I'm coming up to the point where I will be preparing my car for painting. It is getting a good driver paint job and it has been repainted at least once.   

Big question first is what is the advantage of taking off the old paint if it is not peeling off currently?

The only area where the paint is chipped is the rear soft bumper where someone (me) backed into something and it flaked off.  I would assume I have to get this area down to the rubber or whatever it really is before painting. 

I will have to drill down to one rivet area in the front and fix a bubble caused by rust. I also have to rebuild part of the lower front end that someone knocked off (not me).  I have a number of other cars I can get parts from so I should not have issue with this area. 

I Have few if any stress cracks.  If it were a metal car I would just sand it down good and block it a little if necessary before giving it to the painter who will sand it or at least check and make sure the finish is ready to be painted.   

Other questions to follow once I figure out how much paint I need to remove.  

|UPDATED|3/22/2014 5:18:17 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

I think I would talk to whomever is going to do the actual painting, and as whether it needed to be just a good sanding, or a complete paint removal. New paint on old paint sometimes don't last very long, depending on the types of paint being used. Mixing lacquers, enamels, and urethanes can be a disaster waiting to happen.
The urethane bumper cover is tricky, too. You might get by with just peeling off the cracked paint around the area, and then feathering in the paint around the bare spot. Ya gotta be careful to not sand down into the actual urethane, but just to the coating itself. Also, you'll want to make sure the painter uses a flex agent in the paint for both the rear and front bumper covers....that will keep the paint from cracking if someone(you) bumps into anything in the future.
Best advice here is to have a sit-down with the painter, and get his/her input on what you can, or need to do for prep. Don't matter how good the painter is, or how good the products they use are, if the prep work is bad....

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Joel Adams
C3VR Lifetime Member #56    
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"Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comforting to cry in a CORVETTE than in a Kia"

Are you talking about painting your '82 Collector Edition?  If so, are you planning to remove all the decals and replace after painting ($1,299 for decal set)?

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God  Bless, rick

If you look at my Collector you will see that when it was repainted (not by me) that when they painted the car they did it more silver than a Collector should be and they painted the areas where the faders to black.  

I'm in luck in that I know a guy (Steve) that has 3 to 5 Corvettes painted every year and has had 3 Collectors painted that I know of.  All had the faders painted on.  I have seen the first and the last ones that were painted.  The first one the faders were good from 20 feet the last one was great from 10 feet.    The painter really did a nice job painting the faders on the car.  Anyway it is a driver and I'm not going to put on the $1300 decals.

The cost for the faders to be painted on runs about $300 more than painting the rest of the car. Again that is a Southern California price with the paint job being done through a corvette dealer. Again this is not top show quality but good to excellent driver quality something that could go on a used car showroom and not embarrass the dealer.  No runs or over spray.  A little color buffing and it would be completely flat.   I will color buff for sure in the fader areas.  If I decide to color buff it I will most likely pay the painter to do that.

 

I will have to talk with Steve and will deliver the car as if it was one of his to the painter so I'm sure I will get the best price and quality as Steve sells rebuild C3 mostly to Europeans and has to have good paint jobs on his cars.  Again while I have the Collector rims I prefer the ones that are on it and will keep those.

Joel - Thanks for the tip on talking with the painter and being careful with the bumpers.  I'm starting to run short on money now that I have retired that is why I was thinking about doing some of the prep work myself.   Also there are a couple of areas I want to make sure get done correctly that I need to make sure that they are taken care of.  One is the mirrors they were not painted that good the last time and I want to smooth that out before I take it to them.

|UPDATED|5/14/2014 2:20:32 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Hey Gil, I always liked them painted on.  I've seen two that looked great.  Seems with all the ghost flames, shading and pin striping being done now there are more guys capable of doing a good job.  Good luck and keep us posted.

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Dave C..........My mantra: I can not be bought!!      Long and short term leases available.

where are these rivet located,i need to know where to look.

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1979 Corvette

Look real close at the nose of your car there is a metal strip that the front fiberglass is connected to.  It was connected with rivets and if moisture got between the fiberglass and the metal they rusted.  When they rusted it buckles up the fiberglass and shows up as a spider crack. 

|UPDATED|5/14/2014 2:30:57 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

My car is a 78 driver but I am getting it painted also. ( it was to go in  around March and now May and still not in, The place is to be good dad and son but feel like getting a run around, but don't want a chain auto body shop painting it)...sorry to get off track. Like yo doing some of the prep not body work but removing stuff!

My question is about the metal plates, decals, Flags/25 anniversary plates.  I have not researched the posts but how are they attached? or better yet how to remove them.  The from emblem I can reach but seems just two pointed leads going through the body with no nuts attached so I assume sealant  adhesive some how and these are just guides????

I am concerned on the best way to pry/remove them as I found out with the rear window trim it has so much adhesive on that the clip release tool was useless and I had a ton of sealant to remove completelye clips, and install new clips to re-attach the trim after painting.

Not sure how you would get to the back of the side ones so it must be attached with adhesive?

Any info would be great since you have already been here.

Thanks BB78

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I was interested in how best to do that so myself.  I looked it up on the internet and found a couple of videos on the subject.  The only issue I see is that we have the guide hole which helps us get them back in the correct place. Where most of the cars now days do not have any guide holes.