The Camaro Club (UK)

Erm, i think it depends on the quality of materials, preparation and application. Cheap body filler will go on more like a rough paste and not flow out so well, so you get small air bubbles which end up being the pinholes. As you sand down the filler, you reveal all of those pockets of air, giving a non perfect finish. It can also be from mad mixing ratio's of filler to hardener, i.e too much hardener will mean that it starts to set quickly and as you are smoothing it out, it starts to 'stick' a bit rather than flow. I used the more premium end fillers and that was mostly ok, there were a couple of parts where i used some regular stuff and i did notice that stuff had more pinholes / mini craters. I went over everything with upol liquid gold which is almost like engine oil in regards to its flow - it's designed to flow out, leaving no pinholes within itself and the underlying substrate. I did break through some areas of the liquid gold stuff when sanding for primer, but not noticing these until the primer was guide coated and sanded, which is why i ended up having to do all of this pinhole filling. Also, the bumpers, hood, fenders are all fibreglass, so it every stage of filling and sanding was an elimination round, trying to catch as many as possible but still knowing that you would miss a few at each step. In hindsight, after the liquid gold stuff had been sanded (breaking through into some of the underlying filler) i should have gone over with some spray filler (green ti filler for example that FlakMonkey used) - effectively a glazing putty that goes through a spray gun, so it flows out nicely and eliminates those final issues. You then sand that down, hit it with primer and then you don't need a second stage of priming as you won't get any breakthroughs or pinholes.

Got a bit of energy today, so off now to try and reprimer - need to sand those pinhole areas from the other day, clean, prep and then should be good to go...

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Status update.
Was supposed to lay down the second stage of primer last night, but in cleaning all the surfaces, found a few more pinholes and mini low spots. So, glazing putty out, sanding etc and at midnight, just about got around it all. Shame as everything was in place for laying down paint - garage warmed up, compressor charged etc.

Bit cold today and need to do the swaybar link on the Trans Am, so will attempt the reprime on Thursday when it's a bit warmer.

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Here's a recent-ish pic. All of the panels are in 320, ready for stage 2 of primer, which will then be sanded in 600, ready for colour.

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Little update, all in primer now Will take some pics this week and post. Gonna let it wait for a few days to dry as the temp is about 12 degrees for the rest of the week, so want to make sure it has enough time to cure. Will be sanding with 600 grit as the next stage is.... colour!

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How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

It certainly has gotten chilly in the evenings! Will either start sanding tonight or tomorrow, the shell has been primered since Saturday evening, so it's been almost 4 days for it to cure. The other parts were painted on the Sunday and will likely only get to them on this weekend, so that should be enough time for it to cure.

Need to still change the other side of the Trans Am's roll bar link, so that'll be on the weekend at some point. Also need to change the battery out as it's getting a bit weak. Thinking of changing the rear brake lights out for LED's on it, seeing as there are 7 bulbs for the brake light (3 per side and one in the centre). I always notice the volt meter drop when it tap the brakes, worked out that they consume nearly 140 watts Plus now that it's dark, also have the lights on, dash lights, heater blower now that it's getting chilly, electric fan on the engine when it gets warm in traffic etc so some juice is definitely being consumed. LED's should set it down to about 5 watts or so across the whole rear, much better! Also need to figure out the rear defroster as it switches off after about 10 seconds. Depending what internet page you read, the timer circuit is either in the switch, or in the the relay, or the car has no relay

Lots to do...

Would be nice to be able to get all the sanding done over the weekend and start of next week, remask and then paint the following week. Then it will be reassembly time. Once assembled, the glass can go in too, which means the SFC's can go in , which means that fluids can be topped up, the car can be started, exhaust can be put on, the final interior panels can go in (had a fire, need to repair one) then sit back with a warm hot chocolate cos it will be probably be snowing by then

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Sounds like you need a "man´s" alternator, something with more beef....

Haha yep! That one you posted from summit would be perfect... mine is 105amp i believe, 140 would be a bit more comfortable And it would have been cheaper, and shinier.

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How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

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I checked the factory wiring diagrams for both the 78 and 79 but found no mention of the rear screen heater
It's not until the 1980 model does it show a 5 wire control module.
Not much help I'm afraid

Good to see you back Neil!
Sorry i should have been clearer - all of that paragraph was about the '87 TA, sorry for the confusion! The Camaro does have a rear screen heater but i've not had a change to test it yet. On the '87 i'm pretty sure the issue is the solid state timer - just trying to figure out where it is. Apparently it's in the relay? I'll post up a pic of the wiring for it from the service manual - it shows the wiring but not actually if it's a separate device, or where it would be. I wonder if i can maybe take the relay out and change out the resistor / capacitor as apparently that's how you can create your own circuit board for one... saw a diagram for it on a forum, but would prefer to fix the existing one.

Back to the Camaro - haven't got around to start sanding it yet. Hate being covered in water and sanding residue especially when it's cold, so i've been procrastinating a bit. At least it's given the primer extra time to dry and i've got some stuff done on TA. I forgot that i need to repaint the cowel again because last time it did it, got a bit of dust or something on there and rubbed it off with a tack cloth but the paint hadn't dried enough so it got some fluff in there there. So need to 600 wet it quickly and repaint it. Need to also do the same to the rear, where the bottom of the rear glass attaches by the parcel shelf... not sure what's called. I accidentally got sanding scratches on it when sanding the boot lid, so it also needs to be knocked down with 600 and repainted. Hoping to get that done tonight. Then the primer sanding can begin.

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How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").