Painting Corvettes

[lewfilman]

Where can I locate a good book on painting Corvettes?? I know there is at least one out there, (I've seen it before)' can't find it now. I believe it's titled, "Painting your Corvette"
I've painted many cars and boats and know a lot about fiberglass repair ,etc. I have a 1973 convertible with shrinking body seams. Everything else is straight. It's time for paint!
Thanks!

[ALF01]

Have you tried searching Ebay and Amazon.com??? Both have an extensive listing of used books....

:dunno:

[fatherlarry]

Welcome aboard!

I'm sorry I took so long to answer, but I'm on vacation in Italy. I've been using my laptop to check in periodically.

As far as your question. There are books out there that will educate you in the basics of stripping and refinishing your fiberglass. You have to remember that the earlier fiberglasses are different than what's used today. But that's another subject we could get into later. As far as shrinking seams, I've never heard that terminolgy used. If the car is factory and has never been repaired, the factory seams do not shrink, unless it was repaired and bondo was used in the repair. There's many different stages that the paint and fiberglass go through during the years that it ages.
1) If it's a factory paint job, it starts to dull and craze, and oxidize after years. Not so much if it's a garage queen. The factory paint will always hold up better than a repaint. On certain years and models, there are always stress areas that will start to crack the paint and gel coat, then the procedure might be a little different than a repaint.

2) If it's a repaint, then it must be stripped. The materials on it that were used might be lacquer or enamel, or base coat clear coat.

Don't forget, you're dealing with an older Corvette that had factory gel coat that the stripper will penetrate and certain products today, which are many, that can be used.

Dupont puts a great book out giving you step by step instructions and which materials to use for the situations that I mentioned above. Go to your auto body supply store and ask the counter person. They should be able to guide on any literature and types of products to help you do the job. Basically, I always worked with Dupont and Sherwin Williams products. Also, I would go to a body shop that does Corvette repair and restoring and talk to their auto body technician and tell them what you're up against. Maybe even throw him a couple of dollars to take a look at the car and tell you what materials are out there, and guide you in the right direction. Painting and body work is an art and skill and takes many years to conquer. I should know, I did it all my life since I was 9 years old.

I'm sure if you search the web, you'll find some restoration products with pictures and materials used. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[DavisZR1]

Search the web, ;bt :usaribbon