1971 Firebird455 - Project

[Dons67]

Leigh - Car is coming along nicely - I'm a big fan of the 71 vents too - panel guys, what do they know

[LeighP]

Hood is now in the base coat.

There'll be a couple of solid days on prepping and painting the car next week.

[LeighP]

Car was out for it's final clean this afternoon, they cleaned out the interior, trunk etc and pressure washed the exterior (without flooding it, luckily, lol). They want to remove as much dust as possible before it goes in to the booth in the morning.




Bodyshop owner decided he wanted to use the best, hardest clear on the car.....seems its pretty expensive stuff, but its used for high end cars like Mercedes etc.
Ceramiclear - apparently, you only get 24-36 hours to remove any little imperfections and buff it up as it gets really hard and becomes tough to work.



Heres the trunk lid finished in colour and the ceramiclear.

[LeighP]

Turned up to the panel shop this afternoon...look what they were doing in the booth....



Heres some pics, this is straight off the gun, the clear hasn't even flowed out and settled yet....






Pretty straight, I'm happy....




This one shows how the colour changes with the angle of the lighting, at times the car looks almost black.

[SparkyRnD]

that's a great bold color!

[LeighP]

They were cutting and buffing today when I turned up, then the windscreen fitter arrived and fitted the front and rear glass. Looks sort of like a car, eh?





They pushed it out into the daylight to have a look at the buffing job....






It was late afternoon....so I still don't have a pic with the sun directly on the paint....still looks great, the pics just don't capture the metallic or the colour changes as well as I'd like.

[NOT A TA]

Looks great Leigh! You'll be on the road before long.

[CliffS]

looking good, beautifil color.

[LeighP]

Thanks guys.

More progress.....painting some of the other parts and starting on the exterior trim.

[cdoggy81]

is that chrome trim on the wheel wells???

[PonchoJohn]

is that chrome trim on the wheel wells???

It was optional on non-Trans Am Firebirds.

[LeighP]

Yeah, bright annodised alloy trim...and theres sill molds to go on too.

[kmdracer]

Jaybus! Awesome job here. I'll be down under in April sometime. Too bad I'll be in Southern Australia, would love to pop in and see this in person.

[LeighP]

Thanks, have fun in South Australia.

[WS6]

Great color choice Leigh!

[cdoggy81]

"It was optional on non-Trans Am Firebirds. "

Of all the years on the PY forum & owning 5 1970-1973 cars I never knew that... Learn something new every day
Keep up the good progress! She will be a blast when complete.

[LeighP]

So, it's still dragging on....I'm pushing to have the car completed so I can bring it home tomorrow afternoon...before everything stops for Easter. I do not want my car locked away for 5 more days out of my holiday.

Progress pics.

[ryeguy2006a]

Looking really good Leigh. I'll keep my fingers crossed you are able to get it back before the holiday.

[tazzz25906112]

Looking awesome buddy,,,, hope you have a great Easter and the car comes home in time.....

[rfalker1]

car looks great.. love the color