69 camaro college build

[69camarokid]

Man - You really did a great job on the paint...

can you go through the steps that you took to get it all done?

Filler, Primer, etc. that you used and that steps that you took. Your paint really turned out great!

Ummm, well lets see...

The first thing i did was take the car down to bare metal using a daul action sander and about 8 trillion sheets of 80 grit sand paper.
On everything i diod though i tried to fix on panel at a time. Let me tell you it makes things much much better if u completly finish one panel at a time.

Then i pulled out any dents and then used bondo to take car of any small dents or inconsistencies in the bare metal.




I welde up my marker lights, antenna hole, and the door handles to get a sleeker, more custom look.



After the panel was smooth i covered it in primer( 4 to 5 coats). I used PPG NCP 280, it more expensive than your average primer but totally worth it. I ended up using about a gallon on the entire car.
From there i block sanded the entire body with 150 then again with 220 and then 320.




No matter how much time u spend on body work in the begining you will find problems while block sanding, you can fix smaller ones with a few extra lairs of paint. Bigger ones with bondo.

once the body was ready i took off the doors to paint the door jams, i would not recommend this unless you have really bad door jams as the doors are a bitch to realine. When urr eady to paint u coat it in a sealer and then away you go with the paint.



I would reccomend getting at least a goallon and a half of paint, i had only one gallon and almost ruined my paint job by running out of paint. I did three coats of paint and 3 coats of clear. From there wet sand and buff with 1000, then 1500, then 2000.








if you have any questions, or need some more details on any part just feel free to ask and ill do my bst to let u know...

[Young Gun]

youve got one hell of a budget for a college kid! looks awsome!

[69camarokid]

youve got one hell of a budget for a college kid! looks awsome!

well ive been pretty lucky and because of that ive been able to save alot of money and get discounted parts. Also ive done all my own work on the car, so thats saved thousands of dollars. That and i have good freinds to help me.

The only way ive had money is by sacraficing all my summers to work 60+ hour weeks to make cash for the car, thats where the suspension, wheels, brakes and new engine came from. It sucks, but i think the car will be worth it.

[Motown 454]

Nice job car looks awsome, and I love the color.

[Young Gun]

well ive been pretty lucky and because of that ive been able to save alot of money and get discounted parts. Also ive done all my own work on the car, so thats saved thousands of dollars. That and i have good freinds to help me.

The only way ive had money is by sacraficing all my summers to work 60+ hour weeks to make cash for the car, thats where the suspension, wheels, brakes and new engine came from. It sucks, but i think the car will be worth it.

no doubt you deserve it!...i have no doubt having all of those tools available to you helps as well!!! you have definately helped to get my butt into gear and get to work on the body of my car!! she looks great...awsome color blue btw!

[Young Gun]

by the way....have you got any pictures of her before the body work???

[CLK1st]

Damn that's nice! Keep up the good work

[Mr Nick]

Looks great, don't forget to change your insurance policy when it's done!

[69camarokid]

no doubt you deserve it!...i have no doubt having all of those tools available to you helps as well!!! you have definately helped to get my butt into gear and get to work on the body of my car!! she looks great...awsome color blue btw!

Oh god yes. this project would not even be halfway to where it is if it wernt for the great instructors i had or my local community colleges great auto shop program. The teachers took alot of time and pity on me haha but having all those resouces of the auto shop was a huge help.

heres a few pics of the car near the start. It began life with a vinyl top ( gag ) and had been hit in both the front and the drivers side quarter. The paint was soo bad that the first time i took a blow gun to it paint started flying off. It was sad but kind of funny to watch.





heres the car the day we bought it sitting next to my dads nova.

[69camarokid]

Looks great, don't forget to change your insurance policy when it's done!

first thing on my agenda once the new engines in. cus right now its only covered for 10,000. and thats less than half of what i have into it

hmmm... im sick of being poor.... damn muscle car fever

[Young Gun]

your dads got an awsome car and your project is looking awsome!

[Smock67]

thats sweet bro i wish mine was painted. but i ran out of funds and just had to get a job to help get the rest of it done. You give me mad motivation to go earn more money so i can drop it into my bird. College kids unite.

[newbaa]

You're lucky your instructors let you bring that in and work on it! My auto body program was oriented more towards new cars - because they figure you're going to go work in a shop that does insurance stuff/new cars... You could only bring your own car in by special arrangement.
Unfortunately i got stuck on a huge project my last year, so i never had time to bring in my car and paint it. so although i know how to paint it, i'm gonna have to find a booth i can do it in.

