its that time to tackle paint job with my dad he will handle the painting. i doing prep work?? do i need to strip the whole car? car is in decent shape. some tips would be great. can i buy a kit with all the things i need to do the work?

 

well if the paint that is on the car now is in good shape I would use 300 grit and just rough up the old paint ,sand with the palm of your hand ,dont use any sanders ,be careful around the edges of the fiberglass,dont be in a hurry!!!

 

Oh boy. Please, whatever you do get a set of sanding blocks, and if you need a special shape to get in a corner, or follow a curve be creative... like rubber blocks or lengths of radiator hose. Never sand with your hand since that is quite likely to introduce waves to the surface which will show through the topcoat.

Do some archaeology on the paint that's on there now... at, say the leading edge of the door carefully scrape paint away one layer at a time so you can tell us how many coats of paint are on your car, and what they look like. Report back with your findings and we'll go from there.

 

i checked paint layers it seems to be under the white to be gray, but the gray isnt scraping off is that the fiberglass or baked on primer? the edges on alot places chip off easily. thanks guys cant wait to start!!!

 

i have the feeling i should get all white paint off? then deal with the body work.

 

Just did mine went from silver to black. Prep is very important, and a good quality product. I went with PPG a little more but worth it.

 

Since your father is your painter, what does he suggest for prep?

 

 

he has spray booth for spraying new cabinets and furniture, he is a refinisher. he sprayed a couple of cars in his days. but never did a vette, fiberglass prep, he is not to experienced with.

 

Gray is more than likely factory primer and You might not have to remove it. Keep in mind that fiberglass requires materials specific to it. Do a search for paint threads on the forum for good resources.

 

Lars had a paper out on painting that I used as a basis for my project. Last I knew, Lars was not on this site, so don't know if thats a four letter word or not.

Where in Philly are you? I just finished mine and would be happy to share my experiences; I am about 50mins west of Philly.

Andy

 

i am located in northeast philly near willow grove, close to abington-pik-
i would love any advice u have.

 

Very cool, I am off to England on business for a couple of weeks, but after I return I would love to get together and talk paint/cars...
PM me your address.
Andy

 

Lars is back and quite welcome. I recommend you strip the car bare since the paint is all 30 plus years old now. There are folk who believe the factory primer is somehow immune to age and deterioration but I see it like this... the factory topcoats have failed at least in spots, or been gouged, abraded or polished off exposing the primer to weather. Direct exposure to weather is bad for primer since it is unsuitable as a topcoat.

Remember too that these cars are unusual in that they are bodied in fiberglass... which is both porous and permeable. That means that your primer has been under attack for the entire life of the vehicle both from on top, but also from the underside of the panels as well. Should you choose to invest the 100 or so hours labor and $1000 to $1500 (average) for materials and leave that original coating on your car I hope you are fortunate enough not to have that decision bite you in the a$$ at a later date. Seems a foolish economy to me.

 

well I paint a few corvettes ,and I used just my hands ,you have to be careful if using blocks you can sand the edges down where you dont want to!dont use the blocks!

 

Markid77 has a very good understanding of what can and does happen when painting fiberglass and what causes it to fail. I have read his posts on several different threads and would and do put a lot a weight in his advise.

 

I had mine media ( glass beads ) blasted down to the bare fiberglass, gave me a chance to actually see if i had any fiberglass damage before I proceded. Ground and filled all of my seams and worked myself up from there. If you use the correct material there will be no surprises
under your new $$$$$ paint job and with the proper care it will last for many years. I have seen too many $$$$$ paint jobs start lifting only because of what was left under the new paint , not because of what was added to it. Your new paint is only as good as what you put it on.
I did not want to use stripper to remove my paint only for the fact that I was unsure if it would come thru the new paint job if any were to have absorbed into the fiberglass. Media blasting was not cheap ( $800.00 ) but it gave me peace of mind.
good luck!!!

 

WARNING!!!!!

Corvette enthusiasts - Do Not Read Any Further!!

Your life may be at stake!

*************************

Now, for the rest of us:



Since you have decided to do it yourself-

1. You can get severely **** about your paint job

OR

2. you can go for the basic, "10 footer".

Decide what level of madness you want to endure. Got all the equipment and some experience? Most of us don't.


Here is what I did. This is for the guy that wants to actually drive his nicely painted vette, not the guy who wants to enter it in car shows.

Just as an example of doing it yourself in the driveway ... without any fancy-schmancy equipment or covered shop.

$79 for a complete single-stage paint kit (1 gal. paint, reducer, hardener, etc.) More than enough to paint the entire vette. (The paint and the "clear-coat" are mixed together so to speak)

$99 air compressor from Harbour Freight and a $14 paint gun kit.


Sand the car down where it is needed. I use 400 grit paper on the bad spots, then use 600 grit on all of it. Only takes a few hours to do this by hand. I am not sanding door jambs and all the nooks and crannies. Just going for a nice smooth finish. I am not sanding everything down to the fiberglass in most areas (assuming you do not have damaged areas).

Tape off what you do not want to spray (no need to dis-assemble anything).

Spray 2-3 coats on the entire car. Takes about 1 hour.

Wait 24 hours, then WET sand it down. I personally sand the entire car with 1000 grit, then 1500 grit, then 2000 grit. This is the part that takes the most time (especially if your spray paint job is kinda orange-peely)

But do not get bent out of shape about it. If you have a not-so-good looking area, you can repaint that at a later date if desired.

After everything has been sanded, then use a buffer with a good compound to shine it all up! That's it.

Your back on the road.


I just painted this one two weeks ago, it's a daily driver and has a basic 10 footer paint-job. Has not been waxed/polished yet.

It only took one weekend from start to finish and I did it on a gravel driveway.

So, you can go cheap and have fun if that's what you are after.

A seriously good paint job on a C-3 is big work and can be very costly. I got a few quotes from the paint shops and that's when I decided that the paint job could not cost more than the car.

 

Dude, did you seriously paint this car with a 14 dollar paint gun and a 79 dollar bucket of paint?


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

 

Great looking car.