I inherited an 88 IROC that sat in a barn for 6 years after it was painted and the clear coat is gone in the usual spots. The other part is that the engine compartment was never painted and it's not the same color as the rest of the car. Do I just get the clear coat painted or do I get the engine compartment painted to match the rest of the car and get the clear coat done as well?? The car is 96 Viper GTS 10 blue and the engine compartment is the stock gray color from the factory. What do you guys think?? This will not be a show car. It will be more of a weekend car that might be put in a show for fun here or there.

 

If you're going to get paint work done, plan on at least a full repaint. If you want to show it I would either remove everything you can easily remove and paint the engine compartment, or go whole hog and strip it and repaint it.

You could always satin black the engine compartment with cheap paint, but I'd think body color would look best, even if you mask off what you don't care to remove and use matching Duplicolor, or get paint mixed to match and packaged in spray cans.

As a rule, clear coat failure might as well be paint failure, because whatever is under the clear will probably need attention.

 

Thanks Drew! I don't do body work outside of easy bolt on replacements. Body work is an art form that I could never master. I'll leave it to a body shop to do the work. I'm trying not to spend a ton on the body at the moment as i'm still in the process of getting it safe for the roads. Just thinking ahead at the moment and trying to prepare myself and get opinions.

 

To pain the engine bay with any precision, it's best to take the engine out. Otherwise it, and all of its peripherals, will ultimately get in your way.

For repairing the clear coat, if it's not a metallic or pearl, about your best bet is to sand and feather edge (as lightly as possible) all of the delaminated clear coat. Once you've done that, you've cleaned, masked, etc, you can do a scuff and shoot.

Honestly though, it can be a bear to match existing paint\clear coat. I'd do entire faces so that if it does mismatch, it's harder for the eye to catch it due to the different planes.