Starting Point 69 GTO JUDGE

[Roger Poirier]

Originally Posted by Kendall Burleson

Good luck are you going to lower the car or you sticking with the factory stance? I love those cars I hated the stance from the GM. they look to high in the front.

I lowered the car 3" inchs all the way around. I put 18"s on the front and 20"s on the rear. It now sits 1" lower in the front from the rear.

P.S. I spent a lot of time to get the stance and wheels to look just right. Got that info from Steve at PHR. They drill that into your head when you read the mag.

R.P.

[Roger Poirier]

Originally Posted by XcYZ

Wow, 9 weeks. Good luck!

Nothing like skipping a few heart beats. Paint is all it needs. Throw in the interior and away we go.

R.P.

[Datsbad]

Looking good Roger ! I am sure it will be ready . good luck . I cant wait to see it finished. I am claiming "shotgun"

[GvEman]

Good luck with the project!

[Roger Poirier]

Boy, do I have a new appreciation for body guys. This is hard ass work. Plain and simple. A labor of love. The guys at the shop tell me it has had is first coat of primer and they have completed their first blocking. The picture of the hood shows the primer being applied a 2nd time. I guess they then sand most if not all that off. A third time is also required, but to what extent I don't know.

This bad boy should be one glossy machine when finished. Show and go.

R.P.

[Roger Poirier]

Update:

This part of the process is amazing. Three guys have been blocking going on week two. The labor to get a top end paint job just blows me away.

I won't question the cost of a paint job anymore! The time and energy is overwhelming. The funny thing to me is each blocking stage pretty much looks the same. Just different grits of sand paper.

The top body and paint guy tells me you'll see the difference once in paint.
Remember the body color is black with some silver and red highlights. Complete paint pics to come late next week.

34 days to Detroit Autorama.

R.P.

[Roger Poirier]

The painters decided to work 7 days this week. The painting has started.

Here is my understanding of the process. After body work, the car is sprayed in primer. Then the entire car is sanded with 100 grit, then 220, then 320 and wet sanded with 400 grit paper.

After that the paint process begins. What you are looking at is various painted parts of the car with one coat of clear. They tell me more sanding and more clear to come. Then polish.

The entire car is being painted piece by piece then assembled on the car for the last time.

R.P.

[Roger Poirier]

The actual colors to match the drawing look terrible. Plain ugly! Too many colors. I need to get rid of the yellow and orange on the scoops. Silver and red look good on the hood. The trunk and spoiler follow the theme with the silver stripe on the back. The rest of the colors can go out the window.

Problem is when I add the judge stripes on the side it is just too busy. We even tried just a red stripe. No good. Conflicts with the silver stripe in the middle

I'm thinking of just doing the judge emblems in silver, red and black. Then maybe have a thin red or silver pin stripe done along the side of the car like a judge stripe, however, very small width so it shows off the body lines.

Help! Your ideas and thoughts are welcome.

R.P.

[Kendall Burleson]

who fab those header pipe I'll need some for my grand prix?the car is going to be killer

[Roger Poirier]

A local guy from Metro Detroit. He did the work right out of his garage. He is heavy into drag racing. He had to work around the starter, clutch assembly, and oil filter unit.

Make sure when you are having this done that the car and its misc parts are with the project. On my set of headers we got everything right the first time.

I just need to get the paint scheme correct and I will be all set.

R.P.