit and be ready whenever I need it. Even after almost a year on a can there's still some deformation I'll need to deal with when installing the welting. I keep another cars worth of welting on a can also as a back up in case I have any issues with paint, install, or whatever and will order some new to replace the stuff I just painted for this job. Trying to use the welting out of the package when it's new just doesn't work well because it's cheap repro stuff compared to the OEM. The OEM stuff is now 45-50 years old and so even NOS stuff is dried out and the rubber cracks.







 
looking good glad to see you been busy

Thanks John!

And Thank you again for the mask and sticker work you did for me!

For the rest of you, the back story:
I had John (our resident custom art man, Strictly Attitude) make some stickers and paint masks for my Lab-14 promotions. They just arrived and I've been busy trying to get the Trans Am stuff done so I haven't done a lot with them yet but of course I had to put up a sticker and do some testing with the masks with the little bit of paint left in the gun today. An air brush is probably going to work out better for the size of the masks than a full size paint gun, but hey, I had to try it!



 
Harbor frieght model will work fine for ya if you really wanna go a little nicer hobby-lobby carries iwata eclipse hp-bcs and there app usually carries 40% off one item.
 
Gave the welting strips a couple days for the paint to cure before installing them on the flares and spoilers. Todays modern urethane paints remain flexible which is beneficial for these pieces. The older lacquers and enamels would crack more easily so the modern paint made installation less stressful for me. Used 3M plastic adhesive and recreated staples similar to the factory ones that hold the tight curve on the tips of the flares.







 
The blue lightened up a little with color sanding and buffing but I think it's still a little darker than the car the parts are going on. Customers going to come down on a business trip and pick them up in a few weeks. I'll take a couple pics of finished products when I get them out for pick up.

Meanwhile, I pulled an engine out of a Wrangler Rubicon over the weekend. 3.8 with a rod knock so engine out for a rebuild. Probably get a crank kit and a few other things. The 3.8's are known for the issue and even though it's not a high mileage vehicle it's time is up. Figured you guys might find it interesting because it's a mud truck with all sorts of off road goodies on it.





 
That metal flake can be a hassle to look as good as you have it on curvy parts. I used the new single stage by Duplicolor with a heavy metal flake and the light reflection looked wavy.
 
Mottling is tough to avoid with an inexpensive single stage metal flake, particularly on parts with lots of curves, nooks and crannies. There is a bit in a couple places I notice on the parts. The Omni single stage I used is not expensive paint and I would have used a higher quality paint if the color formulation was available locally in the higher quality PPG Concept single stage. Because the car itself is in 25-30 year old faded single stage Lacquer spraying the parts in BC/CC would look "funny" next to the old Lacquer so I went with the Omni single stage. Once they're installed I doubt anyone will notice the slight mottling in certain places, they're more likely to notice the parts aren't exactly the same color of the original Lacquer on the rest of the car.. This paint is temporary and will be reshot in a couple years with a high quality BC/CC. I find the BC/CC is easier to get the metal flake paints more uniform because you can lay the coats thinner and not as "wet" and it comes out more even, then the CC will provide the gloss.
 
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