Based on the last post about painting.

Added one question. if I provide the painter with my Vette removed of all trim, glass in stress cracks and block sand and then chip all paint off and do a cursery sand job will all the labor be worth any discount I get. one member spent 2 months doing this and price went from 6K to 5K. My problem is I want not only the body but the underside of the hood, the underside of the soft top cover, the door jambs, the firewall and the lip that goes all around under the hood painted. I can do all the sanding and spray paint the underside of the hood, soft top cover, and firewall myself as those do not need to be perfect but I do want the engine bay lip under the hood and the doorjambs to be as perfect as the outside of the car. Actually I don't want anyone messing around the engine's firewall and will for sure do that myself as I need to remove the washer and all bulkhead connections, wires on the firewall so I can glass certain areas, sand them and spray paint them while carefully noting what wire went where and all back together again perfectly, no painter should be trusted with that part but I still want that rail (rain gutter) painted by professionals.

David

 

in most paint shops the guys doing the grunt work are not paid alot of money.....so it may save time and be better to work OT at your job if you can and pay for the prep work then to do it your self. We may strip our own paint but the 17 yr old is going to be doing the heavy lifting on this one

 

It seems everyone is stripping all the paint off, I do not understand this. I have seen many vettes that do not have the serious paint issues that would require total stripping. A great paint job is all in the prep, but why take it all off if you do not have spider cracks, bubbles etc?

 

I always thought this, if it is not cracked or bubbled, can't you just paint over it and get the same results?

 

I'm no expert on painting. But about 20 years ago, I took an autobody class which lasted a few months. Our instructor felt that there was no substitute for the factory paint job, since it is baked-on. I don't know if that applies to Corvettes? But it all boils down to, your best bet is to remove all wax with a cleaner like "prep-sol", and sand existing paint with very fine sandpaper (just to rough it up). The sanding gives the new paint something to stick to. The exception might be a car which has been painted 10 times, but even then you would not want to remove the primer coat, unless it is damaged.

 

After working at a body shop, you learn that whoever you let paint the car, will most likely want to the prep work. Sanding fiberglass, especially a corvette with all the curves, to me takes experience. Sure, you can razor blade most of it, yet a good body man should be able to sand and strip the entire car in about 14 hours. I say, find a reputable paint guy, and let him do the whole thing.

 

If you want a job thAt will last years and years it's better to have the car stripe ,because fiber glass with times do dry and crack so this way you will see even the small one that are just starting ,those one are not visible on the paint but will eventualy. My paint job have 15 years and if it was not for the rock chips it look like the day it left the shop .There is not such thing as a bargain paint job on a corvette .It just like metal cars ,you might paint your car on top of the old paint but who knows when rust will show up.

 

David, I stripped my car of all the chrome and most of the paint. I don't know if it wound up saving me anything but I do have the satisfaction of saying that I did do some of the work. I don't know diddly about it either, I just know the wife was not going to let me paint my car myself in our garage. That is the only thing she has balked at so far and I have done about everything to this vette in my two car garage. She came out to the garage one night to get me to come in and eat and I had started stripping the paint off. Her jaw dropped.

 

I am planning on for sure removing the trim (deduct $600 labor), the engine bay, underside of soft top lid (gel, sand spray paint) but I may not strip. I'm still looking for a painter.

 

Pauld does have a good question. If you sand out the inperfections or glass in and sand out the inperfections and block sand to a smooth surface (not too smooth so the paint can't adhese) why can't you paint over the old paint (my old paint is a good expensive paint job but just too many stone chips everywhere)

 

I found around here that shops wanted to do it all or nothing, so I will paint myself. Since you're in Cali and they have very strict laws with respect to paint emissions and control of paint sales, I think it might be better to let a shop do all the prep work with respect to paint. I get the impression that the days of the paint-it-yourselfer in Cali are over and, about to be over elsewhere, if Government continues to run out of control by dreaming up many of these arbitrary air pollution laws.

The ironic part about many of the new paints which are considered to be more environmentally friendly because they have fewer volatiles, are actually much more deadly because of the isocyanates in them than paints like lacquer (now considered an environmental no-no) ever was.

 

LB68 I have talked it over with some local Vette owners and decided all I am going to do is remove trim, detail engine bay, bottom of hood and bottom of soft top cover and leave the outside as is for them to sand/ glass, spray whaever it takes. Given all mentioned above do not need a perfect sheen paint job spray will work and that should deduct $1500 of the cost for them doing everythingplus i want ot media blast all the linkage that pops the top and cover myself.

Anyway thanks for helping me make up my mind.

 

Cali, so your taking off all the trim and parts yourself, and they are going to deduct $1500?? Sounds like a good deal. Are you taking off the trim on your doors where the glass seals against the fiberglass? Anyways, i would not paint over old paint if you want your new paint job to last. I dont know what type of paint is on your car now..say its laquer..it could react differently to the new paint being applied. In order to do your body work right, its best to get down to the fiberglass and start from there. A nice coat of epoxy primer can seal the fiberglass, and the rest of primers and sealers will give a nice prep for a lasting paint job.