Huge makeover on my car, with pics part 1

[Spikito]

Ok, Im gonna start by saying that this is going to be a rather long thread, since I have before during and after photos of several things I did to the car. And since I'm limited to 15 pictures, there are two parts

Part 2: http://www.ls1.com/forums/showthread...27#post1378127

So heres a quick rundown of what I did.

Painted insides of headlights
Removed bumper
Fixed holes in bumper
Painted grill
Replaced blinkers
Replaced fog lights
Painted brake calipers
Fixed hood louvers
Installed STB
Removed Hood Insulation
Painted door handles and key holes
Installed trunk inserts
Painted door steps
Replaced tail lights
Relocated trunk release button

Ok, that should be it, now for photos

First of all I repainted the insides of my headlights a few weeks ago, but it was part of one big project, so I'm including them here, basically just sanded it down, masked it off, and used Dupli-color spray paint, flat black SUV paint, "ideal for trim". On all my painting we did about 7 coats, very light, 5-10 minutes between coats, when you let the individual droplets almost dry, then add another coat, it gives a very nice texture.

Heres a before shot, its not good, but when I initially started, I wasn't planning on doing a big write-up on it. As you can see its faded and I spilled some some touch up paint and tried to buff it.


Heres what my car looked like once it was taped off, we opened the hood all the way and did some more taping before we painted.


And heres the final product.


For the second part we decided to remove my bumper, since were painting the grill, and the fog lights and blinkers are hard to get too, we thought it would be easier to just take it off, its really not that bad, buncha push pins on the top, a few underneath and some screws, there were 4 really hard ones to get too, they were under the headlights. To do this we had to remove my fender wells, easy, and my front wheels, also easy.

Heres the best shot I have of my front end before., as you can see, fog lights are busted, paints bad, and i have some holes from my license plate holder.


In case you were wondering, heres a 93-97 camaro with most of its front end removed.


Once it was off, we pulled off the bowtie, I dunno if I'm gonna replace it or not, it was barely on anyway. Heres a nice little shot of me hard at work.


I filled in those holes with superglue gel, a little trick I read somewhere online, and sanded, the powder mixes with glue and works really well to fill them in, its kind of tedious, because the glue sticks to the sandpaper, and if you get too much powder, it breaks off and you get a hole. It took about 20 minutes to sand, and after masking and painting, heres what we got. As im sure you noticed, theres white shit all over the bumper, I don't know what it is, it appears to be under the clear, buffing and waxing do nothing. Its smooth if you run your hand over it.


Now for the blinkers, they were easy to replace. Heres a shot comparing my old ones to my new ones. they look big, thats because only the bottom half actually shows, weird right.


Heres a before and after shot of my drivers side.




Heres what it looked like once it was all back together.


It was a 3 day project, and on the first night it rained a little, so my brakes rusted, but you know how it is, the first time you use them, it rubs off. We went to the auto store to pick some stuff up, and saw a caliper painting kit and thought why the hell not.




My hood louvers are in pretty bad shape, chipping paint, which got wax in it, and the black piece is faded. I don't have an after shot, so just imagine the first, but clean.

[JoshieDoom]

Im going to be helping a bud soon do all of the same thing to his six gun..

[Spikito]

Im going to be helping a bud soon do all of the same thing to his six gun..

come on guys, i need more feedback than this

[JoshieDoom]

What kind of paint did you use on the headlight area?

[PureSShp00]

nice work man...

[Spikito]

What kind of paint did you use on the headlight area?

Same as i did everywhere else, got it at O'reillys for about $5 a can, its Dupli-Color SUV paint, flat black. it said "ideal for trim" on the can, worked great.

[JoshieDoom]

I might be doing this tommorow with a friends maro or I might go race.. lol

[hoss 2000 z-28]

Looking good, little stuff like that adds up. Keep it going and you'll have one of the best looking early 4th gens out there.

[kev70ss]

I also have a 96 and i just painted the inside of my headlights last week, but it didnt turn out so well

[Spikito]

I also have a 96 and i just painted the inside of my headlights last week, but it didnt turn out so well

How did you do it?

We used 400 grit sand paper, i think the paint said to use 350, but we had 400 layin around, we sanded it down a little, just to give the paint something to grip too. Then we washed it down, let it dry, taped it off. Used a whole can of paint, that Dupli-Color flat black SUV trim paint, thats a mouthful. I held the can about a foot away and did long sweeps back and forth, getting very little coverage. did probably 10 coats, 10 minutes apart. When you make each coat really then, the individual droplets dry, keeping that rough texture, which looks good, and hides imperfections. if you want i can email you some more pictures of the headlight process

[98CamaroSS]

Looks great man. And the best part is you saved a ton of money not going to a bodyshop.

[FuhBreezeE]

Huge improvement.

['00_Cucui_SS]

Looks good! Makes a big difference!

[kev70ss]

How did you do it?

We used 400 grit sand paper, i think the paint said to use 350, but we had 400 layin around, we sanded it down a little, just to give the paint something to grip too. Then we washed it down, let it dry, taped it off. Used a whole can of paint, that Dupli-Color flat black SUV trim paint, thats a mouthful. I held the can about a foot away and did long sweeps back and forth, getting very little coverage. did probably 10 coats, 10 minutes apart. When you make each coat really then, the individual droplets dry, keeping that rough texture, which looks good, and hides imperfections. if you want i can email you some more pictures of the headlight process

I sanded first, not sure of the grit. Then i primered and then i used some gloss black paint I got from wal-mart. Mine came out all bumpy, maybe because the primer can was sputtering.

[Spikito]

Yeah, being plastic we decided not to use primer, ive had bad luck with primer on plastic, not so sure about the gloss either. but i think the most important thing was very thin coats, i think we were at about 6 before we had full coverage, then kept layering it up from there.