NassyVette

I'm painting my 75 coupe candy apple red this winter. It's all stripped and most of the body work is complete. I was wondering if I should paint the car with the bumpers (fiberglass), on or off, same goes for the hood. I've heard that metallic paints are hard to match, and if the pieces are painted off the car that they won't match. I'm confused, because I don't see how I can get a quality paint job if the pieces are all on the car, including the doors, and inside the door jambs, and hood and hood jambs. I thought I could remove the doors and hood, paint the door jambs and hood jambs and let them dry, then put the hood and doors on (new hinges in the doors). That way the jambs would be painted and look good, but it's not very important to get the exact color match in those areas so it wouldn't matter.

Now the bumpers are a diffrent story. How do I paint the bumpers on the car and not get paint caught in the seams? I really don't want that. But I really don't want a chance of the color not matching on the bumpers. If I placed the bumpers on stands near the front and rear of the car (not attached to the car but close to it) and painted right from the body to the bumper would that work? Also...would wet sanding after painting the bumpers off the car eliminate color matching problems.

Last question. All the chrome and trim (door handles, t-top trim, door locks etc etc) is off the car, its basically a fiberglass shell sitting on the car. I removed all of this so after I paint it there wouldnt be any seams around the chrome, was that right to do for a quality paint job? And if so, how long after the car is painted should I attempt to install the chrome and door locks/handles? I don't want it to be too wet so I don't get grease etc. into the paint, or too hard to the paint cracks when I tighten down the handles etc.

I know it's a lot of questions, but those are just about the last things I need to know before I can get my baby back out on the road, and look'n good.

Thanks a lot to anyone who replies :cheers:

Pete79L82

If you are using a "true" candy apple red then it is next to impossible to have the parts match if they are off the car. A "true" candy color ("house of kolor brand")is a base color (usually metallic), translucent top color, and clear. The translucent top color will change the color of the finished product with each coat you put on. So with any part that has the paint put on heavier than the rest will be a different shade. A true candy color is one of the hardest paints to spray and not have it come out blotchy.


If you are using conventinal base coat/clear coat paint in a color called "Candy Apple Red" then the match is not as difficult as the amount of top color will change the finished product very minimally. But high metallic colors will change shade if they are sprayed with the part laying down or standing up.

When I painted my car I removed the bumpers to properly sand underneath then. I then sprayed the edges of the bumpers and body the correct colors and then reinstalled the bumpers before finish painting the whole car.

I painted the car with the doors on. I masked off the opening to the interior and remover the striker bolt so I could open and close the doors while painting (all the weatherstrips were removed). Part of the reason for doing it this way was so I could be sure the stripe alignment was all perfect.

The only part I painted off of the car was the hood (because I needed to be able to reach across for the stripes), head light bezels, mirrors, spoilers and fuel filler lid.

You can see pictures of the way I went about it on my web site.

As far as putting the trim back on, wait at least 24 hours for the paint to set up and any time after that it should not be a problem.

vettfixr

I agree with Pete. True Candy Apple paints are just about the hardest paint to apply evenly. Experts like John Kosmoski (House of Kolor) say that you have to learn how to "walk" the car evenly. By this he means you have to walk around the car spraying as you go along so that each pass has exactly the same paint thickness (or color translucency in the case of true Candy colors) as the last and is exactly applied over the previous strip. If you paint in the conventional manner anywhere you go a little heavy on the paint you will notice a darkening of the candy coat. For this reason I would recommend keeping the hood and doors on the car. If you want to do the door jambs you will have to paint the car first and then remove the doors to paint the jambs. If you paint the jambs first you will have to sand away overspray that occurs on the outside of the fenders or they will show up as dark spots in the candy apple since the translucent coat will be thicker there. You see how the problems start to mount with real candy apple? Painting the bumpers on the car is a little easier question. What I did was to mount the bumpers losely on the car and wedge wooden shims, like you use to mount doors and windows on your house, between the body and the bumper. This helps in two ways. First it allows the paint to go between the two pieces so that you won't have a problem with color or primer showing after the bumper is mounted permanently. If the bumper shrinks or expands due to heat it won't matter because the paint is between both pieces. Secondly it prevents scratches that occur when you try to mount a painted bumper. Since the bumper is already mounted all you have to do is remove the shims and tighten everything up after it's painted. No danger of dinging the body or the bumper with the mounting bolts. Removing all the removable parts is the best way to go because you get new paint under everything and you won't get cracking at the body hardware like you get with a MAACO paint job. If you are going to shoot a two part catalyzed paint you should be able to mount the hardware after a couple of days. Two part paints dry by chemical reaction and not by evaporation like the old lacquers. within two or three days the paint should be as hard as it's going to get. If you want to be absolutely safe you can wait for a few weeks. You should however color sand the paint within the first day or so because after that it will be much more difficult to sand and buff because of the hardness. When you mount the parts make sure they are tight but don't try to torque them to 100 foot pounds. All you need to do is get them tight enough to be snug and compress the rubber gaskets. Any tighter and all you'll do is crack the fiberglass. If you are going to shoot a lacquer paint job (if you can still find the paint) you better plan on waiting at least 3 months and 6 may be better before you even color sand. Lacquer will shrink for quite a while until all the solvents work their way out. Hope this sheds a little light on the subject.

NassyVette

Thanks for your help guys, this is somewhat depressing news. I had no idea that spraying candy apple red was so hard to do. Does this color cost more to paint at a body shop, as opposed to say torch red (C5 red)? This sucks :(

Pete79L82

I have never gotten a quote to have someone do it but I would guess it would be as it is more labor intensive. The base color has to be flawless because any type of defect will be magnified when you put the translucent top coats on. Also it is a three step system (base color, top color, clear) as apposed to torch red which is a two step system (base coat/clear coat) so you will have more in materials.

lbell101

I paint kandies and pearls with the car mostly together. I spray all others with the parts off the car but in the position they would sit on the car (ie. doors upright not laying down). It's hard to get a good job in the hinge part of the jambs with the parts on.

427V8

I asked this question at a paint class and their recommendation was to paint the jambs first, then mask off the jambs, hang the doors and spray it all together...