Yeah, that much I do understand, but what is the purpose of the non-chromed, U shaped piece of rusted metal that fits over the studs and is sandwiched between the chrome piece and the body panel? I assume the GM engineers had a reason for it?
They hold the chrome part on, otherwise theyd fall off
Look under any car you want....you seldom will find anything the factory bothered to paint. The whole bottom of my Mercedes (a top line car) is undercoated with rust just like that part.
My paint guns rarely get taken apart unless they need rebuilt. I just run a 1/2 pint of thinner thru them after Im done using it. While Im spraying it, i just put my finger back and forth over the tip to force it to blow back. I even use my finish paint guns to spray contact glue and clean it out the same way.
[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 09-16-2012).]
And I think I have a clue on those metal plates that were so rusted. They're sandwiched between the heat protector and the plastic fascia to keep the plastic from tearing. The studs have a small raised area around them and they would punch right through the plastic and cause it to fail in short order. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
It keeps the exhaust and heat off of your paint Super....It fits just above the tips.
To add to this (and this is an important reason) the deflectors are there to keep the exhaust heat from melting/warp;ing the bumper. If it was not there I am sure you would eventually see waviness or droopiness in that area. Kit
Progress has ground to a halt as I can not seem to find any free time. At this point the bulk of the prep has been done. It's ready for fill primer but I'll need time to get it masked and I don't want to do that until I transport it to the shop.
I do have a very important question. When I removed all my side moldings it broke most of those clips. I'd like to replace all of them. I see some stuff at the Fiero Store. Does anyone make a complete kit for all the moldings for a 1988 GT? Or is it all there at the Fiero Store and I'm just not smart enough to see it?
[This message has been edited by Super Duty Critter (edited 09-26-2012).]
Its common for all those 30 year old plastic to get brittle and break. Thats one reason I dont remove them most of the time. Sometimes, even the moldings break. I think the FS has all the clips you need if they havent run out.
Some progress today. We had a day with low temps, low humidity and a pair of sawhorses.
Once I got the gun adjusted out by shooting on an old hood it went down pretty well. I'm still learning but pretty happy with this for fill primer. Since it gets sanded again I knew I could have a few flaws like this spot. I only spotted one or two of them. It should sand out easily.
I finally got the weather and time to mesh for another paint session. But I didn't realize I was low on primer so I only managed one coat before I was out of material. Back to the paint store! I did manage to block sand the other parts I primed over the weekend. I found a few boo-boos and fixed them as well.
1 - They say it's all in the prep. They're correct. I've been prepping for several weeks now and I'm still not ready for paint. I hate sanding.
2 - Working panels off the car is easier than on the car. I hate sanding.
3 - Using a quality body filler makes that part of the job much easier. I hate sanding.
4 - Shooting primer has shown me that putting down the product is the easy part. I've now fill primed all the parts that are off the car. I hate sanding.
And I have a bunch more sanding to do as I finish blocking out this car.
Just wondering, is the rear bumper 1 or 2 parts? Mine is red and silver, and I'm trying to decide if I'm going to paint the lower part silver again or go all red. I was under the impression that the silver part on my car were all separate parts.
All one part. I understand the early cars had a 2 tone paint. I guess that makes it look like 2 parts. I like the 2 tone and have considered going silver down on the lower panels with black up top. But I won't'. It will be all black to keep it simple.
Thanks! For simplicity I'll probably be going all red as the lower section has lost paint in a few places, and seeing as this will be my first try at painting a car, I'd rather keep it simple.
Your photoshop skills aren't too bad. But I am not a big fan of the gray bottom. I really like the black on black. but its your car do what makes you happy
It got 1 and 3/4 coats today. I was on the last quarter panel, second coat and ran out of primer. It's my fault. I was trying not to have to buy another quart of primer if I didn't need it. I'll have to finish it tomorrow night. Other than running out I only had one major and one minor issue. The major issue was when I managed to bump the air supply knob on the gun and it spit paint. Looks like bedliner in that one spot. It's a good thing this stuff gets sanded down anyway. The minor boo boo was me getting the hose into the fresh primer while trying to get under the arches of the rear sail window supports. It put a little ding in the deck lid. No biggie.
I can already see that I have more work to do on that roof. I've got several spots that are going to need more sanding and filling. I'll do detail pictures on those spots once i finish priming and get into sanding this out.
I finished block sanding the car today. Man, I am so tired of sanding this car but I know that's what it takes to make it good. Now I have to go back and fill the last few spots and SAND them. But I'm hopeful that after that the sanding will be finished and I'll be ready for the primer/sealer and the color coats. Here's a shot as it looks now that I've block sanded the entire car:
What I have to correct are some spots were I didn't get enough filler in the divots. If you'll remember at the beginning of this thread I posted photos of how the paint and SMC panel below had checked and broken out chips.
