Update Feb 23, 2012

It's been awhile, and I'd love to tell you that it's all done... but that is not the case.  The ol girl has sat in the garage since I moved up from GA.  It's just so hard to get motivated to go out to a cold garage and play with my car, I hate the winter, and this has been a mild winter for us.  It still sucks.  Oh well, no use bitching about it now.  Now I'm just waiting for the weather to break.  I do have a couple extra projects added to the list as well... 

Rear wheel bearings and possibly the U-joints on the drive axles, but that remains to be seen.  The bearings are bad, I noticed a whine before I trailered her up, so that'll have to get done, and while i'm there, I'll check out the u-joints. 

Then there is the steering rack, it's got a leak and the parts are so readily available it'll be an easy swap...  oh yeah... thats right, nobody stocks replacements anymore, but there is a place in Saginaw that rebuilds them.  Now would be a great time to remove the old unit and ship it off for repairs...  but did I mention that its crappy cold right now?  Oh well, its on the list right now, but may get put on the back burner as it still works fine, just leaks, and honestly, it wouldnt be the first car to mark its territory anyplace its left sitting longer than five minutes. 

I broke down and ordered new door lock actuators as well, the old ones worked, but the passenger side was intermittant.  No sense in putting the doors back together if they're just going to have to come apart again to replace the actuators when they fail.  So now everything in the doors will be new, new window lift motors were completed, now just waiting to install the door locks. 

Other than those new items, the interior is still all tore apart, that'll be the last thing I do, and a few of the plastic trim panels are in different states of repair, so once those are all wrapped up, I'll be able to reinstall them. 

So there you have it, status update for now.

Post Paint Photos

It's been awhile, but here are the latest post paint pictures.  I'll give a full update in the next couple days.

Painting in progress

I finally got the "paint booth" set up, i definitely got some strange looks from the neighbors.  Kinda looks like an impromptu meth lab, but who would be that brazen to install a meth lab in a front facing garage for all to see...  not me, of course, but I'm sure there is some Rhodes Scholar wannabe out there drawing up their plans as we speak.  When it was all completed, it looked like a murder scene right out of Dexter.  The best part was when I cranked on the fans, the top actually bowed in under the negative air pressure, so at least the fumes would go out via the filtered fans.  I'm sure the neighbors will appreciate that.

The booth did turn out pretty good, its a snug fit with the car in there, but it does the trick, at least so far.  I've sprayed a gallon of base coat over the car in the past three days.  3 light coats on Sunday, let it cure, then color sanded on Monday night and let it sit overnight, and finally sprayed a light base coat in preparation for clear coat.  I was all set to spray clear last night after work, but the more I read up on metallic coatings, the more it became evident that I needed to give it a light coat prior to clear.  Oh well, I burned through my very last drop of base color last night.  I was hoping to have enough left over to complete the top trim piece on the back glass and have a small amount left over for touch ups, but no dice.  I'll have to purchase a little bit more to complete that small panel.  But that's a job for Tomorrowman...    

Today it is all about making the ol girl nice and shiny again.  I'm getting excited just thinking about it.  It's been a long time coming, and so far the paint is turning out good, not perfect, but I didn't expect perfection.  I had a few runs and one instance of a piece of debris fell in the wet paint, but I was able to repair the areas, but until I'm able to get it out in the daylight and really take a look, its hard to tell if there are any other imperfections.  But so far, I'm happy with the result.  I'll know better tomorrow.

Till next time...

ready for paint... almost

Today I was able to wrap up the sanding portion of the prep work to get the vette ready for paint.  I got the headlights blown apart and all the body pieces I've removed over the past few months sanded down and ready to receive paint.  I even added in the drain holes for the rear hatch.  I figured I'd better get them in now so I don't have to drill holes in fresh paint.  Definitely need those in there, otherwise the water just ponds at the back edge of the halo.  No good at all. 

I'm hoping to assemble the paint booth tomorrow and start masking off the car.  We shall see.  I find my motivation comes in spurts at this point in the project.  The prep work seemed like it would never end, sanding, sanding, filler primer, sanding, sand...  well you get the picture.  I'm hoping that getting the new paint layed down will help to motivate me again.  I'll be able to put the car back together and it wont be the same repetitive task over and over.  I'm getting a bit excited now.  I really want to get it back on the road...  I wonder what a corvette would be like with snow tires in MI.  I can't think it would be any worse than the caddy, but that is for another time.  Just thought I'd post a quick update.  I'll get some more pics up once the booth is set up.

