I'm a noob here although I've owned various fieros over the last 13 years. Let me just say it's really cool that there are lots of Fieroheads out there.
Anyway, I'm getting ready to paint my '86 GT a metallic pearl gold just a touch darker than the original color. What do you guys think of leaving all the body parts in place ? Should I at least pull the bottom door trim ?
Related question; I recently replaced the rear lower panels with scooped ones to get qa little more air into that engine compartment... Any recommendations on replacing those nylon rivets ? I do like how easy they come out and would like to find something similar if not identical to hold all that together. Checked autozone, but ended up mostly just reusing the old rivets for right now.
Last thing; Should I change out the stock air cleaner to avoid that scoop ramming rain into the air intake ? or am I being paranoid ?
thanks,

D.B.Cooper

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 07-17-2005).]

Welcome to the forum.

In your case, because you are painting a pearl gold, you'll probably be better off leaving the panels in place. I'd pull the lower door trim as they do shift around a bit and that can actually damage the paint along that 'seam'. But, spray the edges and the hidden areas ( under the rear deck, inside edges of the fenders under the hood, into the door jambs.....) first, then mask them off and paint the rest of the car. You'll have tape lines inside those areas, but painting the panels off of the car with that kind of color isn't going to match well. You need the spray pattern to be exact one panel to the next, and off the car one panel at a time isn't going to work here. I'm one to pull the panels for paint, even factory metallics, and I'd do yours intact because of the pearl in the color and the color itself.

I need to find a supplier for rivots too. I usually reuse the old ones.

Good luck and don't forget the pictures!

Mark

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there... pic shows the new scoop now.

I didn't think about how tough it'd be to get everything to match up right.
btw I'm just doing the prep work; i have a friend who's doing the primer/sealer coat and helping me out, I'm renting a booth, and have a very experienced guy lined up to shoot the basecoat and clear for me. I just want to get the details right.

thanks Fox

Firefox = pull panels off
Roger Garrison = leave panels on

It's that simple.

Hi all,

First off, welcome to the madness....Believe me it WON"T ever go away, no matter what you do...The cravings just keep coming.....Be aware.....

As for your paint issue, I would always do panel off...Think of it this way, if your ever gonna show it off would you want overspray to be seen....?? A big no no, espically if your goal is to take it to car shows and be judged....Personally I would always do panel off, just because I am a cleanliness freak.....

Mine's had a respray before I bought it and there's over spray on many of the black areas inside door shuts and front hood.

I'm going to sort all this over a period of time and have the car sprayed again, I'm still having the respray with panels fitted but I'm going to use this stuff you can get to fit around door shuts, it's a roll of foam with an adhesive strip along it. It works really well but you just have to take a bit more time and care to fit this while masking up.

The worst place on my car is along the bottom of the windshield under the front hood, the black plastic has a fair bit of paint on it.

http://rodneydickman.com/retail.html
you can get the rivets here or on ebay

quote Originally posted by jscott1: Firefox = pull panels off Roger Garrison = leave panels on It's that simple.

I usually pull the panels, but in this case with his paint, I'd leave them on. This is one of those rare occasions for me.

If you want a show quality paint job, then you definitly want to take the panels and trim off. Welcome to the forum, no parachuting from comercial airlines allowed.

quote Originally posted by avengador1: If you want a show quality paint job, then you definitly want to take the panels and trim off. Welcome to the forum, no parachuting from comercial airlines allowed.

if you do that with metal flake you have to put em back on before th elast coat or the flake will be laying different ways (from what i've been told by paint guys anyways)

quote Originally posted by Firefox: I usually pull the panels, but in this case with his paint, I'd leave them on. This is one of those rare occasions for me.

Just a friendly question...since the Fiero is the only car you can remove the panels and paint, how is it that other cars painted in a quality way? When I'm done assembling my car the last thing I want to do is disassemble it again for painting.

quote Originally posted by jscott1: Just a friendly question...since the Fiero is the only car you can remove the panels and paint, how is it that other cars painted in a quality way? When I'm done assembling my car the last thing I want to do is disassemble it again for painting.

on them typically the whole frame is painted the same color - door jams and all

fiero is one of the rare vehicles where the body is one color and the frame is another

All Fiero rivets can be bought from these people: http://www.ardeldistributors.com/category.html?UCIDs=414669%7C656537 and other misc pieces

Tim

[This message has been edited by Mickey_Moose (edited 07-18-2005).]

My car was painted with all the panels on and it turned out pretty good. I would do one thing different however, and that is remove the lower trim on the doors and quarter panels. I had paint dry between the door and trim and when I has buffing the door, the paint cracked when the door and trim seperated (from me pushing on the door panel right above the trim).

The real trick with any metalic style paint is to have your gun angle the same for all panels so you don't get the metalic bits pointed in funny directions.

For plain enamel it doesn't much matter, but it sounds like your paint choice makes the gun work a little critical.

I would take the panels off and this is the reason. You can set up your panels to paint them all at the same time with the same batch of paint and all at the same angle. Here is another reason. If you screw up one panel, it is a whole lot easier to fix if the panel is off the car and can be isolated.

Now if you are an "artiste" with a gun, the car is pretty do-able, however, look at all the angles you have. This is not an easy spray.

