I took my red '84 for an estimate yesterday. Get this - $3,100 (yeah, right). People must think I am a complete idiot or something. The only things that really need painting are my hood, roof, decklid, nose and rear bumper. It may be easier to replace than paint, but I would have to pay someone to do that work too, and it wouldn't feel like 'my Fiero' anymore.

The roof and decklid have lots of little striations, as in peelage - clearly the paint needs to be stripped or sanded before they can be repainted. Does anyone out there have the patience to give me some step-by-step instructions? Thanks!!!!!

Ok, heres what you do.

1. Goto a hardware store and buy about 3 sheets of 220 grit sandpaper and about 10 sheets of 600 grit sandpaper.

2. Get a bucket of water to dip the sandpaper in very frequently.

The 220 is to knock down the deep ships fast, then go over it with 600 to make it smooth. You should be able to do most of it with the 600.

If you sand down all the way to dark gray or black on the bumpers, go out and get some autobody primer, im not sure who has got it in a spray can. Sparay the area with the primer and start sanding again. Make it super smooth, first with the 220, then 600.

If you want your whole car repainted, take the 600 grit sand paper, make sure its wet, and sand the whole car, then take a squeegie and get all the water off of it. It should have a very dull finish (this is the painting surface). If there are ANY spots that arnt dull and are still shinny, sand them until the complete car is DULL looking.

If you leave any smooth spots thats the most likely place the paint will start to chip in a few months.

When they told you it was going to be $3,100 the bulk of that (at least $2500) would be for the work you could do your self (sanding).

I don't think there is anything I left out, but there might be.

Any questions??

That's great. Thanks! Just a few more questions. 1) The sanding is just for the roof and trunklid, right? 2) I still have to take it to a shop to be painted, right? 3) Would $600 or so be to paint the whole car, or just those parts? 4) Have you ever heard of anyone doing their own painting, or is this just pie-in-the-sky (i.e., need a bunch of equipment, etc.)? Thanks again.

At the same time, a good paint job does cost $3000+.

TK

Yeah you can just sand the roof and the trunk lid. It shold only be a couple hundred to paint just them parts if you get all the prep work done.

------------------
'86 Special Edition,
High-Output V-6 Yellow Fiero

If you don't want to spend the $3000 for a professional paint job, find someone with a "garage-type" paint shop. That's what I did. I did do all the sanding myself. Got done last week, painted last weekend. Now, the guy that painted mine had no dust- or bug-free booth to paint in. Because of this, there was some dust on the horizontal surfaces. After you get it back and there is dust, use 1500 grit to get all of it out and to make the paint smooth (to remove any screw-ups.) I'm in the process of doing this right now, and we buffed out a 2'x2' square with compound; looks great!!! By the way, when sanding the dust out, if any, the sandpaper will rough up the clear. Don't let this scare you; did me at first. But also be careful not to go down through the clear coat. When this is all done and buffed, you will have a great-looking paint job.

PS: My paint job cost about $500. $288.00 for the materials, rest for labor. Of course, you probably won't find someone that will take this little cash for labor.

If I got paid $3000 for painting a Fiero, I would be able to retire early! I usually get $750-$1000 for a show quality finish. More if the customer has done the work himself or offers to help

------------------
The slower they think you are, the more suprised they will be when you smoke them.

There was a thread recently about painting your own body panels with spray paint (in cans)...

Some auto supply stores have a machine that mixes paint and puts it in 12 ounce (or whatever) spray cans. I've painted my rear decklid, fenders, and roof with this stuff (base/clear) and you'd be hard pressed to tell.

Preparation is the key...and careful wet sanding after really makes all the difference in the shine.

The nice thing about these cars is that the panels are easily removeable, are lightweight, and accept paint well.

Another thing you might want to check out would be your local community college...if they offer auto shop classes, you might be able to either take a class to paint it yourself, or have a class use it as a "mule".

If you are going to take it in to have it painted, DON'T use spray can primer on anything. Let whoever is painting the car apply the primer. Depending on the type of paint, the primer may not be suitable for the paint, and could cause cracking later. (I've had to strip my car all the way down in a couple of places because of a previous paint job where they did that)
BEFORE sanding anything, wipe the car down with a solvent, like Prepsol or a similar grease and wax remover, since you can actually sand grease and wax into the surface, which again, can create problems with paint adhesion.
If you sand down the fascia or rear bumper to the plastic (which there's no reason to unless you have deep scratches to fill or something) get a product called "Bulldog" it's an adhesion promoter that will help primer stick to the soft plastic.
The Prepsol and the Bulldog can be purchased from a paint supply store. Solvent is about 15 bucks a gallon, and the adhesion promoter is about 5 bucks.
Good luck, that's a hell of a project to undertake, especially sanding by HAND! Whew! Give me my good ole d/a and air file any day!

-Taiji

I need to paint a roof skin for my car before I can install it. It is a setup for a sunroof. I have yet to see it, but it has been sitting outside for several years. How hard and expensive should this be? Will the hardware and seals need replaced and how much will they cost? Thanks.

------------------
Honestly officer, I was just keeping up with the flow of traffic. I know there aren't any cars in the area, that's how far behind I am.

Yeah, Cooter's $750-1000 is looking pretty good right now, especially since he's only an hour away from where I live! That is a far cry from $3000! The Fiero Factory quoted me $4000 for a ground-up restoration, including paint and fixing the AC. At the time I thought that was high. It's beginning to look like a bargain.

P.S. You all are great to offer help / suggestions like this.

How much paint do you need to do the roof? Thanks

------------------
Honestly officer, I was just keeping up with the flow of traffic. I know there aren't any cars in the area, that's how far behind I am.

Wow. Now I don't think the quote I got was that bad at all. Place offered to paint the whole car and also remove the front and rear facias to have them stripped and reformed for 2500.

Or you can go to Maaco for 500.

Trigger,

It shouldn't take more than a pint to paint a roof skin with a big-mother hole in it (for the sunroof, geeze ) It'll probab;y need to be at the very least wet sanded with 320. Put a litte dishwashing liquid in the water, and rinse it thoroughly when you're done. Wipe it down with a good cleaning solvent after the water dries(PrepSol mentioned above) and then shoot it. If you go down to the bare fiberglass anywhere, you'll want to apply a glazing compound to cover that before applying primer, or it might show up later.
I would install it BEFORE painting it, but if you do paint it prior to installation, make sure you apply the paint just as it would be applied if it were on the car- in this case, in a front to back to front motion.

-Taiji

You also want to use some sort of soft sanding block when you do the wet sanding. When you use your hand only, you sand the surface at irregular levels. As said before rinse the sand paper real well.

Clean the surface with "Prepsol" initially to remove wax and tar grease etc from the surface. When you sand a waxed surface, the wax will track into the small grooves you make with the sand paper. Then paint does not stick as well to the surface.

Preparation is most time consuming and most important.

Ya what theese guys said!!!!!! ITs all in the prep. A good paint job usually doesen't come from someone doing a good job of spraying on the paint it scomes from some guy with no fingertips and sore shoulders because he spent weeks wetsanding the car. Hopefully we will get promer on mine this weekend and be ready to paint but monday teusday.