Since the last Blast Off Customs project, I've done a few small things including my first "real" paint job of a S-10 pick up truck. I'm still waiting on Andre to blog about that one. I'd say it turned out to be a decent 10 footer. Meaning it looked pretty good from about 10 feet away before you start noticing things. It was the plan all along to do this Corvette of my Mom's pretty soon after the truck project was done.

This project has been my biggest undertaking to date. There was some body work that needed to be done on the nose and roof. Then it got a full repaint in PPG single stage urethane in a slightly hotter shade than the original red. The steering wheel was rotting away and was replaced with an OEM replacement. Wheels were swapped out for black powder coated with a polished lip (I swear I'll do a car without black rims soon!). All new exterior emblems with a black louver kit over the lights.

By far the biggest task was the repaint. I took a lot of lessons learned from the truck job and applied them to this one. As a result, I'd say this is a nice 5 footer. Which is totally respectable for any collision repair or even low end factory paint job. Especially given that I painted this in my garage with no real air filtering or draft. I hope after I paint 1 or 2 more projects, I'll be able to do near show quality finishes. Which basically means with your nose practically touching the car, it will just look like solid, shiny color with no visible imperfections. But to do a perfect paint job, I think I'll need to do it in a purpose built paint booth.

As much work as this project was, I had a lot of fun with it. It feels good to actually finish something out once in a while. Going with the Torch Red over the factory red seems like a good move because it gives just that much more impact of the repaint. I think I would love to have a side business doing "automotive styling" where the car owner just wants their car customized to my discretion. A lot people have the money and just want their car to be different from everyone else on the road.

Oh, I also got my '54 4 door in 2 heavy coats of epoxy primer last week. I hope to have it some sort of shape for the upcoming spring car show. Since my shop is cleared out, I'm going to give it a quick clean up this week and start thrashing when I can on the 'bodywork. Stay tuned!