Paint jail woes

[Timxxl]

Started building my 69 roller from scratch this past January. Got the engine, drivetrain, wiring, brakes, exhaust, etc. installed and it's running great. Got over 100 miles on it so far. Now I'm turning my attention to the paint shop.

Body work had already been done on my roller when I purchased it. They had minitubbed it, smoothed the firewall, raised the trans tunnel, tucked the rear bumper, and shaved the door handles. The body is extremely clean and from what I can tell they did a great job. The only "body work" that needs to be done is some gap fitment between the doors and fenders and the hood. I've done ZERO fitment yet, but plan to start tackling that next if that's what's giving the paint shops heartburn.



Last week I drove it to a paint shop that was highly recommended for a protouring classic muscle car. I was shocked when he said the earliest he could get it in is first of the year (over 5 months from now), and he might need to keep the car for a year!! He said he wouldn't trust whatever bodywork is under the primer and would strip the entire car to bare metal first. Obviously this kind of timeline is unacceptable (not to mention the $25k price tag) and I need to find another shop.

I live in Marietta, GA - a suburb of Atlanta. Does anyone know if a high end paint shop around here? Someone who won't waste thousands of dollars and hours by wanting to strip the car to bare metal. I am willing to take the risk on potential bad bodywork at this point...i just want it painted without losing the car for a year and a half.

[dhutton]

I don’t think that car is ready for paint. I’ve taken on a few jobs like this with unknown body work and at the end of the day it would have been better taking it to bare metal than messing with someone else’s bodywork. Not to mention painting finished cars is a hassle especially if you want the firewall painted etc.

If you keep looking I’m sure you will find someone to take it on. It’s going to depend on the level of quality you want.

[Olds.PhD]

I don’t think that car is ready for paint. I’ve taken on a few jobs like this with unknown body work and at the end of the day it would have been better taking it to bare metal than messing with someone else’s bodywork. Not to mention painting finished cars is a hassle especially if you want the firewall painted etc.

If you keep looking I’m sure you will find someone to take it on. It’s going to depend on the level of quality you want.

Yeah, this. I would not expect any high-quality shop to want to touch unknown origin body work. You may find acceptable quality work from someone, but shops that have a reputation for high quality work have that reputation because a quality job depends on the prep work more than just about anything else.

Price tag seems to be inline with what I've seen on various forums/boards. There's a reason the "patina" look has become so popular...time and money for paint are ridiculous these days.

Good luck.

[79 Camaro]

I help at local body shop a couple days a week. I'm retired.
The shop is mostly collision repair but they take on a few resto's a year.
When the owner is approached with a resto project with prior paint he tells the owner zero guaranties painting over unknown paint. Just too much bad stuff hiding under the old paint and body work.
Two things I would do.
1. Have panels and body soda blasted. Then prime to prevent flash rust. Then the body shop knows what to start with.
2. Contact local car clubs to see who they might like to do a high end paint job.
Is the right side door/fender original or aftermarket? That gap is horrible. Trunk and header panel look decent. Has the subframe ever been damaged?
Cost wise materials are going be 7-8K for top of the line stuff. Body shop rates $125- $150 plus per hour. It adds up quick.
One thing I can tell you no one in the body shop is standing in line to block sand! LOL.
So maybe not for you but on my 68 C10 project frame off. I had the body shop body work the parts to get them straight. Then the shop "let" me do all the block sanding and color sanding under their supervision.
Just a note block sanding is really good for the shoulder muscles!

[Alponcho]

For quality work, that price and wait wouldn't be out of line around here. In fact, 25k seems inexpensive if you're expecting them to strip/epoxy, fit panels and do gap work, address the inevitable issues that come up, use high quality materials & careful prep, and sand/polish/buff. Of course, if you just want paint on it and you're not picky at all, you may be able to find someone in a low overhead situation to prep and spray it for cheap. The least satisfied folks typically are those who spend 15k on a paint job and expect perfection.

[Vimes]

High end shops have a reputation to protect, which is why they're not going to take the job unless they can take it down to bare metal to see what they're working with. Just part of the game. Nobody with a reputation wants their name on a car that might be full of bondo, just to have a customer stain that reputation by showing a receipt for paint a year before, with huge cracks of waviness in the rear quarter because the bondo gave. It's happened a lot in the past and it will cost the shop far more in sales to take on a potential problem than to just refuse to do it.

An alternative, you can have it wrapped for quite a bit less money and the wraps are amazingly durable for the price.

A second alternative, painting is actually the easy part - getting the bodywork done correctly first is the difficult part. If you're comfortable with doing the body work, you can set up a temporary paint booth. Practice on a few old fenders, then have at it. Aside from the cost, the advantage here is you don't have three other customers in front of your project. As long as it's taken me to find people, I'm thinking about going this way on mine.

https://cypaint.com/article/how-to-b...ve-paint-booth

[79 Camaro]

From what I understand unless the body work is very good a quality wrap will show every ding?

[Zachalanche]

what level of quality are you looking for? is this a driver? a track car? or a show car?

Have you considered painting yourself? I did mine myself in my garage with hardly any prior experience, and despite some imperfections, it turned out good enough for what I use it for. It was a ton of work, but I didn't have to leave my car in someone else's hands for a year.




this last pic was during the cut an buff.