Moved to Paint section.

 

I have two paint shops within a block of my shop, and seeing the amount of work that goes into painting... I don't think you can get a great paintjob for under 10k

sure you can good good… but not great... the last 10% is where you pay pay pay…

I can see the details now, the ripples and tell-tale signs of inconsistent application and incorrect atomization... and im sold that a great paintjob for our cars will be in the 9-12k range... so yes, I think your shops are right on, your going to spend probably 2k just on paint / primer / clear... and this isn't for anything crazy... a crazy candy / metallic would easily go 16k IMO

 

 

I removed all of the trim on a 77 that needed paint, but no bodywork. I also removed the weatherstripping. Took it to a reputable production/insurance paint shop in town(they do work for a well known Corvette shop here in socal). They sanded, prepped, primed and painted the car in factory white for 1800. They wanted another 600. to cut and buff. So, for about 2400. I had a very nice driver quality paint job in the original color. I reassembled, detailed as needed. The car looked great.

 

There is no factory gel coat on a C3 Corvette. Your car appears to be 74 or later and if so will not be fiberglass body panels but Sheet Moulded Compound (SMC), unless some factory body panels have been replaced with aftermarket pieces in which case they will almost certainly be gel-coated fiberglass.

Many body shops paint cars by merely sanding smooth the existing paint and painting over top of that assuming the existing paint isn't peeling, bubbling, or having some sort of other adhesion problem. I was quoted 10K for painting my 79 and that did not include removing any paint, only sanding and smoothing the existing paint and painting over top of that. I have painted several cars without removing the existing paint (one being the 81 Eagle SX/4 in my avatar). Most people here will strongly advise you to remove all the existing paint and primer down to bare SMC. That's the best way but many have painted cars without doing that.

As you know, you're looking at a great deal of work to remove all paint and primer if you have no air power sanding tools and are doing the sanding by hand. Its nice to be able to do things in the best way but you have to also be realistic about how much work you can motivate yourself to do.

 

Priya is right, all Corvettes built since 73, have SMC body panels. Prior to 73, the panels were press molded fiberglass, which are not prone to air pockets either. It's only the aftermarket hand laid fiberglass, that suffers from pin holes and air pockets.

If a car still has it's original paint, you can get away with a "scuff and shoot" paint job, but a car that's already had a couple paint jobs, really should be taken down to bare "glass". Without completely stripping the car, you have no ideal what shape the body is in, and what former repairs have been made. The final paint job is only going to be as good as the surface it's painted on, which is why most reputable shops want to completely strip a car. There are chemical strippers available that are safe to use on Corvettes.

From what I see, it appears your car has had a couple paint jobs, and unless that's an aftermarket hood, I think the white you see is paint and not fiberglass. The factory body panels were not bright white, but some of the hand laid aftermarket panels are. What is the original color of your car, what is the paint code on the trim tag?

Have you spoken to any of the local shops, and told them of your plan to prep the car yourself? A lot of shops won't touch a car that someone else has prepped. Their reputation is based on the quality of the paint job. The surface and prep work is the most important part of the job, making it hard to stand behind a paint job, if someone else has done the prep work.

From what I see, you're already getting ahead of yourself. I'd strip everything off the body first. The hood grill, headlight bezels, emblems, marker lights, door handles, rocker moldings, weatherstrip, tail lamps, etc., should all come off the car, before you start stripping the paint. I'd recommemnd taking the car down to bare glass, then let the shop of your choice, do the sanding, priming and painting. Before going any further, you might want to pick the shop that you plan to have paint the car, and see how they would prefer you prep the car.

My final recomendation would be have the car painted by a Corvette or restoration shop, not a body shop. If you do a search on the Forum, you will find plenty of horror stories from members who took a car to a body shop for a paint job. Body shops are not in the business of painting cars. They usually take paint jobs as filler work, for slow times between collision work. A wrecked car needs to be repaired and returned quickly, because someone is relying on that car for transportation. The body shop knows you don't need your Corvette, so tying up a painter and paint booth with your Corvette, becomes a low priority for them.

 

Thanks, I posted the it there. and will delete it from here.

 

Having owned and operated my Corvette body and paint shop for over two decades (70's to early 90's), I can attest that correctly done paint work can be very expensive.
By the time I quit and went into another line of work (so that I could actually make some real money), I was charging base $4500 for a paint job. All repair and any special needed prep was on top of that. The typical paint job went out the door at approx. $6000, and that was over 20 years ago. And I earned every penny of that (some of my "ordinary" paint jobs ended up winning trophies for paint at car shows).

Having said all that, as long as the fiberglass gel barrier hasn't been abused, it's not really that difficult (though VERY tricky) to do a good job of prep without screwing things up if you know what you're doing.
The problem many times, I think, is that people who work on mostly metal cars think that they can paint Corvettes just as well, but they can't. Fiberglass is not forgiving if you over sand or use the wrong materials, so if you want a decent paint job, you really want to be talking to a shop that specializes in Corvette work.
One of the most common reasons I saw cars come to me with previous paint failure (done elsewhere) was that they were worked on by people who thought fiberglass was just like metal.
Over-sanding (into fiber) on flat areas, sanding away corners and edges (ruining the edge profiles), and using the wrong substrates were probably the most common reasons for failure that I saw.

 

There is no factory gel coat on a C3 Corvette.

 

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c3-general/4124304-painting-shift-console-and-misc-2.html

read #18 of this post ....