NorCam (Graeme Browne's) Lemans Blue 1969 Z/28

[NorCam]

Made it into plus temps here today so I got the doors opened to air out the shop while cleaning the bottom. The floors have really cleaned up nicely on the back half of the car. I removed most of the black spray paint along the frame rails and under the rear valance which was heavily fogged in when they sprayed the fuel tank black. In some places, a simple spray and wipe down with the graffiti remover revealed the original gray primer that was under the spray paint. This was quite evident under the tank, around the rear valance and along the backs and fronts edges of the rear frame rails where they must not have gotten much paint from the factory. I can see drip marks in a lot of the original primer and some blue overspray in other places.

I'm not going to take the cleaning any further than this on the back and I am quite happy that it's eliminated most if not all of the spray paint they hit the floors with. I'm now suspecting that this car had a lot of exposed grey primer up around the rear inner frame rails and the previous owners hit most of it with black spray paint to cover any bare spots and eliminate the grey. I say this because the stuff literally wiped right off any spots that were tough to originally coat at the factory. I still have some work to do on the outer rails and in the wheelhouses to knock back the gloss on the rust proofing they sprayed into the wheel wells. Once that's done I can coat some bare parts with rust shield, get the fuel line back onto the car and get the diff back under it. From there I will work forward and detail everything under the rockers while working up to the front of the car.

Lots of work still ahead, but definitely like where this is going. It's revealed its character so it has!


Up in the air so I can clean the rear floors and frame rails.


Still has the part numbers visible where they are stamped into the lower drops.


Got most of the back spray paint off the rear rails. Lot's of grey primer exposed here.


Now showing the original black paint on the rear floors ahead of the tank. I took this shot before I cleaned the pass side frame rail.


How it's looking before the tank goes in. Straps are now soaking in stripper.


Nice and clean up in the rear tunnel area. Leaving it just like this.


Upside down to take this shot but you get the idea. Clean!


The bare spots tell me the exhaust hangers were in place before the factory sprayed the underside?


Thinking the inner rails were mostly grey when the fuel line went in since all of the straps are grey underneath?


Notice how this black spray paint wiped off to reveal all the grey? See those factory drip lines? It tells me these bodies were hung high on the front when they primed the body?

More when I get the diff back under the car later in the week. Then I'll double back towards the front of the car and detail anything missed on the first pass. Really having fun with this project, and love how things are revealing themselves. Big thanks to Mark Bulaw for the inspiration and tips on some of this.