Welcome To Chris Pinto's 1953 Chevy Hot Rod Belair Wild Custom Site!

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  • In the Beginning…
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  • Body
    • 1990 Backyard Restoration
    • Second Restoration, and Changing the Body
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    • How I Did It
    • 2020 Pearl Paint Job
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    • ’53 Chevy Belair Stardust Vintage Photos
    • ’53 Chevy Belair Stardust New Photos

2020 Pearl Paint Job

Near the end of 2019, when I realized that the 20th year of working on the custom job was coming up, I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer: Being in primer for 12 years was too long. I had to paint the car.

Me with Stardust at Tree Tops Park in Plantation, Florida, 2017.
  • 53 Chevy Hot Rod Custom at Tree Tops Park in South Florida
  • 53 Chevy Hot Rod Custom at Tree Tops Park in South Florida
  • 53 Chevy Hot Rod Custom at Tree Tops Park in South Florida
  • 53 Chevy Hot Rod Custom at Tree Tops Park in South Florida
  • 53 Chevy Hot Rod Custom at Tree Tops Park in South Florida
  • 53 Chevy Hot Rod Custom at Tree Tops Park in South Florida
Stardust, my 1953 Chevrolet Custom Belair in Primer, 2017. She was in this stage of 85% completed body work and black primer from 2008 to Jan. 2020 while I enjoyed driving her.

Oh, I did enjoy driving her all those years, and did a little body work here and there when I could. I just had too many other projects going on to commit to the couple of months I knew it would take to prep, paint, and polish her. Those projects included writing three paranormal murder mystery novels and doing renovations on our house.

But the thought of seeing Stardust all nice and shiny was always on my mind. I spent a lot of time thinking about color combinations, types of paint, and whether I would spray it myself or have a pro do it. I had sprayed a couple of cars in the past…a long time ago…and had done the primer on this car several times. But I never shot 2- or 3-stage paint, pearl, or metal flake.

I always wanted to do a dark purple. I had thought about other combos…all white, which would have looked sumptuous and rich; gloss black, maroon, dark blue, all metallic or pearl. Then while researching paints, I found this “Intruder Purple Pearl”. Man…gloss black, and lights up purple when the sun hits it? I was hooked. Two-stage polyurethane, inexpensive, and according to several sources easy to shoot. If I was going to do it myself, I knew there was going to be a learning curve, and I prepared myself for the fact I may have to do some re-sprays. That was ok.

Paint-for-the-Chevy-2-17-20
The paint for the Chevy

I tried to find a paint booth to rent but couldn’t find any near me, so I decided to do a garage spray booth.

Chevy in the paint booth
Chevy in the paint booth ready to shoot. The garage looked like Dexter’s kill room.

I started spraying her in February, 2020. I did the top first. It didn’t come out right…had crazing issues, so I had to sand it down and do it again. Then I did the beauty panels. Had some issues there too…and didn’t like the amethyst frost pearl (it just looked white), so I redid those in deep red, then shot metal flake (sparsely) over the metallic. I shot metal flake on the roof too, not heavy, just a light coat to give it that “star dust” look.

  • final-fin-work
    Final fin work on the Chevy
  • final-fin-work-2
    Final Fin Work on the Chevy
  • Starting to take the Chevy apart for paint
    Starting to take the Chevy apart for paint
  • Bodywork Notes, 2015 & 2020
    Bodywork Notes, 2015 & 2020
  • prepping the body for paint
    Sanding and prepping the body for paint
  • chrome-and-stainless-steel-removed
    Chrome and stainless steel removed
  • Purple Primer
    Primed in purple. This would have been nice as a satin finish.

Finally I shot the body, purple primer first, then the base coat, then the clear. Again…a learning experience. I was proud that I only had three runs on the whole car, but I did manage to spray too lightly in some areas, and wound up with orange peel over the whole car. That meant a lot of sanding…too much. Yup, I burned through in a couple of places. No big deal…reshot the base, reshot the clear, sanded, shot a second “flow coat” of clear and got much better results. But it was hard work…I found quickly that I was not very good with the DA sander, so I sanded everything by hand. A great workout.

