Brandon's Z

I have a very early 1990 Z that I drive and enjoy. It looks good but has paint pitting from age/wear. Very small pits from usage (wear, tree sap, birds, 35 years of love, etc). Has anyone reclear coated their Z? I have experience reclear coating some paint jobs, but it really depends on the previous paint. I am not an expert on paint, but I have laid down some pretty good work that was color sanding to perfection. Said with a little humility. Let me know if anyone has experience either way. I am not going to go through the effort of repainting my car because my car looks great, but I would love to have the extra flash/pop of a completely flat/recleared paint job. Thoughts

Z51JEFF

Don't think it's possible with the minor pits. As you know paint flows and as it tries to flow over a pit it will just go around it leaving a pit in the material. I'm not a pro painter but paint small projects and have been around painters most of my life so I do understand the psychics of painting. Last thing I painted was real bumper side trim after an encounter will the garage wall😤

phrogs

without photos of what you have going on its hard to say but You cant just sand it and throw down some clearcoat any base that's been exposed to the sun will need attention and it will most likely require a whole repaint as its been sun damaged go to the paint and body section and ask this there. theres nothing special about a ZR-1 paint it was painted next to all the other C4s going down the line.

My first ZR-1had clear failure and I ended up painting the whole thing, wet sanded the whole car primed where it needed it, sanded it again to the requirements of the paint system, Then repainted new base coat and then clear and I cut and buffed it to a Mirror shine. .

walleyfisher

If you are going thru all the trouble to prep for respray of the clear, you have already preped it for a complete respray
you just didn't purchase paint and primer. I would prime the bare spots after preping and spary color on the entire car, then clear, cut and buff, you will not be disappointed

Brandon's Z

Maybe a different thought. How many mils of clear coat were on these cars from the factory. I have a paint depth gauge but doesn't work on fiberglass. I may be able to cut the clear coat deep enough to remove the pits. Any recommendation on paint depth gauge for Corvettes?

Z51JEFF

Your wasting you're time here,the only thing you can do is a complete paint job.

Rush91

100% The factory clear coat is so bad on my '91 Z with only 60,000 miles, it's embarrassing......... It looks like they didn't even coat parts of the car. I've taken it to different paint shops and all say the same, re-paint the whole car. I can't afford that, I've looked into getting the hood at least wrapped, but that also isn't cheap. I feel your pain OP, Vettes have never been known for great factory paint.

Z51JEFF

I agree,the top of the bumper on my car looks like somebody spread cottage cheese on it then blew a bunch of clear over that.