Part XVIV

1989 RS Camaro

Project Camaro has been to the race track a few times since our last update, but on one of those occasions we found that our previous oil pan evacuation system was pulling a bit more oil from the engine than we expected it too. So, it was back to the drawing board. We installed a "normal" system that you can purchase from any number of retailers, but all it amounts to is a one-way valve from the mid-70's GM products and an oil breather from the same era Mopar vehicles hooked together with a length of hose. With that done, we no longer look like we have blown the engine on every pass.

So, what have we been doing all this time since the last update? Well, we mentioned before that until we had the car running decently, the paint job was on hold. We have put a lot of hours into prep work, sanding until we were blue in the face, fixing previous bodywork that still didn't look right and going in circles sometimes with our own painting abilities. My previous experience is limited to a couple of cars that I painted about 10+ years ago and a short amount of time working at a local bodyshop part-time as a helper.

Our choice for paint was lacquer and in my opinion it is the best option for the person who wants to paint their vehicle in their home garage. Now, mind you if you live in a very close community, you might want to check with your neighbors before attempting something like this, but overall with the new HVLP guns that are out now, the amount of overspray and floating mist is very minor. This also means that you can buy much less material to go on the car compared to the old style paint guns that seemed to put most of the paint into the air.

We have found two online resources for obtaining painting supplies if you have trouble locating anything locally and when it comes to lacquer topcoats, it's doubtful if you will find any commercial shop selling them today. Most still carry primers and thinners, and most lacquer paint can mixed with any high quality thinner with no problems. Search for Restoration Shop or Trinity Paints on the internet, both have a nice selection of products at reasonable prices.

Our first coat of paint was a thin layer just to get some color on the car, with the paint color chosen, it usually takes 2-3 coats to color the car, but the Trinity paint that we had for this project was providing quick coverage. On our second coat, we decreased the thinner ratio to about 50% of what we had used the first time and from my estimation it was the equivalent of apply two full coats of paint in one shot. We repeated this one more time and at this stage we had roughly 5-6 coats of paint on the car. At this point we let the paint dry out for a full week before proceeding; not that you have to do this but we were finished painting. It does put a physical strain on you when you are not used to it everyday.

The following weekend we wet-sanded the entire car with 400 grit paper, then re-taped and re-papered it. This time we mixed up our paint in a 1:1 ratio using a very slow thinner. We were looking for the best flow out that we could achieve and proceeded to put on a very heavy coat of paint. It turned out better than we expected and once again the amount of paint put on the car was somewhere around 2 coats.

As you can see from these shots, the car already has some shine and reflection, not bad for a paint that has yet to be rubbed out. Once we learned how to spray this paint, we were actually very impressed with it. The durability seems to be very good too, unlike the older style lacquers that would chip if you looked at them wrong!

More photos ->