Space City 1982 GP Build
- Thread starter Texas82GP
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Time for an update. I haven't been able to get to this all week. Last Saturday Sean and I planned to work towards getting the dash and its associated pieces painted black. The first thing we did was take his car over to my storage to put it in there with the GP for safe keeping. We took the GP off of the stands and put it back on the wheel dollies. We pushed it to the back and over to the passenger side. We then rolled the engine hoist over next to it. Sean's car fit in there with it, with ease. I'm really pleased to have this capability....
The pollen has been really bad here lately. A month or so back I bought a cover for my car. I don't like how dirty the car gets from just sitting there. I had it covered with plastic for years in the other storage but I didn't want to go back to that. You can see the cover on my car in the pictures above. It is barely long enough, but it fits. I didn't spend much on it, like $40 shipped. It was an open box but the vacuum sealed package had not been opened. I might replace it with something bigger later but its fine for now.
While Sean and I were at the storage we gathered up the parts to be painted and took them home for prep. We started by prepping the Camaro bay for the painting project by hanging plastic on all the walls, over the garage door and by putting it on the floor. By doing this, when the project is done, we can just pull the plastic down and roll everything up and virtually all of the mess is contained in the plastic and just goes in the trash. The plastic also helps to control the overspray mess because the static electricity from the plastic tends to attract a good deal of the overspray. After getting the bay set up, we started cleaning the parts. We took a little different approach with the dash than the other interior pieces we previously painted since we didn't want to get the dash soaking wet. We just carefully cleaned sections of the dash with SEM Soap using a grey Scotch Brite pad and then wiping off with a new, clean microfiber cloth. That was followed with a thorough cleaning with SEM Vinyl prep spray. Then Sean did an awesome job taping the dash off for paint. We don't call him Mr. Blue Tape for nothing...
He actually taped the dash to the plastic on the table. This limited the overspray on the wiring and components we left in the dash to none or virtually none. I haven't spotted any overspray. The other pieces (lower trim under the steering column, ash tray, ash tray carrier, upper center dash vent and glove box door were scrubbed more vigorously with SEM Soap and a grey scuff pad, followed by a thorough cleaning with SEM plastic prep spray. I think cleaning the previous batch of pieces first with Dawn soap, then TSP, then SEM Soap, then prep spray was overkill. Here are the other pieces hanging....
By the way, this video is very helpful for getting the glove box lock apart the right way (with key)...
I had some ambition of painting my floor shift steering column as well but I decided it needed refurbished and a simple re-spray wasn't going to be adequate. That was pretty much our day on Saturday. It was too humid to paint that day. We put R2, our portable air conditioner in the bay, trying to pull the humidity out of it but the temperature outside wasn't cool enough for the compressor to run enough so it didn't end up being effective. We painted a lot of parts for the Camaro like that but it was during the Summer, where R2 would have to run all night to get the temperature down enough to be suitable for our paint. There were lots of times we would run R2 all night, get up early the next morning and paint the parts before going to work. Well, we ran R2 all night last Saturday night and when I got up the bay was at 69 degrees with 70 percent humidity so I shut R2 down. The weather on Sunday was worse, threatening rain all day.
The weather was dramatically better on Monday. I ended up coming home early to spray the parts. I got home about 2:30 and got right to work. Everything got a final wipe down with the appropriate prep spray and new microfiber. Next, I got the gun setup and filled with SEM Landau Black. Next I went with two coats of Bulldog adhesion promoter out of a spray can, the same as my last batch of parts. Then I started with my three coats of Landau Black. I had a bad time. The gun started out spraying nicely but then got to where it didn't want to spray any material. After the first two coats (light coats) I didn't have much hiding and didn't like how it was going. I ended up dumping the paint back in the can, cleaning the gun and trying again. I had the same thing going on. I was pretty flustered at this point. I got out the detail gun and set it up. I ended up doing the last two coats of Landau Black and the two coats of Low Luster Clear with the detail gun. I had the detail gun set up good and was really happy with the pattern I was getting but I didn't like how the Low Luster Clear looked at the time. I had some bristled up looking paint and the parts looked pretty grey. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. At that point, it was what it was.
