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Also to consider for those with clear coat issues.
This was my DD, when I bought it. It drove me nuts, I can't have a trashy looking car. The car is nothing special, nothing great, but It can at least be cleaned up.
Before.
I chipped and sanded the peeling clearcoat back aways. I then lightly sanded the exposed base, and unexposed base, thye were faded to different shades of marroon. I did some wetsanding, and I also cleaned with IPA.
I used 2 cans of rattle can clearcoat from advanced auto.
You can see some orange peel
you can see a piece of clearcoat that peeled off sticking to the lower bumper
After a good detailing
This is a pic at least 10 months later, car isn't even clean. This was a pic I took after I sanded and reclearcoated my headlights(yellowing, previous owner had cleaned them up before he sold it, but he never reclearcoated so they crazed up again very quickly)
I am not saying these paint jobs are the quality of a good $2-3500 one, that they will last forever or be car show winners.
Just saying, just because you have a beater, and don't want to put much money in it, doesn't mean it has to look that way. If you are willing to put a little elbow grease in.
My next project I am thinking about painting my wheels, I might just redo a factoryish silver color, but have considered gunmetal, but I think silver will be better. Factory clear is peeling and they get dirty quickly and in wierd ways. I might even just sand and reclear.
Have you thought of a vinyl auto wrap as an alternative?
I have seen quite a few cars covered in carbon fiber shrink wrap.
I bought and used a small sheet to cover the chrome trim in my truck cab. Self adhesive and you can use a heat gun to stretch and shrink.
Also a old trend renewed is flat hot rod paint. Sometimes they just used primer. But you can rattle can and sand to flatten any runs.
I just repainted my old 1979 VW Thing. I broke down the car, prepped and painted it in my garage. I had a 80 gallon 5 horse compressor. Bought the paint, reducer and hardener online for $150. I never want to spray yellow again, too thin of coverage. Where I painted my jeep in 4 coats of red the thing took 12 coats to get a even finish.
not bad at all and Love the 98-02 front end... Heck, I would would not mind picking up a T-toppped 98-02 LS1 Z-28 with a T-56 6-speed manual tranny as a summer "fun" car to cruise around town in just to have a perfomance car back in my stable (well more like Carport ) again...
I'm digging the first one and it would look even better with some color matched wheels. Now wheels looks like another issue for you. If you put the work into it or find somewhere cheap you could probably get it to driver quality, but of course two tone with a pinstripe will be more work and cost.
not bad at all and Love the 98-02 front end... Heck, I would would not mind picking up a T-toppped 98-02 LS1 Z-28 with a T-56 6-speed manual tranny as a summer "fun" car to cruise around town in just to have a perfomance car back in my stable (well more like Carport ) again...
They are getting cheaper but still about $7500 for a good one.
I was looking for a beater, had a new kid, new job, moving states, and prepping to buy our first house. Found this, I know Camaros well, and for $2k couldnt pass it up. It's a v6 but a 5-speed at least.
Put new heater core, pads, rotors, shocks, clutch, flywheel, hydraulics, window motor. I also threw in z28 sway bars and poly bushings($30) !cat, it was clogged, (I am looking for a replacement one), made an intake.
The last 10k miles I have averaged 23 mpg that includes the time I sat and idled in a parking lot, I also do mainly city driving. I put about an extra $1000 into the car, so I have $3k total into it. I figure I could sell it for what I have into it, or maybe more. And so far I have 16k troublefree miles in a comfortable car that I don't fall asleep while driving.
It will probably be disapearing this winter though. Almost sad, its been a good little car, wife wants an upgrade from my old g6. And I am not getting rid of my '85
I have an '88 crew cab dually that needs a paint job. I talked to my painter about it recently and he gave me a rough quote of about $4500. I would expect a similar quote from him for a Suburban like yours. Prices will vary, but that's a good starting point.
Yeah, it's more than the truck is worth, but if you're not concerned with resale and plan on keeping it for a long time, then it doesn't matter. If it's worth it to you, then go for it.
Gotta love all the haters in here.
i've been thinking about the paint job for the past few days. And I decided to just worry about the mechanical stuff rather than the cosmetics, by improving it mechanically.
Besides, no one wants a vehicle that's all show but no go.
And one more thing that I want to mention, that engine and transmission is good along with a new radiator that had been replaced by the previous owner with a new one. All that it's really needed is a new muffler which I have already(Flowmaster 40 series). Which I will have a local shop install.
And the interior on the inside is in good/fair condition.
Also, the engine is a 5.7 liter V8.....if you want, I'll show you some more pictures of it(Suburban) later on along with a video of me driving it.
i've been thinking about the paint job for the past few days. And I decided to just worry about the mechanical stuff rather than the cosmetics, by improving it mechanically.
Yeah, nothing wrong with that. My dually is mechanically solid, but the Texas sun has done a real number on the paint and interior. I was there the day my dad bought it brand new with 12 miles on the odometer. It now has 80,xxx original miles, but with the condition of the paint and interior, it looks more like 280,000. The truck isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so I see no problems with investing a few grand into it to make it a nice, comfortable tow pig for years to come instead of buying a newer truck. I'd love to have the power of a newer Duramax truck, but I'm uninspired by the newer bodystyles. There may be a Cummins swap in the future, though.
Quote:
Also, the engine is a 5.7 liter V8.....if you want, I'll show you some more pictures of it(Suburban) later on along with a video of me driving it.
There may be a Cummins swap in the future, though.
Good
Also, one question.
I have a Flowmaster 40 Series Single muffler that I'm looking to put on my truck. Now do I have it clampled on(because I want to to have a dual version later on but right now I want to settle with the single for money reasons), or do I take the truck to the shop and have the muffler welded?
I took the old muffler of cause' it was bad by it being shredded up which led me to by a new one. Especially since I want to pass the vehicle inspection here in New Orleans,......which I'm wondering if do I really need a muffler t pass an inspection?
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