I am hoping to address the people who have painted their car a completely different color. I would love to see before and after pics as well!
First let me give a bit of back ground, My very first car was a Bronze 1984 Trans Am , it was bronze with gold accents/decals, ground effects, and wheels....so my car was often called the Poop-mobile and the color referred to as "Poop Brown with Sparkles". After a couple of years, my uncle was kind enough to paint it, black...recaro style...it was GORGEOUS....though the finished product was spectacular we left out quite a bit of things. The Paint was only on the outside, so under the hood, the door jams, undercarrige all of that was left the original color. Luckily the Brown just looked like a dirty black, so most of the time people didnt comment or notice the juxatposition.
I am really looking into getting my car painted black. I want to do it right. So I have a few questions. People who have painted their cars different colors, did you go full out and have the car completely stripped and disassembled and repainted piece by piece, or is there an easier way. What I figured I could do...for things like the bottom of the car and all that just put the car on racks and put a few coats of gloss black spray paint all over the bottom, I figure since no one will see it, a quick job like that will be acceptable.
But for the Door Jams, the problem seems much more serious, because that is often viewed by people, and I would want that to look sharp. So how Should I do it? Also, I have a T/A so little things like the bottom of the wing....I need to do that right..and I dont know if you can remove just the wing...but the way i understood it was that it was attached to the whole hatch...so how should I do it? I would also remove the hood, and have that painted as a separate piece...so I am not worried about that......but the biggest problem...is the Engine Bay. I do not have the tools or anything to remove the engine, so that is not an option. What I figured the best thing to do was start masking the bay off where the fenders and nose are bolted up..that way it will at least look like the individual pieces are the right color and for whatever reason I decided to leave the rest red. I figure that will look much better than just over spray.

I know this is a long stupid post, but I really would appreciate any help. Thanks

Nathan

 

My brother had the same problem when he went to paint one of his old cars. It was a 1992 teal Camaro. He got it painted white by our neighbor who owns a Maaco. He knew he was going to sell the car soon, so didn't want to put an expensive paint job on it. He just spray painted the door james with a flat white, and under the engine, etc how you said you were thinking about doing. When the car was done being painted it looked awesome, and you couldn't tell that the car wasn't white from the beginning. Only thing, is I'm not sure how long it lasted-he probably sold the car about 2 months later.

As far as painting the wing on a TransAm, you can take the entire hatch off it you wanted, but if you bring it to a professional paint shop, they should be able to paint it while leaving it on. Sorry, not much help, but thats the only experience I've had with painting a car an entirely different color.

 

my 1995 Z28 was teal and i changed it to black.....
piece by piece.
pics in my sigs!!!

 

Thanks for the replies and information guys! I appreciate it!

Chuck! What did you do about the engine bay? I didnt see any pics of it on your page!

Thanks
nathan

 

I am going to paint the engine bay next winter when i take the engine out for a good going thru to get it ready for a supercharger!

 

I've done numerous color changes on F-bodies. To do the motor you can do a 95% job by removing everything but the engine. disconnect everything, wrap everything up in tape that you cant remove, scuff it up with a red scotchbrite pad , clean it a few times with wax and grease remover to ensure there's no Armor All left, and paint it.

A good way to do it is to pull the fenders off, that way you can get the area in the doorjamb good withoiut pulling the doors. Pull the door panels and mask off the middle where you don't see and it'll look great.

The Trans Am spoiler comes off the hatch with a few 10MM bolts. Just pry off the plastic trim on the inside and Youll see what Im talking about. You can then paint the spoiler hanging up and get both sides evenly.

 

Excellent! Thankyou very much! And I must say I admire you and your Z28 very much! Great Work!

Nathan