Paint?

[TonyS]

Hi guys,

I am having a hard time deciding next steps. I have an 81 that I purchased in Montreal in 1984 when I was 16. I have had the car now for 31 years. I purchased it from a body shop who restored it in 1984. The car was severely vandalized at that time and the body shop put in a ton of hours to restore the car. It looked great when I bought it. I was 16 and I was dazzled by the car at the time. I used the car for the first 10 years and then moved oversees for work reasons and stored the card for the next 20 years... I now moved to Wisconsin a few years back and took the car out of storage and got the car in great running condition thanks to REINA, yet the body leaves a lot to be desired. She is rust free, but the as she had so much body work done 30 years ago, that body work has waves in it and has also some very tiny bubbles in a few spots.

I set a budget in my mind of 2.5K. As i am presently in-between jobs, I offered the body shops my time to prep her... I took her to a few body shops and after they looked at the car and the fact that there is so much putty work and waves have formed over the years, they came out with quotes in the 10K-12K range. I found one more basic body shop that quoted 4K.

I have seen many 81's for sale in great condition for much less than the 10K paint job. As i have a long history with the car, I am not ready to thrown in the towel.

I would like to get some advise from those of you who have gone through similar situations. Any advice or recommendations would be well appreciated.

Tony

[ekstrandt]

For a complete respray (door jams, engine bay etc.) 4K + seems about right. If you want just get the exterior done. Probably 3-3.5K. Strip all the chrome, lights, emblems etc from the car might save you a additional $500(These are north carolina prices) All depends though on what "waves" and "tiny bubbles" mean.

[DieselSpider]

Depends on the waves and what level of restoration they are quoting for. With the new spray on fillers its now easier to deal with small waves and bubbles/voids that are created when applying paste filler from a can with a trowel. Many shops will coat the entire car with a spray on urethane filler after the trowel work is sanded down and then spend fewer man hours block sanding the cars while others are behind the curve and still doing spot putty on every imperfection one at a time which can take days to accomplish.

Let them know exactly what level of restoration you are aiming for - Daily/Weekend Driver, Local Car Hop Prize Winner or Concourse Restoration as the first will be far less costly than any of the others.

[davery]

I was faced with the same thing a few years ago. I think a lot of places are afraid to mess with the trim, as they do not know the availability if they break something. I have an 85 and I believe it came from the factory with waves in the fenders. Also, from what I understand the factory sometimes used a heavy coat of filler on the body. Anyway, I found a shop to take pity on me and I removed the trim and they did the body work and sprayed in original color for $1800. I think the owner really liked the car and he was getting ready to retire.

[johnsje6]

I had a buddy who is a street rodder do mine as a spare time project over the winter, really didn't need any bodywork, but I took all the trim off, top, bumpers, and did the rough sanding. He charged $3000, spent 3 months on it in his spare time and did an awesome job. Maybe contact some of the local car club people and see if there is a reputable part time painter among them.

[baltobernie]

What about talking with some other owners of vintage cars in your area? Go to a Cars & Coffee-type event and ask around. You might find some folks willing to recommend a shop, or even an amateur who is willing to take on the job. Perhaps you yourself might be interested in doing some of the work. You have lots of options, particularly with the length of Wisconsin winters and your employment situation.

[TonyS]

Hi guys, thanks for your posts. After reading your comments and looking at the options, I managed to find what i think is an acceptable alternative.I found a paint shop to who accepted 3K to remove old paint, repair where necessary 2 coats of paint and 2 coats of clear. I need to remove all external parts. My objective is not a show car but rather a daily/weekend car to use when weather is nice enough to have top down. Below are some pics of the its current condition.

Are the any posts and/or videos that could help me with the removal of the parts? Any advice on removing the bumpers, headlights, taillights, side lenses, door handles would be greatly appreciated.

[azruss]

most of the removal is pretty straight forward. Just be patient and use lots of PB blaster or WD40. The bumpers can be removed by unbolting from the brackets from the backside of the bumper, or removing the shocks. The only hard one here it the drivers side rear as the gas tank is an issue. Just crawl underneath the car and look. most is easy to figure out. The door handles require removing the interior door panels. The arm rests have 3 screws to remove it. One is at the top under that little plastic chrome tab. It just pulls out to expose the screw. The bottom of the panels can just be pulled out unless the PO put screws in. The panel hangs on the door and just needs to be lifted off once it is loose. removing the window roll-up handle can be a trick and there is a spring clip that holds it. search this forum for method. can probably search for a utube as these handles remove the same was as 90 percent of the handles on american cars of the same period. side markers are easy. just look at the inside of the fenders from the wheel wells or trunk. Again, small screws and nuts, so very easy to twist them off. The side glass trim can be pried off with a large flat screw driver.

[wizard124]

I think your quote is about right. I spent $3200 for an entire color change but my body was pretty straight. Yours seems to need more sanding, filling and blocking. The shop needs to make a fair profit and you want the car to look good and to your expectations. Discuss the materials to be used, should be high quality for that price.

This how mine went to paint:


Lots of pieces to remove. Bag and label. Take digital photos. Most of the removal is pretty straight forward. The door handles are a bit tricky; there is a piece of linkage that press fits into a plastic piece and hard to see and get to. Mark the location of the convertible top frame to the chassis. Easy to remove, search for details.

As you get into this, you will discover more and more to remove. I think it is worth the effort.....trunk lock, license lights, boot hooks, window trim, mirror, etc...

[toplessexpat]

Agree with all the comments above .... Adding to be careful when removing stuff to clearly label and retain everything. Some of the intricate pieces can be replaced easily - some not so easily!

Repainted both of our spiders. Yellow one was a rust free black example, lots of surface prep needed for scratches and gouges (plus removing the rubbing strips). Red had a few patches of prior bondo, and was red already. Applying the flares was the hardest piece, and smoothing them in. My paint shop did a really good job though!