Paint Questions

[davery]

I am going out tomorrow to talk to a couple of more places about painting my 85. There seems to be two thoughts on this. One is to remove all the paint and the other is to paint over the existing paint. I have some sun damage to the clearcoat, a couple of small rust spots, and several small dents. Any opinions? I found one place that will do the body work and paint for $2000, if I remove the trim. He wants the car for 10 days. I found another place that will completely strip the paint, do the body work and paint for $4000, again if I remove the trim. He wants the car for two months.

What type of questions should I be asking them?

[dmwhiteoak]

This tread may answer a few of your questions. http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... 30&t=21855

[azruss]

first question is the paint original. If so, what is its condition. take a close look at sun baked spot and classic rust spots (door corner, fender flairs, rear rockers, hood nose). If the paint is original and in good shape, it may not require removal. Remember the late models are not very flat and fiat put on a light bondo type surface before they primed. If you remove everything, you will expose all the wavey metal and it will all have to be flattened again. stripping parts off the car is the way to go. not hard to do yourself. just take lots of detail pictures so you know how it goes back together again. You will get a far better job with all the stuff off. by removing all the chrome, you will expose rusty areas you will want to fix. 2k is pretty cheap and that usually means cutting corners.

[rodman]

I am going out tomorrow to talk to a couple of more places about painting my 85. There seems to be two thoughts on this. One is to remove all the paint and the other is to paint over the existing paint. I have some sun damage to the clearcoat, a couple of small rust spots, and several small dents. Any opinions? I found one place that will do the body work and paint for $2000, if I remove the trim. He wants the car for 10 days. I found another place that will completely strip the paint, do the body work and paint for $4000, again if I remove the trim. He wants the car for two months.

What type of questions should I be asking them?

ship it too me

[kmac33]

My 2 cents when it comes to paint work:
You typically get what you pay for - the more you can afford to spend the better the final result should be.
Proper prep is key to a good result and proper prep work takes time and time = money. You can save yourself a good bit of money here if you do a good bit of the prep work yourself though. On your specific question - you do not need to strip the car down to bare metal to get a great result. Just need to address issues like rust, or areas where the original paint is cracking, flaking off, etc.
As already stated, the more you remove from the body, the cleaner the end result will be. Our Spiders are pretty basic little cars, so you can easily strip off literally everything prior to painting. Anything that has to be masked off results in a "paint line" that detracts from the end result. Make sure the rear section of the top is taken off (very easy to do), so you don't have a paint line there. I'd also consider pulling the windshield frame - again very easy to do.
Materials make a big difference as well. You get what you pay for. If you use a painter that uses cheap materials, even if his prep work and spray work are stellar, the paint isn't going to look great for long. Find out what the warranty is for the paint he will be using on your car. Color fastness guarantees vary a lot. At a minimum, he should warranty the paint job for that time frame. How long he will warranty his work will say volumes about the quality you will get.
Good Luck!

[supplyguy]

Take it from the least mechanically inclined Fiat owner on the planet, removing all the chrome and trim is the way to go, and surprisingly easy. With tips from Capt. John I even got the washer nozzles, cowl grill, door handles, convertible top, and other peculiar pieces off. That said, my original estimate of $2500 for a paint job ballooned to $4000 (equal to my other three estimates) once we really went over the car's blemishes, and discovered about a half ton of bondo in the ass. Should be done any day now, and I fear I will be doing weird stuff like parking hundreds of yards from other cars, building a Berlin wall between my wife's car and mine in the garage, and wearing head to toe chamois clothing when driving.

[davery]

first question is the paint original. If so, what is its condition. take a close look at sun baked spot and classic rust spots (door corner, fender flairs, rear rockers, hood nose). If the paint is original and in good shape, it may not require removal. Remember the late models are not very flat and fiat put on a light bondo type surface before they primed. If you remove everything, you will expose all the wavey metal and it will all have to be flattened again. stripping parts off the car is the way to go. not hard to do yourself. just take lots of detail pictures so you know how it goes back together again. You will get a far better job with all the stuff off. by removing all the chrome, you will expose rusty areas you will want to fix. 2k is pretty cheap and that usually means cutting corners.

The paint is original, but I think a door has been repainted. Generally, the paint is in good condition and is nice and glossy. As I said it does have 4-5 sun damaged spot where the clear coat has been worn through. I have had the car for 17 years and have looked through it pretty good and it is a straight car. I don't really anticipate many surpirses. What type of materials should I be asking for?