  • Beauty Panel Metal Flake
    Beauty Panel Metallic and Metal Flake
  • First Base Coat on
    Base Coat on!
  • Clear Coat On!
    Clear Coat On!
  • First cut and buff
    First color sanding and buffing
  • Color sanded entire car
    Color sanded entire car, buffed, found flaws, recoated, resanded, rebuffed
  • Final flow coat
    Final “Flow Coat” or clear (double coat of clear sanded in between)
  • Final Color Sanding
    Final Color Sanding the Flow Coat
  • Final Color Sanding
    worked at night… too hot during June Florida days.
  • Buffing and polishing
    Final buffing and polishing
  • 53-Chevy-fin-side-Shiny-july-2020
    Flow coat polished, July 2020
  • 53-Chevy-trunk-July-2020
    Flow Coat polished, July 2020
  • 53-Chevy-Tail-lights-in-July-28,-2020-3
    Polished and putting her back together, July 2020
  • 53-Chevy-hood-Shiny-july-2020
    Flow Coat polished, July 2020. “Like a mirror”.
  • 53-Chevy-Grill-Teeth-in-July-2020
    Polished and putting her back together, July 2020
  • 53-Chevy-bumper,-hood-ornament-on,-closeup-7-28-20
    Polished and putting her back together, July 2020
  • Final buffing
    Final stages of buffing, July 2020
  • Polished and putting her back together, July 2020
    Polished and putting her back together, July 2020
  • Polished and putting her back together, July 2020
    Polished and putting her back together, July 2020
Paint job progress, February through July, 2020

When Covid-19 hit and caused everything to shut down in mid-March, 2020, like a lot of people I started working from home. This gave me extra time each day (from not traveling to work) to spend on the car. So pretty much every day as soon as my job was completed, I headed out to the garage, running that polishing wheel until my hands hurt. I had laid the clear on pretty heavy (I learned my lesson) and was determined not to burn through anymore paint. With the exception of a small spot on the bottom of one door, I met that goal. I honestly must have put between 60 and 100 hours into this paint project. Now I know what pro’s charge what they charge. It’s worth their price.

Finally, in mid-July, 2020, she was all polished and (mostly) back together!

Recent Posts

  • Gotta Replace 2nd Gear in the 1953 Chevy Belair Custom
  • New Photos of the 1953 Chevy Custom Belair
  • ’53 Chevy at the Mai Kai, Fort Lauderdale February 2021
  • Living in Spotlight Hell with the 53 Chevy
  • New Door Striker So I Don’t Fall Out – 1953 Chevy

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  • Pat Lanspery aka TikiPaka on ’53 Chevy at the Mai Kai, Fort Lauderdale February 2021

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Note: All photos and stories ©2020 Christopher Pinto. All rights reserved. Any duplication of any part of this site, text, or images for commercial use and/or without permission the owner is a violation of copyright laws. Please only share photos for non-commercial use (no selling). Please feel free to “Pin” photos or share on social media (non-commercial use only).

Pages

  • ’53 Chevy Belair Stardust New Photos
  • ’53 Chevy Belair Stardust Vintage Photos
  • 1938 Digital Dash Cam
  • 1990 Backyard Restoration
  • 2020 Pearl Paint Job
  • About Christopher Pinto, Designer/Author
  • Brakes, Wheels, and Mechanical Mischief
  • Cabriolet Top
  • Cool Stories of my ’53 Chevy Hot Rod
  • Driving Around 2000-2020
  • Futurama
  • How I Did It
  • In the Beginning…
  • Mystery Novels by Christopher Pinto
  • Photo Galleries
  • Privacy Policy
  • Second Restoration, and Changing the Body
  • Stardust…The Famous Finned ’53 Chevy Belair!
  • The Engine
  • The Fins
  • The Interior
  • The Trunk
  • Why, Man? Why???

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1953 Chevy Hotrod Wild Custom Belair ©2020 Christopher Pinto