Paintergeek Paintworks

Went to the show today and ran across quite a few familiar cars! Got to see some owners again and chat them up too. Good times. Rare I get to see my work out and about, nevertheless this many at one place. Super cool.

Old nose emblem vs the new, lower grilles and signals, side mirror, door handles and locks, interior door panels…so much accomplished today. The hard part was the lower grilles. Every bracket in there, on arrival, was either missing, damaged ages ago, or destroyed on removal. So figuring out where everything went and making it all fit was especially challenging. Heck, we didn’t even know it was missing the center grille until we were looking up brackets and hardware and were like ‘oh hell. There’s supposed to be a grille in the middle?! It’s now on order, among other things. Coming along great. #427

One thing’s for sure: every picture of this car looks like a different color! It’s NOT Kandy Gold as it almost looks in this first pic. Closest color representation in this set is the taillights ‘off’ photo. That said, big progress today: Hood on, rocker trim on, doors on, belt moldings on, one new door handle and lock installed and working, antenna kit installed, and some of the taillights in. By days end tomorrow the doors should have their interior panels installed and essentially be done. #427

Expect to see a lot of posts from me about this coming up! I’ll eventually be adding lots of photos to the album for this car and putting on Instagram as well. For now, I’ll leave the words and photos to Damon and the Snakepit crew! Congrats guys!

This insanely cool, clean, low mileage 993 in super rare Libelltürkis Metallic l (Dragonfly Turquoise), also called Ocean Jade, came in with a big red whale tail that needed matched to the car. Awesome upgrade for sure. Came out great.

Lots done today on the Stingray, but the kind of stuff that doesn’t strike the eye like fresh paint or chrome! We Installed weatherstripping on both doors, the hood, and convertible top deck. Built all the latches and release mechanisms on the hood and convertible top deck. Cleaned and installed wipers and cowl vent panel. Added in grille support brackets and random ‘internal’ features you don’t see in photos but take time to accomplish. Without new grille support brackets there is no grille! Got these side vents installed which was far from plug-and-play. Since this doghouse was replaced in the past, had to make some mods to have it accommodate the trim pieces. But they are now in and looking great! #427

Well, didn’t expect this much progress today! Safely installing the headlight door/mechanism was my biggest concern with this car. They were difficult to get out, and my test runs installing them during the prep process wasn’t encouraging. And yet here they are, installed and workin! Got the side markers, some chrome, fuel door, rear vents, weatherstripping and more done today. Also: last pic, I blacked out the fourth ‘vent’. 3 of those go through, one doesn’t. Some cars leave that one painted. Others black it out. I think blacked out looks awesome. Can’t wait for the trim to be installed in that area! #427

So due to the repaints in this cars history, many areas had orange and white overspray on em. We decided to take the time to mask up the car and satin-black all those areas. #427

Buffing completed. Time to do some blacking out, and then assembly! #427

Using guide coat between grits during the wet sanding process of the clear coat. #427

Finally got a rear wing for the Mystery Eagle, and got it knocked out this week. Special Thanks to and ZAT Graphics.

Man I can’t wait to see this all built. I mean, I saw it ‘This’ close to done. But not done-done. Not decal package on , put on the streets done.

Ya spend all this time to make it shiny, and 24 hours later the whole thing is sanded flat. 😐 But just wait til that buffer hits it! #427

This car looks so damn good. One of the best ‘straight from the gun’ jobs I’ve had this year for sure. It will still get a full cut and buff, like all my work. But man it won’t take much to get done. Wrapping up spraying all the other panels today and it will be ready for buff and build next week.

Got the rear convertible top cover hinges painted for the 69 Vette. (I always do those separately first, then fold em down when dry and mask em up to do the rest of the body. Annoying but makes it much easier and cleaner to do the body later. Also jambed in said cover, plus got the under hood in satin black! #427

Is the ‘69 going to see riverside gold next week? Well, it sure looks promising! All that’s left is to pull the doors, clean it up, mask it up, and spray it (up?). #427

My early morning work view throughout the summer.

Now that’s an Indycar scheme I can get behind! How awesome!

