Dalannex

I had my car to all of the local body shops in a 40 mile radius and nobody will paint it. One guy said it's now worth painting, but he would do it for 8-10 K. A little much for me. I don't think he wants to do it. Another guy said $2500, but his shop is known for shoddy work. Everybody else said all they do is fender bender isurance work. No complete cars. Here's what I want from you all. I am painting it myself this winter. First step will be stripping. Who would like to give me some tips on stripping? How it's done, in detail would be nice. What products do you use? Name brands and all. The body work and painting I am not nervous about, it's the stripping that I worry about. I don't want to screw that up. Is there a web page somewhere with directions on this procedure? I have done body work and painting before, but this stripping is new to me. If you all point me in the right direction I'm sure once I get started things will go OK. Oh yeah, it's my 81' I'm painting right now.

Paul 75 L82

I'm stripping mine now. On my 4th week-end and I'm getting close. Go to tech tips on this forum and there's some good info. I'm using KleenStrip for fiberglass and it work good and it's not to strong. Good Luck.

LAvetteman

Lars recommended not stripping, just sanding. Any stripper may leave something behind that will bubble paint. I was advised not to use a DA sander, and if you want super smooth surface, you'd better not. Mediia blast may cause uneveness as well. Some will disagree, all I have experience with is block sanding,(recommended) and DA sanding.

daniel77350

The shop doing my car is sanding most of the car, but on the thick spots, they are using chemical stripper and letting it set for about 30 minutes or so, then sanding off the stripped paint. This will clog sand paper quick, but it seemed to be effective, and I believe the sanding will remove most/if not all leftover chemicals. Of course you will need to wash the car often, and wash it GOOD...

Where are you located? I would be very upset if someone told me painting my car "wasn't worth it"...thats not very good buisness practice, and I would be very vocal about that.

Daniel

joeveto

8-10 G's is a freaking joke. Not even if the paint job could reach out and undo my pants, would I pay that much

No offense, but I think your painting issues lie with your location. I know a crap load of places here, in Akron OH, that will gladly take your money for a crappy job. And I know even more who will charge four to six times more than that, for a paint job that is nearly one to two thirds better.

My hat is off to you for giving the job a shot. Let us know how it goes. It's hard work, but I've seen some home jobs that put the "pros" to shame. Just remember, it's not laying the paint that's difficult, it's the prep work. Sand, sand, sand, and then sand some more. Block sand, spray a dark guide coat, then sand some more. Repeat many times.

After you lay the paint, color sand. Then color sand some more. Repeat for the clear coat. Expect to spend 250 to 300 hours. :yesnod:

In the end, you'll thank yourself. The car will look great.

Rockn-Roll

I got the same backtalk from the Bellevue WA area until I looked under antique auto painting. I can get my front and rear bumper painted for $700 guaranteed (he said he would be fine with redoing it as many times as necessary until I was satisfied). I suspect he would gladly do the entire car for around $3,000 as long as it is ready to shoot (no taping or disassembly). Also keep in mind that the paint on my car costs $250/gallon due to an additional $80/gallon of fine ground aluminum flake added to the metallic dark green mix.

Our rides are considered antiques and nobody want's to mess with them except the classic auto restoring shops. Keep looking and you will find it. Another place to check is the auto dealers who specialize in classic cars...they will know where to get it painted.

Dalannex

I think it is the area I live in. Body shops are all extremely expensive and don't want to do anything but new cars that were smucked up a little. The guy that said the car wasn't worth painting has painted only corvettes for the last 10 years and everybody said he's the best, but expensive. :rolleyes: I guess really expensive. After he said my car's not worth painting, I left and won't go back anyway, no matter how good he is. I decided this is the car I want, I'm never going to sell it, so "worth painting" is all a matter of who's point of view we're talking about.

So,here I am, doing it myself. I think the car has previous repaints. I have to strip it just because of the fact that there is that much paint, correct? I would like to make the car the original color, which is dark blue, but if I don't really need to strip it, wouldn't mind giving it a white fresh up over the top. If I were to strip it by sanding, how long can I expect to spend stripping it by sanding vs. chemical stripping. I like the idea of sanding to strip it, but don't want to spend all winter sanding and not have it done by spring. Hang in there with me a little while here, I have a lot more questions yet before I get started.

CF6873

Sanding is a safe way to strip the paint, but it will be very time consuming and will make the body even more wavy than it is now. You will have to use a DA sander if you want to get it done in this lifetime. I would start with getting a thick soft foam pad for the DA. This will let it conform to contours better than a hard pad. I would use 80 grit to get most of the paint off and switch to 180 as you get into the primer. After you do any body work that is needed you will apply urethane primer-surfacer and then start the hand block sanding process. This will be time consuming but it can be very rewarding. Good Luck, Craig :chevy

GDaina

I stripped my 68 w/Bix Tuff Stuff, Black and White can. Did one panel at a time, wahed it with denatured alcohol, then with soap a nd water. Bix is water soluble.

If you get all thre stripper residue off, paint will not bubble.