Just my .02

Arn

bump any other inputs?

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88 coupe 4.9 Izusu 5-speed Rockcrawl chip. True duels.No A/C .KYB GR-2 on all 4 corners Built to run.

There are some big advantages to being able to remove the panels. One is that you get to really clean every hidden part. Two is that you can do a complete color change...completely.

The big down side is that it becomes a VERY big job to do a exellent job of reassembly. Any one can take a car apart, but putting it back together is not just the reverse. If you want to learn ALOT about Fieros...do go for it..!!

I'm 95% ready to paint mine and all I can say is, just changing the front bumper scewed up the alignment on the hood, fenders, and bumper. I'm no mechanic by any mean but you could'nt pay me to take that stuff off again!!!
Good luck with the paint.

Mike

I never paint a car panels off. Any kind of glamor paint like candy, flake or pearles, wont come out the same and it will be very noticable when its reassembled. Also high risk of damage when you put it back together. Like a scratch on a hood so you end up having to paint the whole car completely again to match the custom paint. Who cares if the inside of the door is white on your red car? No one sees it unless they take the panel off or it gets wrecked. I paint jams, mask them off, then spray outside. Even if it does leave a slight tape edge, its easily buffed off if your that picky. Factory dont have all the problems because their painted by robot in a totally controlled environment and are not custom colors. (factory pearles are different from custom pearles too) I just turned down a job to do a corvette that a guy sent to someone else, they disassembled, and sanded. He said it was worth $5,000 to him and he would do all the reassembly himself. Im not interested, and told him when he put it all back together as is, and brought it back in drivable condition, Id talk to him.

quote Originally posted by jscott1: Just a friendly question...since the Fiero is the only car you can remove the panels and paint, how is it that other cars painted in a quality way? When I'm done assembling my car the last thing I want to do is disassemble it again for painting.

I find it easier to disassemble a Fiero, paint it, then put it back together than to tape off all of the inside edges. I also like the fact that when I pull the car apart, I can respray the black areas that are visible and really clean up the car, so when you open the doors or the hood or decklid, you see fresh paint all around. Yes, you can certainly do that with the panels on, but for me I like to pull and spray. Roger does a great job painting panels on, and that's the way he prefers to paint them. The Fiero is a very easy car to paint panels-off because of it's design, whereas other cars are much more difficult to paint pulled apart. I've done a few restoration paint jobs, and these vehicles are painted in stages, such as the underside of the hood/decklid and door jambs, then mask them off and spray the entire car with the fenders/doors attached. Then you go back and install the wheel wells, carpeting, trim edges, chrome...etc.

There is no 'right' way to paint a Fiero. Panel-off.....panel-on.......it's what the customer wants. But, as I mentioned before, depending on the color, some paint jobs should be panel-on as Roger has just said.

Mark

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Since your keeping the colour very similar I would recommend body panels stay on. My car used to be gold, and was repainted red with only the front and rear fasica's removed. They no longer line up right and a few of the rivets holding it in place aren't there. Where the panels weren't removed there is a few pieces of gold peaking through. So in my opinion

Similar coulour = Body panels on

Complete Colour change = body panels off (and make sure you have all the hardware to get them back on properly!)

Always with panels on, especially with metalics, pearls and other specialty paints. The angle of the gun in relation to the surface to be painted has to remain constant, or you'll be left with a mismatched blotchy looking paint job. Bottom line - you'll have just wasted a few hundred $ worth of materials.

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88 Fiero GT
85 Fiero GT
05 Pontiac G6
90 Buick Grand Sport 4 Seater
What’s Behind You Is Of Little Consequence

When I change color(s), (after primer or primed areas are finished) I will do all the jambs first. The fenders come off fo this step along with the hood and deck lid. This exposes all the lip areas for paint. (except inside the rear of the doors, do that with doors open) All lips get painted then panels are reinstalled and the car is block sanded for paint.
Your car, your call.

I'm about to paint mine. It looks to me like I'll leave the front / rear bumpers and the roof on the car for paint, and remove everything else.

That leaves me 3 referance points to line everything back up, and those 3 items are super easy to mask away for painting.

DLD

If you are new to painting (or experienced for that matter) I'd suggest using Auto Air Colors http://www.autoaircolors.com/ they are a waterbased paint (easy on the lungs) that go down easy, and flat. All the reveiws I have read on it, rave about it. One magazine article I have, they did several gold colors, purposely laid down an 'X' in the spray pattern, then when they were done, could NOT find the 'X'! Try THAT with any other type paint!
You have to clear coat with standard urathane to finish it off, but that would be the way to go. It is a bit cheaper as well, plus it doesn't need any additives, you can spray it right out of the bottle, it attracts less dust when painting plastic or fiberglass, is flexible when finished, and is very highly adherable to surfaces below as well as grabbing the clear coat! You really couldn't ask for much more. No, I don't even have stock in the company, hmmm.
It takes a few more coats than normal, thin ones, and you must dry the paint with a heat gun between coats (or just wait till it's dry), but their site says about 2 quarts is all that's needed for a small car. I saw one site sell it for like $30 quart, and they've got all the bitchin' colors to boot! If you don't beleive me, go to their site and check it out. They have a great FAC section.