HOMEGROWN COPO #4 - The COPO Gets a Coat & Dash

HOME Grown

COPO

RPM PROJECT CAR

by

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2 3 1-3: Yikes!

This is what we started with and what CT Auto Collision turned it into.

Stan Smith

>> It’s amazing

what a coat of paint can do!

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e’ve all heard the saying, “it’s amazing what a coat of paint can do.” Well, we’ve been in the car game a long time and no matter how many times we are involved in a build, one of the biggest turning points is body and paint, and our Homegrown COPO is no different.

It’s tough to say whether you have actually past the halfway point or completed the “hard part” of the build once your paint has been applied, or whether it’s just a psychological game that your mind plays with you making you simply think the hard stuff is behind you. No matter what, though, adding that coat of paint to your project

provides a huge feeling accomplishment, regardless how much more knuckle busting and spending there is left to do.

Some people choose to paint early in a project, while

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others will wait to the bitter end to apply their top coat.

We chose to go early, just shy of the halfway point on the COPO tribute, with the full understanding that we will be into some touch up work

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4 & 5: “Willy The Stitch,” AKA Will Clugston of Tom’s Upholstery works his magic on fitting our dash after the cage install. We felt that it was best to do this now, before paint to avoid a lot of unnecessary cussing when we scratch something we can’t get to later on down the road.

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RPM PROJECT CAR 6

6: Once we got the dash properly fitted the structure was removed for paint.

7: To save time and money we primed the cage ourselves, before the car went back to CT.

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when complete. We felt that, among other things, by doing the entire car while having the engine bay, underbody and cage done, we were giving the folks at CT Auto Collision a more “clean slate” to work with and less clutter to have to deal with to work their magic.

RECAP

If you recall, way back in November 2016 (our first standalone installment of the Home Grown COPO), CT took our multi-colored wrecking yard-find body shell to their shop to install the panels we had been collecting, complete the body work, and get the car into a coat of protective epoxy primer. They also cleaned up the floors, underbody and engine bay so we could install the roll cage and chassis support structure as per our COPO Build Book and all the brain-picking of everyone else possible. Seeing the car take shape and all one color was a huge boost to the moti-

vation of the HGC project manager (Jay Misener of Misener Motorsports).

From there, we introduced you to Kelly Cooper, exrock star and more currently of Fat Dog Fabrication fame.

Kelly took our S&W Roll Cage Kit and MPR Race Cars rear diff and suspension components and turned them into gearhead art as he installed them into our CT-prepped shell.

Now it’s time to take a look at how our home-built COPO Camaro tribute project is coming along once again, and, as you may have guessed, the car has been painted and we can safely say that the results are nothing

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RPM PROJECT CAR short of outstanding!

Once again, Dave and Stacey Cromwell of CT overdelivered.

When Stacey said to us, “wait until you see the black we’re going to paint the Camaro,” we were excited, but we’re not body and paint guys, so we smiled and thought, ok, how black can black be? …I mean, it’s black, right? Wrong!

On our end, before getting the car back to CT, we removed the rear suspension finished prepping underneath, inside, and under the hood of the car. We also fitted the dash—well actually, we brought in “Willy The Stitch” from Tom’s Upholstery to do that.

There are some things just best left to the pros.

We did the dash now so we wouldn’t have to mess with exact fit later, after paint, risking a lot of scratches in tough to get at places. Knowing that this project is based on a production body car and cannot be simply Quik Latched apart to give access to all areas, our goal was to have as much

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of the car painted as humanly possible now, as many areas will not be as accessible later.

Plus, as we said, we can do any touch up work easily once the project is complete. We will be covering the car with protective sheeting while we’re working on it, but let’s face it, with the amount of work to be done, we’re human and accidents will happen.

The car was now ready to head back to CT and their first order of business was to remove every single body panel possible. The unassembled car was rechecked for readiness and any areas that needed extra attention were given it, while the panels removed were straightened and block sanded, as well. The shell was sealed and painted as were the panels using Matrix Urethane base and urethane clear. Once dry, everything was very carefully reassembled with fitment and alignment in mind. Since we’re talking about fit and finish, we need to point out that when a body/paint pro says something nice about

june 2017 | RPM Magazine

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8, 9, 10, & 11: Stacey painted the cage, interior, engine bay and underbody of the car with more of a satin finish to mimic an OEM look.

12 & 13: Stacey Cromwell hard at work making our Homegrown COPO straight as an arrow. It doesn’t hurt that the Cromwell family has a deep seated love of Camaros, and that Stacey himself has a thing for black cars!

14: The picture tells the story!

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RPM PROJECT CAR fiberglass parts, you’d best look up for flying pork! But no kidding, Stacy told us that our VFN Sunoco cowl hood is one of the best fiberglass hoods he has seen. Apart from the excellent fit and finish, he told us that with most glass hoods the paint will sink the first time he paints it, so he will have to do it again, but this one was good the first time through.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Black is black, right?

We told you earlier on that Stacey Cromwell of CT Auto Collision warned us that he was treating our project Camaro with some super-secret paint process that would cause mind blowing results to our black paint. Well, we wouldn’t have believed it if we hadn’t of seen it with our own eyes.

There was a black car sitting close to our Camaro when it emerged from the paint booth and yes, Stacey’s black paint work made that

“black” car look gray!

“I use the Matrix clear because of its high gloss and durable finish, and since the base coat is not water I can tint the clear to intensify the black,” said Cromwell.

LET’S GET ROLLING

So what’s next?

We’ll be taking the freshly-painted Homegrown COPO to a secluded workspace where the rearend and rear suspension can be reinstalled with a new set of trick AFCO shocks. We’ll also install the front suspension to make the car a roller. From there, we’ll let you in on the plans for the first engine combination to be installed (as we plan use the car as a test bed for both naturally-apirated and power adder combinations). We’ll check in on the install of that engine along with the transmission and interior and a number of other goodies we’re sourcing for the project.

16 15 15: Stacey chose to paint the parts off the car to get an equal finish in all areas. We never approached CT for a show car job, but they took a liking to the project and good things happen when everyone is on the same page in a build like this.

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16: Stacey told us that our VFN Sunoco hood is definitely a high quality piece.

Not only did it fit extremely well, it accepted the paint without sinking the first time through.

17: Once they moved it out of the booth we were invited over for the unwrapping and we just couldn’t help but install some lights to make a contrast.

18: WOW! we are believers! Black is NOT black! Our slick Camaro made a nearby late model black European car sitting in the shop look gray.

SOURCES CT Auto Collision www.ctautocollision.ca 519.753.3172

NAPA Brantford Rick McKim & Randy Vandekerckhove 519.752.5421