[67BobcatGTO]

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for the response. We tried to restore this car as true to the original process as possible. Extensive documentation of this particular car was done prior to any paint removal.
There were different color primer-surfacers used by the different plants. I have seen grey, red oxide and black.

When investigating the underside of this car, we revealed from outside-in 1)Black (blackout lacquer), some traces of Tyrol blue overspray surrounding edges of body, red oxide primer-surfacer and finally bare metal.
The vehicle was re-finished in this same sequence, from bare metal it was sprayed inside and out with red-oxide primer-surfacer and after final bodywork, it was given another coat of the red oxide primer-surfacer and then color. I use PPG products exclusivly and opted for 3 full coats of basecoat and then a 4th dusting of base. We then applied 4 coats of clear coat.
I should note that it took a good deal of work to achieve a correct representation of the factory tyrol blue. There were several hidden areas of perfect original paint on this car. We used these samples to achieve a perfect color match. If you order PPG Tyrol blue by code, it is not correct. Using a spectrophotometer, we analyzed the original paint samples and came up with a formula. When sprayed out, the color wasn't right. After several experiments of spraying over differnt color primers, we found that the paint was a dead match when applied over the factory red oxide primer. What you see is a true representation of factory Tyrol Blue.
While I do like the factory orange peel paint jobs, I really wanted this cars paint to be like glass. We wet sanded the car starting with 800, 1000, 1200, 2000, 2500 final.

At the factory this body would have gone through multiple stages in the paint department. After the bare metal body goes through the phosphating and prepping process, it is sprayed inside and out with primer surfacer. On this car that color was red oxide. The last step is the firewall and undercarriage blackout which is a lacquer product. The black you see is not a primer-surfacer.
You can see the process I followed was primer-surfacer, color and final blackout.
Prior to color, the bottom was not masked. The blue overspray over the red oxide occured during final paint. (although, it was masked prior to clear coating so as not to react with the blackout product)
I did post a pic showing the blue oversray on the undercarriage prior to blackout, maybe you missed it.
This car originally had a blue w/ grey spatter painti in the trunk. They do not make such a product and so we created this effect ourselves. It was a 2 step process. The final outcome looked just like the original spatter paint we documented.
I paint the body with the doors installed. I do not jamb the car first. We just spray a little base coat behind the hinges and then paint the door and jambs during the paint process.
The rotisserie out of the box created virtually no room for between the tail panel. We made extensions to allow sufficient room for body work and paint.

Let me know if you have any questions, happy to help.

Mike Mancini