Uni-Master

I just bought a 1989 IROC-Z Convertable. The nose is in horrible shape it was spray painted instead of the money spent on putting a good paint job on the car. The paint on the rest of the car isn't to shabby but if I'm gonna fix the nose I want to paint the whole car. My question is basically in a few steps.

We've already started to dissasemble parts of the car. One question is does the convertable 3 piece spoiler come off easily and is easy to be put back on? It doesn't look like its bolted onto the car more like glued or something similar.

1. The first step is to sand down the body correct? Well is there a easy way to take off the paint so you don't have to rough sand it off? Paint Thinner?

2. Primer correct? How much? What type? How many coats? Once you coat it with primer do you have to wetsand or rough sand it?

3. Actually painting the car I am thinking about clearing it also unlike we did when we painted my buddys dads 68 camaro. What steps do I need to take to clear coat it?

lonsal

iTrader: (2)

On a thirdgen convertible (note spelling, its "i" not "a") the center section of spoiler comes off pretty easily. There are 4 nuts with an integral washer under black caps that pop off. There may be two screws that retain the spoiler to L-shaped brackets that slip into a bracket that is pop-riveted to the decklid. The started adding these clips after 1988 model year. I recommend against trying to remove the side pieces.

Lon

Uni-Master

Well I've started disassembling the car already. I just want to know what steps to start taking? I'm assuming the first step should be to remove the paint and sand everything smooth but to what grit something low like 600? Should I just start sanding or use paint thinner or some sort of aircraft paint remover to get the paint off first? Once I'm done sanding it smooth again then what? Primer?

GTA4ME

I'm copying this over to the Convertible Board.

JerseyMark

iTrader: (2)

Are you planning on painting this yourself? If you dont know the answers to these kinda questions, you should just pay a body shop to do this work.

Uni-Master

I know the steps for the most part. I just wanted someone to go step thru step on what to do so that I dont' miss something important or end up saying I should have done that. No I've never done a car painting but my best friend has and helped his dad do his 68 camaro and it came out great. He used a very thick paint with no clear coat though. The body is pretty straight and most parts the paint is good with except to the lower front ground effect and the front nose and left front panel. That were spray painted and look horrible. I'll show some pics of the car to give you guys idea of what I'm talking about.