Camaro SS Bandit Conversion

[hesster]

Drivers Side Fender and Hood Outer Painted.

The Hood was a tight fit in the Spray Booth, and took alot of paint. Like 6 heavy coats in total, and a ton of clear. A nice friendly relatively flat surface to work with. I taped up the Inner side to avoid overspray.

I could hardly see in the booth with all the overspray in the air, and it really put my resperator to task. I have replaced the cartriges 3 times already, as they load up and when you can strongly smell paint fumes, it needs to be changed. I also wear a eye mask as the overspray stings like crazy, and is just as bad as breathing it. Problem is that it loads up and get's etched, and hard to see through, so I will buy a new one.

Only some minor parts left to paint like the Shaker which had a run and sand through to the BC in a attempt to save it. Won't settle for "good enough". And a few emblems, like the arrow on the Front Fascia's nose.

Now it is endless cut and buff, which takes time and must be done carefully so as not to sand or burn through the CC. I will leave the spray booth up for a while in case there needs any paint corrections.

[hesster]

Spent a whole day at Belle Tire in Port Huron, after the Lapeer BT said they would not mount them w/o risk. OK - easy decision to go to a place that had a high end tire mounting equipment (5K vs 15k machine).

They fit, thankfully, w/o any interference anywhere. A great relief, as I was concerned at getting the offset right, and not needing spacers as a fix.

Will get to mounting the Fronts at somepoint, they are not at the max stock allowable fitting like the rears.

For Reference, the Rears are a 11" wide wheel with a +42 mm positive O/S, and 315/35/20 Conti Extreme Tires. This max tire/wheel on a stock suspension is inboard .88" closer, and .72 " outboard. The diameter is the same as stock, and they do not stick outboard of the Fender Well. Zero clearance issues, but tight inboard with still ~+3/4" clearance. My planning paid off to get this right.

Still have the stupid GM tire to Fender clearance (ride height), but one bite at a time. Lowering Springs, C/O's , who knows?

Had to wipe drool off them from the mounting guy at BT

[hesster]

Initial Cut and Buff on the Spoiler and Winglets. Ordered a mini buffer as the larger one is difficult to manage one handed. Already like liquid Glass.

[SSE 4 2SS]

OK, that's amazing work.... I still rekunize em, but wow.... Good Job Sir....

[hesster]

Finally got paint on the Shaker. 4th or 5th time? This GD part surprisengly was the most difficult, given the deep and sharp contours. Runs and sags come easy in the depressions, so dust the paint on in these areas..

But looks great, and it is the last thing to paint for now.

Also painted the Front Fasia Emblem and Camera Fascia Caps. More work to come on the FFEmblem, starting with Black.

[hesster]

Rockers before and after. Prob the nicest OEM Rockers on the Planet. For now until I drive it.

[SlowLS1]

You rate of progress and quality of work is amazing sir! Thanks for all the updates.

[NoDakZ/28]

Originally Posted by hesster

Rockers before and after. Prob the nicest OEM Rockers on the Planet. For now until I drive it.

Get some PPF on those asap! You'll thank yourself later, once again sir the progress on this project is amazing.

[Ashen 6.2]

incredible work! looks amazing!

[The_bald_eagle_machine]

Originally Posted by hesster

Spent a whole day at Belle Tire in Port Huron, after the Lapeer BT said they would not mount them w/o risk. OK - easy decision to go to a place that had a high end tire mounting equipment (5K vs 15k machine).

They fit, thankfully, w/o any interference anywhere. A great relief, as I was concerned at getting the offset right, and not needing spacers as a fix.

Will get to mounting the Fronts at somepoint, they are not at the max stock allowable fitting like the rears.

For Reference, the Rears are a 11" wide wheel with a +42 mm positive O/S, and 315/35/20 Conti Extreme Tires. This max tire/wheel on a stock suspension is inboard .88" closer, and .72 " outboard. The diameter is the same as stock, and they do not stick outboard of the Fender Well. Zero clearance issues, but tight inboard with still ~+3/4" clearance. My planning paid off to get this right.

Still have the stupid GM tire to Fender clearance (ride height), but one bite at a time. Lowering Springs, C/O's , who knows?

Had to wipe drool off them from the mounting guy at BT

Holy cow those wheels look good...

[hesster]

Appreciate all of the great comments folks.

Slogging away on the Painted Panels, and will pick away at the painstaking Cut and Buff process on them - one at a time.

Decided to pause on cutting the Front Fascia, that is a large difficult part to sand and ensure I don't cut through to the Basecoat. Got tired of it and itching to see more results on lesser parts.

