Paint It Black, But Hold The Dust
I had a guy paint my '75 Grand Prix black, but the paint job has what looks like dust and pits in it. Can I sand this out and compound it, or does the whole car have to be painted again?
Nate Washington
Ansonia, CT
Melvin Benzaquen responds:I see this a lot. Many people do not realize that most of the work required to obtain a beautiful paint job is in the prep. The foundation has to be glossy smooth and free of defects in order to have the paint look great. A paint job's quality is only a reflection of everything that was done up to the point of actually spraying it. You can apply the best paint in the world and have it look terrible if the foundation or prep is not done right.
Assuming the prep is done correctly, there is still the possibility of airborne problems while spraying the body. Dust, dirt or contaminants that cannot be seen in the air can land on and be seen in the paint. These contaminants will look like pits, and the dirt or dust will look like bumps.
You did not mention what type of paint you used (enamel or urethane) or if it was a single stage (just color, no clear) or a base coat, clear coat (color with clear sprayed over the color). The most common is base coat, clear coat, so I will work off of that.
This problem is worse if the dust and pits are in the base color and clear coat was sprayed over it. If that is the case, then the car will need to be completely sanded back down to the primer and resprayed. If the bumps occurred just in the clear, I would recommend wet-sanding, starting with an 800-grit, quality paper such as Norton or 3M. Follow that with successive grits of 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000. It is a lot of sanding, but the results will amaze you.
After all that sanding, follow with power polishing, utilizing a clearcoat compound with a 3M "waffle pad." You are still not done, though. Another power polishing with another 3M product called Finesse and a final polishing with 3M Hand Glaze is suggested.
If you still have issues with the paint after all that, then it will be necessary to sand it all back to primer and start the process over. If the paint has a lot of "fisheyes" (divots or recesses in the surface), then the paint will need to be sanded back down to the primer.
Commenting On A Combo And Gearing A Hot Bird
I recently pulled a 400 out of a '76 Catalina for my '68 Firebird and had the crank polished and the motor bored 0.030 over. I installed a Lunati solid cam with 276/276-deg duration and 0.518/0.530-inch lift and the recommended valvetrain kit. Port-matched stock No. 6X heads and an Edelbrock Performer intake are used as are SS 1.5-ratio roller rockers and a 750 cfm Mighty Demon carb. The pistons are Sealed Power and the stock connecting rods are retained.
I picked up a set of headers at Pontiacs in the Park this spring and they have three tubes instead of four. I rebuilt and put a B&M shift kit in the Turbo 400 and the car is running a TCI 3,500-rpm stall converter.
Since I am more than likely a few years from completing the car (which was a basket case), my questions are: How can I expect this motor to perform, and what is the best gear ratio to run for the street? This is my first motor and car restoration.
Also, thanks for the "Bionic Bird" article in the Oct. '07 issue of HPP. I have been a subscriber for a year now and have been waiting to see some articles that relate to the restoration of these old Firebirds. Now if you could only do one on quarter-panel replacement. It's hard to build these Birds in your backyard with no shop or experience. You guys are one of the only resources for us Pontiac backyard do-it-yourselfers.
Mike Cooper
Goode, VA