So guys I'm in the process of restoring my 87 z28. Paint is dull and desperately needed, interior carpet and seats need to be redone as well as some of the trim replaced, I'm faced with the choice to either tackle the interior first or repaint the car, which is currently white would be repainting white. If given the opportunity and both were needed which would you do first and why?

Hi there,
If it were me, I would work on the interior first, only because I have more experience doing interiors, and can do a lot of the work myself. A good paint jobs needs a lot of money, so start saving up towards that. That's what slowed me down for the last 4 years... no funds.

Everyone has their own priorities.

Well see thats the thing the funds are available, just debating on which to do first. This is my first thirdgen and i will be doing most of the work myself and my buddy he has been working on thirdgens for a good while hes had his fair share about 12. Also this will be my first paint job but him and myself will be doing all the body work in another one of our buddys auto detailing shop. So its not really about the money just which to attack first which i know the paint will probably be more time consuming

I would do the paint. I end up pulling the interior on a project before paint/body work. This keeps it cleaner. Do you want body filler dust on your new interior? How about accidental over spray on the door panels and seals? I suggest pulling most of the interior except for the two front seats. Then after paint, you can install your new, nice and clean interior. Oh yeah, for a nice touch, remove the black seal around the windshield before painting. Makes for a cleaner job and replace it with the 91-92 wider trim.

Ill definelty make sure i look into the 91-92 trim and yeah thats what had me a tad concerned about the interior lol

I think I would also do the interior first as long as your not painting the inside of the doors and door frames. If you get tired of the interior work , you can do a little exterior paint prep work along the way. Most materials for the prep are not expensive, just a lot of time and work to get it right. Get the interior done, paint prep done, then you can shoot the paint and your done. Almost like having a like new car.

To paint one correctly you need to pull as much off the car as possible.

Things to remove:

Side mirrors, locks and door handles, window sweeps / Door panels have to be removed.

Tail Lights / Rear plastic has to be removed.

Not too big of a list to have clean edges. You can still drive your car without the carpet, plastics and rear seats. Even the console and dash pad can be removed and still be functional.

I don't think the factory installs the interior before the paint the body.

Thats a good concept there, thanks for the input, That would solve my issue of wanting to do both lol I see your in Austin, is there a fair amount of third gens up there?

This is all a matter of opinion and priority. I'm getting paint done first, for the reasons mentioned by Bluegrass. Do you really want someone else in and out of your car, moving it around in the shop after sinking a good chunk of money into your interior? Dust, overspray. Not for me. As far as paint goes, check for stress cracks by the roofline in rear corner of window opening. Most 3Gs have them. Especially coupes. SFCs before fixing them if so.

Agree with blugrass,

when I painted mine, all the interior came out, weatherstripping , etc.

If you plan to change colors this is the only way to go.

I took mine down to a bare metal shell.

Once paint, and wet sanding/buffing is done, you can install your new interior.

Good input guys, car will stay factory white color, for those of you who have changed out the weatherstripping while painting the car, what does the cost of new weatherstripping look like in regards of replacing everything ttops door etc, and do they sell whole weatherstripping kits

About 400 bux for a complete set of T-top weatherstrip set. Close to 300 for coupe.

Is that just for the ttop weatherstripping or for doors etc as well?

Complete set, even the pieces that go to the triangle parts in front of the glass, window wipes, hood to cowl, deck lid,doors, body around doors, hatch. Got mine from lonestar on ebay. Go with soffseal brand. Some things you just don't want to skimp on, this being one of them.

Check out year one, classic industries or any other big name in redtoration.

Heck I got my door weatherstrips through auto zone.

Thats not too bad a price for the whole set, how did you like the ones you got? Did they install fairly easy on your car?

Car is still in for paint right now. Heading up to check on progress in a bit. Actually paid 275 delivered for my coupe, but I got it as only second bidder at the last second.
Read up extensively before buying and nothing but good about Soffseal on here. I'll let you know in 2 weeks as my paint guy says it'll be done then. Which in a realistic timeline means one month

Autozone weatherstripping still holding up? lol
Yeah that was my intention im guessing they sell whole sets as well

Yeah do the paint and body work first, like said not matter how much you try dust and crap will get in the car during the body work and paint process.

Yes, held up well. It was Metco brand.

Nice not bad, i wonder if they sell kits as well

http://www.camarocentral.com/1982_19..._p/wea-182.htm
Can anyone confirm this is the entire set, and hs anyone bought weatherstripping from this company before?

Looks good to me.

No hood to cowl seal. Not one of the most important pieces though. Other than that, it's complete.

