1968 Chevy Camaro Body & Paint Work - Country Honk Revival, Part 5

Jimmy and Zach used a "guide" coat to determine where the high and low spots were on the primed surface. This is where your hours and hours of metal prep pay off with a super-smooth primed surface.

Time for color! The DuPont Chroma Premier Basecoat/Clearcoat paints are top of the line. The quality of paint will determine the depth of color and shine on your vehicle, so choose the best. Hopefully, you will only have to do this once!

This is a critical part of the process. The edges and insides of all the outer panels should be coated with base and clear. This is just part of what will set your paint job apart from run-of-the-mill paint jobs. Zach is new to the application game, but under Jimmy's supervision, he laid down a great finish.

Meanwhile, back in the jungle! Jimmy is a slave driver: "Get it right, Terry!" So I wet-sanded until I had no finger pads--either that or my hands turned blue.

While Zach was wet-sanding parts, Jimmy started taping the finished edges to prevent the paint from overspraying to the finished surface. He then wet-sanded the clearcoat on the under-side of the Goodmark cowl hood before taping it and applying paint to the top surface. (You still want to paint your own ride?)

While I washed the body and blew it dry with compressed air, Zach continued laying down paint on myriad parts to complete the body.

This is the finished product after the DuPont Basecoat/Clearcoat is applied. These parts were then wet-sanded by hand with 2,000-grit wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around flexible sanding blocks.

Zach started the tedious process of wet-sanding the fenders. Notice the masking tape defining the edges, so care may be used not to sand through the thin clear-coat (edges get less paint than a flat surface and require an experienced hand to avoid sanding through to the colorcoat).

In the booth, Jimmy wiped and blew away any last vestiges of dust and dirt. Washing the floor of the booth and keeping it slightly damp at all times helps to minimize a painter's dreaded enemy: dust! The masking tape and paper is used to prevent overspray to the primed areas of the car, plus it prevents any dirt and dust mites trapped in body seams from impinging on the wet paint. Folks, the entire prep process takes an amazing amount of time before you even start to lay down paint.

Time for the pro! Jimmy lays down the color, three to four coats, followed by flash time between coats, followed by four to five coats of clear. With quality paint prices easily in the $600 to $1,500-per-quart range, and 3-4 quarts of color and 3-4 quarts of clear, we're talking big bucks just in supplies, not to mention the labor involved in the prep and spraying. Depending on the condition of your vehicle's body, you can easily spend anywhere in the neighborhood of $8,000 to $20,000 for a quality paint job. Show-quality paint jobs with added coats can easily double that number!

Here's the result of all that time we spent taping, masking, and preventing dust. Nice!

Once again, let the pros handle the sanding and buffing. Can you do this? Absolutely. Do you have the time and patience to make it right? Maybe. Is it smart to concentrate on other areas of the project where you have more knowledge and let the pros handle the body and paint work? Most definitely!

Ready to roll--sort of. At least from here it's back to the shop for the rest of the build. Jimmy, Zach, James, and I were able to complete this work in about four weeks. Don't forget that most shops have more than one project in progress, and it is also necessary to allow adequate drying time at any stage where filler, primer, and paint are involved to allow the VOCs (volatile organic compounds) to escape via the drying process.