The Body and Paint Work:
When we got our little Z-Car it was white with silver ground effects and blacked out grill,
window trim and a spoiler on the rear. The door handles and lock cylinders were also blacked
out. This is typical of GM and they did this with most all the Z-Cars and SS models. It was
advertised as the Camaro’s Little Brother. I have to admit I really did like the car and I was
also glad that GM only made a limited quantity of the Hatchback models; maybe later I’ll
regret that but for now there are almost none of these cars on the road any longer. Not that
there were ever very many of this type to begin with.
When we got the car back, it was in need of paint and some minor body work. There were hail dents on the
car and the grill was loosing its black paint, the door locks were broken at their openings, they will still take a
key with no problems, there was a pretty large area near the driver side door that the paint was coming off of
pretty badly. The paint was basic single stage white acrylic enamel. For the new finish of the car I’ll use the
single stage basic whit color. What I am going to use will be Emron Enamel and I’ll lay down two or three
coats of clear on top of that. This is the stuff that they used on Helicopters at the Bell Helicopter plant when I
was working there years ago. It is a really good finish and takes no special mixing or other stuff. The black
will also be a Black Emron called Ebony Emron, very dark and on top of that will be clear.
When we got our little Z-Car it was white with silver ground effects and blacked out grill,
window trim and a spoiler on the rear. The door handles and lock cylinders were also blacked
out. This is typical of GM and they did this with most all the Z-Cars and SS models. It was
advertised as the Camaro’s Little Brother. I have to admit I really did like the car and I was
also glad that GM only made a limited quantity of the Hatchback models; maybe later I’ll
regret that but for now there are almost none of these cars on the road any longer. Not that
there were ever very many of this type to begin with.
When we got the car back, it was in need of paint and some minor body work. There were hail dents on the
car and the grill was loosing its black paint, the door locks were broken at their openings, they will still take a
key with no problems, there was a pretty large area near the driver side door that the paint was coming off of
pretty badly. The paint was basic single stage white acrylic enamel. For the new finish of the car I’ll use the
single stage basic whit color. What I am going to use will be Emron Enamel and I’ll lay down two or three
coats of clear on top of that. This is the stuff that they used on Helicopters at the Bell Helicopter plant when I
was working there years ago. It is a really good finish and takes no special mixing or other stuff. The black
will also be a Black Emron called Ebony Emron, very dark and on top of that will be clear.
There are no major dents or any rust spots anywhere so like I said before the only real body work will be pulling out hail dents and
feathering places where the paint has holes or peeled. After each coat of clear I will smooth sand so that when the finish is
completed it will look like the paint has depth. Any place that needs to be touched up around the ground effects I’ll do and if they
need to be repainted I’ll use a base coat / clear coat type metallic paint to better match up with the original look.
Once I get the Power Plant out of the car I’ll spend a day cleaning and detailing the engine compartment and then I’ll decide if I
want to go ahead and shoot it also. If it has a lot of bad places then I’ll probably end up shooting it. If I have any paint left from the
body work then I will absolutely paint the engine compartment. I also want to put in some lighting around the power plant. This
will help when I need to work on the car. The totally white engine compartment is a lot easier to see things in than black or some
darker color. I also would like to paint the engine white. I think white or a Metallic Silver Gray would look really good, much better
than black. I could paint the Engine Metallic purple or Ultra Violet Pearl Metallic. Sounds sort of strange? Well, my two 383 Power
Plants are both Ultra Violet Pearl Metallic. Things that are chrome or polished aluminum stand out really well against that color and
look really hot. I believe that it could look really good under the hood of my Caviler also, for now, I'll concentrate on the outside
bodywork and the finish. .
feathering places where the paint has holes or peeled. After each coat of clear I will smooth sand so that when the finish is
completed it will look like the paint has depth. Any place that needs to be touched up around the ground effects I’ll do and if they
need to be repainted I’ll use a base coat / clear coat type metallic paint to better match up with the original look.
Once I get the Power Plant out of the car I’ll spend a day cleaning and detailing the engine compartment and then I’ll decide if I
want to go ahead and shoot it also. If it has a lot of bad places then I’ll probably end up shooting it. If I have any paint left from the
body work then I will absolutely paint the engine compartment. I also want to put in some lighting around the power plant. This
will help when I need to work on the car. The totally white engine compartment is a lot easier to see things in than black or some
darker color. I also would like to paint the engine white. I think white or a Metallic Silver Gray would look really good, much better
than black. I could paint the Engine Metallic purple or Ultra Violet Pearl Metallic. Sounds sort of strange? Well, my two 383 Power
Plants are both Ultra Violet Pearl Metallic. Things that are chrome or polished aluminum stand out really well against that color and
look really hot. I believe that it could look really good under the hood of my Caviler also, for now, I'll concentrate on the outside
bodywork and the finish. .
Getting Started:
This job will have three simultaneous operations going on, once it gets started. It starts wit me pulling the little power plant and
Transmission out. The Body, the power plant and the interior all have to done at one time and I can't leave anything out because my
experience says it will brake later and I'll have to re-do something. So, there will be a lot going an and it is best to stage the items that
you'll be using and replacing and what have you. Its absolutely necessary to have everything you anticipate needing for the project's
completion there when it starts. This way minimal time and effort is spent doing it and it doesn't end up in the way for weeks on
end! Do it and get it over with! For the body work I'll only use some ultra smooth filler where its needed some of the dents I can
work out with a hammer and dolly or something else. The dents I can't work out then I'll need a bit of filler. I am not a fan of filler
but I am also not a fan of drilling holes in a continuous metal surface that is a barrier to conditions. So, I don't use a dent puller I'd
rather just use a little filler. If the dent is deep or large I'll use a puller but for these tiny dents, filler is fine. Ultra Smooth is a red
colored filler that is very fine material and light. It sands really well and used for the finished surface. Bondo is a much coarser
material in comparison and is used for a base fill and shape on larger areas then Ultra smooth over that to get any bubbles filled and
leave a smooth fine grained surface.
This job will have three simultaneous operations going on, once it gets started. It starts wit me pulling the little power plant and
Transmission out. The Body, the power plant and the interior all have to done at one time and I can't leave anything out because my
experience says it will brake later and I'll have to re-do something. So, there will be a lot going an and it is best to stage the items that
you'll be using and replacing and what have you. Its absolutely necessary to have everything you anticipate needing for the project's
completion there when it starts. This way minimal time and effort is spent doing it and it doesn't end up in the way for weeks on
end! Do it and get it over with! For the body work I'll only use some ultra smooth filler where its needed some of the dents I can
work out with a hammer and dolly or something else. The dents I can't work out then I'll need a bit of filler. I am not a fan of filler
but I am also not a fan of drilling holes in a continuous metal surface that is a barrier to conditions. So, I don't use a dent puller I'd
rather just use a little filler. If the dent is deep or large I'll use a puller but for these tiny dents, filler is fine. Ultra Smooth is a red
colored filler that is very fine material and light. It sands really well and used for the finished surface. Bondo is a much coarser
material in comparison and is used for a base fill and shape on larger areas then Ultra smooth over that to get any bubbles filled and
leave a smooth fine grained surface.
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