Back to work

Well, the past few weeks have been slow as far as progress goes with the vette.  The Nowacki family suffered a great loss of a good Man, we will all miss Dzia Dzia.  He led a full life with a healthy balance of family, friends, and career that is nearly impossible to duplicate.  It was amazing to see the outpouring of love shown by family, friends, and coworkers in our time of loss.  We can all only hope to leave such an impact when we pass from this world.  Dzia has run his race, I don't shed any tears for Him, for He is without the worries of this world in a better place.  The tears shed are for the void He left behind in this world.  He was an example to us all, and He will be missed.

Now we must move on as best we know how, and try to deal with our loss in our own ways.  We all love you Big Guy.  

Its funny how a death of a loved one puts things in perspective.  Things that once seemed important become insignificant, and things we take for granted suddenly become very valued.  We have an amazing family, we have our quirks, but when it comes down to the important stuff, we all come together to take care of one another.  We are all truly blessed.  

...Oh yeah, that corvette thing.  I know its the name of the blog and all, but its my blog and I'll write what I want to, car related or not...  I'm still prepping for paint.  I've got the booth all ready to go, got the supplies in hand, and tonight I finally got the bulk of the body scuffed up for painting.  All the stone chips are filled in on the hood, and the peeling paint by the mirrors has been addressed.  Its down to a final wash and sand for the main body, and a scuff and sand for the bits removed from the car in preparation for paint.  My goal is to shoot the color this coming weekend.  Then I can finally get to putting everything back together. 

Till tomorrow...

Days 24 and 25, Paint prep part one of.....

The past two weeks have been very unproductive, for the car anyway.  I had a weekend trip home and some late nights at work.  I was finally able to put in some time this past Friday and Saturday.  The vette is stripped down to the bare minimum as you can see from the new pics.  I’ve been devoting my time to getting the “paint booth” built.  Thirty 10’ sticks of 1” PVC and a shload of tees and elbows have netted a framework for my paint booth.  I’ll save the final assembly for right before I have the car all sanded and prepped.  It will take up most of the garage, so no need to cut down my workspace sooner than necessary.  I was really hoping to be able to spray some color this weekend, but that is not going to happen, still a lot of prep to do.  No need to skimp now, prep is the most important part, and the most time consuming.  Oh well. 

Till tomorrow….

Parts replaced this week:

None

Parts cost so far: $1425

Day 22 and 23

So my Sunday and Labor day were spent carefully removing trim and cleaning the car for paint prep.  On Sunday night I was able to get the two doors stripped down including the trim strips and mirrors.  What a treat that was, but had to be done.  I also tackled the rear trim which meant removing the taillights again.  It all went well, minus my arms looking like I got in a fight with an alley cat.  It is amazing the amount of effort required to remove what is such a small piece on the car, well pieces.  The biggest, riskiest task that I tackled was to remove the hatch glass.  I looked at every conceivable way to make the paintjob work without removing it, but there is no way around it.  It has to come off.  So I loosened the hinges and stuffed some towels under the glass to release the hinges from the halo of the car.  Once it was sitting released from the car, I carefully picked it up and moved into the house.  After the glass was out of the way, I was able to take a closer look at the weather stripping, it is in good shape, but it has to come off too.  It actually came off in one single piece without any damage.  Since its already fitted correctly, I’ll set it aside for reuse.  Sums up Sunday night. 

Monday was all about getting the front bumper and headlights off.  I’ll need to respray the headlights and the only way to get them apart is to remove them too.  Actually pretty simple task, it took longer to get the electrical connectors unhooked than it did to pull the housings.  But they are off now…  time for the bumper.  Lots of bolts and nuts, what a pain, but I took my time, bagged and labeled the bolts and nuts, and with the exception of 2 stubborn bolts that had corroded to the speed nuts, it went well.  With all the fasteners removed, I was able to peel the bumper off and work on removing the trim strips.  Those came off without too much of a fight.  I had to slot two of the bolts to give me a way to keep the bolts from spinning while I broke the nuts loose.  After the trim was removed, I gave the car a dish soap bath.  That’s all for today… it is a holiday after all.

Parts replaced this week:

None

Parts cost so far: $1425