painting

[Joe L.]

Richard----

I've got good news and bad news for you. First, the bad news. As you've discovered finding these stripes is virtually impossible. GM sold these as individual pieces, not kits, and there were about a total of 34 part numbers which covered the 81-82 Corvettes. All part numbers have been discontinued long ago by GM and the supply in dealer stocks has been long ago exhausted for all practical purposes. I might add that these stripes were not inexpensive even when available from GM.

Now for the good news. I recently heard that the original manufacturer to GM is going to reproduce these stripes. I do not yet know the manufacturer's name or when they will be available, but I was told "soon". I'm relatively sure that as soon as they are available there will be ads in the various Corvette mags, most likely Chevy/Corvette Trader first. However, I don't yet know if the stripes will be available as individual pieces, as was the case originally, or only as car kits.

[Richard Bethel]

Re: '81 two-tone stripes?

Thanks for the info Joe. I was hoping for an "easy fix" but I guess I'm out of luck.

[Reba]

Re: '81 two-tone stripes?

Richard, there may be some stripes out there even though GM has not produced them in several years. If you have a part number and a good local Chevy parts contact, have him/her search the GM parts Locator. This system shows inventory of all dealers in U. S. and Canada. I have used this in the past to find discontinued items. My contact gives me phone numbers and then I have to do the calling. Good luck.

[Fred Oliva]

Re: 1967 L71 dist cap

Joe & Bill are dead on with their description of what you need. Just wanted to add one bit of trivia: The infamous 'R' everyone talks about is for 'resistor'. GM changed to resistor type caps in 1968.

[Richard Bethel]

Re: '81 two-tone stripes?

Thanks Reba, I tried just that p/n 14030198. None available anywhere... Rich..

[Joe Battocletti]

painting

I had a local paint shop look at my 64 as I am interested in repainting. He says the car needs stripped and gelcaoted. It looks as if the car has been painted twice and I want to restore to the original red. He said about $8,000 to strip,gelcoat, and paint. Is this out of line? Is there any good books on doing the stripping and gelcoat. Can this be undertaken by a novice? I would have a pro paint it but would like to save the cost of preperation. Thanks Joe

[Kenneth S.]

Re: painting

Get Eckler's video "Professional Auto Painting, Secrets for Success." In it, they paint a '64. It's excellent.

[Wendell Allen]

Re: painting

Joe,

For $8K, there's no question that I'd do it myself. Hell, I'll do it for $6K if you'll get the car to me and I'll make a killing in the process.

My first Corvette was a '71 that was wrecked when I bought it. I had a body shop repair the glass, but they didn't paint it. The car had the original metalic green on it, a white paint job over that, and a custom blue/white spider web job over that. I stripped the car to the glass. Then after a few coats of primer, some of Dupont's "Velva Seal", and 5 coats of paint, the car looked like it came off the showroom floor. I didn't have a drop of clear on it, but everyone thought it did. I think I spent $250 max on the supplies.

Don't get me wrong, it's not as easy as it sounds, but it's definitely a doable deal. Just plan on spending a LOT of time on it. Painting the car is the easy part. It's all the dismantling, stripping the paint, and reassembling the car after you paint it that takes all the time. I did my car by myself and spent an estimated 200 hours on it. Sounds like a long time and it was. But I got it all in pretty quickly because I took a week off work to do it. So I had 9 full days, plus a couple of weeks nights and weekends either side of the week off to get things done.

For $8K, you bet. If I can do one a week....... But six is my final offer!!

Regards,

Wendell

[Dale Pearman]

Re: painting

If you have the time, equipment and facilities then go for it! I wouldn't use the old fashioned gel coat however because of all the extra work involved.

An absolute MUST is John Phanpstel's book (2nd edition) on automotive painting on sale at the NCRS online store. After reading this book I wanted to paint a car, any car!

Dale Pearman

[Duke W.]

No gel coat

Your '64 panels do not have a "gel coat" as manufacturered and it should not be necessary on a complete repaint, even if stipped to the bare fiberglass. As a minimum I'd check with some other shops that have experience repainting c2s. Since it's been repainted I would strip it at least to the factory primer, and any body finessing you do at that point will remove the primer. The reddish brown OEM primer is extremely durable and the only way I was able to remove it on my '63 was by sanding.

The price probably wasn't out of line (less the cost of the "gelcoating), so considering doing it yourself is reasonable, essecially if you go with lacquer. It's labor intensive, but easy to work with for an amateur in his garage. The materials cost will only be a few hunderd dollars.

