The 73 Project - part VI

In the spray booth (snapped through my noo Nokia E65) :

4 coats of color and 4 coats of clear went on.










Orange peel effects and cracked paint no more!










Decided to run metallic grey highlights on the insides of the exterior's rear roof and about 3 inches along the outside of the rear window over the rear deck vent grilles.








Concept metallic grey stripes running along each side of the hood mounds and tapering off towards the nose. Front deck vent grilles getting the same treatment.




In livin color! The body's condition and finish never looked better than it does now.






To be continued...

The 73 Reborn - part V

At one point in his life, Henri Matisse - pscyhedelic lawyer immortalized through his million dollar works of art - quipped that impressions are made by the strongest choice of color effects, and the content from which they are surfaced over is really irrelevant. But with the Corvette (the C3s anyway), content seems stronger than color. The bold and flaring wheel arches provides fluidity over dimension, while the low central posture accentuates muscle toward the nose and tail. Bearing in mind that the original design evolved from a concept born from Zora Arkus Duntov's C2 mako shark to Larry Shinoda's manta ray, the C3's shape is iconically one of a kind. No other muscle car - the Mustang, Challenger, Camaro, Barracuda - comes close (though some may find cause to object :)). Not even the earlier or later versions of the Corvette.

With this challenge, the decision on color was of course not easy. The 73 came originally in yellow, and I had earlier wanted to maintain consistency with its factory code. I toyed with the idea of slapping on mustard yellow (ala Lamborghini), then metallic black (ala Knight Rider (but note - just need to highlight that I'm NO Hasslehoff fan), then Ferrari red to embellish the traditional sports car spirit that Prince echoed through his hit, Little Red Corvette. The experience of choosing your car's color is akin to choosing the right name for your first born. Excitement, anxiety, and anticipation. I consider myself decisive and sometimes impulsive but having changed my mind so many times at one point or another on this matter, I now sometimes question my understanding of who I really am. But then again, I suppose that's excusable. It is after all, my first real muscle car!

Poring over pictures of other C3s on the net and getting opinions from family and friends helped steer my choice. Dropped black as much as I loved it, as form would have been enveloped by color, and lines would have been lost. Dropped yellow, as its too much of an acquired taste. And dropped red, as its just too bloody cliched. So decided on something that would accentuate the lines, make it stand out from other cars on the everyday roads, yet maintain some form of subtelty.

Photoshopped images (from a Vette forummer) that helped with the elimination process:

Blue - represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness. Nice but..



Pink - represents romance and nostalgia. Naaah...

Green - emotional healing and protection? Pttthh..

Yellow - intellect, freshness, and joy. Only 1 out of 3 - I'm weathered and angry.

Red - represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love. Sure it also yells 'mid life crisis'!

Orange - represents desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action. Hmmm... perhaps just a tad bit darker, and a slight shade of red in it...

BINGO!!

So ORANGE it was.

At the body shop, I got samples of different orange shades and settled for 2:- (1) Saturn Metallic Orange, and (2) GM Sunset Orange.

Flipped through hundreds of different color shades.

$100 if you can tell the difference. Left is GM Sunset, somewhat of a browner shade, right is Saturn Metallic, slightly redder hues.

OK - so I suck at taking pictures..

Saturn Metallic Orange under the sun.

Off to the paint booth..

The 73 Reborn - part IV

Thirty four years is a long time. A damn long time. Such a long time that the effects of time had found itself showing on the 73's exterior. On some parts, the paint was so thin that you could see the underskin, on some other, there were signs of overspray, probably at least 4-5 haphazard coats of yellow to cover up dents and nicks. The body surface needless to say, was equally in need of rescue as orange peel and warp effects manifested from nose to tail. Doors were misaligned, due to the age-induced hinge shifting (quite a common problem with the older Corvettes), and and the bonnet dropped lower than it should have due to heat warpage and the missing bonnet stops.

I had a few folk view the 73 prior to starting off the bodywork. Everyone seemed to have a different view on how to handle the process (some even suggested refabricating the entire body!) - but all had one thing in common - they seemed intimidated and perceived a shitloadda work having to be invested into the process, and of course equated it with fairly high quotes. There was just too much uncertainty and doubt which didn't help to inspire any of my confidence. But then, through a friend's recommendation (who's into classic rebuilds himself) I decided to take a gamble with this one particular bloke in Subang, who seemed really comfortable handling the job, and seemed to instinctively know what he needed to do to get the job done. Mind you, the restoration of the 73 isn't just about metal work - its decades old American fibreglass!

Mr Body Man wasn't cheap, but looking back, he sure was worth every single penny. Here's a brief pictorial log of what was done:

The original paint stripped via the traditional makeshift blade method, and indentations and scratches smoothed out with filler. Together with the rest of the body, steel brackets were also subsequently sanded down with grit paper, and wet sanded.

Entire engine and steering column was of course masked. Interior - dash, seats, gear and brake consoles, door frames, windows, t-tops, carpets - all removed. Side rocker mouldings removed and sent for polish. Door locks were also filled and shaven off, and chrome door handles taken out.

Weather stripping, rubbers. clips, chrome inserts, and the front and rear glass panels were all stripped.

Vacuum headlight assemblies carefully dismantled and tops sanded down separately.

Bumpers, badges, rear lights & covers all carefully removed and stowed away. The entire fuel tank was dropped and the filler cap unscrewed and inventorized.

Rear aerial removed and assembly hole filled and shaved.

The bonnet was re-adjusted at the hinges with washers and thankfully sat quite evenly. Stops would need to be in place after paint to prop it up by approximately 1 cm.

Doors were also carefully adjusted and aligned by adjusting the hinges.

After about 20 man days of body prepping, the 73 was ready to take on some color!

To be continued...