I thoroughly cleaned both guns. I totally disassembled both. Turns out, I had overlooked that the vent in the top of the cap on the big gun was clogged with dried paint. I've painted a lot of stuff with that gun and that's never happened. I guess you never stop learning. After cleaning everything up, I went back in the bay and didn't much like what I saw. After looking at it carefully, it looked like the parts had a pretty good layer of dried clear overspray on them. I had the human door from the Camaro bay to the big garage open and had a box fan in the doorway pulling some of the overspray out, the same as I had the previous two batches of parts. The difference this time was I was running a small space heater in the Camaro bay this time to keep the temp up close to 70. The high last Monday was only about 65. I guess that warm air caused that overspray to dry and deposit like that. In the end, I probably should have waited for Tuesday to spray the dash. The day was warmer and only a little less dry.
The good news is that somehow, I was inspired to start wiping/buffing the dash with a new, clean microfiber cloth and 98 percent of what was bothering me came off. It seems it was just dried overspray sitting on the surface. Here are some pictures from Monday night...
I know the passenger end of the dash looks really grey in that picture above. There is some grey to that Low Luster Clear but not that bad. The lighting makes a big difference and the camera is exaggerating the grey a little. Still, I don't know if I would do the Low Luster Clear again if I had it to do over again. I might try the Satin Gloss Clear instead but I had already painted the two previous batches of parts with the Low Luster Clear so that decision was made. Anyway, the parts match the previously painted parts and I'm thrilled to be rid of more of the burgundy. Tuesday night I came home and Sean and I un-taped everything...
That's 10 pics so I'm going to go ahead and post this. To be continued -->
The pollen has been really bad here lately. A month or so back I bought a cover for my car. I don't like how dirty the car gets from just sitting there. I had it covered with plastic for years in the other storage but I didn't want to go back to that. You can see the cover on my car in the pictures above. It is barely long enough, but it fits. I didn't spend much on it, like $40 shipped. It was an open box but the vacuum sealed package had not been opened. I might replace it with something bigger later but its fine for now.
While Sean and I were at the storage we gathered up the parts to be painted and took them home for prep. We started by prepping the Camaro bay for the painting project by hanging plastic on all the walls, over the garage door and by putting it on the floor. By doing this, when the project is done, we can just pull the plastic down and roll everything up and virtually all of the mess is contained in the plastic and just goes in the trash. The plastic also helps to control the overspray mess because the static electricity from the plastic tends to attract a good deal of the overspray. After getting the bay set up, we started cleaning the parts. We took a little different approach with the dash than the other interior pieces we previously painted since we didn't want to get the dash soaking wet. We just carefully cleaned sections of the dash with SEM Soap using a grey Scotch Brite pad and then wiping off with a new, clean microfiber cloth. That was followed with a thorough cleaning with SEM Vinyl prep spray. Then Sean did an awesome job taping the dash off for paint. We don't call him Mr. Blue Tape for nothing...
He actually taped the dash to the plastic on the table. This limited the overspray on the wiring and components we left in the dash to none or virtually none. I haven't spotted any overspray. The other pieces (lower trim under the steering column, ash tray, ash tray carrier, upper center dash vent and glove box door were scrubbed more vigorously with SEM Soap and a grey scuff pad, followed by a thorough cleaning with SEM plastic prep spray. I think cleaning the previous batch of pieces first with Dawn soap, then TSP, then SEM Soap, then prep spray was overkill. Here are the other pieces hanging....
By the way, this video is very helpful for getting the glove box lock apart the right way (with key)...
I had some ambition of painting my floor shift steering column as well but I decided it needed refurbished and a simple re-spray wasn't going to be adequate. That was pretty much our day on Saturday. It was too humid to paint that day. We put R2, our portable air conditioner in the bay, trying to pull the humidity out of it but the temperature outside wasn't cool enough for the compressor to run enough so it didn't end up being effective. We painted a lot of parts for the Camaro like that but it was during the Summer, where R2 would have to run all night to get the temperature down enough to be suitable for our paint. There were lots of times we would run R2 all night, get up early the next morning and paint the parts before going to work. Well, we ran R2 all night last Saturday night and when I got up the bay was at 69 degrees with 70 percent humidity so I shut R2 down. The weather on Sunday was worse, threatening rain all day.
