Final Winter Project 2020-2021

[turbozig]

She is going to be a looker Cody. Great color choice also.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Can't wait to see it.

 

[RockyPM]

That color is going to look amazing in the sun! Coming together really nicely! Where are you going to get the painting done?

 

[Jr. Corvette]

That color is going to look amazing in the sun! Coming together really nicely! Where are you going to get the painting done?

Thanks Paul.

Getting it done at Ross Custom Paint. They do nice work and have been great to deal with so far.

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Hey guys,

Well a little over a month later and I'm still working on this thing. Around 700 hours on it between stripping it, modifying it, and getting it to the point it's at. I have all the panels fitting absolutely perfectly and I have all the body gaps set darn near spot on. Everything goes together perfectly and looks nice. I've found a few areas where the seems by the rear window were cracking so I've repaired those. I've also pinned the door hinges so it's really quick to install them and line them up. I also found an area on the front fender that was damaged and covered up by the previous owner with Vette panel adhesive. Then I finished changing the wiring harness for the tail lights and cut off the old sockets and wired in some connectors that plug right into the new light control boxes.

I haven't gotten the car in primer yet and unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to prime it myself as my garage is just too small to lay all these panels out. So I figured I'd finish up the final filler and get the door jams finished up and then hand it over to the body shop.

A couple guys from the body shop came by today to look at the car. The guy said the car looked great, my panels were all perfect, and my lines were nice and sharp. However, they didn't have anything to say about my custom bumper or any other panel that I've customized because nearly every panel is different. Then they hit me with what I'd be looking at. They said to take it from this point and finish it, I'd be looking at $15,000 to $20,000.... I understand the paint alone is around 2-3 grand and that there is still a bit of work but not that much work. My neighbor got a show quality paint job and his guy fixed all the panel alignments and set the gaps and disassembled the car and reassembled it and that was $15,000.

Fortunately my father does work for a guy that owns a body shop that is Audi, Porsche, and Bentley certified so we're going to see if he'll take it on. If not, I'll be looking for some other shops. In the mean time I will start the final filler and block the car down then work on finishing up the door jams.

Hopefully I'll be able to post some exciting news soon. I honestly can't wait to start putting the car back together with the new tail lights and wheels.

Thank you guys for all your compliments and encouragement through this project! It's awesome to have such a supportive group of corvette enthusiasts.

 

[YFCvii]

Wow ... as high as $20k with a $5k contingency ... Wow !!!
I had a hit & run on my truck. I took it to my choice body shop to get an evaluation.
Found out I needed a damage sticker - so got one. Then decided I might as
well just go through not-at-fault insurance. The surprise came when the
quoted price dropped significantly for the claim. Has me thinking that Body/Paint Shops
have multiple price tiers. Sharing this so that you can hopefully challenge if perhaps it is
off-the-street pricing and not best-pricing at the Shop that you want to work with.
I had a panel-off C7 refinish in 2017 that was $10k (through insurance). I know yours
is not insurance related and I hope you find a price-resolve for getting
your work completed @Jr. Corvette

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Hey guys,

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've done a ton of work since I last posted and I'm excited to share this with you all.

So, after over 900 hours I've finally finished all the body work. I filled the entire car with Evercoat Rage Gold Ultra then blocked everything down. The only thing I didn't get to was the door jambs but I'm running out of time to work on the car and I'd like to drive it this summer. I had to fix a ton of air bubbles that were in the panels. The original panels were all nearly flawless but the Ecklers panels were filled with hundreds of air bubbles. Some as big as 1"X3" that I had to chip out, clean, and fill. The ACI panels on the other hand were all nearly flawless.

In addition to the body work I fixed the grill on my hood. My dad was bored one day so I gave him the job of removing the terrible grill on the hood lol. Took him a few hours with a heat gun and a scraper but he got it off! I then cleaned up the hood and made a new grill out of aluminum. It's way lighter than the old stainless stuff and isn't as restrictive. To mount it I used some urethane to attach some elevator bolts to the hood.

