Getting Car Repainted- Need some expertise.

[1982 911 Targa]

Thats the car. The paint is in pretty good shape overall, but over the right rear fender there is a small section that is a different color, and the hood has a few parts starting to chip. I am going to get it repainted and to save money i am going to remove all the trim pieces. Who ever painted it last didnt remove the trim so it is starting to chip away from the trim where water or something has gotten. You can notice when close to it that they just masked off the trim and spraed it. I do not like that so am going to do it right. Im also thinking the same color, but it is so hard to keep clean, i just cant decide.

I am going to remove all trim, In peoples experience which pieces are going to break and will need replacing? I am going to buy all new window seals, but the rest look like I should be able to reuse. Is this a correct assumption?

Bascally need to figure out if i have enough money to buy all these trim pieces, or i need to save up more. thanks -David

[the]

Other than targa specific stuff, which I don't know about, none of the trim pieces should break when you remove them.

For the front windshield, since you are getting a new seal, cut out the old one so you can easily remove the metal trim without bending it. Be as gentle on that metal trim as possible!

Everything else comes out easy. Replace as much if it as you can, a lot if it isn't expensive, but will look nice on your new paint (the mirror gaskets, the door handle gaskets, etc.).

[Mitch Leland]

David, since the car sounds like it's been painted before do you plan on stripping the paint? Even though you will sand the present paint, it's still is a lot of paint left to chip and crack if you don't strip it. I guess it's how far you plan to take the paint job. As they say, "the devil is in the details". Are you staying with white?

[1982 911 Targa]

I was not planning on stripping it. Is that something that i should consider? Also how long would it take me to strip it and would I be abe to do it? If i was to strip it i would then have to treat the metal, correct?

never ending with this car.

[herr_oberst]

Are you sure you can't just carefully correct the problem areas? The car looks pretty good from the shot you are giving us, I wonder if you can find a painter who can work with the rough spots.

I guess I'm thinking, what if, when it's all said and done, you just have new problem areas.

I've not had luck finding a good painter yet, so I'm gunshy about total resprays.

dos centavos worth of thought.

[1982 911 Targa]

I have considered fixing the 2 bad spots but the problem with that is trying to match the paint. Everyone has told me they cant garantee it will match and would be better to spray the whole thing. The paint is in really good condition overall so i dont think im going to strip it. Sanding it should be good.

If someone has a good reason why i should strip it please let me know.

Also any more comments about removing and replacing trim would be greatly appreciated.

[Mitch Leland]

David, I think oberst might have the right plan... Once you get into a strip and paint you'll find more stuff to deal with, then where do you stop...

I would try and see if you can match the paint. Today shops can do a great job of matching and blending. I would try that first, then at least you're not into too much money.

[snbush67]

Your paint looks decent (from the picture). If you take it to a good paint shop they can match it up. You can touch up the chips and then buff the clear coat out. Also you can get the overspray off the rubber pieces with some 3m adheasive remover, and some elbow grease.

[CarreraDan]

Take your time looking for a painter. Go to car shows and ask around hot rod guys for who in your area does the best work. I spent over a month asking lots of questions and finally found someone I could trust to redo my rear fender. Of course, we tripled the budget and time frame when it was all said and done (found bondo) but the results were incredible--I wish I could have afforded to do the entire car. My guy was able to match my Granite Green Metallic perfectly by using a special camera that the paint rep had. His shop specializes in muscle cars and now he has done some work for a few Pelican's and everyone has been impressed. Best of all you cannot tell anything was done to my car--the work of a true craftsman. Study up here in the archives and ask around, it will be worth it in the end.

[911rudy]