The weather was dramatically better on Monday. I ended up coming home early to spray the parts. I got home about 2:30 and got right to work. Everything got a final wipe down with the appropriate prep spray and new microfiber. Next, I got the gun setup and filled with SEM Landau Black. Next I went with two coats of Bulldog adhesion promoter out of a spray can, the same as my last batch of parts. Then I started with my three coats of Landau Black. I had a bad time. The gun started out spraying nicely but then got to where it didn't want to spray any material. After the first two coats (light coats) I didn't have much hiding and didn't like how it was going. I ended up dumping the paint back in the can, cleaning the gun and trying again. I had the same thing going on. I was pretty flustered at this point. I got out the detail gun and set it up. I ended up doing the last two coats of Landau Black and the two coats of Low Luster Clear with the detail gun. I had the detail gun set up good and was really happy with the pattern I was getting but I didn't like how the Low Luster Clear looked at the time. I had some bristled up looking paint and the parts looked pretty grey. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. At that point, it was what it was.
I thoroughly cleaned both guns. I totally disassembled both. Turns out, I had overlooked that the vent in the top of the cap on the big gun was clogged with dried paint. I've painted a lot of stuff with that gun and that's never happened. I guess you never stop learning. After cleaning everything up, I went back in the bay and didn't much like what I saw. After looking at it carefully, it looked like the parts had a pretty good layer of dried clear overspray on them. I had the human door from the Camaro bay to the big garage open and had a box fan in the doorway pulling some of the overspray out, the same as I had the previous two batches of parts. The difference this time was I was running a small space heater in the Camaro bay this time to keep the temp up close to 70. The high last Monday was only about 65. I guess that warm air caused that overspray to dry and deposit like that. In the end, I probably should have waited for Tuesday to spray the dash. The day was warmer and only a little less dry.
The good news is that somehow, I was inspired to start wiping/buffing the dash with a new, clean microfiber cloth and 98 percent of what was bothering me came off. It seems it was just dried overspray sitting on the surface. Here are some pictures from Monday night...
I know the passenger end of the dash looks really grey in that picture above. There is some grey to that Low Luster Clear but not that bad. The lighting makes a big difference and the camera is exaggerating the grey a little. Still, I don't know if I would do the Low Luster Clear again if I had it to do over again. I might try the Satin Gloss Clear instead but I had already painted the two previous batches of parts with the Low Luster Clear so that decision was made. Anyway, the parts match the previously painted parts and I'm thrilled to be rid of more of the burgundy. Tuesday night I came home and Sean and I un-taped everything...
That's 10 pics so I'm going to go ahead and post this. To be continued -->
Here are a few more pics of the painted parts...
Next, Sean and I got all the plastic pulled down, took all of the parts over to the storage and brought the Camaro home. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the black parts in the car. I have some work to do under the dash in the car before the dash goes back in. At this point the floor shift steering column is sitting on the bench at the house and the new parts for it are showing up. So far I have a new turn signal switch, wiper switch, ignition switch, hazard button, turn signal canceling cam and ignition tumbler for it (all Delco parts except the cancelling cam, which is Dorman). I also have a new foam seal that goes on the base of the column to seal it to the firewall. I also have a bearing to replace the lower bushing and a new turn signal/wiper/cruise stalk. I think the plan for this weekend is to get the column torn down and get the two upper collar pieces prepped for paint. The weather doesn't look good for this weekend but looks promising for next week. I think we might go see if that Cabellero is still at the pick-n-pull. If so I may pick the glove box liner from it (mine is missing one of the hooks on the side) and the engine harness from it if it is in good shape. That's it for now gents. Thanks for following along. I'll update as progress warrants. Until then....
Best,
Jared
Next, Sean and I got all the plastic pulled down, took all of the parts over to the storage and brought the Camaro home. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the black parts in the car. I have some work to do under the dash in the car before the dash goes back in. At this point the floor shift steering column is sitting on the bench at the house and the new parts for it are showing up. So far I have a new turn signal switch, wiper switch, ignition switch, hazard button, turn signal canceling cam and ignition tumbler for it (all Delco parts except the cancelling cam, which is Dorman). I also have a new foam seal that goes on the base of the column to seal it to the firewall. I also have a bearing to replace the lower bushing and a new turn signal/wiper/cruise stalk. I think the plan for this weekend is to get the column torn down and get the two upper collar pieces prepped for paint. The weather doesn't look good for this weekend but looks promising for next week. I think we might go see if that Cabellero is still at the pick-n-pull. If so I may pick the glove box liner from it (mine is missing one of the hooks on the side) and the engine harness from it if it is in good shape. That's it for now gents. Thanks for following along. I'll update as progress warrants. Until then....