I then decided to make a new radiator/fan shroud cover. I used some masking tape to create the shape of the cover. I then masked everything off and sprayed some mold release agent over the tape. I laid 5 layers of cloth fiberglass over the tape and waited for it to setup. Once it cured I removed it and found it to be a little flimsy. I thought this might cause it to warp over time so I added two layers of 1.5oz mat cloth to the bottom which made it incredibly strong. After that I just filled and sanded it then drilled two holes to mount it and installed some threaded rivets in the rad support. It fits perfectly and the mounting screws are relatively hidden.

After that I decided to redesign the front of the quarters and back of the skirts. I wanted to redesign it to match the shape and angle of the front spoiler. I used some polyurethane foam and created a mold. I used a digital angle finder to get the angle of the front spoiler and matched it to the mold. I also took the curve of the bottom the front spoiler to make the flare of the side skirt. Lastly I measured the height of the spoiler so I could match that to the rear. Once I was happy with the shape I fiberglassed it with cloth and mat fiberglass. Once that was cured I filled and sanded it. It took around 20 hours for this small change. I only added 2" to it at the widest point but I feel it's made a huge difference.

I also had to fix my engine bay. I did some bad filling 5 years ago and the engine bay was chipping in a few areas. I ground it down, filled, and painted it.

My painter just came today and is really impressed with the body work. He told me I should seriously consider a job in it. I don't think it's for me. I little too itchy lol. I should have a quote today or tomorrow and hopefully I'll have the car in for paint soon.

I've saved the best for last. I picked up my new tires a few weeks ago! 275's for the front and 325's on the rear. Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's.

 

[gone]

Keeps looking better and better. Here's hoping you'll get a reasonable quote for a good paint job and you'll soon (in the next 6 weeks??) be driving your "new" wheels! You may want to get at least 2 quotes for the paint job to make sure you're in the ballpark. Sometimes people will try to take advantage of you when they see how much time/effort you've already put into the car.

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Keeps looking better and better. Here's hoping you'll get a reasonable quote for a good paint job and you'll soon (in the next 6 weeks??) be driving your "new" wheels! You may want to get at least 2 quotes for the paint job to make sure you're in the ballpark. Sometimes people will try to take advantage of you when they see how much time/effort you've already put into the car.

Thanks @netsinah! Ya, I got one other price and it was really high. The guy I'm now getting to paint it owns his own shop and my dad has done work for him over the years so he's giving me a good price. He's also Audi, Porsche, and Bentley certified so I know that the Porsche Agate Grey that I'm going with should be perfect.

I'm so excited to get the new wheels and tail lights on there.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Hey guys,

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've done a ton of work since I last posted and I'm excited to share this with you all.

So, after over 900 hours I've finally finished all the body work. I filled the entire car with Evercoat Rage Gold Ultra then blocked everything down. The only thing I didn't get to was the door jambs but I'm running out of time to work on the car and I'd like to drive it this summer. I had to fix a ton of air bubbles that were in the panels. The original panels were all nearly flawless but the Ecklers panels were filled with hundreds of air bubbles. Some as big as 1"X3" that I had to chip out, clean, and fill. The ACI panels on the other hand were all nearly flawless.

In addition to the body work I fixed the grill on my hood. My dad was bored one day so I gave him the job of removing the terrible grill on the hood lol. Took him a few hours with a heat gun and a scraper but he got it off! I then cleaned up the hood and made a new grill out of aluminum. It's way lighter than the old stainless stuff and isn't as restrictive. To mount it I used some urethane to attach some elevator bolts to the hood.

I then decided to make a new radiator/fan shroud cover. I used some masking tape to create the shape of the cover. I then masked everything off and sprayed some mold release agent over the tape. I laid 5 layers of cloth fiberglass over the tape and waited for it to setup. Once it cured I removed it and found it to be a little flimsy. I thought this might cause it to warp over time so I added two layers of 1.5oz mat cloth to the bottom which made it incredibly strong. After that I just filled and sanded it then drilled two holes to mount it and installed some threaded rivets in the rad support. It fits perfectly and the mounting screws are relatively hidden.

After that I decided to redesign the front of the quarters and back of the skirts. I wanted to redesign it to match the shape and angle of the front spoiler. I used some polyurethane foam and created a mold. I used a digital angle finder to get the angle of the front spoiler and matched it to the mold. I also took the curve of the bottom the front spoiler to make the flare of the side skirt. Lastly I measured the height of the spoiler so I could match that to the rear. Once I was happy with the shape I fiberglassed it with cloth and mat fiberglass. Once that was cured I filled and sanded it. It took around 20 hours for this small change. I only added 2" to it at the widest point but I feel it's made a huge difference.