I am really glad to take a pause from painting, and at this point I don't want to repaint panels. As I said, I will not take down the Paint booth until everything is at least sanded and ready for buffing. It served me very well, only after some painful learnings to put the contemination issue in check. Here it is, waiting for more action. It can wait, but the Wife wants to be able to get back to parking in the House Garage again (the Trans Am and Whipple Blown Camaro are in there). She knows some things, like the cars, are a "no voter"

Also want to finally uncover the Camaro after months of Painting to keep the overspray off of it. I found the battery was nearly dead from sitting there and not being started - our Camaro's do that due to the parasitic draw form things like the FPCM. So got a trickle charger on it.

THE CUT AND BUFF PROCESS:
Here is a Fender Pic almost ready to get buffed (still neds a sanding with 5000 grit). Note the tape on the sharp corners to prevent sand through. So you sand it (for me by hand) with 1000, 1500, 2000, then 3000, remove the tape, and finger sand the OP on the corners with 3000. Put it under the fluorescent lights and all the areas show up that need more sanding - you will NOT see that in sunlight! Finesse all of that until it is dead flat, and zero OP, cause it will read right through when buffed out. Then finally hit it with 5000 grit.

Then buff. And Buff some more. I get covered with flying compound spinning off the Buff Pads. I have Course Cutting Pads, and Medium Cut Pads, and Polish Pads, used on a 6" orbital Polisher. Also just got a mini polisher for difficult areas. No 10" high speed polisher with Wool Pads for me - too risky IMO.

Then look at it under the lights, as any remaining OP and sand scratchs show right up with Black Paint. So maybe sand some more, or more Heavy Cut Meguiars compound until it is glossy and all of the imperfections are gone. Only then finish it with Meg Fine Cut, and then Meg Swirl Remover. Then stand back, admire it, and chug a Beer. Or 6.

Yep - it takes time if you want it right.

[SSE 4 2SS]

Man, those wheels are Hawt.... I really like em....

Are you done yet, I want to see the final reveal...

[hesster]

Paint on the large parts has major issues, and I am not a happy camper.

They looked great until the cut and buff process, which uncovered micro solvent pop, which is not evident until the part is polished. Essentially, it is miniscule "craters" caused by the solvent not evaporating properly and getting trapped. I mean really small imperfections, not noticeable on a painted then sanded part, only after buffing and under bright light. You can not see it in normal light until you get really close to the part, and the part still buffs out like glass and looks great, but not under close inspection, esp since it is unforgiving BLACK paint. Not acceptable.

So spent a few days with the paint supplier assessing root cause. At first they thought it was contamination. I argued that since the booth was built to stop "floaters", and I have a new 3 stage industrial filter with dessicant that will filter down to less than1 micron. And the Rockers, Spoiler and Winglets, and other small parts came out great, so what changed? And why did the Deck Lid come out OK? It was not painted in the Booth and was able to outgass better.

After sending pics and more analysis they agreed it is solvent pop. This was caused by TOO LITTLE air movement in the booth, and the solvent not escaping (drying) within in the BC and CC flash times which I followed exactly per the TDS instructions, and have a ledger where I record all the time intervals.

So - you can't buff this shit out, only sand it back and recoat. I tried on the Fender and burned right down to the BC before it was gone. Unfortunately, all the large parts were already painted, as I had no idea there was a issue and they all looked great and ready for cut and buff. So I have to sand the CC off and respray BC/CC. Never had this issue before, and have painted many a car, so it was def a WTF moment.

So I added a fan to pull air out of the spray booth, and will make adjustments to the flash times (longer) and adjust the IWATA gun to spray "wetter". I was using the Purple Cap, which atomizes better but causes more overspray, and is really more for difficult metallics. Going back to my Orange cap. And respray one part at a time, starting with a Fender, let it dry, cut and buff it, and assess results.

I have attached pics again of the Fender and Hood, they look great painted, sanded and buffed, but when you look at the hood closely it is not going on the car like that.

So I don't give up, and since I have had excellent results on other parts, I am determined to get back on track. We car enthusiasts and DIY's all know car work can be really frustrating, and throw many a wrench at you. Sometimes we just give up and many a project car comes to a halt, and get's sold. Not me, you just gotta suck it the F up and move on.

Hell, just look at that Spoiler and table full of shiny parts.

[hesster]

Right idea, but not safe, even with filter media over the intake. That is coming out and I bought a Explosion Proof fan and ducting made for paint booths.
On hold for a week until that shows up.
Plenty of wet sanding to do in the meantime.