Paint stripping???

[jim's82]

My 82's original paint is fading & in some areas it's began to check. I took it by a body shop the other day for an estimate & almost stroked. I have no fiberglass work to be done... it's all in great shape. They hit me with an est. of $8000.00. He said due to the checking of the old paint it would all have to be stripped & this is why the price is so high. I've yet to get another estimate but was thinking maybe I could prep the car myself & then let a professional paint it. Does anyone have advice for striipping off the old paint & is that really the way to do it versus sanding? One last question.... the nose has a few semi-deep scrapes in the rubber. Can the scratches in the rubber be filled with anything that will stick? Thanks a million for your input, Jim.

 

[tacoed]

Paint BLASTING !!!

Hey wildMan

I know of a cat up in Texas that will Media blast it for $450.00 / $5.00.00. He is close to Houston when I get back in January I plan to have him do mine along with 2 other guys he will take it down to the gel coat the entire car... If you can wait and want to make the trip you ca get in with us.

 

[resto75]

I think I would get a few more estimates. That sounds very high. It depends on the quality of the paint job too. If you want a show car expect to pay more then if you just want a quality paint job for a street car.

Also find out how they plan to strip it. Sanding would be the best and media I understand is good it it's done right. Stay away from chemical stripping.

 

[cmegga]

Why stay away from chemical stripping ??

 

[klb76]

8000.00 is definitly high although you can expect to pay a pretty penny for a good paint job. All the estimates I have gotten have been for over 4000.00 except that drunk guy at the bar... haha he said he would do it for 1000.00... thats the last time I bring up my car at the bar, everyone wanted in on some work!

 

[Colleen]

Why stay away from chemical stripping ??

The chemicals can get absorbed by the fiberglass and may come back to haunt you when they go to work on your new paint.

 

[JonM]

I had my car media blasted. The guy did a wonderful job, cost me 700 dollars here in the "tax me state" of Connecticut. I did all my work priming and sanding afterwords. Then had someone shoot it for me. Its time consuming but worth the savings, and an idel winter project. If you do go the blasting method, check out the guys work, ask for three or four people who have had it done by him. CALL them and ask...If the guy doesn't know what they are doing. they can really screw you up. Their are many different types of media from nut shells to glass beads to soda.

http://members.tripod.com/jamislow/

My car after it was media blasted

 

[Tom Bryant]

Jon is absolutely right. Whaerever you go get references and check them out. There are memebers here that have paid show car prices and got barely better than backyard quality. You will also run into painters that have a higher opinion of their talents than they should.

Between media blasting and sanding it's up to you and how much of the work you want to do. The key is that all cracked and checked paint has to be removed or it will show up later; no matter how well you hide it; no matter what products you use, and no matter what the sales guy tells you this or that super primer/surfacer/building coat ect. will do.

Tom

 

[jim's82]

Thanks everyone!!

JonM, wow, that really does strip it clean by the looks of that picture.

klb76, did you get that guys nimber from the bar?? Haha. I do want to save money but, not that despirate yet.

Does anyone know if the rubber nose can be touched up with anything. I was thinking maybe some kind of resin in the deep scratches but then thought I may need something more flexible, any thoughts?

 

[Tom Bryant]

Jim,

Your automotive paint store has the products you need to fill scratches and even repair cuts and tears in these bumper covers.

Tom

 

[JonM]

Depending on the damage...check this out...

http://www.corvetteforum.com/techtips/viewsubtopic.php?SubTopicID=112&TopicID=2

 

[Tom Bryant]

Excellent article on bumper repair Jon. anyone should be able to produce good results following those directions.

 

[69MyWay]

Jim,

I am not in the paint and body business, but due to my employment I am very in tune with it.

As a whole, this is obviously a pure customer pay job. Does it really cost $8K to do this job?....No. However, a "good" shop will significantly over bid the job. If you walk away, then they may have saved themselves the headache of dealing with what in their opinion is an overly picky owner that would just be a headache to them anyway.

If you accept the bid at that high of a price, they are making enough extra money off the job to deal with later complaints, re-shooting, buffing, polishing, basically anything they need to do to make you 100% happy.

When a shop gives you a $1,500 all over price, you may get a pretty decent job. Be advised though that at that price, they can't afford to do the job twice, or cater to your every complaint if it does not come out looking factory perfect.

