It's been a long time since my Dino was last painted - I had a bare metal repaint in 1987. It's time to respray it. What paint technology should I be using now? Any tips?
It is totally up to you how far you want to go but be aware of one unavoidable truth: The last 5% WILL DOUBLE YOUR COST & TRIPLE YOUR TIMELINE!!!!!!! I can't stress this enough. With paint there is no bottom to how far you can go so it is important to establish what you want and work to that standard. I know in your case you drive your car a lot so going for perfection is something probably avoided because perfection turns into great pretty fast when using your car and the difference between the two is massive in terms of cost. Also if your car got a bare metal paint job in 1987 then the materials used then should act as a very stable base to work on. These cars have been valuable since then and well cared for so the rot and neglect from when they were new is no longer an issue. You may have a little rust here and there and this can be repaired in a localized fashion without having to strip the entire car. It is very easy for people to recommend to 'Strip the whole thing' and say that 'It is the only way to do it right' but they are not paying the bill and it is not necessarily good advice either. A proper bare metal job can easily top $100K while a well thought out job that uses some of your existing finish (assuming it is stable) can be done for half of that. Both will look fantastic and there are only a handful of people that would ever be able to tell the difference. Regarding paint systems, there are many different ones and you should always go with the paint system the body shop you are dealing with has experience with. Standox, Glasurit, Sikkens, PPG, are all good brands and there are others. Because your car is black I would suggest you consider single stage rather than base-clear. This is because in Canada you will be able to get a solvent based system that is more durable than the water based systems used in base clear. It is also a little more chip resistant and well applied both systems would look the same.
I would worry more about rust. Are there any traces of rust? My Dino was "restored" in the late 80's with all rust repaired and new paint applied but when I opened up the patient in 2016 it needed more than just a new paint job. If no rust then go by Rob's recommendations and save the "Bare metal" approach. If rust, then buckle up and prepare for a major job. Best, Peter
I've always used Glasurit, very happy with it and I have no experience with other paint brands. It's probably more important to find a good shop and go with whatever paint brand they work with to get best results. I've seen a few disasters over the years due to incompatible paints over what was there before, silicon contamination etc. etc. best, Andrew
Rob has some great points. The question I have, if you did a bare metal respray in 1987, what state is the Dino today? Are you looking to change color or just make shiny again? If a proper bare metal as done back then, I would think everything was stable. Just Curious
