Show car quality paint for my 66 Chevelle SS

[Ronf]

Ahh, you young guys think you are old, I had a 62 409 w/ two quads. I'd wait until all my buddies were hanging out in front of the malt shop and I'd lightem up just to hear them cheer.

The 409 was a screamer! Built many high HP motors with those engines. As my memory fails me didn't they come with hydraulic lifters? I "seem" to remember swapping the cam, rockers, push rods, etc., to get a solid lift and no hesitation on low end, Correct? Damn that is many decades ago. How about setting the points through the window with a spring allen wrench tool...lol, Thinking it was set too .016 gap right? Wow this takes me back. Sock hops were just in back of my time, but yes I did malt shop drive throughs to get a race

[Ronf]

Yes, you guys brought back my youth as well!

Thanks for posting, totally enjoy reading all this and feel the need to share a tidbit of my muscle car fun!

Back in the mid ‘70s I had 2 ’68 Camaros, a ’68 Z28 & a ’68 SS/396, man I had fun with those cars. We did lots of street racing and burnouts in front of High school back in the day (remember the bleach), definitely had my share of trouble in those cars. Back then they were a dime a dozen although the Z28s were a little harder to come by. The Z was by far my favorite and it flat scooted. My SS/396 Camaro had lots of torque and could pull out tree stumps, but the Z28 would clean its clock in street racing. I loved that car, sounded like a real mechanical machine, you know, the clickety-clack of the 30/30 solid lifter Duntov, along with the 202 camel hump heads that thing screamed RPM.

Double camel humped heads, hell yes, still have one set left and no they are not for sale. Ran those along with the double pumper 780 Holley, made for great mid range power! You are just determined to take me back aren't you? I appreciate the nostalgia! BTW, you had a "Skunk"? I'm impressed

[Ronf]

Ahh, you young guys think you are old, I had a 62 409 w/ two quads. I'd wait until all my buddies were hanging out in front of the malt shop and I'd lightem up just to hear them cheer.

No doubt you ran glass packs

[S-C]

Double camel humped heads, hell yes, still have one set left and no they are not for sale. Ran those along with the double pumper 780 Holley, made for great mid range power! You are just determined to take me back aren't you? I appreciate the nostalgia! BTW, you had a "Skunk"? I'm impressed

Indeed, red with the white stripes, wish I still had her!

No doubt you ran glass packs

Hell, most everybody did back then. I sure did, not on the Z, but prior to that on a ’55 chevy 3100 pick-up. The truck had a 283 small block, the infamous power packs, Duntov cam, Carter AFB, Muncie 4 speed and Mitchell glass packs… Lol.

That was the first vehicle I owned tons of fun and learned a lot about engines working on that thing.

[Len]

No doubt you ran glass packs

No glass packs. When I was racing I'd uncap my lakers and make some real noise with fire coming out of both sides. It had solid lifters from the factory and I always had people ask me what was wrong with my car because it made so much clattering while idling. There were times I'd take the 409 emblems off the fenders and lure people into drag racing from the lights on the highway. It came with a 352 rear but I'd switch it out for a 456 on weekends. With the 456 it would get around 7 MPG so I had to sell rides to my friends for a couple dollars to help pay for all the gas it consumed.

[Henry]

No glass packs. When I was racing I'd uncap my lakers and make some real noise with fire coming out of both sides. It had solid lifters from the factory and I always had people ask me what was wrong with my car because it made so much clattering while idling. There were times I'd take the 409 emblems off the fenders and lure people into drag racing from the lights on the highway. It came with a 352 rear but I'd switch it out for a 456 on weekends. With the 456 it would get around 7 MPG so I had to sell rides to my friends for a couple dollars to help pay for all the gas it consumed.

Yeah, easy on that vintage car. Drop the driveshaft and exchange the MEATBALL! I miss those days!

Henry

[Len]

Yeah, easy on that vintage car. Drop the driveshaft and exchange the MEATBALL! I miss those days!

Henry

If I remember correctly I had to pull the axles also.

[bmarler]

lots of great advice from our talented members already. when i'm choosing paint for a vintage car i look at what the finished product is going to be. a car like yours in a resto-mod configuration would be a slam dunk for base/clear. if it's a stock build i'd use single stage. single stage puts the color right on top of the finish just like they were originally instead of buried under the clear with that deep look to it. metallic would be the only place where i might vary from that opinion. i'd definitely go base/clear with metallic finish.
solid color single stage responds very well to color sanding and polishing just like clear coat will. after all, it's essentially just pigmented clear.
i've done a few chevelles and el caminos from that era over the years, such a fun car to remember our youth right? if i could only go back in time and tell my young self to save the cars i had in a dry building. i'd be a rich man.

[Ronf]

No glass packs. When I was racing I'd uncap my lakers and make some real noise with fire coming out of both sides. It had solid lifters from the factory and I always had people ask me what was wrong with my car because it made so much clattering while idling. There were times I'd take the 409 emblems off the fenders and lure people into drag racing from the lights on the highway. It came with a 352 rear but I'd switch it out for a 456 on weekends. With the 456 it would get around 7 MPG so I had to sell rides to my friends for a couple dollars to help pay for all the gas it consumed.

