Getting My Camaro Painted - Advice and Lessons Learned Please

95 Z/28 LT1

95 Z/28 LT1

Club Member
I'm planning to get my car painted in the near future and am looking for advice. It's a black '95 Camaro with black top. It's the first car I will have had painted before. I'll probably keep the car for life. The car has 39K miles and needs minimal body work. There are some ripples on the top of the quarter panels which are somewhat typical for these cars.

I'm considering about changing up the color completely to something else. I know some people here have a lot of experience with paint an painting cars and I'd like to learn from you on Dos and Don'ts and any other advice that could be shared to help make for a good result and avoid problems.

What kind of stuff do people commonly make mistakes on or popular misconceptions? Where do issues arise?

For example, if I have the car's color changed but don't pull the engine prior to paint will it look like crap? What do you recommend?

Also suggest colors you like or think would look good on this car.

Picture of the car:

untitled1.jpg~original
 
Cheap,Fast,Good Pick 2


if you are doing a color change, GUT the car interior and drive train

also the more you take off the less the shop will charge you and you will have less of a chance of tape lines
 
This is all good feedback, thank you.

moneypit said:
Cheap,Fast,Good Pick 2


if you are doing a color change, GUT the car interior and drive train

also the more you take off the less the shop will charge you and you will have less of a chance of tape lines
Click to expand...

When you say GUT the drivetrain, does this mean engine and transmission only, or pull the rear end (and K member) too?

I'm wondering if a roller is enough or does moving the car around like this become a big hassle or risk to the new paint?

I guess it's gonna get the test when the engine and transmission are re installed anyway.

Would gutting the interior mean removing the entire dash too?
 
as far as gutting how good of a job do you want? If its a complete color change, personally Id pull everything, fenders,doors, bumpers ETC


dash can probably stay
 
Don't forget wiring harnesses, etc.. brake lines if you really want to be ocd.

I've had a few black cars with show quality paint and I'll be the first to tell ya, keeping it nice the right way is a part time job. And forget parking anywhere near the masses, it'll be fucked up in no time.
Even trying to park far away and walk, there's always that one prick that has to park right fucking next to you just to spite you because they're either jealous or they think you're not gonna bang their shit up either.
 
The more you take off the easier its going to be on the guy doing the paint work. Plus pulling the interior will help keep it clean and free of dust from sanding.

The end results on how you want it to look all depends on what your budget allows. Me personally if i was doing the work and you wanted a complete color change 100% including the engine compartment I would request the car with no motor or trans, leave all body-panels installed(fenders,doors etc..). Remove all of the lights and interior.

This will save a lot of headaches for the shop that is doing the work and plus you wont have to worry about the little things like overspray and pointing blame on little broken clips(it happens). Plus do you really want you mint interior just sitting in a dusty body shop?

Let the painter handle removing the body panels. Hes going to want to see how everything fits before its taken apart and note certain things that may need to be addressed before paint.

Just my $.02 and Im just going off of what I see on the t.v. like that overhaulin show. I have no real experience with this kind of stuff.
 
I think any color body will look ok with a black engine bay. You can add body colored accents to your black bay. I did my bay in a metallic black, I thought it was a good option as the engine was out and I didnt want body color. It is driven a lot, will never be a show car..

You want some fancy bmw color on the Camaro, dont you??? :)
 
If the jamb are in good condition, consider leaving it the same color. Less work, lower price. It is a ton of work to change the color, and if is not prepped right, you will end up having the paint flaking on edges, especially on hinges and other small parts. A black car always is outstanding when it is clean and shining. Just my thoughts
 
I had a buddy who had a black Mustang and did a color change, he only sprayed the body panels and left the engine bay black, looked pretty good and made sense.

If you had, lets say, a green car and wanted orange, you might want to spray the engine bay lol.

If I were you, there are 2 options I can see as acceptable.

1: you are keeping the car "for good" and dont plan on getting rid of it. Completely strip it and pull the interior panels, engine, trans etc to have the WHOLE car sprayed a certain color. (going to be the most costly option but will look the best) The issue with this, not really an issue, but are you looking to do the engine bay? If so, why? The car is still going to show up as "black" if someone really wants to research the build sheet. So onto the next option....

2: You are keeping the car "for good" (or until you get sick of it) remove all trim that covers any Class A Surface (any panel that is visible to someone who might be looking at the car, think of how you look at cars at Autorama or car meets). Tape behind the pinch weld to retain the black underbody, tape under the fender lips to retain the black engine bay. Remove all entry trim (rocker moldings etc) and spray the jambs. This will give you the best value for dollar spent to how well the car looks overall. Are you making a show car? If not and there is no rust underneath, this is the best option.

Now a possible option 3 is remove the engine/trans and gut the engine bay. Spray the engine bay semigloss black to freshen it up. Have the car painted any color you choose by following option 2. You will not be disappointed. (unless you wanted the whole car, underbody and all, the same color)
 
Lots more good advice, thank you to everyone.

I'm beginning to second guess the thought on a color change now. For the $15K to make it tight, I could buy another project car. I'm also wondering if it's worth the hassle. I wanted to have this done while I'm still away in Poland, which means I'd have to pay a couple people for everything. I have one person I trust to do any disassembly and the other guy for the paint has a good reputation. I guess I need to ask them what the true cost will be for the quality being discussed here. The initial estimate for a respray in the same color was less than a 3rd of making it tight.

I wanted to switch the car to a yellow. There are a couple yellows out lately by McLaren that are really fantastic. Probably would end up being an approximation of one of their colors though.

The car has zero rust but it's no show car or something that is trying to be all original. It has a lot of mods and will get a few more down the road. Just something I don't see selling because I spent way too much on it already. When I look at it that way, dumping huge amounts of additional cash on it in a paint job seems kind of dumb. We don't own cars like this because it's smart though...
 
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