If it weren't for the rust around the rear roof trim, I'd say leave it, for economic reasons.
But, rust has a way of spreading and turning into holes, so I'll vote for painting it.
Plus, to my eyes they look so much better when they are shiny and not too many colours (meaning the non-matching skirts and nose cone - I like the 2-tone treatment!).
It'll still be a nice car, whatever you do with it!
Repair and blow-in the rusty spots. Knock down the new finish until it matches the surrounding finish.
It's what I'm doing (eventually).
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
I'd paint it -preferably the factory colour. If you don't like the factory colour then perhaps another factory colour. IMHO these cars don't look very good in non-original colours.
If you do paint it, just don't make the mistake of thinking you will recover your investment if you sell the car. With the cost of paint jobs these days that's not possible any more.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
If you do paint it, just don't make the mistake of thinking you will recover your investment if you sell the car. With the cost of paint jobs these days that's not possible any more.
X 2 !! No doubt about it. You have to do it to keep it or forget it.
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1957 Pontiac Pathfinder Deluxe sedan restored 261 six
1974 Chevrolet Caprice Estate wagon low mileage original 400 V-8
Remember the good old days of Earl Scheib? When we were 18 years old (31 years ago) a good friend of mine had his 72 Cutlass painted there for $149.95. The trick was to do all the prep work yourself- body work and masking. A good wet sanding and buff would get rid of the orange peel and you were good to go. His car actually turned out quite well.
I know the cost of paint has gone up substantially but you'd think the business model would still exist for such a business, say for $549.95.
If $$$ is an issue and concerned about rust getting worse. Could always get rid of the rust and drive in tinted primer for a while then final prep and paint down the road. Just another option.
Are there no cheap paint jobs left? Like for $500 or less if you do all the legwork? I had no idea... wonder what a cheap spray costs now?
Hard pressed to buy primer and paint for that nowadays, little own,bondo,sand paper,putty,tape etc,etc,etc. Single stage for the truck was 350 alone. Have seen vehicles with discount paint jobs, orig paint was only wiped down with gun wash then sprayed!
Can you still get plain old single stage paint as was applied to the cars back in the day? I sometimes wonder if we've gone too far with base/clear etc given that the cars were never done that way originally.
I haven't kept up on the paint situation, but I'm thinking toxicity/environmental regulations might have driven the price up due to unavailability of cheaper chemicals that worked well, but were particularly bad for the environment?
I still have aspirations in the back of my mind of doing my own body/paint some day, but am worried that the process might be becoming too complex, requiring special equipment, etc. Will have to school myself on the current paint situation one of these days.
Paint only runs $80 per gallon ("only") at Summit for their house brand. Primer is about the same. So you could get a gallon of primer and a gallon of paint for $160.
That's for acrylic urethane single stage.
-- Edited by davepl on Monday 7th of August 2017 10:40:47 AM
The paint (and primer) cost alone for my last few paint jobs was about $2,000. This is the top of the line PPG paint (bought in US since it's no longer sold in Canada).
I'm in the steel business and I can tell you that paint costs of comparable quality industrial paint is up 10 to 20 fold in the last 20 years. It's all driven by environmental compliance.
Have seen vehicles with discount paint jobs, orig paint was only wiped down with gun wash then sprayed!