Stills of the ‘69 in fresh prime (see previous post for video). Man it looks so smoooov. #427

Been knocking out some projects that can’t be shared yet, but with those done it’s back on the ‘69. Got to meet the owner, which was great. He got to see the progress and speak with me first hand, and start seeing what parts to replace or get rechromed. With the first round of poly-blocking done, some areas and gaps refined, it’s ready for its next round of urethane surfacer. #427

Last year I posted a video of this one idling out of the shop. I did some VERY minor work to it to shine up a couple very small things. Currently just over $112k. Go get yourself an original drivetrain ‘69 Z in totally factory stock configuration!

1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 Coupe 4-Speed Bid for the chance to own a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 Coupe 4-Speed at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #153,751.

Oh my. I haven’t posted in so long! Had some setbacks in May, but June has been full-on progress on this ‘69 Vette. It’s moved so quickly I’ve not even thought to take pictures. After completing the stripping (see previous posts, any body work it needed was done. I disassembled the body and stripped all the jambs and undersides of hoods etc all manually. Everything was then primed , and the jambs/undersides are all sanded and ready for paint. I then reassembled the car, so I could focus on really fine tuning the gaps. (Sometimes it’s just so hard to get an eye on em til the car is one continuous color again ). Since these pictures, everything has been blocked again, gaps corrected, and it’s almost ready for its final round of primer. For how daunting it seemed at arrival, it’s actually gone quite fast. #427

Removed the taillights ( it just the lenses but the full bezels). Every bolt snapped. They’d clearly never been off the car ever, and I found maybe the most clean sample of the original gold hidden beneath, seeing light for the first time since the assembly line. #427

Last week I all but wrapped up the Firebird project. Dozens of little bits and pieces in the satin gray to match the dash. Kinda not too exciting to photograph a vent window frame or a small piece of trim, so here’s the front bumper and a mirror. The rest we’ll be able to see better when the car is built.

Well. After stripping the top surfaces with blades and sanders, the sides decided to put up a much greater fight. Perhaps lack of ultraviolet damage left it more adhered. But chem stripper was brought in to advance the project more quickly. It didn’t ‘wrinkle’ the paint as I’d hoped, but softened it down two layers and made it more scrapable. (there are between 1 and 4 paint jobs depending on which area of the car) Then a second round of chem and scrape left it far enough down for sanders to finish the job. Glad the ‘big stuff’ is gone now. Time to start smoothing it out. #427

Here’s how far I got the Vette paint in one day. That’s the bare glass you are seeing (the light gray). Not too bad. Hard on the arms. And the side of the car I won’t have gravity on my side. The old lacquer primer just gums up in the paper within a couple seconds, so razor blades, orbital sander, and elbow grease is the only option we really have. #427

Some interesting things about the ‘69 corvette paint:

You always have to expect old work to Be uncovered, as these are all old cars that have had a life before now. Race cars and street cars alike have all been through it. My favorite part of my job is getting to view that history first hand. What was once hidden by layers of paint I can now see. At some point it Got crunched over here, bumped over there, This panel has three repaints and this panel only one, Etc etc.

Well, here’s what I can tell you about this one ‘so far’:

-The hood was replaced with one from an orange car. I don’t see evidence yet that the nose / bonnet was though (yet). We shall see as I get lower on the body.
-The entire car aside from the hood appears to have been stripped of its gold paint before the multiple white repaints. But what’s odd is that although they stripped the car, they didn’t remove the antenna or door handles. So upon removal of those, some original gold paint became visible. Also, the underside of the fuel door shows faint gold remnants. The top white paint job mostly razor bladed off. Not so lucky on the ones below that. Gonna be a slow process

This ‘69 corvette has been patiently waiting for the Firebird to near completion so it could begin. That happened this week. Originally gold, it has since seen many layers of white paint. I’ll be tearing the body down, stripping it by hand, doing some glass repairs and basic bodywork, and returning it to its original color over the course of the summer.

Guess who else I got to visit yesterday? You guys haven’t forgotten the original owner AAR Cuda already have you? Well it’s well underway at Snakepit and looking mighty fine! Guess who else I got to visit yesterday? You guys haven’t forgotten the original owner AAR Cuda already have you? Well it’s well underway at Snakepit and looking mighty fine!