Duke

[George Daina]

6K? I'll do it for 3K......

and still make a killing....all kidding aside, it is no big deal to paint a car. if you can shoot primer without runs, you can shoot lacquer. I did mine in a 2 car garage, 1hp compressor, I did use a very good gun for the paint, el cheapo for the primer. As the Dukster and others pointed out, NO GEL COAT. Strip to the factory primer, no farther, if any body seams show, not to worry, use catalyst primer, that will cover any and all seams and fiber strands. I used a product called Slick Sand by ECI, from FiberGlass Evercoat.

The most tedious part is the prep, glass repair, priming sanding, cleaning, masking. Even it it takes you a month, so what, you can take your time doing it. When painting, the trick is in the paint/thinner mix. There are many guns on the market High Volume Low Pressure, High Volume High Pressure, gravity feed, suction, convention guns of yesteryear, etc.

I used a HVHP, initial paint thinner mix 30/70 and each subsequent coat reduced paint increased thinner.

If you spend $1,000.00 on compressor, paint guns, air lines, regulators, exhaust fan, etc, paint & materials 200-300, you're ahead how much? Do the job yourself, and if you get runs, so what that's what sandpaper is used for.

When you're ready, give shout, you'll get so much advice you won't know which way to turn.

Good luck

[Larry Allen]

Re: painting

Joe, I painted my car myself and I have no experience with paint at all. I read everything I could find and talked to anyone who would listen. I used Dupont products only because it was available and I could get the entire process (sealer, primer, paint) in one line. I wouldn't recommend you do it yourself if it's not going to be lacquer. Lacquer is very forgiving and can be corrected if something goes wrong (like draging your air line across the wet paint, twice!). I sprayed mine in the driveway and it came out super. After 5 years it's still the same and doesn't show signs of any breakdown. I didn't use clear coat and basically did the paint the same way the factory did. The entire project with a new compressor, spray gun and all the best paint available was less than $1000. Plus was a lot of fun and I have a new air compressor. I also did all the body work and preperation, it's just not that hard of a job. But it is time comsuming, allow a lot of time to do it right.

[Wayne W.]

Re: painting

I agree with those that say that they have painted their cars for a cheaper price than a shop would, but put yourself in the shop owners shoes.

200 hrs. @ $36 per hr. = $7200.00 materials materials ~ $ 500.00

---------

$7900.00

And he has to have shop building,paint booth,frame machine, welders,tools of all description, office help, computers,software,insurance, utilities etc. and the insurance companies are holding him to a low rate which may not reflect his actual costs. And you as a Corvette owning customer are the most difficult breed to satisfy. Then if anything should go wrong he must stand behind his work, and you as a group tend to keep your cars for many years, which extends his exposure. No wonder he would want a fair price for doing the job. Think about it. If you take your car in to a dealership for mechanical repairs the rate will be 50+ maybe a lot more per hour. Yet you take your car to the same dealers body shop and the rate is $ 36 per hour. The mechanic is a parts changer, the body and paint man is an artist. Go figure.

[George Daina]

Counterpoint.....

The body shop painter is on the clock, get the job done, get the $$$$ in the shortest allowable time and still make a profit. No room for error, and some tasks may or may not slip through the cracks. If they do, the customer brings the car back, and re-dos are figured in the final bill.

As a do it yourselfer, there is no clock, work at your own pace determined by your ability. If it takes a month or two, no big deal. If something does not look right, re-do it, the shop may say, ah primer will cover that. If there is a run that is not seen, you will sand it and re-spray that area, the shop may re spray, but more than likely sand and buff. Runs, after buffing leave a dark image compared to the surrounding areas in metallic paints.

The do it yourselfer can turn out jobs that equal and may exceed the quality of a shop's job, due to the extra time and effort put in by the do it man. All it takes is practice with the gun, hand speed, paint mixture, and air pressure. In one day, if you have the smarts you can determine the proper mix, pressure and hand speed.

[Christopher R.]

Re: Paint Jobs

I always understood that the DIYer couldn't achieve professional paint job results because he didn't have access to a booth. I thought the DIYer could never get a garage clean enough to avoid dirt getting on the paint. The swirl kicked up by spraying paint in such a small space just deposits dirt all over the paint job. Now one of the listers stated that he painted his car outside in his driveway!

Is the consensus here that a paint booth is not necessary? That, with lacquer, any mistake can be sanded out? How about urethane?