Best,
Jared
Looks great Jared! That's a huge portion of work done....I have to admit that the burgundy interior is not one of my personal favorites. The black is going to look killer!
Oh and just a quick note...that Caballero will have a cable as a glove box stop...Chevy was "cheap" I guess and used the cable for alot of years. You'll probably have to find a glove box liner from an Olds or Pontiac for the stops on the sides.
Keep up the great work!
Oh and just a quick note...that Caballero will have a cable as a glove box stop...Chevy was "cheap" I guess and used the cable for alot of years. You'll probably have to find a glove box liner from an Olds or Pontiac for the stops on the sides.
Keep up the great work!
The parts look great, Jared.
The color does look more like a charcoal grey rather than black.
Believe it or not, my interior is burgundy and my dash and trim have been re-painted burgundy. The original color was red. Now red is a pukey color and it looks terrible when it starts to fade.
In my case, the burgundy looks richer than red...just my opinion, and goes well with the vanilla color that I chose.
The black will look really nice in your car...especially with the red exterior.
Looks like you have plenty of space in your storage locker. Just what you needed to make life easier working on your car. Nice to see you making positive progress. Keep up the good work.
The color does look more like a charcoal grey rather than black.
Believe it or not, my interior is burgundy and my dash and trim have been re-painted burgundy. The original color was red. Now red is a pukey color and it looks terrible when it starts to fade.
In my case, the burgundy looks richer than red...just my opinion, and goes well with the vanilla color that I chose.
The black will look really nice in your car...especially with the red exterior.
Looks like you have plenty of space in your storage locker. Just what you needed to make life easier working on your car. Nice to see you making positive progress. Keep up the good work.
Looks great! And I would have given my left nut for just a dye job on my dash. You got off easy. 😉
Things look good to me Jared. I think that both you and Sean are doing a great job. Once you did your work after the dye job, I think the dash looks great. As Jack has said, I think the black interior will look great with the red exterior of your car. Keep up the great work!
Jared,
Great work and huge progress! Thumbs-up! 👍 BTW -- You have humidity problems in Texas and we have snow up the ying-yang up here! Just can't win... I can't wait for late April to get the car out of storage!
If you need any glove box parts from a GP (no charge) -- I have all that stuff left over since I don't have a glove box anymore -- it's been converted to a fuse panel bay. Let me know.
What were you planning to do with the dash insert (i.e., the long rectangular acrylic insert with the scripted "Grand Prix" text)? Is yours in good condition? When I was trying to restore mine, I nicely polished it but noticed it had a bit of a curve. Wanting to straighten it, a bright idea popped into my head -- why not put it in the oven on very low heat and then place some books over it! Well... what a fiasco!! I guess the "low heat" was not low enough and the whole thing just warped.😡 As a result, I had to get a local CNC shop to make me an insert out of aluminum (black anodized). I found a pretty good match for the GM script that they used and had them engrave it (see below). I thought I'd share that with you in case you're looking to "re-vitalize" your own dash insert.
Keep at it and have fun -- you're doing a great job!
Great work and huge progress! Thumbs-up! 👍 BTW -- You have humidity problems in Texas and we have snow up the ying-yang up here! Just can't win... I can't wait for late April to get the car out of storage!
If you need any glove box parts from a GP (no charge) -- I have all that stuff left over since I don't have a glove box anymore -- it's been converted to a fuse panel bay. Let me know.
What were you planning to do with the dash insert (i.e., the long rectangular acrylic insert with the scripted "Grand Prix" text)? Is yours in good condition? When I was trying to restore mine, I nicely polished it but noticed it had a bit of a curve. Wanting to straighten it, a bright idea popped into my head -- why not put it in the oven on very low heat and then place some books over it! Well... what a fiasco!! I guess the "low heat" was not low enough and the whole thing just warped.😡 As a result, I had to get a local CNC shop to make me an insert out of aluminum (black anodized). I found a pretty good match for the GM script that they used and had them engrave it (see below). I thought I'd share that with you in case you're looking to "re-vitalize" your own dash insert.
Keep at it and have fun -- you're doing a great job!
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