[kmac33]

Check the warranty on the actual materials used. The same manufacturer will have different "levels" of product with different warranties - obviously their higher cost materials will have the longest warranty - so you can't just hear "I use PPG Paints" and know you are getting top of the line materials. The better known paint "lines": House of Kolors - primarily for custom colors, Dupont, Sikkens (what my car was sprayed with), PPG, Diamont, Sherwin Williams and Glasurit are all well known/respected quality lines of materials - even their lower priced lines.
Doesn't have to be one of those named. As long as it is a quality paint with a good warranty and the painter knows what they are doing - he'll back his work up with a warranty if he does, you will be good.
He may also give you different options.
My good friend that sprayed my car offers different levels of paint jobs in his shop (motorcycle body shop) depending on how "economical" a customer wants to be. The lowest level jobs are typically done on race bikes - they get cheaper materials, etc. so the warranty on color fastness, etc. is only 3 years. A mid-level job would be a typical repair paint job, back to factory specs using "good" materials - that would have a 5 year warranty on colorfastness, etc.
Top of the line jobs that get top of the line materials get a lifetime warranty.
It is worth it to get it done right. Not to brag...okay maybe I'll brag a bit ...but I don't think you could find anyone that has seen my car in person that wasn't impressed with the quality/level of the paint job. It really makes the car stand out.
And as long as I take care of it, the paint job on my car should look as good in 30 years as it does today.

[davery]

Check the warranty on the actual materials used. The same manufacturer will have different "levels" of product with different warranties - obviously their higher cost materials will have the longest warranty - so you can't just hear "I use PPG Paints" and know you are getting top of the line materials. The better known paint "lines": House of Kolors - primarily for custom colors, Dupont, Sikkens (what my car was sprayed with), PPG, Diamont, Sherwin Williams and Glasurit are all well known/respected quality lines of materials - even their lower priced lines.
Doesn't have to be one of those named. As long as it is a quality paint with a good warranty and the painter knows what they are doing - he'll back his work up with a warranty if he does, you will be good.
He may also give you different options.
My good friend that sprayed my car offers different levels of paint jobs in his shop (motorcycle body shop) depending on how "economical" a customer wants to be. The lowest level jobs are typically done on race bikes - they get cheaper materials, etc. so the warranty on color fastness, etc. is only 3 years. A mid-level job would be a typical repair paint job, back to factory specs using "good" materials - that would have a 5 year warranty on colorfastness, etc.
Top of the line jobs that get top of the line materials get a lifetime warranty.
It is worth it to get it done right. Not to brag...okay maybe I'll brag a bit ...but I don't think you could find anyone that has seen my car in person that wasn't impressed with the quality/level of the paint job. It really makes the car stand out.
And as long as I take care of it, the paint job on my car should look as good in 30 years as it does today.

Good advice. I will ask. Now you guys have me thinking about stripping it down to metal. If there is a skim coat on it am I opening a can of worms?

[wikkid]

What is this Clear Coat you speak of? I am pretty sure these cars have old single stage paint, not base + clear as the original finish. But if I'm wrong, it sure wouldn't be the first time...

[davery]

What is this Clear Coat you speak of? I am pretty sure these cars have old single stage paint, not base + clear as the original finish. But if I'm wrong, it sure wouldn't be the first time...

I have 4-5 spots on the paint where the gloss is gone. There is still color, but it is dull. All these locations are horinzontal and would get full sun.

[davery]

I am going out tomorrow to talk to a couple of more places about painting my 85. There seems to be two thoughts on this. One is to remove all the paint and the other is to paint over the existing paint. I have some sun damage to the clearcoat, a couple of small rust spots, and several small dents. Any opinions? I found one place that will do the body work and paint for $2000, if I remove the trim. He wants the car for 10 days. I found another place that will completely strip the paint, do the body work and paint for $4000, again if I remove the trim. He wants the car for two months.

What type of questions should I be asking them?

ship it too me

Sounds good. I will be in Sarasota for a couple of months this summer.

[rodman]

I am going out tomorrow to talk to a couple of more places about painting my 85. There seems to be two thoughts on this. One is to remove all the paint and the other is to paint over the existing paint. I have some sun damage to the clearcoat, a couple of small rust spots, and several small dents. Any opinions? I found one place that will do the body work and paint for $2000, if I remove the trim. He wants the car for 10 days. I found another place that will completely strip the paint, do the body work and paint for $4000, again if I remove the trim. He wants the car for two months.

What type of questions should I be asking them?

ship it too me

Sounds good. I will be in Sarasota for a couple of months this summer.[/quot

email your number rodmanpgomez@gmail.com

[fiat218]

Do it right , strip it, paint it

[AdamPBG]

I've recently got 2 quotes so far.
My 82 has a poor repaint job. I want to take it back to original color. The vehicle doesn't warrant taking it to the bare metal.
One quote was to sand down to original color, repair 3 small areas, and build back up from there: $4k.
Another shop offered to knock it down to a smooth reworkable surface and do the build up from there : $3k.
I supply any/all new trim gaskets/rubber. Also I could discount it an addl $300 if I removed and reinstalled the trim.