I have decided to spray my vert myself but am wondering what steps I need to go through to get to the painted surface right under the area where the canvas top attaches to the car. Can you just undo the Tenax fastners and lift that portion of the top up and away from the metal or do you have to fully remove the top to paint it? There is a little bit of surface rust on that portion of the car that needs to be removed and I see no way to mask the top and get to the rust the correct way without at least partially removing the top.

Anyone painted a vert themselves who has dealt with this? I am not doing a full repaint (pulling engine, etc.) but I want it to look clean on the exterior.

Thanks for any help guys.

 

yes you can remove them, but the forward one on each side may break when you do so, its a nut and bolt and is usually rusted frozen, rest usually are not a problem

 

I had the top replaced a year and a half ago so hopefully those are not rusted. Any idea where one can buy replacements in case they do indeed break?

Rob, I have lusted over your paint job. Did you do a full restore on yours? I know you are a professional painter. Any tips on spraying a vert? I do plan to remove the trim, lenses, etc. It is white and will get repainted white for ease and consistency since the engine compartment, trunk, etc. will not get sprayed.

 

do you have any paint experience? your paint job will only be as good your body work and surface prep. if your body work is not up to par it will show when the paint is applied. if you cut corners or use improper products/techniques on the surface prep then all sorts of different problems can crop up.

 

I don't do it for a living but I painted my FB myself and it turned out good. I put a great deal of time and effort into sanding and prepping the car. If there was a part that I could remove to paint, I did so.

I plan to do similar prep work with the vert but have never removed the top on one so I am hoping I can partially remove it to get access to the body. While I want a nice result, I also don't kid myself into thinking it will be a paint job worthy of a show car. A previous owner of the car either did a bad job themselves or took it to a budget shop that allowed the paint to run in multiple places. At the end of the day, whatever I do with it will be an improvement on what I inherited when I bought it.

 

If you havent painted before there are a lot of self-education options including:

Kevin Tetz' Paintucation DVD video series. Kevin is the star of Trucks! on Spike's Powerblock

PowerBlockTV.com has many of the shows online and both Trucks! and Musclecar have a lot of episodes dedicated to painting.

There is Ed Hubbs' Bare Metal to Clearcoat for $25. Search on youtube for "Ed Hubbs" to see some previews.

If you want to get going right away, you might want to check out Tony Bandalos as all the videos are online.

Bunch on youtube like this one by pumthuggee

which is awfully ghetto. Note I've found a lot of the "training" vidoes on YouTube are just infomercials.

If you haven't bought a gun you might find this article on the Harbor Freight HVLP gun instructional.

The best tip I've seen is to go to a junkyard and buy a straight fender or door and practice on it. If you screw up, let it dry, strip it and start over!

Good luck and remember "Pictures or it didnt happen!"

 

Thanks for the suggestions vvracing. I already have a compressor, spray guns, sanding blocks and paper, etc. from prior work. And I agree with the suggestion of practicing on a bone yard find. I did that previously when I was painting my FB. Went to Pull-A-Part and grabbed an old 626 trunk lid and worked on my technique before I started on the car. I think it was worth the extra effort.

Interesting you mention the Trucks! show. In a recent show they used some paint from Summit Racing for a project they were doing. I really liked the outcome. I am now looking at some of their paint as one option for my vert. It looks decent and is reasonably priced for my needs.

Once I get started on things, I will post up pics.

 

Good luck! Sounds like ur taking your time and not cutting corners. Make sure to post up some progress pics!

 

I did a quickie resto on it in 95, then a better one in 99 when I retired it from daily driving improving since then.

Nothing to really mention vert specific besides removing as much as you can, the top is VERY easy to unbolt and pull out of the way so dont sweat it. You can take apart pretty much everything you need fairly easily as far as door handles, mirrors, molding, etc.

May want to also remove the windshield molding then have a glass shop re-install, take the car to them now and go over it and maybe even let them take the existing molding out.

 

good luck. feel free to take pictures and share them with us so for others to learn from as well.

 

Thanks guys. As I get going on this one I will post up a new progress thread. I appreciate the input and advice.