I also had to fix my engine bay. I did some bad filling 5 years ago and the engine bay was chipping in a few areas. I ground it down, filled, and painted it.

My painter just came today and is really impressed with the body work. He told me I should seriously consider a job in it. I don't think it's for me. I little too itchy lol. I should have a quote today or tomorrow and hopefully I'll have the car in for paint soon.

I've saved the best for last. I picked up my new tires a few weeks ago! 275's for the front and 325's on the rear. Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's.

Damn Cody. That is looking soooooo good... Man. You certainly put your heart and soul into this restoration and it shows. Many thanks for including us here on the forum throughout.

 

[turbozig]

Hey guys,

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've done a ton of work since I last posted and I'm excited to share this with you all.

So, after over 900 hours I've finally finished all the body work. I filled the entire car with Evercoat Rage Gold Ultra then blocked everything down. The only thing I didn't get to was the door jambs but I'm running out of time to work on the car and I'd like to drive it this summer. I had to fix a ton of air bubbles that were in the panels. The original panels were all nearly flawless but the Ecklers panels were filled with hundreds of air bubbles. Some as big as 1"X3" that I had to chip out, clean, and fill. The ACI panels on the other hand were all nearly flawless.

In addition to the body work I fixed the grill on my hood. My dad was bored one day so I gave him the job of removing the terrible grill on the hood lol. Took him a few hours with a heat gun and a scraper but he got it off! I then cleaned up the hood and made a new grill out of aluminum. It's way lighter than the old stainless stuff and isn't as restrictive. To mount it I used some urethane to attach some elevator bolts to the hood.

I then decided to make a new radiator/fan shroud cover. I used some masking tape to create the shape of the cover. I then masked everything off and sprayed some mold release agent over the tape. I laid 5 layers of cloth fiberglass over the tape and waited for it to setup. Once it cured I removed it and found it to be a little flimsy. I thought this might cause it to warp over time so I added two layers of 1.5oz mat cloth to the bottom which made it incredibly strong. After that I just filled and sanded it then drilled two holes to mount it and installed some threaded rivets in the rad support. It fits perfectly and the mounting screws are relatively hidden.

After that I decided to redesign the front of the quarters and back of the skirts. I wanted to redesign it to match the shape and angle of the front spoiler. I used some polyurethane foam and created a mold. I used a digital angle finder to get the angle of the front spoiler and matched it to the mold. I also took the curve of the bottom the front spoiler to make the flare of the side skirt. Lastly I measured the height of the spoiler so I could match that to the rear. Once I was happy with the shape I fiberglassed it with cloth and mat fiberglass. Once that was cured I filled and sanded it. It took around 20 hours for this small change. I only added 2" to it at the widest point but I feel it's made a huge difference.

I also had to fix my engine bay. I did some bad filling 5 years ago and the engine bay was chipping in a few areas. I ground it down, filled, and painted it.

My painter just came today and is really impressed with the body work. He told me I should seriously consider a job in it. I don't think it's for me. I little too itchy lol. I should have a quote today or tomorrow and hopefully I'll have the car in for paint soon.

I've saved the best for last. I picked up my new tires a few weeks ago! 275's for the front and 325's on the rear. Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's.

Looking very nice Cody. I mean absolutely no disrespect and you are doing excellent work. I am no expert at bodywork, but I have done a fair bit. I believe the largest cost at this point is many coats of high build primer and likely 50-100 hours of wet sanding. All of this added work is what makes an outstanding paint job stand out from a good or decent paint job. Blocking the body for hours and hours and several resprays of hi build will make it into to masterpiece you are building. $15-20k sounds about right for a perfect paint job. I'm sure you could do all of the primer and blocking if you got set up for it. I have all the faith in you, and this would likely save you of $10k. JMHO
Best of luck my friend.

 

[turbozig]

I should also mention, until the first coat of primer lays down, followed by a mist guide coat and then a block sand to show any high or low spots or missed imperfections, you won't really know how much extra labour is required. Once again, no disrespect meant, and your hard work is highly noted up to this point.

