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Nice work!
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Love the Forest Green paint!
Buddy |
L78...
Great job...looks like a lot of hard work.
My first Nova was a 1970 Forest Green L78...bench seat/4spd. -wilma |
Nice work, and thank you for posting and documenting all this.
I hope you don't mind if I go back a few pages and capture some questions: Quote:
K |
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Do you all know if these little posts are available as a repair?
My Chevelle is missing a couple, apparently from the factory. K |
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What is this?
(lol) K |
Yes - had to replace a few on my Nova ... I'll have to look at my records and see where I got them from ... Craig
They are available from Classic Nova (pop rivet style) and SS396 (screw in style) |
They are available, you need a stud welder and the appropriate end to install them. They’re a couple YouTube videos out there.
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Gary |
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On the internet as 4492963K available from Summit, Speedway, Classic etc. |
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The spyder thingie is a raw base from a medical IV pole (our company quoted a job for those). |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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More base coat photos
(they used three booths, small stuff in booth 3) Attachment 226423 Attachment 226424 Attachment 226425 Attachment 226426 |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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Miscellaneous bits
Everything was sprayed in the same session using three booths. Two coats of clear, allowed to dry a couple days, sanded open, allowed to gas off for a couple more days, then resprayed with two more coats of clear. Attachment 226445 Attachment 226446 Attachment 226447 Attachment 226448 Attachment 226449 |
I wanted to used House of Colors clear for this job but was talked out of it by the shop owner.
He suggested their Sikkens production clear for reasons that they have everything available "IF" something were to go upside down. Plus painters are familiar with it and there would be no concerns with compatibility to the base. It turned out awesome and the Sikkens is a great product. The choice did however come back to bite me in the color sanding and polishing process. I'll get into that in the next chapter of the Green Bastard !! Gary |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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Doors and Trunk lid back on for the ride home.
Attachment 226455 Attachment 226456 Painter (Bill) and a Bodyman (Bryant) admiring the job. The car made a little stir in the shop that week, guys were impressed with the work. Truth is they were waiting on the trailer to get this thing out of their hair (well at least in Bryant's case anyway). Attachment 226457 Attachment 226458 |
Wow!!
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1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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One of my personal "measures" of a body and paint job... the part's nobody sees !! :beers:
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Looks Dyn-O-mite Sir. I love Forest green.
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Most body shop supply stores carry Au-Ve-Co Attachment 226461 |
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Did you think this day would ever get here? K |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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That said I just entered it for the local March 2023 car show so now it's hammer time !! (It is currently a roller again, will catch up on the posts). Then MCACN 2023 ?!? Gary |
Looks fantastic. Your dedication to this project is amazing!
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These are what I used. I didn't have NOS quarter panels installed so I could drill holes in them for screws. Some folks will use the screws and seal them with urethane. Didn't like the idea of possible water intrusion around the screws.
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G |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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Well once you've spent hundreds (cough cough 1000's ?) of hours getting the body as straight as you can and having it painted what any insane person would do is start sanding it for polishing :eek:
Most of us know of the typical flaws of dust, drips, runs, orange peel can be reduced or eliminated with polishing. This clear was applied in two fairly heavy coats, scuffed and allowed to "gas off" for several days then hit with another two heavy coats. With the specific purpose to have good thickness for sanding and polishing. The part I didn't know is, this particular production clear (with surface additive) is not very friendly to sand or polish. The sail panels had about the worst orange peel, the light reflection and angle here makes it appear exaggerated and very obvious. (I had already started sanding the side of the quarter) Attachment 228683 Similar surface finish on the trunk appears much better at this angle of view Attachment 228684 And the lower rocker area... the reflection in the red box area shows the surface imperfections which were pretty consistent on the whole rocker but show up more in the right reflection. Attachment 228685 I was STRONGLY advised by the paint shop to not go more aggressive than 1000 grit to start (we'll get back to that later). For most areas I use this aluminum block wrapped with wet/dry paper and use a spray bottle with a couple drops of dish detergent for lubrication and to clear the sanding residue. Attachment 228720 This is the same rocker area after a first pass with 1000. You have to make many rounds sanding, wiping and drying off to watch your progess. The high spots show up as dull (sanded) and the low spots remain shiny. You have to be VERY cautious around edges. You can see on the door... I have stayed away from the body line with the coarse paper. The paper will cut aggressively across corners and edges so it is easy to cut through the clear.. then it would require repainting. As soon as you cut through the clear the base color will also require repainting. Experience, experience, experience... I have watched many and learned (and burned though before). You have to be careful and patient with the sanding... it is easy to sand out a low spot if you cheat the paper and dig in an edge of the block. You need to be very consistent with holding the block flat against the surface and checking progress often. You can't see anything when it is all wet. And just like with bodywork the straighter and flatter you get it, the longer it takes to remove material. Attachment 228721 The top of the drivers door had a couple of heavy runs which I first scraped down with the flat (90 degrees to surface) edge of a razor blade. Attachment 228722 Then further sanded out. Attachment 228723 Picture of the quarter progress. Attachment 228724 |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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The desired result of the sanding is to achieve a perfectly flat surface in preparation for polishing.
