This is my 91 firebird with the 3.1 v6. I bought it from the original owner a couple of months ago with 99 000 miles. It had dark green paint with some chips and no dents. Lee and I have been working on this thing for the past weeks. It runs great. We want to get headers and put a turbo on it. Later on, we could get an ls1 once I get the money for it.

SO far we have changed the brakes, tranny mount, exhaust and some lil things under the hood. We also sanded the old paint and primed it. I think we would have to do it again because i found some spots that would show through the paint.

The interior is pretty nice, well kept. I threw a pioneer in there and sounds pretty good. The only problems with the interior are the non working passenger seat belt and the driver side cup holder which is loose.

I went to maaco the other day (yes, i know you dont like em) They said it would cost me 2500 to machine sand the primer and the sanded paint under it to bare metal and then paint it with their best quality paint. If thats the case then I would rather take it to a better place that will charge as much and be more likely to do a better job.


I want to paint it black but some time spots of green would show so should i just paint it the original color?

sorry if this was too long.

 

exterior today, primer

 

same

 

interior today

 

steering wheel

 

pioneer cd, nothing fancy

 

maaco on tidewater dr? if so run fast! they screwed me out of money on my car. in the end it turned out ok but they did a bad job on the work done after i fought with them. paint was $300, paid $150 for them to sand and straightin my body work out. a week later they call me to get it. go there and the paint on the left quarter panel is peeling off. we fight with them for a week because the manager had went out of town and they couldnt do any work on it till he got back. they threatened to have it impounded because we woulnt pay for the horrible paint. finally talked to the manager and paid another $150 for them to redo the body work and paint on that quarter panel. paint has much less shine than the rest of the car. bondo has pits in it. some waves. there paint is good though. just body work has alot to he worked on. and the primer u pay them to do guess what? they dont do it. i paid for my 89 camaro when they painted it for it to be primered, when i had it i scrached it on something and guess what, my primer, with purple paint under it. so they didnt do it after i payed what $79? for them to do it. my 94 camaro that i had the problem with them on, they didnt primer that car either. people are hard to work with and seem kinda like they are gonna rip u off since they only take cash no checks or credit cards. id suggest u take it somewhere else (maybe earl shieb on northhampton blvd)

 

thats the place I went to. The guy's name is Ken on tidewater drive. I've heard earl Shebah oversprayed my friends car. I don't think it was the one on hapton though. Beach ford gave me an estimate of 3 Gs, they take the car appart and sand it down to bare metal and start all over again. They change the weather stripping too. I need something cheaper though, i might take it to a place like that later on when i have the money.

 

kens the manager. he did get me straight, but he also had wrote me up a storage bill for 3 weeks of storage at like $12 a day. maaco had some over spray too. to tell u the truth i think that most expensive paint job $729 is the EXACT same paint as the $229 job. only differance is the prep they dont do. Greenbrier Collison Center off military hwy, behind the greenbrier gmc dealer seems to be very through and there body work price is $20 LESS than maaco. im not sure how there prices there go but im sure its not much more than maacoand better because your dealing with people that paint cars back to factory look instead of something that looks pretty good with alot of imperfections that only someone looking over the car carefully can see

 

Try not to go cheaper. You'll get what you pay for.

Find people in your area that will recommend a good place.

 

I called the former owner of my bird and he told me greenbrier oldsmobile in chesapeke is awesome and its not very expensive. He also said maaco and earl suck, that they dont have quality materials.

 

yup thats the place im talking about

 

momokings body doesnt really need any work, exept on the front bumper when a rock hit is license plate. All of the body panels are 100% straight and need no bondo, the only "bad" part is the bumper where there is a slight dent that is hardly noticeable. (but would be noticed with black paint)

The interior is also mint exept for the already mentions seat belt retractor and cup holder.

Overall the car is very good, runs fine and everything, its definatly not the normal POS thirdgen V6 you would only pay $1000 for.

We are trying to find some guides on body work so we can do a really good job with the primer so that he doesnt have to pay $2,000+ for some bodywork that isnt really needed. All he needs is paint, i think we can handle the rest.

 

The guy who works at greenbier told me to go to maaco on chesapeke, he takes his own cars there.

 

Hey MOMO back to your original question before this became a paint and body thread "Is it worth keeping?" I say NO! You are already talking about turbo or V8 swap, you woudl probably need to replace the rear as well for the added strength it would need. I would sell it, take that and the money you would put into paint, and for 2500-3000k you could go find another 3rd gen bird or camaro that already has a 350, aluminum driveshaft, 3.27 9bolt borg warner rear, and the extra beefy suspension goodies I'm pretty sure are lacking in that V6. It will save you tons of time and money trying to get what you really want out of that V6 firebird.

 

I couldn't agree more. Unless you are really in love with this car, take the $3K and get a GTA with a mint body that maybe needs some work. It sounds like you are already handy with the mechanics.

 

Holy Post resurrection...

 

2500$ for a maaco job. Sounds steep. I just bought all my materials at RMS for 230$ and some guys I know are painting it for 400$. Just hope it looks decent.

 

and while your at it, to hell with the 3.27's, 3.45's are where it's at...

Josh

 

I doubt that he is reading your suggestion since this thread was posted almost a year ago and he has since been banned.

 

I was looking to see who the moron was that revived this post, and it was......ME!

Sorry,

I can't remember what search I was on that made me reply to this old thing.

Put it back to sleep.

 

Well at least you replied agreeing with me. Even if it takes a year I swear I'll get some respect around here.

 

well, sorry i am moron #2. they should have a flashing NEON warning pop up that tells you that you are replying to a STUPIDLY old post...

Josh

 

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha


I honestly fell out of my chair when i read that! funny stuff

 

SNORK!!

Dweeb alert!

~C