GTR1999

What about the Capt Lee's Spra-Strip?? I haven't used it but heard it was safe and didn't cause a paint problem.
Gary

sb69coupe

I personally feel that there are very few areas that you could safely sand with 80 grit on a DA. If you take it over a ridge anywhere on the body, you're going to quickly distort the body line and have a tough time getting a crisp edge back.

I used chemical stripper, KleenStrip, and it worked well. No problems with lifting in the 2 years since.

Shannon

jsimpson

I stripped mine with paint stripper from Home Depot that was labeled as safe for Fiberglas doors. I did my paint four years ago, and even in the hot South Florida sun have not had any problems. The custom Corvette paint shop that did my paint no longer paints Corvettes. It's a matter of simple economics: insurance jobs take a lot less time and effort and bring in a lot more money faster. I'm afraid that's an irreversable trend. If you do a thorough wash and wait a couple of weeks before starting the paint, you'll have no problems because of chemical stripper.http://ChristJesus.go.to
:yesnod: :yesnod: :yesnod:


[Modified by jsimpson, 8:24 AM 9/23/2001]

daniel77350

also watch for stripper thats gets "into the cracks"...like down in the headlights, in the door cracks, gas cap cracks, etc. Tape the cracks up before you do the chemical stripping, then sand the cracks by hand...I dunno if this is nessisary, but still something to watch for...?

Daniel

UKPaul

Hi,
A few of points:
1)Stripper getting into cracks will cause problems at a later date (I know from the bitter experience of paying for a professional paintjob only to have the paint blister badly around a seam a few months later :mad ).
2)US paintshops seem to be going the same way as UK ones in that they deal mainly with insurance jobs in which they can patch them up & knock them out for good money, without the hassle of fussy people moaning about orange peel, fish eyes, slightly visible repairs, etc. To do an entire car properley would take up a lot of their time & labour & also make the oven unavailable for the insurance jobs that are their bread & butter (this is what I was told by a local paintshop).
3) An option that may be worth considering is to remove your lights, sill covers, weatherstrip, interior carpets & anything else you don't want painted. Then rub down the entire car yourself & do any surface repairs required. The car can then be towed/whatever to the paintshop for them to do the final masking up, degreasing & spraying. This would save a lot of time for them in the preparation, strip down & rebuild. It would also ensure that all areas you wanted painted would get painted & not just left as they can't be seen from the outside.
4) Your car is exactly the same as mine & I'd say it was definately worth doing :yesnod: How can they say it's not worth doing? :mad

Let us know what you decide & how it goes.
:cheers:
Paul

R1234

Hi Dalannex, I opted for the media blasting. If done right. The shop took it down to the red primer. They have to be careful around any edges or contours. But, my car was stripped down, no windshield or interior. They also took off all the road grime from underneath the car. Blasted the windshield frame for por15 painting.

I then did all body work. Then, block sanding with 180 grit. Media blasting cost $750.00

lars

I have recently updated my paper on Corvette Body & Paint Basics with current part numbers and mixing ratios. Drop me an e-mail if you'd like a copy, and I'll send you a version in MS Word Format.

I've seen a lot of bad experiences with chemical strippers on fiberglass, even the ones advertised as "safe." However, I know that many people have used them with great success. I block sand all the Vettes I do down with a 16" file board. Not only is this safe and effective, but it also gives you an incredibly straight surface before you even start priming.

Someone stated to color sand the car between color coats, before clear, and between clearcoats. This is not correct, and you never sand between color coats or before clearcoat when using good quality, modern, two-stage paints.

You can strip and paint your car at home with outstanding results - I've done many. And you're right: shops aren't interested in doing this type of work - we avoid doing Vette complete paint jobs at SVE because to do the job right, it takes too much time and occupies too much floor space for too long of a time. This takes profit away from the volume insurance work. So I do the Vettes at home on a side-job basis.

Dalannex

Lars, you have mail.

virtue4u

INsurance is more lucrative work than restoration work. I agree with sanding versus chemical stripping. My paint job and all the body work cost $6000. The guy who painted it has won several awards. Everyone likes it.

SharkByte

Lars, about how much would you charge to do a complete strip/reseal and repaint on an 81'? I have a little bit of a crack forming on the front passenger side where the front bumper cover meets the fender but other then that no body work that I can see with the paint on the car... I'm going to replace the front air dam and probably add an L-71 hood and maybe a small spoiler on the rear. I'll be changing the color from two tone beige on bronze to Sebring silver and I'll probably have the black stripe on the scoop on the hood... I'm guessing doing all the prep work myself would save me a pretty penny on the job???

Easy Mike

Delannex -- I stripped both of my cars with the commercially available strippers safe for fiberglass and had no fiberglass or bonding compound problems. I tried Auto Spray Strip and liked it (somewhat), but it's thin and would not stay on panels long enough to do a good job. If you clean the panels and otherwise neutralize the stripper, you won't have any problems. I went down to bare fiberglass on the '68 and to factory primer on the '80. Others my disagree, but I used nothing below 220 wet/dry paper for sanding. I block sanded (long block) with 220 wet before shooting primer/sealers.