I really like the color though! What color is it?

[69camarokid]

You're lucky your instructors let you bring that in and work on it! My auto body program was oriented more towards new cars - because they figure you're going to go work in a shop that does insurance stuff/new cars... You could only bring your own car in by special arrangement.
Unfortunately i got stuck on a huge project my last year, so i never had time to bring in my car and paint it. so although i know how to paint it, i'm gonna have to find a booth i can do it in.

I really like the color though! What color is it?

thats the exact opposite of my course. ITs called Customization and restoration and its a requirement to bring in a car to work on. IF you dont have a car to bring then you cant take the class.

Its really awesome cus over half the cars in the class are muscle cars. this helps a huge amount in motivation because every time you walk around the shop you see all these other muscle cars being work on by their owners. you see there progression and it makes you want to work harder, its an amazing class. Plus your grade is dependent upon how much you do to your car.. haha

the paint is actually a stock Nissan color. Its comes special order on the 350Z model. Its called daytona blue metallic clear coat.

[Steve N 69 69 69]

Looks great! Nothing feels better than doing it yourself, and getting complements from others who know what a PITA it can be to build a car up.
That sounds like an awsome class, is it at OCC?
Your gonna love the LT1/T56. I've had mine running for about a year, and still get a thrill out of it firing up and running so tight.
I like it so much, I just got another LT1/4l60e for my '71 K5 yesterday. Have fun, let me know if you have any LT1 ???
later,

[newbaa]

thats the exact opposite of my course. ITs called Customization and restoration and its a requirement to bring in a car to work on. IF you dont have a car to bring then you cant take the class.

Its really awesome cus over half the cars in the class are muscle cars. this helps a huge amount in motivation because every time you walk around the shop you see all these other muscle cars being work on by their owners. you see there progression and it makes you want to work harder, its an amazing class. Plus your grade is dependent upon how much you do to your car.. haha

the paint is actually a stock Nissan color. Its comes special order on the 350Z model. Its called daytona blue metallic clear coat.

Now THAT is awesome! I would love to take a course like that. i hated working on all those dang ford explorers and dodge neons... i was dying to work on some REAL cars.
Thats so cool. Good luck with the stripes, and of course, post up some more pics when you are done with them!

[DJW32]

Car looks great. Is that OCC or FJC? I think both of those schools have outstanding auto body courses.

[69camarokid]

Car looks great. Is that OCC or FJC? I think both of those schools have outstanding auto body courses.

the course is at goldenwest community college. ITs an awesome program ran by a guy named bud yeargain. HEs old as dirt but is the most amazing car builder ive ever seen. hes been buiding cutom cars since the 40s. its insane.

Id recommend checking it out to anyone whos local enough to come take it. youll learn an insane amount and get all the tools u need to work on your car. plus 3 paint booths.

ummm and mybe your thinking of santa ana college becasue OCC doesnt have automotive program of any type, thats why i take my auto classes at GWC.

[69camarokid]

Looks great! Nothing feels better than doing it yourself, and getting complements from others who know what a PITA it can be to build a car up.
That sounds like an awsome class, is it at OCC?
Your gonna love the LT1/T56. I've had mine running for about a year, and still get a thrill out of it firing up and running so tight.
I like it so much, I just got another LT1/4l60e for my '71 K5 yesterday. Have fun, let me know if you have any LT1 ???
later,

all i can say is wow... i just checked out your build up and damn... that is a nice ass car... wish i had your budget haha
but thanks for the offer to help, im pretty sure im gonna need all the help i can get as this is my first engine swap and im doing it myself. So expect a good amount of questions in the near future haha

i was curious as to how you did the wiring harness, did you just buy a plug and play version or customize yours urself to make it work> ive found sites that go over the wiring harness so you can customize it yourself, but all those were for LT1/4l60e combos not LT1/T56. so if you know anything about that it would be a great help. thanks!

[69camarokid]

this last winter i finally got tired of the old back seat, although it was in great condition. I just didnt see the point; i never had a third passenger, but more importantly it was too small for any after hours fun and games... sad.

so i decided to remove the rear seat and build a little homemade new rear are. It includes a 12" sub, a nice kicker amp and wiring and a couple of nice 6x9 speakers. the really cool part was that by selling the original seat i made enough money fund this little project and still have soe left over.



i also sold the original buckets and got these seats... couldnt afford sparco or recaro unfortunatly and picked a carbon fiber dash and auto meter gauges. the rest of the interior is stock although i do plan to paint the paint the glove box area and install an 8 point roll cage...





so, what do you think?