Bonnet,Trunk Deck Lid, Bumpers

This first picture shows the front of the car shortly after it was sprayed black quite a few years ago ( a phase I went through, but am now restoring vehicle back to it's original gold ).

This design of the urethane Front Bumper Cover ( or Nose Cone ) was used on Trans Ams from 1979 to 1981. The pictures below show the Trunk Deck Lid, and then the rear of the car after this was removed. Note that the original gold colour was revealed after the rear spoiler had been removed indicating that the rear spoiler had not been removed when the vehicle was sprayed black.

In the above photo the urethane Rear Bumper Cover has also been removed, but the renovated steel Bumper Reinforcement has been temporarily refitted ( that's the black girder running the width of the vehicle ).

The following pictures now show the individual parts during the first stages of restoration at the Sprayers, which started with the stripping of the paint. The Bonnet and Trunk Deck Lid were both blasted, but obviously not the urethane Bumper Covers.

Trunk Deck Lid photos show various stages of surface preparation. Filler is applied to take out any imperfections in preparation for the base coat. The smaller image here shows the underside of the Bonnet, which will eventually be black. The underside of the Trunk Deck Lid, on the other hand, is painted the same colour as the car ( Solar Gold ).

Filler applied to the Bonnet

Bonnet primed and black guide coat applied

Trunk Deck Lid with black guide coat applied

A guide coat is a very thin paint layer of contrasting colour to the primer ( in this case black over the grey primer ). The guide coat is then sanded off, removing the high spots and visibly leaving any low spots. The process is repeated until the panel is perfectly straight.