Ok - I am a bit away from tackling this myself but thought I would just put it out there to see what experience there is.
I am guessing that there are many of you out there that have had the paint re-done on your vettes. Can you supply details as to what we should expect it to cost ? I plan in the future to get my CE re-painted in the same colour but was thinking of painting the decals on under the clear coat. I (in my madness!!) am keen to do as much of the restoration with my own hands - both for the experience of learning the skills needed and also the sense of self satisfaction of knowing that I produced the end result.
Has anyone out there tackled the job themselves ? If so what experience did you have ? What process did you use ? Does anyone know of any good websites where the process is shown/discussed in detail ?
Is is feasible or nieve to think that it is a job that could be tackled DIY with the correct equipment ?
I am sure this is a subject that both many people have had experience with and that there are many of us that have plans to tackle it would be very interested to read.
I look forward to reading the future posts!!

Mine was repainted after 2 harley's slid into the passenger side of it. I didn't do it myself because the one responsible paid for it.
Cost $8000.00
This included replacing the rear quarter panel. and one rocker panel. total repaint, including the fades...

I have painted in the past, and it's totally possible, time consuming is an understatement, but if you really love having something to do everyday for a few months, then go for it....

Here's what my paint and fades looked like after the repaint...





Here's the damage from the bikes...

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Arizona Corvette Enthusiasts
Gone, but not forgotten

Thats just what I wanted to hear - that it is possible with patience and care - anyone out there want to give their "how to " guide? Any good websites ? Any advice ?
DesertDawg - Paint looks fantastic!! - but what a mess those bikes made - glad to see that its all better now.

The paint on my vette is in pretty good condition in general - there is some damage right on the nose - see pic


There is also a couple of stone chips on the front fender and around the headlights the normal ones around the wheel arches. I do not know if a complete re-spray is even necessary - what are the chances of getting just the nose and front end sorted and blending the colour into the original ? Is it possible to blend 24 year old colour with new without it being completely obvious that this has been done.


Keep the advice coming

A bigger problem with the body on my vette is the Decals and striping - the center decal is seriously cracked - like a spiders web and the striping has chipped away in places - the two side fade decals are pretty much perfect and I understand that they are all very difficult to get hold of - hence the thought about getting them painted on. Anyone know of where I can get the decals? How much $ ? etc. I have read the thread titled DECAL SET dated Aug 4 06 so I am aware of those sources - it seems that the hood decal and the stripe set will set me back $700 + Has anyone found any other sources? Also is it possible , if I go to the painting decal option to paint the hood decal on top of the current clearcoat and then clearcoat over the whole ?

[quote="britvette
There is also a couple of stone chips on the front fender and around the headlights the normal ones around the wheel arches. I do not know if a complete re-spray is even necessary - what are the chances of getting just the nose and front end sorted and blending the colour into the original ? Is it possible to blend 24 year old colour with new without it being completely obvious that this has been done.
[/quote]

I'm also interested in what people have to say about paint repair/color matching because my CE with 19,000 miles has pretty good paint, but has three parking lot encounters where it'll need minor fiberglass work and paint repair. Also, the hood decal is cracked and the bumpers are faded. Otherwise the original paint is in great shape. I'd like to just repair it if possible, because it would be cheaper and it would also keep most of the paint original, but I wonder how well the color can be matched, and if it's not better at the end of the day to just repaint the whole car. I haven't started taking it around to body shops yet. Anybody with experience on paint repair?

Matching your original paint is going to be almost impossible, at least on a show car it will be. I can tell you that it's never going to look right if you try to just get some spots touched up.

Your best bet is to do the whole thing at once, you will be guaranteed a complete color match and if you use a good shop that knows corvette's (and there owners) you will get an almost perfect looking finish.

One other thing to keep in mind, if you plan on going NCRS or other top level judging, then a perfect paint job isn't what you want. Go to the NCRS forum and see what they would suggest for a repaint.

The fades will have to be removed, you cannot paint over them, the finish and longevity will be lousy....

Thanks for the reply Dawg. That's kinda what I thought, and I'll most likely have the whole car painted. It's kind of a shame because it really doesn't look bad and a new decal set will be expensive, but with three areas they'll have to blend in and reclear and then both bumpers, it probably makes more sense to repaint the car. Plus there are a few very minor scuffs/clear coat cracks here and there, and a complete paint job would of course take care of all of those.

Like I said, I haven't taken it around to body shops yet but I expect they'll recommend repainting the car. I know that the gold/sand metallic colors are the hardest to match, and with 25 year old paint it's probably even more so. So... do you know of any good body shops in the Phoenix area?

The original color is
OEM #59 Silver Beige Metallic
Valspar Code B840
PPG Code 3429
DuPont Code B8290

Dark Brown Metallic around tail lights...
DuPont code D-8262

I highly recommend going to Brown & Brown Chevrolet to get it repainted, the shop manager and a couple of the workers are vette owners and they did a pretty amazing job on mine.... Talk to Dan.

You can also check with Classic Gold Auto Centre
305 S Rockford Dr
Tempe, AZ 85281
Talk to Joe
(480) 967-2521
He is a member of ACE, and has painted some Corvette's that have appeared in magazines...
Plus he did a killer job fixing my daughters truck that was keyed.

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Arizona Corvette Enthusiasts
Gone, but not forgotten

Cool... thanks!

I've had my car done in different stages, so to speak.

I had a minor bump in the rear, that got a new cover and the cover was sprayed and the pin stripes put on (incorrectly at first).
Then i had a friend of a friend back into my car so that the fender cracked, that got a front clip repaint after the fibreglass repair and nose replacement.
Now, both shops (different ones in Germany at the time) did a great job matching colors (colours.. ), but in the right light you can still see the difference. I'm apparently the only one seeing it, but i DO see it. The wifey says it's not noticable but i do..

It also is important how the painter goes about spraying the paint, if he goes the "other" way from the other guys paintjob, it'll look different in the light reflection.


I am waiting to do a complete repaint when the time comes and will ignore chips and little stuff until then..

As for the decals: My sides are painted on and i dont have the hood one..

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-Stefan

The paint on my vette is in pretty good condition in general - there is some damage right on the nose - see pic

I've got that piece if you are interested in buying it

I am trying to locate Desertdawg to see how the repaint on his 82 turned out.

I'll just post here instead of the email.
Unfortanately I traded mine for a 98 TR vert a few months ago, and last I heard it left AZ with a new owner...
I took mine to Brown & Brown Chevy in Mesa for the repair and paint. In my opnion, they did a fantastic job. (let me know if you need a name and number) The silver-biege was perfect, the painted on fades where good enough for me, but they were faded to far into the lightest color.
If you are going to get your fades painted on instead of the decals, let me know and I can send you a could of pictures that show the factory look better then they did on mine.

Here's a couple of other pics that show the fade and quality better...
Let me know if you need any other info...