Project C3 Triple-EX - Extreme Exterior Makeover, Part 1

The entire car is now block sanded, revealing imperfections in the body that must be filled with either body filler or primer.

Because the molds used to mass-produce these cars at the factory weren't perfect, it's not uncommon for C3s to have some panel waviness. Major imperfections can be filled using Dura-glass or body filler, while minor faults are filled by re-priming and sanding.

Once the panels are straight, they're reinstalled on the car so that all the gaps and body lines can be checked. Our doors' alignment was good after minor adjustments, but the back of the hood was a little low.

To address this issue, the crew at JD's Paint and Body installs two hood bumpers to support the rear of the hood. Otherwise, our car is shaping up and getting closer to being painted.

After checking panel alignment, the doors and hood are pulled back off, and all of the pieces get one more coat of primer. Painting the doors and hood separately ensures that tight areas such as doorjambs get plenty of paint coverage.

After the final coat of primer, the car is covered with another dry guide coat and block sanded. This might seem redundant, but getting the panels laser straight requires multiple applications of primer, followed by block sanding by hand.

Finally, seam sealer is applied to all the necessary areas, and our project car is nearly ready for the paint booth.

As a final step to ensure panel straightness and paint adhesion, all of the panels on the car are wet sanded before being placed in the paint booth. There are lots of steps like this that are only performed by professional paint and body shops like JD's. An economy shop just scuffs the paint on the car and paints right over it.

Before applying paint to the car and parts, a pre-cleaner is used to remove any waxy or oily residue that could cause the new paint to fisheye. We can now mix up our BASF Diamont basecoat and start spraying.

The quality of the products used to refinish your car not only helps determine the luster of the paintjob, but also how long it will last. Having had consistently great luck with BASF products, we chose the company's Diamont line of base- and clearcoat for this project.

This month we showed you how to properly prepare your Corvette for paint. As we've demonstrated, the quality of the paintjob is very dependent on the quality of the bodywork underneath. We already know how our project car looks, but you'll have to wait until next month to watch as we apply and buff the paint, then put Project C3 Triple-Ex back together with new parts from Corvette Central.