vdhillon2

I've been looking for "my vette" for some time now. I've run into a pretty good deal on a 1980, for $3750. The engine is good, shifts well, its an aftermarket 350. The interior is pretty bad, and needs to be replaced pretty much.
The thing i'm worried about the most is the body work. I've called a few body repair shops in the area, that specialize in vettes, and i've gotten quotes (without seeing the car) of $10K
The body on the vette isn't that bad. It looks like someone tried to bodo a few spots. There is one crack under the rt light, but other then that no cracks, just some spidering, and areas that have been bondo'd....so my question is how hard is it to prep a car like this for paint...i know its hard because i have no pictures, but imagine a car with about 20 bondo spots on it about fist size, but otherwise looks good. I know the bondo has to go, but i'm new at this, and can't find any good articles or do-it-yourself forums to help figure this out.
thanks

kevinator80

I am no expert but I have fixed a few cracks and patched a few holes.

You wont really know what you have until you get all the surrounding paint sanded off and take a look. With that in mind, repair work on a vette isn't that hard, just dusty and time consuming. I like the carbon fiber reinforced fillers for making repairs, especially if it is not busted completely out and when you can easily get in behind a bad spot.

Without seeing the car and based on your description, I wouldn't waste any more time looking at it. Sorry. Being patient will pay off when vette shopping and will allow you to avoid the "OH SHIP why did they do that?" Sounds like this car may have a few of those hidden away. Good luck.

Scott Marzahl

Not a great deal, you can find pretty clean cars for $6-8K that won't reguire $1,500 for an interior and a minimum $10-12K in body and paint.

Ron R

I swear they need to take my first post on this subject and make it a sticky. It's like this - there is no such thing as a "deal" on a C3 that needs work. I don't care if the car is ONE DOLLAR - what you will spend getting it the way you want it will be more than what it will cost to buy one that's already the way you want it.

If $3,750 is what you have to spend, then find a $10,000 - $12,000 car that doesn't need any paint or body work, put $3,750 down, and finance the rest through JJ Best or some other classic car finance company. I guarantee you the $200 per month or so your payment will be will be less than you'll spend per month on repair. Plus, if you want to sell your $10k-$12k car, you will be able to sell it for the same or more money next year. Your $3,750 car, that you'll spend $15,000 getting the way you want, will be hard to sell for what you have in it.

I bought my 81 in 1999 for $4,400 thinking I was getting a deal. About $17,000 and one year later it was finally the way I wanted it. Today, nine years later, if I wanted to sell the car I STILL couldn't get what I have in it. Fortunately I have no interest in selling it. In 2001 when I decided I wanted a 68 I had learned my lesson and bought one that had been fully restored by the previous owner. I paid under $20k for it, which is less than it cost him to restore it.

Today, a "cheap" paint job alone is $5k and a complete interior will be around $1,500 - so you figure if your car is $3,750 then just on those two things it's already cost you $10,000 and you haven't even figured out what the body work will cost or any mechanical issues, which undoubtedly exist. If you want to buy a car to rebuild for the fun/challenge of it, then go for it - but don't do it because you think you're saving money because you won't. And don't get stuck in that "All I have is $4,000 so that's all I can spend" mentality - this is one of those rare instances in life where financing a higher amount and paying interest on a loan is actually a smart idea, and like I said, I guarantee you'll spend less on your $200 monthly payment than you'll spend on your monthly repairs.

capecorvette

body work is not really hard as it is time consuming. if you have the time and want to learn then do it yourself, there are a hundred books on this stuff. its not rocket science, but i have been doing it for 25 years so its easy for me to say.
if you want to be driving the car this summer? then pay to have it done, if you want to take a year, then do it yourself.

empotoma

Hi:
The answer to your question is not too hard, if you have a lot of time and patience. Also, if you plan on painting it yourself or having it done by a shop. Here's my story:
Recently went through stripping and sanding my '80. Then had it media blasted, did some body work, I rolled on epoxy, sanded that and then had it primed and painted. Things took much longer than I planned.
You can look through all the posts on the Paint & Body link which has a wealth of information, but also has many opinions on what is best.

