Repainting the 914: Down to metal, always?, Curious to get your thoughts Options

[horizontally-opposed]

So I'm curious to see what the collected wisdom and experience here says -- and I'd like to hear from those who are NOT/have NOT stripped the car of every part for a "rotisserie" style restoration.

This is for those of us with running, driving 914s considering a paint job yet less than enthusiastic about disassembling the whole car.

I'd especially like to hear from Dr. 914 and others who have restored multiple 914s over time and seen how the paint jobs held up. Is a rust bubble the kiss of death for all surrounding metal?

Thanks, (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

pete

[John]

By reading this post you will know how I voted.

I am not a professional body person by any means, but have painted a few cars and helped with several others.

I have done some spot repairs, and with my experience and skill level, I find it necessary to go down to bare metal and start over. Here are a few reasons:

1. I am too tight to send my car off to be painted. (They wouldn't do the prepwork that I will do anyway.)

2. When doing spot repairs, I can never seem to totally eliminate all visible evidence of the repair. For me, it's easier to do the whole panel. No blending, no feathering, etc.

3. When I spend the time to repaint, I don't want it to blister in a few years. I really don't want to have to EVER repaint it. The only way to be sure of your substrate, is to remove all prior coatings and start over.

4. Metal prep is metal prep. When the 914 bodies were new, they were e-coated. The original e-coat would and does provide a very nice start point, but today's etching primers are a good starting point as well.


just my humble opinions