I was thinking about this after posting my last post. We all know 80s GM paint quality completely sucks. My 89 RS was repainted under factory warranty when it was a year old for all sorts of paint defects (delam on bumpers, a hair stuck in the hood, acid rain pitting)...

Take a car like the '88 IROC I just bought with 21k on it. As I said in the other post, the RH side was sprayed...sprayed well, but sprayed. The match is perfect, but there is slight orange peel in spots. Does it really matter? When I repaint my '86 TA next year with 30k on it, is it worth less than an original-paint '86 that will likely have far more flaws in it? I don't think so, knowing how bad the original paint on these cars was....

Just a topic that I thought would be interesting to discuss, as these cars continue to age and become worth more...

 

It can effect the value of the car but frankly most of these cars are going to need paint at some point during their lives. There isn't much you can do unless you have a perfectly climate controlled museum to store it in. If these cars have ever really been driven that new paint comes with the territory. So technically it might lessen the value, but you can't really avoid it.

A bad paint job certainly devalues the car. Original or not. A flawless or near flawless paint job on a car increases the value, original or not. Originality may be more valuable to a collector but when it comes to 60's muscle cars few to none are in original shape. Restored cars, either faithfully restored or not can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

My point? Don't worry too much. Do what you feel you need to do.

 

Just my opinion Jason, but it's only original once. Personally, I try to retain as much of a car's originality as possible.

If I have to, I'll touch up certain areas if they are completely FUBAR. But so often, I see people with an all original car promptly repaint the whole thing because of one bad area.

The '83 CFI I bought a couple of years ago was a mess in lots of ways. Cosmetically, mechanically - you name it. But....it was a rust free, original car, with original paint. I touched up afew areas and did all the usual paint detailing steps and it actually looks pretty good. Good enough to get a trophy at ThirdGen Fest last week.

Personally, I have an appreciation for original paint on an original car, even if a newly repainted one outshines it.

 

I vouch to keep it original. I love seeing an original car thats beat up a bit then a repainted one. If you take it to a good body shop though, they may be able to tint and change the color to match your 20 year old faded paint. but its up to you, if its really protruding, then fix whatever's messed up.

My brother has a 73 gran torino, with 42k miles and its got its original paint, and i told him to leave it alone since its such a clean original car.

 

I'm more of an original-paint guy. Anybody with enough talent or money can have a nicely repainted car, even better than new. What is more impressive to me is the rare car that has "survived" through the years with its original finish.

At car shows, I spend far more time looking at the clean unrestored original cars than the frame-off show queens. I find the original cars far more interesting.

Believe it or not, I have seen quite a few original-paint 1960s-1970s cars with more miles than you would think. Here locally there's an original-owner '72 Olds 4-4-2 with original paint that looks almost perfect, and over 100,000 miles on it. It is possible to preserve original paint nicely, with a dedicated owner. But it is rare.

The Corvette crowd goes crazy over original paint - the coveted Bloomington Survivor award is for original-paint Vettes only. The Vette guys are nuts about originality. Probably the reason they are so into it is because the original finish on Vettes was so terrible, and it's hard to keep paint on a fiberglass body. When one survives, it is impressive.

These cars aren't classic Corvettes, however. So I don't think that paint work on your IROC will affect the value one way or the other, today. Twenty years from now it might be a different story.

Even my 8K mile Z28 has had some minor paintwork in the past, that I discovered after I bought it.

 

Me too.

 

That's the situation I'm in...I knew of 1 fender...now I've found the whole side was painted, albeit very well. I'm about 80% confident the second owner never knew of it. As the widow put it "if he knew about it, he never said a word to me...and he was obsessed with this car."

I may not have been clear with my original post...I'm not looking to repaint my whole car...just wondering, as in a situation like Tom's, when you find some paintwork done, does it really matter? To me, it doesn't matter much.

 

I don't know that it was the quality of paint that GM chose, but perhaps the limitation set by the EPA on what paint was within their allowance of pollutants... wait, was the EPA around then? .. ..

 

If I had known about the paintwork, I would have still bought my car. The work is extremely well done (I am good at spotting paintwork and I missed it completely), and I do know that the car has never been in an accident and all the body panels are original. Plus, I wanted a low-mile 1LE and those don't exactly grow on trees around here.

Bottom line - if the spot paint work is done well, and no one knows about it, it doesn't make a bit of difference IMO.

If the car had been wrecked, it would be a different story. That would definitely affect the value and desirability for me.

 

If you compare them to antiques...original finish, patina, etc...will always add to the value. A refinished antique can drop in price by the thousands.

I like original and I like patina. The general public doesn't though. Park an original car next to one with a mirror finish and see which one draws the most attention. In the NCRS and Bloomington Corvette world. They have judging based solely on survivor status. But if you watch B-J. You will see the cars with the blemish free, mirror finish, fetch more money than original cars. The general public likes shiny things.

Orange peel is an easy fix. If enough clear was sprayed on. GM did not spray enough of it to safely color sand a car though IMHO.

 

Repaint is a no-no for value within a vehicles first 10 years. At this point, as long as the car is a low mile original, there are many reasons a repaint could be necessary, and the value won't be changed. Take my car for example. It's a low mile original car, but I've replaced the ttop weatherstripping and now I need to replace the headliner. If the work is done correctly, you are performing maintenance. Original won't look new forever! It's not possible with the materials used since the early 80s. Plastics get brittle, fabrics lose their tensile strength, carpets warp and rubber deteriorates. If a car is repainted correctly, and there is little or no signs of a repaint, the value is still there.

My neighbor has an 89 IROC-Z that was recently repainted due to paint burn. The car has 39k miles and was a garage queen, but the paint still burned. We dismantled the car before it went to paint and a Mercedes Body shop repainted the car. The finish is very nice for the price and nobody will know because the car was taken apart so there is absolutely no signs of overspray. If the car looks good after the repaint, the value is in the low miles and other originality. At the car's present age, it's almost expected to have 1 repaint.

 

I have this very problem with my 89 Formula 350 Convertible... For all intents and purposes the car is a relatively rust free car. however it was a Florida car so the paint shows it.. The under side is almost perfect, only the muffler shield has any evidence of a 1mm sized rust spot on the edge of the sheet metal... Unfortunately All of the ASC conversion parts are fried and really need to be repainted.. But it is all original... Then again what appears to be the LH rear quarter panel which was painted a long time ago. I searched for any evidence of damage and there is nothing on the inside of the quarter panel that would suggest any damage.

But that is neither here nor there... I would like to show the car, but it is not a show quality car, So i am teetering back and forth on what to do with the car...

So... I feel your pain.

John

 

Original is original, and you can never change that.

On the other hand, as was mentioned previously, there is the maintainance aspect to consider. A car for which all of the mechanical and physical aspects has been looked after (which may include a paint job) will be more valuable to me - and this I know from personal experience than one that has not had that degree of attention.

Is an engine rebuild less of an issue that a repaint? Perhaps a whole new thread.