Sometimes a shop really does not want your business due to a poor taste in their mouth from prior Corvettes (owners) and so they bid you out the door. It is a polite way of saying, "thanks for selecting us to do the bid, but we really don't need this job".

On the flip side. If you do the prep work yourself, then go to a paint shop 99% of them will either not accept the job, offer no guarantee, or charge you just as much as they would have anyway because they are still going to go back and sand the whole thing down because their reputation is on the line. If the paint work is perfect, but the prep is poor, the overall look will be poor.

I do all my own work possible, and accept the "lumps" that come with it down the road. Ask a lot of questions, take your time, and make a wise selection.

 

[Evolution1980]

Jim's82 ,

I paid $7400 for my paint job. In retrospect, I think it may have been a little high (I paid $7500 for the car iself! :L), but fair enough. $6500 woulda been a nicer number But anyways... The majority of the cost is in prepping the car. As 69MyWay said, if you go to a top-shelf paint shop, their rep is going to be on the line. They won't want to do a shoddy job. That's why I took pics of the car during the prep. I didn't realize just how much work went into it. The amount of pieces that have to come off our sharks really astounded me. I never imagined until I saw for myself. Here are a few things that they had to work with.

I wanted everything visible painted (door jambs especially). I wanted no trace of the previous color. So, they had to take the door panels off so they could shoot the entire door frame. Then just to paint the mirrors and around it, they have to take the mirror off. Taking the mirrors out requires taking out the door glass! Then they have to be careful with the mirror mechanicals since I have remote mirrors.

They had to paint the hood separate because I took them a new aftermarket hood. They then painted both sides of the hood. It's nice having the inside of the hood the same as the outside. It definitely helps the "show" appearance. They then had to mount the hood back up, and as I've been told, aftermarket hoods don't always sit exactly in line with the body, so aligning it as best as possible takes some time & effort.

They had to take out all the door locking mechanicals, the T-Top pin receptacles (which I didn't even know had alarm sensors!), and the interior trim which butted up against the body and the T-tops.

They went through and filled in all the pits on the body, and smoothed out any irregularities in the body that developed over time. They also were able to save my front bumper, which was heavily warped and scratched deeply.

They had to remove the headlight bezels, as well as jack the car up so they could evenly and effectively spray the lower part of the front bumper.

All this stuff had to be done before they could paint the car. I had no idea how much prep was involved. These guys also sanded the car by hand, as to make sure that they didn't round off the edges of my lines (ex: the creases over the wheel wells).

And then to top it all off, I requested a paint scheme that wasn't just a shoot it and wet sand it. They had to paint the fades in, just like the decals of the 82CE. (I knew going in that was going to be a little bit of a price increase.)

Also, reiterating what 69MyWay said, ask plenty o' questions about their post-paint policies. What if the paint starts to bubble or crack after a couple months? How long will they 'warranty' their work? How clear coats are they going to put on? What if you find defects in the paint after you've had it for a couple months, such as unevenly coated surfaces or serious paint runs? What about touching up spots that get pitted or whatnot...do they have a friendly policy where they'll do that for XX amount of time after it leaves their shop? What about it you want to take it back later and have them touch it up chips or whatnot? How much? Cheaper than normal since you had the work done there?
These are all questions I wish now that I had known to ask when I was making my decision. But I didn't know. My biggest disadvantage was that I didn't have the great guys/gals here at CAC! That could have made all the difference!

As I've found, the worst part about just getting your car painted is that you will notice EVERY little paint defect, chip, pit, etc. I've been told by enough people not to get upset because these things happen. My contention was that I never notice it on other people's vettes and I've seen hundreds up close and personal. Yes, this is true, but I don't spend hours/days inspecting the car. I may spend, in reality, 5-10 minutes looking it over. I likely won't notice any minor imperfections, but I'm sure the owner could point out all kinds of 'em. Just goes with the territory I guess...

Feel free to check out before and after shots of my car. If you have a yahoo account, login and you can see the pics full screen, otherwise, you get a smaller viewed picture.

http://photos.yahoo.com/TheThingsIdo
look under vette - stripped and vette - car for the pics.

 

[jim's82]

Thanks again to everyone that responded..... lots of good info & many things to think about.

