Just got back for taking it for a test ride. All I can say is Holy Crap!!! This car runs great and sounds awesome. I crawled around with a flashlight and the underside on first look was pretty clean. I have a guy coming by tomorrow to take a look and give me an idea of what it will cost to paint it. If his number is doable I will be making her an offer and see how it goes.

 

Don't pay 10 grand to get that car painted. That's crazy! I guess it would be worth it if it were a more collectable year, and you were trying to restore it to showroom condition...maybe... But, that's more than the car would be worth even after the paint job. I disagree that the whole car needs to be painted. There looks to be nothing wrong with the rest of the paint to me. The damage is confined to the front end which can be removed and preped. With todays technology, they can match the rest of the paint almost perfectly....at least close enough for 99% of the people out there.

 

10K for a paint job would be a "deal killer" for me. You are corrrect I would have more into it than it is worth and of course like any hobby that is par for the course, but I have seen others in ready to drive condition in that price range and if I was going to do that I would have already done it...

I have a guy stopping by to look at it today to give me a number on painting just the front end damage as well as painting the entire car so at least I can make a comparison.

In this economy and my geographic location I think time might be a little on my side as far as needing to make a quick decision.

If it all lines up and I am able to get it that would be great. If not then I will continue to search and enjoy the toys I already have until then.

 

i was quoted 10 thousand for a paint job and i thought that was crazy .i would be lucky to get that for the car .most of the body shops want to strip the whole thing down and start over because its there reputation .i still have not found a good shop who will give me a price below 8 grand and i dont have any problems with the body other than the rubber bumbers.

 

I have a local guy that has been painting for years (about as old as the car is) that will do it for far less and he has a very good reputation in my neck of the woods. If I had to pay 10K I would learn how to paint real quick...

By the way I posted another post called I did it!!! Made an offer and the owner accepted, I pick it up tomorrow morning.

 

i have painted 4 cars and 3 trucks .but that was over 10 years ago .i know that there is a lot of work that goes into painting a car but 10 grand for a car that i may not get 10 for is hard to pay.i think some of it is the corvette tax and that they can make as much or more doing the little jobs.most body guys seem to be plenty busy.

 

Easy Mike yes the trim tag is 742 and 39 so I would assume they are the original colors. I talked to a local painter today and got a price to paint just the front and the entire car. I am going to bring it to his shop the beginning of November and let him keep it as long as he needs to get it looking good. He said he would need it a couple months and I am fine with that.

I had a thought for a quick moment that I might want to change the color possibly black, but since my truck is black, my wifes jeep is black both my Harleys are black and my son's car is black I am going to stick to the original color of charcoal.

 

Prep work is definately the major expence from what I have heard! Corvette tax is right!! You can get a pvc valve for 2 bucks for a 350, but if you tell the parts store "it's a corvette" the price will jump up to $5. I have heard 'vettes are hard to prep right. I guess you probably get what you pay for.

 

What's the update? Did you buy it? Did you paint it? I keep going back and forth between the 82 C3 and a newer one. I'm in the process of research and info gathering still and interested in your progress.

 

i have driven several c4 and c5 vettes .They were nice .but the c3 is a differant car its old school.you can work on the c3 in your back yard .The c4 and c5 have more electronics and will never get the looks that a c3 [any year] will get .

 

I did make the purchase. This car is awesome!!! It is running great and is a blast to drive. I road around for a few weeks and had intended on taking it in for paint after Thanksgivivng. As luck would have it my painter called and said he had an opening so it is in the shop.

Of course I had a tough time making a decision on the color. I was all over the map and after making 3 final decisions I decided to go with the color of the first Vette I drove when I was 18 (26 years ago) that started this... I am going with the 1978 Silver Anniversary Siler/Charcoal.

He stripped and sanded it down over the past few weeks and has shot the door jams. On Monday he is going to shoot the silver and then at the end of next week he will start taping it off for the Charcoal and the pinstriping.




When it is done it will look liKe this with Red Interior:

 

Keep us updated. I'd like to see the finsihed product.

 

Wow, that is going to look very sharp.

I agree with the other guys keep us posted with pics as progress goes... It's always nice to see one come back to life and I think yours is going to look very nice indeed.

 

For that model year car, with a paint job as bad as it is, you should be able to buy that car for $5-6K....or it won't be "dirt cheap".

To re-do the paint properly, all of the existing paint will have to be stripped off. There was [obviously] some serious flaw in the previous paint process. That has to be corrected (please don't ASSUME that the problem was isolated to the front fenders) or the new paint may have the same problem. A decent paint job will be around $5000 minimum, considering the problems the paint has now...even if you keep it the same color {which I would recommend}. If you change colors, add at least another thousand.

So, if you found a similar vehicle with a good paint job that you liked, and in the same condition, a reasonable price for that might be $10-12K. Subtract $5-6K for paint (depending on what you are going to do) and you end up with $4-7K. I think you should offer her $5000 and 'dicker' about the difference.

 

I purchased the car for $6000. It runs great and my mechanic could find nothing wrong with the car mechanically and structurely. No rust no issues. The interior was very clean, also came with a complete replacement carpet set and a never used pair of M1131 Blue Glass Tops.

I did some of the prep work myself and found a very reputable local painter who has done a fair share of corvettes and many restored classic cars. I have seen quite a few of his completed works and they are nice. He is retired and does this to stay busy and obviously make some money but he is not a full time body/painter. His pricing is very reasonable and the 1978 Silver Anniversary paint job will cost $4500. He has preped the car properly and feels he has done all he can to avoid the problem it had. The best answer anyone has is that the previous owner had the front of the car repainted and it was stripped with a chemical and not done properly.

When it is said and done I will have $10,500 in the car. From what I have seen on the market and knowing what I know about this car I think I am in good shape. I do not plan to do anything with this car but enjoy the crap out of it for the next years and when I am done let my kids fight over who gets it next. I have not seen a C3 out there for $10,500 that does not need some type of work.

 

Thank You Vette428. The first one I ever drove was a 78 when I was 18 years old 26 years ago. Someday was all I could say. There is something about a Silver C3, I have never seen one that I did not like.

 

The painter just sent me over some pics. These were taken with his phone so not the best. I will be heading over in the morning on the way to work with my camera and get some better pics but for now these will have to do.

 

Holy crap that looks great!! Are those stripes painted on or are they the decals?

 

They are painted. I told him I was going to get the decal kit from Corvette America and he "BS your not putting stickers on this car, I will paint them." He is good!!!!!

 

I'm very impressed!!