I just got my car back from the paint shop and could tell you some of my findings.
First, matching white paint is one of the hardest paints to match. I know that sounds dumb but several good shops told me that. I have a 2003 Avalanche that is white and I got a scratch on the left rear wheel arch about two feet long. It is indented about 1/2 inch. The body shop said that they would have start from the tail light, up to the rear passenger door and then out onto the top. And some mist overspray onto the rear door.
Second, to save a lot of money take everything off of the car that you can. I let them do the windows because I didn't have any help. Get a set of the little plastic ziploc bags that have a writing surface and record every nut, washer, bolt or part on the bag and which area it is for. If there is one long screw and two short ones mark down where the long one goes. Remove all of the rubber trim including the big rubber whale tail piece. Use a white high lighter to mark where the little brackets go because some of the pieces in the tail use pop rivets. Pay attention when you are removing a bolt or screw that has several washers on it. The side rocker panels have different amounts of plastic washers depending on front to back. Take the front and rear bumpers of and watch where the washers go. To get the cleanest job on the front hood area is to remove the hood seal that goes around the lip of the front trunk. A new one is cheap and the paint goes on much cleaner. The new front and rear glass seals are a mess because everyone claims them to be OEM but they aren't. I talked to a lot of people and they all had poor fit mostly on the front window in the upper corners. I had my car blasted with baking powder and it was a good clean job. I found out that most good painters will not put their time and paint onto a car with a sub base that they did not put on and want to put on their paint compatiable primer/finisher. In a month if the paint starts to crack or peel they are not responsible. I also had the painter use the body seam inside of the door jambs to be the cut line for the new paint. This preserves your vehicle data plate and numbers and gives a break in the paint that looks like it was factory. This will only work if your jambs are in good shape and you are repainting it the same color. Be sure to tell your painter about the rear window defogger wires on the right side and the radio antennae in the front glass on the right side. The above advice about the black aluminum trim is a good one. Use a razor knife and slice along the bottom edge of the trim and it will come right out. Be sure to put the trim into the new seal BEFORE you put it into the car or you will have to remove the whole thing again. Remove the trim on the sunfroof, (Car and roof panel), be sure to notice how it is positioned and glued to the car. Notice how the little black rubber piece at the very rear of the panel is positioned. It is wedge shaped and should be facing forward. I took my mirrors off and apart and it was a daunting job. Bentely's manual will help you with this but it would help if you could go to a scrap yard and look at a mirror and see how it comes apart. It is a rube goldburg design. You will have to remove the socket that comes through the door and up the mirror stem to actually get the mirror off of the car. You will need a pin removal tool that you can find at some auto shops. They are smaller than most so I had to make one from one the was too thick. I chucked it into an electric drill by its handle and then ran it while holding sand paper against it. Soon it was the right thickness. Remove the door handles and be sure and mark which side they go to. While you have your rear bumper off you might want to get a couple of water proof connectors and splice into the wires that go from the car to the tag lights. Then you can install and remove the bumper with out having to pull the wires ot of the bumper. Be sure and remove you head light so that he can get a new coat inside the buckets. At the end of the road try to get the car to your home but keep $1000 hold back money so you can take your time and go over everything while you are putting it back together. By that time you will know every mistake he made and get him to fix them. Also expect to make a few errors yourself when you reassymble it. Good luck. I am real pleased with my car and the new paints are so much shiner that the old ones. While your car is being painted send off for all new rubber trim except the big one on the bumper or rockers, if they are good. There are door handle pieces fender wealting, headlight trim etc. Nortwest driving sells a kit for total rubber parts for our cars and he is reasonable.

[78silver]

I just did a complete re-spray about eight months back and got really lucky. I diassembled the whole thing myself piece by piece and what a great way to get to know your car. It was my first porsche and I had it a week before I started disassembly. Basically I knew nothing about the car and it was really a very simple process. All I can say is that the best thing I did was document EVERYTHING. I kept my digital camera handy and had an extra garage space available where I layed out everything exactly as it had come off. Nothing was destroyed in the process except for certain rubber trim pieces which I was replacing anyway because they were rotten.

I had the car stripped to bare metal and resprayed for $2800 and it was an excellent job. And I'm an extremely picky Engineer! Car looks brand new.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions I can assist with.

[1982 911 Targa]

Thanks everyone for your comments, I decided to go for the Maaco job as I am not interested in it being a show car. I plan on driving this car all over the place. I took all the trim off myself 2 weeks ago. car looked like this:


I ended up taking out the rear window and now I am trying to figure out how to get it back in. I ordered a new seal and have it on the glass now to get the shape of the glass. I have been searching this forum for tips on installing it. I think im going to take that on next weekend. Havent had a chance to get pictures after the new paint and trim. Well get those up ASAP.

I went with Maaco's most expensive option which is base coat clear coat, after sanding it down. They also did some body work for me over the right rear fender. It had some rust over the wheel when i bought it so I had sanded and grinded it down and primed it, untill i got the money to do it right. It looks amazing now you cant even tell there was something wrong in that area. The front spoiler also had some dents and they made that look brand new as well.

If i was going to do this again after my experience with maaco I would take it back to them. Only thing Im not happy about is they sparyed something on my tires and got it on my wheels that I had just spent hours and hours polishing. all for 1500 too.

will get some pictures of it up soon.

[DARISC]

If I were you, I'd ask ANY new car dealer what shop they send their cars to for minor paint remedies. A lot of detail shops that cater primarily to the trade do this sort of thing, i.e., fix minor paint problems w/o painting a whole freakin' fender, hood etc (for a WHOLE lot less than a body shop).

A couple buddies of mine run a top @ upholstery shop whose business is 99% dealers - they pointed me to who to go to; saved me a ton on my two previously owned cars (see sig,)!

[1982911SCTarga]

I ended up taking out the rear window and now I am trying to figure out how to get it back in. I ordered a new seal and have it on the glass now to get the shape of the glass. I have been searching this forum for tips on installing it.

Here you go: Targa Rear Window Removal -- Observations and Questions

Brian