I was just outside playing with my car.... I've had 3 problems with it that I couldn't seem to get a handle on. I can now drop that to 2. My A/C & heater fan would only blow on the high setting. I tried to trace the wiring from the control switch to the fan & accidently stumbled on to what I think may be some sort or relay. It's mounted on the firewall just above the heater core. The relay (?) has a plug going in to the bottom of it. I unpluged it, checked the wires & reattached it.... now all fan speeds work. Must have been dirty or just bad connection.

Now if I could just figure out why my drivers side wiper sweeps accross the windshield post, a good 3" too far. I have the linkage adjusted as far in as it will go. It's making me nuts. It doesn't appear that the wiper arm can be removed & reinstalled in a diferent position..... that would just be too easy.

Last problem I'll probably have to take in for someone with the right tools to check. This summer, we converted the A/C to the new 134(?). The A/C worked great for about 3 weeks but now seems to have lost it's stuff. The compressor cycles way fast. kicks on & off about every 3 - 4 seconds. It's blowing fairly cold, just not as cold as it did right after charging it.

Thanks again for the help.... feel free to give your 2 cents on these other problems if you have a thoughts.

PS (to: Tom Bryant) We have the same last name.... maybe this corvette madness runs in the bloodline This 82 is my 4th C3, I've had 1-77 & 2-79's. Bought my 1st one (77) in 80. I'm keeping the 82.

 

[Evolution1980]

Now if I could just figure out why my drivers side wiper sweeps accross the windshield post, a good 3" too far. I have the linkage adjusted as far in as it will go. It's making me nuts. It doesn't appear that the wiper arm can be removed & reinstalled in a diferent position..... that would just be too easy.

...'cause we're all about quick and effective solutions to your most common problems. Easy fix for your windshield wiper problem??? Don't drive in the rain! Problem fixed! :gap

Last problem I'll probably have to take in for someone with the right tools to check. This summer, we converted the A/C to the new 134(?). The A/C worked great for about 3 weeks but now seems to have lost it's stuff. The compressor cycles way fast. kicks on & off about every 3 - 4 seconds. It's blowing fairly cold, just not as cold as it did right after charging it.

This could be due to a few factors. First of all, R134a chemically isn't as cold as R12. Also, the R134a gas is smaller than that of R12. Many times when a conversion is done, the original plumbing will leak more freon and do it faster. I'm not too surprised at your situation. You may want to look at replacing the plumbing if that turns out to be your problem. But a pretty good guesstimate is that you have a small leak that you in fact had before, but because R134a is smaller, it will leak out faster (or easier...)

 

[jim's82]

That makes really good sense about the leak. It did have a really slow leak before converting it. In fact, that's why I did switch, the old stuff got way too expensive to keep replacing as well as the environmental issues. I talked with a guy that said he'll pressure test the system with some sort of dye for $20.00 next week. I guess that would tell me just how bad the problem is.

As far as my wipers, your right. I never intentionally take the car out in the rain but have been caught in it from time to time. I was hoping to have it working better before the Corvette rally in Eureka Springs Arkansas this October. The left wiper frequently gets stuck on the post, I have to roll my window down & release it every few minutes. It's such a nuisance, it's easier to just stop & wait out the rain.

Thanks

 

[69MyWay]

First inspect all the wiper linkage for wear/excessive play.

Second, look at the point coming out of the wiper motor where the wiper tranmission arms pick up and run to each side of the car. You will notice a 10mm or 8mm hex head nut on each side of the pivot for the motor on each arm. You will also note that it is slotted on each side or one or the other of these hex head nuts.

Now, there is your adjustment. You have to back off the nuts, wiggle the arm side to side (driver to passenger, passenger to driver) to get it to move. You may also want to split it open there and put some fresh grease in.

Now, adjust as needed, keep the windshield wet to keep from binding up the motor and scratching the glass, and keep adjusting until they both swing right and don't run into each other etc.

Good luck!---then drive in the rain all you want (we did it today coming home from the show!)

 

[jim's82]

Unfortunately it's been adjusted all the way to it's max & still the wiper travels too far over the windshield post. By looking at it I can't tell how it got so far out of adjustmnet. Is there any way to change the wiper arms position or the lever that the linkage attaches to (at the base of the wiper) to bring it in a little further? Or are these permanantly positioned as is? I was reading my assembly manual for clues (it really didn't offer much) but mine says that the passenger side wiper should rest on the stop when off. My drivers side wiper is the one on the stop with the passenger side wiper on top of it. Which is actually correct as far as you know?

 

[69MyWay]

Your arms may be mixed up.