Painting the Speedster

I have a CMC 1984 Speedster which was sitting for 18 years, It needs a paint job as it was never assembled and has many scratches, bubbles, and some repairs. It is white/ Ivory.

I would like to repaint it silver as I have a maroon interior. However, I would like to get it completely ready and hand it over to a local Paint Shop to finish it.

Do you have any recommendations for the paint job to ensure a lasting finish and high gloss.

Thanks,
Brian

Brian,
I'm in about the same spot only mine is 98% together. It has some stress cracking in the gel coat in a few places. I plan to seek out a shop that works on corvettes or other street rod fiberglass specialist.
Some painters I've talked to prefer to do their own prepping before painting. Im going to remove all lights chrome etc.to save a few bucks before painting.
Bill D.

I was just getting the low down from a paint shop I was referred to and like the previous post, this shop was very specific that they prefer to do the prep... You can read that as more shop profit, but in this instance, when the guy showed me a few finished cars, including a '60 Morris Minor Panel Truck, I was slack jawed!

The overall cost to do the job, including prep was less than I had paid to for a front-end reshoot on my 930 over 10 years ago (I guess that could read a fool and his money are soon parted)

Anyway, unless you are a master at body/fender work, the overall outcome is best left to the hands of a pro...a pro that loves fibreglas!

My dollar ninety-nines worth

OK...

The care is off the chassis and I have all the holes, but removed all the chrome, metal, etc. The body is on stands as I am doing the chassis and engine now.

Any ideas of the cost I should be getting from these painters.

Thanks,
Brian

Some years ago I had my fiberglass car painted. I wanted to get the best paint job I could for a price I could afford.

I checked around and found that 'Paintin Pete' did some of the best work in town and charged half way reasonable rates. Determined to find out how he did it I struck a bargain with ol' Pete. I would help prep my own car for no pay (more profit for Pete). Pete was wary but the chance to make more profit won out.

The prepping of a car for paint is hard physical labor and also demands constant attention if good results are to be obtained. However, the job is not really all that complex. I learned what I had to learn in a short time and did a pretty good job with some help from the pro guys that Pete had hired. One problem I had was that the pro guys spoke Spanish with VERY little English. They were good, hard workers, mainly because they had to send money back to their families in Mexico. While I did not ask about their immigration status, a whisper of 'la migra!' would result in a lot of frantic looking around.

The cost of painting a car is mainly labor. If you want the best paint job at a good price, you really need to find a place where the help greet each other with buenos dias as opposed to good morning. Of course, I would certainly not knowingly participate in the hiring of illegal aliens.

Shop carefully amigos!

Seriously consider Urathane paint. It has a less brittle more flexible texture when dry. I used it on my CMC gelcoat speedster. The gelcoat has to be prepared carefully with not a single "shiny" spot left on the body. Treat the entire car with Wax/grease remover before painting, fiberglas is well known for fisheyes.