I’m looking at a new paint job soon. Same color but looking for advice as to what process the painter should follow in a c3. The body on my car is in good shape. I have almost no body work but don’t know what might be under the existing paint. My understanding is that it should be sanded down to fiberglass then paint then clear. Is this the right way? Any advice would be helpful to help me choose the right person for the job. I’m willing to answer any questions that would help with advice from the forum.

 

Rookie here.....sanding it down is the only way to find imperfections "that weren't there".

 

Is there any cracking in your current paint? Do you have new body bushings under it?
You could reshoot the car if the above two things are so.....as long as the current paint is not too "thick".....
I am sure I will get some "No Way" feedback on this....but I used to paint cars and good hard old urethane paint is an excellent base....it will also save major $$$$.......
The second thing is PLEASE shop your painter/body shop wisely.......talk to as many potential painters as possible.....look around their shop...is there five old cars in there in primer with dust on them? That is not the place to take it to......you get one shot at it so choose carefully......don't be a "Car Show Horror Story".

Jebby

 

Can't even begin to answer your question without asking first what's your budget for this paint job.

 

Wish I heard that advice yrs ago, pain jail horror story here.
Get everything, every change in writing period. No way to tell whats under it til you take it down..the right shop will know how to handle the car. Some shops get pizzed when the customer tells em their job but i get what youre saying.

 

Why not leave that to the painter? You're paying for his\her expertise.

 

I think OP wants to know if it makes sense to find someone cheap that'll do a good enough job, or if they really need to spend the money for someone to sand/prep properly.

 

ok, can you explain why I would need new body bushings? Is that to prevent fiberglass flex cracking the paint? I do have some cob Webb cracking.

 

I haven’t decided. But I want a solid good job. I’ve heard from 5k to 20k. I’m trying to get pointers on what the steps on the prep process should be so I can be sure to match that up to what a body shop would do.

 

Yes….old shitty body mounts will crack a new paint job after the first ride….
If it is already cracking in places….it needs to be stripped….

Jebby

 

you are correct but how would I be able to detect steps that may be short changing me? I have one guy who says he’s done c3’s before. He said he would sand down to the glass with 80, 180, 220, then 320. I like that idea.

 

not sure how you got that from my post bud but you are way off. Looking for good advice not senseless comments.

 

Back in the day, methylene chloride stripper allowed me to remove all of the paint from a Corvette in less than a day, without disturbing any of the fiberglass. Today, the chemical strippers available are next to worthless so mechanical sanding is needed. The main problem with sanding is you can do a lot of damage if you don’t know what you are doing and/or are trying to rush the job.

Look carefully at the seams that run along the fenders about 3” below the ridge. These typically have shrunk/sunk/cracked over the years and the proper way to address the condition is to grind a taper in the area of the seams and use mat/resin to restore the contours. Use a polyester resin on your car, do not use epoxy.

Once all the paint/primer has been removed, wipe the bare fiberglass with lacquer thinner and look for cracks as the thinner evaporates. Each crack will need to be repaired with mat/resin. Do not be convinced that Bondo can be used as the cracks are virtually guaranteed to return.

All of the chrome and trim needs to be removed unless you’ll be happy with an Earl Scheib quality job.

Insist on a polyester based primer surfacer. I’ve used Morton Eliminator for over 45 years. If you want straight panels, it will take a lot of priming, blocking and sanding to get everything smooth.

If you are going with a solid color, you don’t need to clear coat. If a metallic, then you do need to clear.

These cars were painted at the factory with acrylic lacquer. Most shops today use urethanes. Be aware that with urethanes, you will get more “orange peel” so if you want the glass-like smoothness of lacquer, the painter will have to color sand the penultimate coat and “float” a final coat to allow it to flow out. Even then, you may need to compound the finish. All of these steps take time and time is $$.

Assess the condition of the paint in the door jambs and the drip rails under the hood. Nothing is more disappointing regarding a nice paint job than to open the doors/hood and see the obvious difference.

Ask how the painter will mask off the car. You don’t want a bunch of overspray all over the place.

Assess your gaps. Once the paint has been stripped, then is the time to fix poor gaps.

Ask what paint brand and paint line the painter will be using. Paint is ridiculously expensive but you don’t want to have it sprayed with some off-brand just to save a few bucks.

 

I had responded to the guy above me who thought you should defer to the expertise of a professional, which I tend to agree with. You had asked us to confirm if strip, sand, prep and paint was the right way. I assumed the reason you asked that was that if you could get a result that was good enough for much less, that you would consider it.

