Hello Gang,

In my ongoing education on Corvette restoration and modification, I got a crash course in paint prep and painting from an old school hobby painter who talked the talk but failed to walk the walk. I learned a lot about what not to do.

n short, he messed some things up severely by not masking off well enough before painting. I now have overspray on everything from brand new headers, stainless brake and fuel lines, the backs of new Willwood calipers which will be visible through my TT2's, on the new springs and shocks, and on the already pained wheel wells and undercarriage. It's taken me months to overcome my fury and disgust to begin to address the problem. Simply reshooting the undercarriage and wheel wells in the same black I did before really isn't that big of a deal, though I hate doing things twice.

But what is the best way to go about removing the overspray from the springs, shocks, calipers, headers,clines, etc. Lacquer thinner? How do I avoid damaging those pieces original finish? Any help and direction would be greatly appreciated.

 

Damn I would be pissed......it pisses me off just looking at this photo.......WTF was that guy thinking not spending time at least taping a makeshift apron on the fenderwell.....

Anyway.....I would start by getting some old T-shirts and a gallon of enamel reducer. Try an area that is not as noticeable and see how it comes off with a soaked rag........a spray bottle with reducer in it is handy too.
Stuff like the backing plate and caliper will need to be removed to do a good job and to uncover things like the steering knuckle. It is a slow process......
Remove the A-arm flaps and get new ones or leave them out like I did.......gives hot underhood air another avenue to escape.....
If it doesn't come off easily then you will need to refinish or buy more whisky/beer and grunt it out.......
Stuff like the wheel well will do better to just refinish it with a semi-gloss black and lot of taping off.......garbage bags and newspaper are invaluable to wrap things up or make "cut lines" to mask things......you can get creative with this......do it right and it will look better than before......

Jebby

 

Thanks Jebbysan.... Yep, I can feel my bloodpressure skyrocket everytime I go into the garage. The wheel well you see in the photos has been resprayed already. I'll do one well at a time, but getting the overspray off is the big question mark for me. I've gone from pure hatred, to telling him to give me some money back or we're headed to court, to moving on to fix it, and back and forth. But yeah, it sucks.

I'll give your process a shot maybe on a fuel line in a back well, which I can always spray black if it doesn't work out. But man, I worked hard to get that undercarriage stuff nice and he jacked it all up. Even the new body mount hardware was shiny and new and now its a mess. What makes it worse is that his line was contaminated and I had fish-eyes everywhere. I had to sand it all down again. And I paid for that crap: a couple grand for materials plus labor and I went backwards. I'm all kinds of twisted angry about it. But we gotta keep moving forward, right?

 

 

I’ve used progressively finer grades of rubbing compound to avoid damaging painted surfaces. I start with Meguiars Heavy Cut, then Medium Cut, then Fine Cut. The challenge is to try to find the sweet spot - using the more aggressive cuts will necessitate following up with the finer cuts to achieve the desired finish whereas starting with the finer cuts initially will result in more time rubbing. Of course, this applies more to the smoother surfaces but I’ve had success with a toothbrush for the tighter spots.

 

you strut rods are bent up pretty bad ,,
tell him to come back and clean it ,, I would have him in a headlock and be pulling some Superfly Snuka moves

 

Another hard to explain thing.......while using your soaked enamel reducer rag.......you can adjust how soaked the rag actually is.......a damp rather than soaked rag will by safer on painted surfaces......

And yes...part of my anger was seeing that your original photo shows that you had sanded the car again which meant the paint application was poor as well...........
Urethane is damn near impossible to remove when dry......so if it doesn't came off easily.....remove and refinish the piece before you spend any time on it.....
My Dad and I used to paint a lot of cars......I was shooting one stage acrylic enamel and single/dual stage urethane at the age of 20.....my Grandpa was a bodyman who worked out of his 2.5 car garage for 30 years....paint work is like the Thanksgiving Turkey....hours of prep for 15 minutes. 90% of paint work is prep.....all kinds of prep....masking, sanding, block sanding, guide coats of filler primer.....wipedowns, tack cloths....damn near sterilized paint guns and cups......picking the right thinner/reducer for conditions, etc.....etc.......to paint a whole car takes about two hours of continuous movement and mixing......
I could still do it but I won't......sometimes I do......I still know how......but it is important that whoever does this again you keep an eye on and it should take damn near a week for one person to block, prime and get a car ready to shoot......I know you will....kinda saying this for the benefit of anyone else that reads this thread....a good painter can adjust for conditions too....regardless of where and what the car is sprayed with......

