Painting my 67 Coupe

[Andrew K.]

I am going to have my 67 Sunfire Yellow coupe painted. I have never had an entire paint job done before. What do I need to know and to be watchful for as I start this process? What might I expect to pay for a show worthy job? I live in Florida.

[Wayne G.]

Re: Painting my 67 Coupe

Andrew ,
Thats a tough question. If you are just looking for a good paint job check with the local NCRS members for advice on a quaility painter. But if you are going to Flight Judge the car you have a whole range of issues to think about. If you 're FJ the car pickup a JUdging Manual and follow it for the correct finishes. Remember GM didn't build "Show Cars" on a daily basis so don't get sold on that flawless BC/CC (2-Stage) paint process.
Good Luck,

Wayne

[Chris E.]

Re: Painting my 67 Coupe

Andrew,

Wayne's advice is sound. Ask youself what you want to do with the car. If you think you are going to Flight Judge the car, WAIT before the paint the car. Do a lot of reading on this board and asking a lot of questions.

If you are going to Flight Judge the car, and you do NOT want an 85 point deduct for paint (you can lose 270 and still get Top Flight), then you really need to do your homework first. Base coat / clear coat paint jobs CAN be made to look like the original finish that these cars received, but it is tricky. The paint can't have any extra clear coat at the edges of body panels (usually where clear coat likes to accumulate). The paint has to have a fair bit of orange peel in it as well. (in other words, it can't be a mirror) Beyond that, things to consider are: Paint converage (what parts on the car got a lot of paint like the hood, and what parts barely got any, like the bottom of the doors), paint lustre (hood, top, rear decklid, and doors/fenders above the body style line were buffed, everything else was not). Lots of stuff to consider.

If you are not Top Flighting the car, then I'd just look for a shop in your area through the local Corvette clubs that knows how to paint a fiberglass car. I'm not sure if your car needs any body work at all, but filling in fiberglass and getting the seams to disappear isn't trivial. You want a quality shop doing the work there.

In terms of cost, if you bring the car to the shop and it doesn't need much if any body work, and the car is disassembled already (no bumpers, grille, etc), I'd expect to pay at LEAST $6,000. The cost goes up fast as you add bodywork time. I would guess most shops are in the $65-100 / hour window for labor.

[Andrew K.]

Re: Painting my 67 Coupe

Thanks for the advice. I spoke to a boy shop that restores lots of old cars and has considerable Corvette experience. He has recommended doing a complete strip of the hood with a thorough "clean up" of the rest of the car. Doors are coming off, window trim removed and refinished. Lacquer paint to be applied.

[Mike M.]

Re: Painting my 67 Coupe

Andrew: I just completed painting my '65 coupe using lacquer paint. There is a world of information about painting Corvettes on this forum and much pro/con as regards lacquer paint. Do a search and you will find much information. As for me I thought the lacquer paint worked out fine. I wanted the original look (no gloss in the jambs. etc) and I have that. The lacquer paint buffs out quite well (after wet sanding with 1200 and 2000) but has somewhat of a different look than a base coat/clear coat job. I stripped the car before working the body. We used a good 2 part epoxy as a primer. The end result is real nice. I am enclosing a few pictures (excuse the messy garage.) It seemed that there was pretty much of a consensus on this site that the car should be stripped or you would almost surely have issues with the paint in the future. Good luck on your project. As regards the cost, if the car is stripped and then the body worked and painted I would think you would be above $10000 and perhaps a good bit aboveIMG_4124.jpgIMG_4125.jpg. It takes much time to do the job right.