"There were times I'd take the 409 emblems off the fenders and lure people into drag racing from the lights on the highway"... You ran a true SLEEPER

456 rear, loved that gear ratio. I ran an array of rear ends on different cars during this era, normally 488 or 513 (513 felt like you were hitting the brakes when you let off the gas). 7 mpg, yep had to fight the steering wheel every time I smoked past a gas station. What great memories

[Ronf]

lots of great advice from our talented members already. when i'm choosing paint for a vintage car i look at what the finished product is going to be. a car like yours in a resto-mod configuration would be a slam dunk for base/clear. if it's a stock build i'd use single stage. single stage puts the color right on top of the finish just like they were originally instead of buried under the clear with that deep look to it. metallic would be the only place where i might vary from that opinion. i'd definitely go base/clear with metallic finish.
solid color single stage responds very well to color sanding and polishing just like clear coat will. after all, it's essentially just pigmented clear.
i've done a few chevelles and el caminos from that era over the years, such a fun car to remember our youth right? if i could only go back in time and tell my young self to save the cars i had in a dry building. i'd be a rich man.

I was wondering what the hell happened to my friend Marler in this thread, after all we are talking classic cars and ole days of racing with tips and tricks. As usual he gives great advise! Glad to see you chime in, just wouldn't be the same when going nostalgic without your input.

[bmarler]

I was wondering what the hell happened to my friend Marler in this thread, after all we are talking classic cars and ole days of racing with tips and tricks. As usual he gives great advise! Glad to see you chime in, just wouldn't be the same when going nostalgic without your input.

my schedule must be off or something. i would have jumped on this thread right away. it sure got me remembering some of the cars i had back in the day. i wish i had pictures of them all. i might have one or two in my storage unit somewhere, but i was remembering a '67 camaro i rescued from a guy who raced it. it had been coated with flocking and named the velvet camaro.
anyway, this was a very special car, i couldn't believe he had done this to such a rare car. it was an ss/rs 396 four speed, had all the goodies from the factory, hideaway lights, tilt wheel, gauge pack in the console, deluxe seats, the works. no a/c or power steering though.
i built a very special 396 using parts i had gathered, high compression, cam harvested from a buddys crate 454 he was upgrading for marine use. (i think he got the last available factory crate ls6 454) memory's a little fuzzy though.
that car was a beast. had that cool torker mainfold that held that huge holley at a 45 degree angle. i don't really know if that helped any but it was awesome for street cred. had 411 posi axle and with that close ratio box, it was all you could do to just hang on and shift. i'd uncork the headers and take it for a spin at night just to fire up the neighbors. always heard sirens a few minutes later...
i got around 4 mpg with it, i swear, you could just blip the throttle and the gas gauge would fall.
i remember throwing that thing into the middle of an intersection, you could just hang there and do doughnuts as long as you wanted. i still remember the smells and sounds of that thing, it really got the adrenaline flowing.

[Henry]

If I remember correctly I had to pull the axles also.

Yeah, you got me! (Not all the way out, though!) Still was better the meatball way than was my GTO!

[style]

Hello all,
I've been on this forum for quite a few years and I have learned a ton about body work and paint. I was able to paint 3 vehicles so far with everyones help and I really appreciate that.
I've been using the UreKem paint from TheCoatingStore so far and have liked it and all have turned out great. These were mostly classic cars that I've taken to cruises and local shows.

Currently I'm restoring a 1966 Chevelle SS to an all original condition. I'm at a point where I need to find a good paint brand as I need to start shooting the primer and primer/surfacer and I want to use the same brand throughout.

I wanted to potentially show this car nationally so I want to find a paint that will match my original color which is Marina Blue but also be of the best quality I can afford. I know Urekem does have original GM colors but I didn't know of the quality for this type of restoration. This has been a 20 year off and on restoration for me so I am sparing no expense on NOS and original dated components so I want the paint to match that quality.

Thanks for any opinions that you guys have

Corey Vandiver

Anyone can paint, the magic is in the colorsanding an polishing, in the end the paint correction and the protection be it a ceramic or polymer that is where everything changes.

[Robb]

Actually after researching Glasuit a bit it sounds like the Single Stage is the way to go for an original type paint job. It will be a solid color marina blue. Do you find this is the case?

Hey chopperroxie I may be wrong but I believe the original 66 Chevelle marina blue was a metallic. I've always been a Chevelle fan and my first car was 66 Chevelle Malibu. I bought the car in 1978 for $200.00 and had that car for 25 years. I had built it in a few different configurations over the years. I even had a straight front axle under it at one point. It was primer gray with a flat black super sport hood when I bought it, and primer gray the whole time I owned it.

[S-C]

I even had a straight front axle under it at one point.

I love the old gassers, brings me way back, always wanted to do one.