Materials got whacked out of control when the EPA stepped in 15 years ago to control VOC's.......this makes it double important to cross I's and dot T's......

Good luck and take your time....

Jebby

 

Stroh, so sorry. Some good advice above from Jebby and 69L88, and I agree with forman - - if the struts were bent to get a good alignment, you might consider adjustable rods. I would add that if you use enamel reducer (done so many times) I would use low temp (quicker evaporation) reducer. This will help you avoid cutting through secondary surfaces quite so much.

Regardless, you have a lot of work ahead of you - and you're going to have to disassemble some stuff to get it all done. It's double work, yes. But you have a beautiful car and it will be okay in the end. Deep breath, and tackle it a section at a time.

Again, sorry. Best, Paul

 

I would start with gentle soap and water with a dish scrub pad, not scotchbrite that scratches but non scratch....as sometimes greasy c3 undercoating stops the paint from sticking..you also do not want to smear what could come off with soap and water..
Evaluate…
then i would go in with solvent (try xylol and progress to lacquer thinner) obviously testing an area for softness..and or rubbing compound as mentioned..
good luck!

 

Dry-ice blasting looks pretty interesting. I wonder if it would work for this?

 

 

"Remove the A-arm flaps and get new ones or leave them out like I did.......gives hot underhood air another avenue to escape....."

Jebby, I have to ask,
When you removed the A-arm flaps, did you get dirt and debri coming into the engine compartment?
I was considering leaving mine off like you to allow heat to escape.

 

Dust mainly…I don’t take the car off road LOL….seriously though….not really….just drive on dry days…..no real side effects…I have to wipe the dust off more I guess….
The tires are out there a bit….the fender wells catch everything….

Jebby

Jebby

 

Thanks!

 

Stroh,

How are you coming along on your car? I hope you are forging ahead!

I want to see your car at Bloomington Gold in June.

Regards,
George

 

I come a bit late to this but I would favour the use of a clay bar first to remove a lot of it on any smooth surfaces. That way you don’t need to risk the use of thinners etc on existing paints.

Try and get a clay bar that works with just water like those from Bilt Hamber.

 

Well Hey There George! Been a long time.

I'll definitely make it to Bloomington again if my wife and I get that MVP treatment you gave us last time. Thanks again for that. And for the plates years ago.

Yes, we are forging ahead. Took the car down to bare glass this week. I'm still sore, days later. I've got a truly pro paint crew working with me on it. This time it'll be done right!

Epoxy primer. Block. Block some more. Block some more. Then 2002-03 Electron Blue. She's coming along. Just slower than I'd like. It sucks when you have to do it twice.

Thanks for checking in. How are your 75 verts? Have you added to the stable?

 

Thanks Craig! That makes a lot of sense to me. That'll be my first try on the calipers in particular.

 

I am glad you are making progress. I look forward to seeing your completed car.

No new cars here. Both kids will finish College this May. Hopefully, after that I can get have a couple of bucks for a car budget.

 

Understand and looks like the painter did not bother to mask anything. What is the recourse? Better Business Bureau?, post photos on the internet?

But;

At this point, the thing to do and agree with the above,
"Stuff like the wheel well will do better to just refinish it with a semi-gloss black and lot of taping off."

I would get some spray cans of semi gloss black and paint all the blue/purple overspray. I do not think you are going to ever get all that overspray off the suspension, etc. Unless, you take everything apart and rebuild it again, which is not a practical solution.

As a start, Who was the painter???