Rocker Attachment 228840 Left Quarter Attachment 228841 Started into the sail panel Attachment 228842 Trunk Attachment 228843 Most of one half Attachment 228844 Here's where things get interesting... After sanding every square inch with 1000 grit, You have to follow up with ; 1200 1500 2000 2500 The first grit is the most time consuming because you have to remove the surface defects and the following grits only have to remove the previous grit scratch however.... You can understand where the hours start to pile up. After 2500 I also quickly orbital wet sand with 3000, 5000 and 8000 to cut down on polishing time (arguably ? as most polishing time is spent removing stray coarse scratches which the orbital grits would not cut out) |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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Being that the paint was fairly fresh (only three months since sprayed), I worked the sanding around the entire body for each grit allowing further time for the paint to gas off (evaporating out the solvents). As you get to the finer grits some shine begins to come back.
Attachment 228909 Attachment 228910 As I began to coarse polish, the Green Bastard reared it's ugly head again. For starters this paint was a Bear to bring up (get the shine back) and work out the stray scratches (I believe that was mostly resultant from the additive but this is a production type paint so not specifically formulated for polishing) I was working my way around the body and I noticed when I looked back at the first area completed it seemed to be not as nice as when first finished. Note the "bumpy" look of the light reflection. (the reflection doesn't lie!) Attachment 228911 So I went back and resanded an area that was first completed. :shocked: Back to the drawing board... The best we can figure (along with the paintshop guys) is the paint was not yet fully cured. Due to the heavy application we think the drying process (cross linking) was actually still moving the surface around. This panel had been fully sanded out flat and polished out about 3 weeks earlier. Attachment 228912 Attachment 228913 So... change in plan back to MY "normal" routine. Firstly start with 800 grit ! So I picked one area and re-worked it until I was satisfied. The reflection doesn't lie !! Attachment 228914 |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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Around this same time I was helping out a friend with his 70 SS 454 Chevelle.
The car had previous damage on one door that was poorly repaired.... and it bugged him bad. I stripped and bodyworked a (very solid) door for him which he sent out for paint and returned to me for polishing :smirk: Sanding and Polishing time start to finish for this door was about 8-10 hours. By comparison, a Green Bastard door probably took me 30+ hours !!Attachment 228915 Attachment 228916 Attachment 228917 Attachment 228918 Only mistake... Forgot to screw in a mirror base for final blocking... when we attached the mirror it made a slight wiggle in the area directly below the base :dunno: |
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I think you need to go for counseling Gary. No individual in his right mind would be so fussy. You won't want to drive it. Another trailer queen.
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But I probably do need counseling.:haha: |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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Miscellaneous parts cleanup and detail painting
Re-sprayed firewall (was not happy with the sheen) Attachment 228998 Attachment 228999 Dash Top Attachment 229000 Attachment 229001 Rear Parcel ledge Attachment 229002 Attachment 229003 Rear Parcel Corners Attachment 229004 Windshield pillars Attachment 229005 |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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Finished up polishing the body (fenders-hood-1/4 WNDO moldings-cowl; will be later)... clearly I need a break !
Attachment 229006 Attachment 229007 Attachment 229008 Attachment 229009 Attachment 229010 Attachment 229011 Attachment 229012 Attachment 229013 |
Outstanding work. Cars gonna be amazing
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Incredible !! :worship:
As for counseling, I think many of the people on this forum who strive for perfection and date coded/NOS parts need counseling..:grin: I know a guy who has driven around this country, chasing NOS body panels for a 1967 Camaro..:dunno: MCACN 2023...you definitely have my vote. |
1970 L-78 Nova Restoration; Saga of The Green Bastard
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Finding... Sorting... and Cleaning parts
Attachment 229016 Attachment 229017 Attachment 229018 Attachment 229019 Attachment 229020 Attachment 229021 Attachment 229022 |
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