Rebuild or Repaint?

For me, functionality comes first. After all, if the motor goes, you'll have a beautiful car that doesn't go anywhere. With that said, I'd probalby look into rebuilding the motor first. If the paint isn't horrible, you might be able to get a high quality repaint without having to go with the "bare metal" repaint. There are some excellent body shops that can lay down beautiful paint for $3 - 5K.

Bob

 

You will not get a worthwhile respray on a 308 for $5K unless you do all the disassembly. (As a point of reference, a professional front bumper respray on a 328 runs the better part of $1K.) I'd estimate a proper disassembly/respray on a 308 will be pushing $10K, and there will be things under the paint that need attending on a 29-year old car with no rustproofing. Check out Newman's '79 308 restoration thread. Amazing stuff. Maybe you don't want to go to that level, but honestly I'd feel bad about spending $5K on a temporary/mediocre paint job.

Then if you do a proper respray you'll want the interior freshened, because you'll have a car that looks great outside, has a tired interior, and has a failing engine. And of course while the engine's out there's a lot of stuff in there that should be attended to.

I'm sort of the extremist here, but I would say plan to spend $25K+ restoring this car, or sell and move on. 308 restoration doesn't pay yet, except that it's your car and maybe you want to bring it back to its glory.

 

If you don`t have any rust I think you can get a decent paint job for $5k. Remember guys we live in northern N.E., labor is cheaper here. The new base/clear coats are pretty easy to work with. My BMW ( daily driver ) had serious road rash. I had maaco do a signature paint job on it. Cost me $1500 and it looks great. Nowhere near perfect, but what the hell, its a 10 year old daily driver (salty winters and all ). Perfection costs a lot of money$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. I would take care of the motor/mechanicals first. Mechanics around my new paint job ( no matter how much it cost ) would make me nervous. BTW I`m not suggesting that you have maaco paint your Ferrari, but they can do a decent job.

 

I'd do as suggested- get the engine done first, then, to save money, strip the car yourself and take it to a good paint shop.
Most of the cost of a quality paint job is the labor to take the car apart and put it back together again. While they're doing the body work and paint, you can be detailing the pieces that you took off. That way you get a $10k paint job for $3k (maybe less if no bodywork is needed).
The savings on the paint job will pay for the engine work !

 

If the base paint is checkering, there is no way to get a good paint job on top of it. It must be stripped.

 

+1

And if you're going to disassemble everything for a respray, I would take this once-in-a-long-while opportunity to go over every inch of the car for rust. I would be surprised if you find none.

I didn't realize you'd done the interior already - sounds like a keeper that deserves to be done right over time.

 

I just had the engine on mine rebuilt a couple years ago and my paint is doing the same as yours. I figure drivability first.
Every now and then I think about getting it painted, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm happy to drive my car without worrying about stone chips, door dings, little scratches and weather. Besides, with little kids around, these things happen more frequently than they should!

 

do the mechanicals first. there is nothing better than a great running car. you can't see it from inside and when you blow past someone all they'll see are your taillights.