Anyway, is there any way you can check the work done by some of the places you're considering? Seems that would help you get a good feel for if you'd be happy with the work. I know I'd feel a lot better about dropping some coin after seeing a customer car done with a similar budget that meets or exceeds expectations.

 

My best advice:
prepare to embrace Ben Dover.

 

Has anyone had any experience using Cooper's Stripper?

 

Like you said, you don't know what's under your current paint. You might first find a spot on the car and scrape or sand away the paint (or have a shop do it) to uncover just how many layers of paint are under your current paint. If you find just clearcoat/paint & primer, ...perhaps the car was stripped and repainted (one paint job) previously.

If it was properly stripped before, and you only have one layer of paint/clear on your car now, then you could get away with a simple repaint ...over your existing paint. You'd want the shop to carefully hand wetsand down the current paint (the more you remove the better -- and production shops don't want to do "hand" sand anything these days ...so you'd have to police this). I suggest "hand sanding" bc it slows down the process and helps ensure mistakes aren't made. Using a DA sander usually results in rounding off the nice crisp lines and edges of a C3. And just about every painter is going to try to dangle a watch in front of your eyes and try to convince you they can do a better job with an air sander than by hand ..which may or may not be true -- some guys are really good. At the end of the day you want your C3 to come back with nice and 'crisp' fender edges and proper edges around the fender lips -- with a zero-tolerance screw-up policy! ha ha.

Then the shop would lay down another thin coat of primer/sealer, sand again to perfection ....and finally lay down new sealer & paint on top of the new primer (of course repair any cracks or other bugaboos first). I know the idea of a repaint is not "ideal" in the wonderful world of "ideal paint jobs" and pink unicorns, but it's perfectly acceptable and should last a long time. If this turns out to be your situation, then it unlocks a lot of painting and shop possibilities and cuts your costs way down. You could literally have about any legitimate paint shop re-paint it (with the hand-sanding cavieat listed above), and have more shops and prices to choose from.

Or, you and your buddies could hand-wetsand it (carefully) yourselves, which would probably take an afternoon ...or a day ...assuming you stopped to have some beers and talk wives and football in between! lol. I wouldn't remove the bumpers, I would unbolt them, back them off about a 1/2" and re-bolt with a spacer between the bumpers and the body (i.e ..oversized nuts on the bolts, etc). Then the paint shop can just spray the car and get good metal-flake distribution and not have to fuss with moving the bumpers around. You could even take it to like [gulp] Maaco if you have a good one in your area and have witnessed & approved of some of their top paint jobs (using their top paint material).

But if you find several paint layers beneath your current paint, then stripping down to the GM black (or fiberglass) is the way to go (I would stop at the GM black primer myself). That costs labor $$ and really you need a shop who's been there and worked on lots of Corvettes. Years ago at a Corvette shop I worked at we just used Zip-Strip and any other regular hardware store paint strippers. Nothing fancy. We stripped and re-painted many 50s-60s Corvettes for several years. The key is to thoroughly wash away the stripper (cleaning pesky hard stripper deposits with a brush/sandpaper/scuff pad, etc) so that ZERO residual stripper deposits remain. Don't use on urethane bumpers (for readers with urethane bumpers)

Sounds easy but production shops take shortcuts so it needs to be 100% clean of stripper residue ..and neutralize the bodies with water and a scuff pad afterwards, per the instructions. These are the little persnikety details that production shops aren't great at policing their staff to do. Then let the body sit a while (a couple weeks), to 'breathe' and dry out. Or a couple good, solid dry days in the sun (rotated to face the sun). Again, waiting isn't something production shops really want to do. We never once had a problem with stripper or paint bubbling months or years afterwards (most painted cars came in for regular service for several yrs after that). These days a shop could probably use lamps on the body to help dry out faster.

I have a whole gallon of Capt'n Lee's fiberglass paint stripper in good cond I'd sell if anyone is interested.... (S WI area). I probably won't ship..


Sorry for the long post....

 

this is exactly what I was looking for. I follow most of what you are saying. I have a guy coming to look at it today. He seems to know c3’s and I’ll ask about the things you mention. Would you mind if I reach out to you once I find out what all he would do if he does my job?

 

I wouldn’t want to take Ben away from you so I’ll let you keep him. Oh wait, that might be your way of saying it might be expensive. Got it,…..now tell me something I don’t know.

 

this is very helpful too. I have a few paint chips and under them looks like fiberglass. I’m not sure but it looks like it was sanded down and one coat is on it now but I’ll ask the guy today and see what he sees. A little nervous about a repaint but you explaining it makes me feel better and may be the way to go. As long as the paint job is going to last and look great then I would seriously consider the repaint if it is just one coat now.