Bills vette 007

I am going to paint my Corvette myself. I am layering Slicksand and block sanding. I have the car disassembled. The rear Bumper is a 80's style fiberglass and the front bumper is fiberglass. I hope to someday do a body off restoration on the frame as it does have some rust. In order to get the body off I will need to remove the front Bumper and maybe the rear. If I paint the car with the bumpers installed I think it will damage the paint when I remove them. So I think it will be better to paint the bumpers off the car. Same with the doors so I can do the jams and all parts of the doors. What I am worried about is I am using metallic Silver paint and I keep hearing about orientation of the paint. Will that be a problem if I do not have them installed when I spray the base coat? How do you paint the jams with the doors on? Or do you paint the jams first then install the doors? Same with the Hood and T Tops. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

NONN37

Silver can be tough for beginners to lay down evenly. you can pull of the doors and mask the body and only paint the jambs, door jambs, hood jamb,underhood. then hang and line up the doors,hoods, back mask the door edges and paint the body. this is a very common method.(especially kandy paint)
if you want to paint the bumpers you can install them very loose so the paint wont build up at the seam. then just tighten the fastners after fully cured.

Its not to tough if you got your pattern and set up right and maybe finish with some dust coats. If you do it in pieces I like to orientate the pieces as they will be installed so the paint will flow out the same and flakes lay out. so i hang the doors normally on a rack as they would be on the car, and the hood/.tops flat not standing up.

DUB

Therese are different method of painting this. Most of what was mentioned by 'NONN37' is correct.

I have a process that I use where I do not trim out the jambs prior to paint the car .

If you want to hear how I do it. PM me and we can talk.

I can say...that IF you have never shot paint before...especially a metallic color...you WILL want to shoot a few test panels to make sure you have your paint gun dialed in and know what to do and how your paint is going to act..

DUB

Bills vette 007

NONN37
Thank you. Pretty much what I wanted to know. I have two gallons of the Base coat. I was told it would take about 6 quarts to paint the car. I plan on using about a quart practicing on some metal panels I have to get the technique dialed in. I like the ideal of installing the bumpers loose so the paint flows into the space. That way the orientation should be right. I would really like to have the doors on when I paint the body.

Bills vette 007

I pretty much figured that. I think dialing in the gun will be the most important part. I have done a little spray painting before so I think I have pretty good technique but this is different. I can't afford to make mistakes and have to repaint.

DUB

There is a lot more to deal with than just getting the gun dialed-in.

Viscosity of your paint. How it actually sprays and the characteristics of the the paint...because NOT all basecoats are the same.

The travel speed of the gun and the distance from the panel also. The paint you use can possibly be the type that can have a lot of over-spray and dry-spray and that can effect your job the more coats you apply on it. It can cause it to get really grainy and pebbly.

DUB

Bills vette 007

Thanks Dub. I realize this is going to be a challenge. I will spray some Base coat on some metal panels I have to get the technique down. Even if I have to practice with a full gallon it will still be worth it. I have spent a lot of time on the prep work. Block sanding and recoating with slicksand. I'm a little concerned about the jambs and hitting the underside of the fender wells. Don't want to end up with double coats of paint there. Even little things like the headlight doors. I am not removing them but I have removed the hardware. I took the front bumper off. It was glued but It came off clean. I'll make sure it will match up before I paint it. I will reinstall it and leave it loose enough for the paint to flow into the space. I will be giving you a call when I get a little closer to paint. Thanks for the offer.

DUB

I will be waiting on your call.

DUB

redrocketship

Bought a 2019 Z06 brand new and this showed up at 2000 miles. Talk about disappointed.... Common issue with C7's unfortunately..