Check out this article [Corvette body and paint repair basics] by Lars at
http://wiki.corvettefaq.com/index.php?title=Exterior

I went nuts using a razor blade and was able to remove all the paint down to a reasonable gray primer coat. However, there were major stress cracks that needed attention, and I decided to have it blasted. Blasting brought it down to the fiberglass in most areas. It also exposed a lot of other damage which had been repaired with bondo. It also cost me 800.00 and the guy screwed up my t tops and left small plastic media embedded in everything. My sanding was less than perfect and if your paying to have the car primed and blocked, the blocking is very time consuming and very EXPENSIVE!

In 1995 I had that same car painted. The paint had terrible spider webbing. I brought it to be painted and they simply sanded the finish, primed and sprayed a single coat urethane. After a few years the spider webbing reappeared through the new paint and paint started peeling off about a year ago.

I believe that if they had used a two stage epoxy in '95 the finish would have lasted.

To get back to your question. If I can do this, anybody can!
If you are repainting the entire car you should probably go down to the fiberglass to get the best result. But I also believe that you don't have to if your body is not cracked, damaged or needs major repair. Getting down to the fiberglass is very time consuming and gives you more chances to mess things up!
If you don't go down to the fiberglass for whatever reason, I believe that a good epoxy sealer will give you a great surface to work on.

Now, priming, and painting does require special equipment. ( I brought mine to a shop for the final primer and painting.)

There are tons of folks on the forum who will give you good advice all along the way.

Good Luck, and keep us posted!!

Ed
PS: I recently bought an '86 that has the primer flaking off. This one needs very little body work (1 small crack on the rear wheel well.) I don't have the money now for another paint job (estimate at 4,000 ) So I thought I would try to redo the base coat/ clear coat myself. I have no spray booth available, or any of the air compressor equipment. However, one forum member indicated that he has done a number of his cars with an airless spray gun system. I'm going to investigate that.

vdhillon2

Thanks everyone...that really all makes alot of sense. I'm not trying to get a low price vette, i'm trying to make it 'my vette.' So i guess its a question of holding out till i find the one i'm looking for...which is a 1980-1982 4speed with black on black, or purchasing a car like this and investing the time, and like you said, extra money, to make it mine. Either way i think all the input helps, i just have to figure out which way i want to go...and stick to it.

kdf1986

There is a corvette restoration book with a sentence in it like this.

The most expensive vette you will own is the cheapest one that you will buy.

Meaning, the cheaper they are, the more it is going to cost you in the long run. I agree with those that say buy the best quality vette you can find now, it will be cheaper in the long run. I missed that lesson on my first vette, but made up for it on my other 2.

kdf

Ron R

I'll add this much though - if you want to go crazy on performance mods and stuff like that, then just buy the biggest piece of junk you can find, because if you plan on replacing the motor/tranny/seats/shifter/gauges/wheels & tires/etc. then there is no point in buying a car that doesn't need work in those areas because then you're just throwing away perfectly good stuff. That's when the $3,700 vette is a wise investment.

MN80Vette

To answer you original question, "how hard is body work on 1980 vette?" I say not too hard for an average guy like me if you have patience. The real work is in the paint prep - media blast or some other method to get down to bare fiberglass, body filler, and MANY fill-sand-fill-sand cycles. Even after doing most of the prep work myself, the 8-coat prime-base-clear job cost me $3000 to have done. It's not best-in-show quality, but it's good enough to get attention.

Jon Hekking

Have to agree with Ron R, look for a better car. I passed on several cars in the price range and condition you described, there are better deals out there. After looking almost a year, I found the one pictured below with new paint and rubber and a nice interior all with 74K miles for $8,500. I could not have paid what you're paying and painted it alone for what I'm in this car and even then you have to deal with the interior and any mechaniclal problems you may find and you WILL find some.

Keep looking and get a better starting point.

Ron R

Wow, love that paint Jon - what color is that? I don't think I've seen that color on a Corvette before unless that's just some funky camera trick. Almost like a blood red with an undertone similar to atomic orange. Looks awesome!

Jon Hekking

It's 1981 code L80 (according to the door tag), one of 1,505 cars painted all Autumn Red. Most cars painted with Autumn red were two tones with Claret. The pictures actually make it look lighter than in person.

Thanks for the kind words!