 

[Jr. Corvette]

I should also mention, until the first coat of primer lays down, followed by a mist guide coat and then a block sand to show any high or low spots or missed imperfections, you won't really know how much extra labour is required. Once again, no disrespect meant, and your hard work is highly noted up to this point.

Thanks Zig! No disrespect taken. My efforts of filling the whole car and blocking out was to get all the panels perfectly flat. Your absolutely right though, I don't really know how good I did till they lay the high build primer on. I believe I've got it very flat and there are just a couple of areas that seem very slightly low. I did scour the entire car too and filled all the little pin holes. I'm hoping to have it between $10-12.5k.

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Hey guys,

Well it's finally at the body shop!! Over 800 hours of work but it was well worth it. I love how it turned out. Looks really wide and aggressive.

I decided to add some grills to the NACA ducts before it went in. I made these grills out of the same aluminum mesh that I made the hood grill out of. I think I will cut some more material and make some grills for the front bumper just to keep it all consistent.

The body shop said it should be done in 2-3 weeks so I will keep you guys updated with some pictures.

 

[12cents]

After following this project for all this time, I am just as excited as yourself to see your car painted.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Hey guys,

Well it's finally at the body shop!! Over 800 hours of work but it was well worth it. I love how it turned out. Looks really wide and aggressive.

I decided to add some grills to the NACA ducts before it went in. I made these grills out of the same aluminum mesh that I made the hood grill out of. I think I will cut some more material and make some grills for the front bumper just to keep it all consistent.

The body shop said it should be done in 2-3 weeks so I will keep you guys updated with some pictures.

Can't wait to see it Cody. Along with the rest of us here that have been following your build. The only one who can't wait to see it more is you buddy. Good on ya. You deserve this.

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Hey guys,

Little update on the car. It's still at the body shop. So far they've sanded the car down removing most of my filler, which kind of annoyed me. I had filled the whole car and sanded it flat to avoid sanding down too much of the fiberglass which I thought might make it weak. They are the experts though so I trust what they do. Anyway, after they sanded it down they hit it with high build primer, and a guide coat, then sanded that down, then primer and sanded that down. They were planning on painting it last Friday however they found some flaws during the final inspection and are now planning to paint it on Monday.

Hopefully the car will be done this week and I can bring it to my friends garage to redo the exhaust. After that's done I can bring it home and reassemble it.

In the mean time I made a new speaker box for the car. It houses my 6x9 Polk audio speakers and I made a hidden compartment in behind to house the Kenwood Excelon 4 channel amp. I also drilled some holes and fitted some stainless steel grills to provide cooling for the amp. I have a really good Sony head unit that puts out 45 watts RMS per channel so I'm going to run the front 4x6 Polk speakers off the headunit and bridge the amp for 150watts RMS for the 6x9's.

 

[Morby]

Can't wait to see it!

 

[Jr. Corvette]

Hey guys,

Well the good news is the body is painted. Bad news is they painted it the wrong color.... I asked for Porsche Agate Grey which if you google that color, every picture is of a metallic silver. Turns out there are two colors, Agate Grey and Agate Grey Metallic and they painted it the non metallic version which looks like glossy primer. Fortunately they hadn't painted the doors, hood, or miscellaneous parts yet but now they have to sand and repaint the body and T-Tops. Unfortunately it's going to cost me $2800 to fix this and the shop is taking no responsibility even though they never clarified that there were two types of Agate Grey and they never did a test spray out to confirm the color. Like how heck am I to know that there are two types of Agate Grey. I guess I should have given them the paint code for the Agate Grey that I wanted to ensure they didn't paint it a different type.

The only bright side to this is the body will be even smoother than it already is and won't have any little pinholes which the shop had spent a lot of time trying to eliminating as many as they could. Not to mention that even with this extra cost the paint job is still over $5000 cheaper than the other shop because of the deal the owner is giving me.

As a side note the car looks amazing! I love the way it turned out and all the modifications I did. I can't wait to bring it home and put on the custom wheels on it and the custom tail lights I made.

While I'm waiting for the car I modified the original grills by adding mesh to them to match the hood grill. I used a soldering iron to melt it in and then used some panel adhesive to further secure it.

Here are some pictures as it sits now as well as a comparison photo to the actual color it should have been.

 

[12cents]

Shame about the paint mix-up. The car looks amazing in the pictures though.