And I've been been remiss in talking about the products I'm using for this project. I threw some of it on the bench and took a photo. The Evercoat brand of fillers is top notch. Easy to use and very good quality. In the background there is some 3M foam tape for helping seal door jambs. Good stuff. It's supposed to give a nice soft edge in those gaps. I'll report on how it works out. The Nason cans are the primer filler and pre-clean products I've used. So far I have nothing but good to say about this brand as well. I'll be using it for the remainder of the sprayed products. That brownish looking thing right in the middle is a sanding pad by 3M. I found it at WalMart and it has been a lifesaver. Sanding the compound curves on this car would have been impossible without this pad. Up top is the Harbor Freight purple gun. Not a great paint gun but passable for doing primer. I'll probably toss it after this project. For $20 I probably got my moneys worth out of it.
The past 2 days have been exhausting. I moved the car to Blocker's, http://www.blockersperformance.com, and started trying to get color on it. Bryan immediately pointed out that my prep work was not up to black paint so we spent the last 2 days fixing prep issues on many of the parts. And this was only on the parts off the car. We've not even looked at the main body. He did have me seal and color coat the small parts. Not a stunning success but not a total failure either. I ran the crap out of the color on one mirror and had some severe orange peel after the first coat on one headlight bucket. I was able to smooth out the orange peel with two more heavy coats of color so it's nothing that sanding won't fix. Here are a few pics.
I'm sure you've realized by now not to use plastic around the edges for masking. The paint will turn loose & blow back onto the car. Use proper masking paper. Are we having fun yet? EDIT: Oh & 2k primer is not good for the flexible bumpers. Should have used PPG epoxy primer. The 2k will not flex & the paint will crack. A little late now... ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver"
The plastic was my poor guy way of masking for the build primer. It was fine for one application but you are right. After it dried it was flaking off primer. It's gone now. Paper goes on before sealer and color. Too late on the 2K primer. And yep, I'm having fun. It's always fun to learn new stuff.
For the record it is very difficult to get good paint coverage in the nose piece of an 88 Fiero. I got it by shooting from behind and Using a narrow fan pattern.
When last we spoke I was starting to get some paint on the car. After another marathon weekend I'm proud to report that the car is painted. I could not have done any of this without the expert guidance of Bryan Blocker and the use of his facilities http://www.blockersperformance.com . It's nice to have a brother in law in the business. I won't try to do a wrap up post on this project until I get the car home and re-assembled. Here are a few photos to show the progress.
First, getting help from my niece, Rachel, was a pleasant surprise. She and my sister, Laura, jumped in to help Bryan and I tape up the car and wipe it down with pre-clean. My little niece is becoming a beautiful young lady.
If you want to waste a couple of hours while trying to finish a major project, do this. I was concerned about catching all the angles with the primer sealer and I ran the crap out of it on the door. There's nothing you can do at this point except let it dry enough to block sand it flat, re-primer and then, if you don't run it again, you can start shooting color.
The intermediate photos are boring so here's the important one, the body in color. Or absence of color since it's black. A word to the wise, don't do a black car as your first paint job. And before you ask, you mask and tape it all the way to the floor to keep crap from the under carriage from blowing out while your painting and filling the fresh paint with dirt. I learned so much doing this job. But I'll save that for the wrap up post.
[This message has been edited by Super Duty Critter (edited 11-19-2012).]
If you are still looking for all the plastic fasteners for your car contact Fiero Jon Tuckerton NJ. When I paint a fiero I strip it down to just the roof panel and shoot it panel off. Fiero Jon has sold me all the fasteners to put back together all the parts. Contact him and tell him Robb sent you he will take care of you right.
------------------ 1984 Indy Pace Car\1988 Formula Custom President of Maryland Fiero Owners Club MFOC NYFOC Member
I purposely run primer a lot of times to fill in defects. Like you said, its not a big deal since you sand it anyway. On parts you have to shoot from various angles, like mirrors, its very easy to get runs. You can shoot base color a little drier because your going to cover it anyway with clear. If you get runs in clear, they can be block sanded out and buffed after its dry. I use plastic too, but like driver said, I cover all the edges with 18" paper. If your get the expensive plastic for auto paint, its not supposed to release paint...IF you put the right side up. But why take a chance.
Thanks for all the information, guys. I'm sure it will help all Fiero owners who search this thread in the future.
It finally warmed up enough around here to install the Fiero side windows. They recommend 80 degrees, F. but I fudged at 70 F.
You only get one chance to stick these babies down. The 3M tape used to hold them in at highway speeds tends to grip very well. I enlisted my wife's help and we pre-positioned the windows and made masking tape hinges to lift them up, remove the backing tape on the hold down tape and stick them into place. Since I elected to remove the drip rails from the car for a cleaner look we moved them up slightly from the stock location. Overall, I'm happy with the results.
Looks fantastic! Nice work and thanks for sharing your project and everyone's advice. I'm impressed even though you painted it black you STILL removed the molding. I cringe when I see re-paints and all the moldings are painted the same as the car. Never looks as good without the definition of the original black moldings imho. Marc
