[copo69]

Wow , I don't know how I missed this thread but just saw it today. Beautiful work, I have a 07E '73 Z/28 RS, white no stripes, auto car that I've owned since '75 with 16k miles. I had modded the car somewhat but returned it to stock condition in early 80's. Thank goodness I kept everything I took off as lots of these parts were unobtainable back then. I have some incorrect paint on undercarriage, because made it a "show car", we thought all black was the way to go back then along with the Cragars, air shocks, headers, etc. If I hadn't been in school at the time and had some money it's hard to tell how bad I would have screwed it up. lol Anyway, decided to return it to original stock condition. I spent a lot of time acquiring paint for the wheels at the time. Finally found an old guy who owned a paint store who prided himself in matching paint. Took him a wheel and said match this. He said whatever amount of paint he ended up with would be the quantity and there was no formula. I think I ended up with about 3/4 gal., gave a qt to a friend and still have some left that's probably not good. He hit it right on the head and in the 80's restored 2nd gen Z's had all kinds of different colored wheels at shows. Didn't see anyone else with correct color for several years. I still have some original wheels and tires(spares) I collected at the time and I don't know about a suede additive to the paint. It looks to me as a lot of the texture is due to painting technique as these wheels are hard to paint and paint was put on rather dry and thin. All my wheels were black on the back too. Some things were still available from GM, (able to get a complete exhaust). I can relate to the detail on the parts,your work is great. I was having stuff cad plated and doing research on correct finishes. Back in the day restored muscle cars were just starting and have come a long way in techniques and correctness. My car is far from perfect but I really enjoyed the process. By the way James, I visited you and I think it was a friend who had a black '69 some years ago when I was visiting my daughter who was going to school in the area. Looking forward to seeing the car completed.