Getting My Camaro Painted - Advice and Lessons Learned Please

[AutoRoc]

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???

[Anthony]

Total color change?

Have $15k ready in hand if you want it tight!

Cheap fast good?

In my opinion, pick one!

[DetroitStyle]

^^yep^^

As far as a color change... whatever you THINK it's going to cost... triple it

[soap]

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.

--Joe

[mrvids]

Call Xzibit, see if he can hook a brother up.

[Kamdaddy]

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

[mustangmike6996]

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)

[moneypit]

Option 4 buy a roller in the color you want , and move drivetrain

[Beigg]

Option 4 buy a roller in the color you want , and move drivetrain

x2

[95 Z/28 LT1]

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...