LOL I came across the same problem.. interior or paint and body work..??? So I chose interior. First I cleaned up the carpet, got it smelling great! Installed my new dash pad, stereo, and my new seats (new to me, I got them out of a 2001 Trans Am). Got all my gauges working right and made my car as dependable as it can be for a 24 year old car. The only thing I'm waiting to install is the head liner (I dont want it damaged when I go to do the paint, switching from GM dark red to Cyanne Red Nissan)..

From the outside my car is faded red, black and primer. But on the inside, its as fresh as the day it left Van Nuys.. Stone

Nice point out let me see how much that one would be seperate

plus I see the interior more than the exterior.. lol stone

Lol true I just put in my new dash pad, and rewired the harness for the factory radio as well, pretty much the only thing left is the carpet and seats and a couple trim pieces, im just undecided lol

I would say the body...I make jeep wranglers. .we paint them then put the inside in...I dont want nice new seats then someone from the body shop ( sweating and dirty ) seating in my new seats...maybe leaves a screw driver in there back pocket ....seen it happen. ..

Take a look at my profile...my pics of my 87 are on it...

My car is having bodywork as we speak,do the interior LAST,I restored my entire interior 1st and what a big mistake I made.You can't imagine how much dust you get inside while their working on your car with the windows SHUT.I'm probably going to be cleaning dust out of all the nooks and crannies for awhile.It's very depressing to see all the hard work you did look like $#!t but they are going to detail it before I get it back.

Nice they paint came out good!Nice job man


Manta good to get a perspective from someone who has done it, im pulling more towards the body work/paint

I decided to paint the exterior first on my car because I can then drive it down the road and not be embarrassed.
I pretty much already have everything to completely restore my interior. It's just a matter of putting it all in now.

Although i love my car it wouldnt be so bad to have other people like it as well lol

My car hasn't been painted " yet" ...its still in primer...the pics of it being shiny black are before pics...the first pics you see of it..is how it is now ...the plan is to paint it flat/satin black...and the ground F/X sprayed with lineX ...then have red grand sport strips painted on....inside the red strips I'll have skulls airbrushed. ..

Here's the way I look at it. It depends completely on how far you are going to take apart your car to paint it. If you want any kind of descent paint, you are going to have to remove the gfx, mirrors, spoilers, weatherstrip, etc. In order to do that you will have to remove the door panels and all the interior plastics. Why do the interior first if you are just going to have to take it all back out to paint it? I just painted my car last year and went through the same thing only I decided to replace the major interior stuff before putting all the plastics back in. Do yourself a favor and buy a weatherstripping kit and carpet set. Those are the two biggest pain in the buns to replace, so do it as soon as it's painted and everything is apart. Then you can do all the easy stuff later like the headliner, dashpad, door panels, seats, etc.... Those things all come out easily and you can do them basically anytime. If you are going to do a quickie paint job without removing much, then you won't have to remove the plastics and door panels. It's up to you.

Carlos- Car came out very nice, good thing you noticed the moldings lol did you put new weather stripping in, if so what did you go with?

Coolwheels-im looking at weatherstripping kits right now any you would recommend?

Thank you! I scored some brand new OEM weather stripping in a sealed box off of eBay back in 2011. I saved it until it was time for the paint job.

Aww man im jealous lol that awesome but it runs a pretty penny now, even they even have any. Im looking on ebay but i dont see many kits for thirdgens

http://www.camarocentral.com/1982_19..._p/wea-182.htm
So guys I think ive decided on this kit and will be getting the hood to cowl weatherstrip apart from them for $20, although on the kit it says you can upgrade the door rubbers to have steel ends on them for an additional $30 how would this help?

I would do the interior before the exterior. Think about it, you have to sit on the inside. You need to be comfortable driving. Maybe you could just primer the outside if it is VERY bad to keep paint from getting worse. Primer the outside, drive with it like that, and get your interior done.

yeah I'd say pull out the interior, cover what you can and repaint the car. once you're done and its all fine and dry, put in new carpets,etc. its gonna have that new car smell, I replaced carpet in my car recently

Yeah ive decided to do the body work and paint it and i will buy the interior things in the process and have my seats redone while i paint it, thanks for your input guys

Unless you are going to make it into a race car, it makes no sense to do any restoration on a thirdgen until you fix ALL the water leaks.

not sure what you are making reference to as water leaks?

around the windshield, firewall, cowl, etc

don't believe it leaks by the firewall but all the other will be attended to but good point man

Make sure your cowl drains freely from both sides, or you WILL have a rusted firewall.

sure will thanks all weatherstripping will be replaced to ensure no water leaks are present, I can imagine that would be a pita having a rusted firewall not an easy place to get to