Since my very first paint job, I have repainted the car again. I was extremely unhappy with the paint job, I got screwed out of $2,800 bucks from the shop and I wasn't very happy about it. It took a year of constant phone calls and complaining before the owner got on the horn with me finally and cut a deal. For the cost of materials he'd paint the car himself.
$1,100 dollars later and the end result was this:
They did a superior paint job and color change! Everything was painted. Even the engine bay was done! This time, rust didn't come through after 6 months, there was no paint drips, no thin spots, no bubbles, no dust in the paint...nothing. They also replaced my front GFX because it was split, and it only cost $75 brand new. The story behind the paint color...well I was undecided between Sunset Orange Metallic and Hugger Orange. When it was time for the car to go into the body shop, I asked for a paint book, but they couldn't readily find their GM color book so they handed me a paper sheet of colors and I just randomly picked Black Cherry GM.
I was totally blind to what the color was, I just picked it. Doesn't look all that bad now does it?
Before the new paint job I had done a home-job tinting project. I took my time and followed an online tutorial rather than the instructions that came with the tint. Came out really good, no bubbles at all.
Couple days after the car was painted I had a brand new Convertible top, paid & installed for $800. The shop did an incredible job and he offered a 1 year wrinkle/sag free warranty.
2 weeks after the Convertible top install...I took her to the track with the 305 TPI Automatic w/3.23's and ran an extremely dissapointing 16.1. Right then I knew something was wrong. About a week later I started to hear a loud tapping above 4,000 rpms. The motor was about to blow...and blow she did. I lost 3 cylinders on the way home one night. Man..that was ugly!! Here's a picture of the new motor, and this - like everything else with my car has quite the history behind it.
The new motor is another 305. But it's not your regular 190HP run of the mill 305 TPI. Originally, it was rebuilt totally with a Crane Cam & some head work and installed into an former 1987 highway patrol police car that my friend owned. The motor was ran for 6,000 miles before the dumbass smashed his car racing someone. So I bought the ENTIRE car & motor from him for $1,000. I stripped the entire car for parts and had a local engine builder swap the motor. Man was I suprised when I got my car back, this 305 is a real throw you back in your seat displacement challenged motor.
Here's a clip of my car running through 1st & 2nd gear Here's a clip of the motor running with open headers Here is my car at idle...nice lopey idleHere is some polishing I've done to the plenum time permitting:
