Hey everyone been a member here for awhile...I was considering selling my car to get a C5 but instead i'm gonna wait till next spring to get a C5 and instead keep my GTA and fix it up and eventually have both. I've put too much into the car already too. However I know basics of a car and such but i'm a novice when it comes to paint, bodywork,etc. I will also not be doing this myself. Question is, what should I keep in mind when getting a new paint job/bodywork done? How can I get the original black colour again from the factory on my 90 GTA? How many layers, what type of black paint was this from pontiac? Things to look out for when choosing a place to get it done? Prep work before taking it in?

So far its had the stock 350 rebuilt by the previous owner when I bought it almost 2 years ago. Since then i've had some bad luck and replaced the radiator, battery, alternator, all fuel injectors, intake leaks, oil leak, gas line leak, cut cats off as they were plugged, replaced rear diff with a rebuilt used 10 bolt with new 3.42's as my car happened to have the 9bolt, new toyo proxes tires all around, heatercore, brake calipers, tie-rod ends, compression ratio tests, dash pad, tune-up with sparks plugs, K&N, hood struts etc and a few other things here and there. Spent about $5000 with labor and taxes on all this. The rearend itself installed was over $2000.

Heres a list of stuff I plan to do to my car this year...I also live in Canada so you US people keep in mind most of this stuff including paint jobs are more expensive depending where you go.

- Bodywork to fix small rust bubbles, dents, etc
- New black paint
- Fiberglass rear wraparound spoiler
- new exhaust tips
- rear brake light
- C & C t-top weatherstripping
- fix power antenna
- sub-frame connectors
- lower the car
- window tint
- refinish scratched tan interior plastics
- new valve covers
- new emblems
- new console lid
- new fog light housings
- redo brakes
- redo or replace seats

I hope to spend no more than $3000 on paint/bodywork and about $2500 on the rest...reasonable I think but we'll see how it goes...anyway any tips for this stuff or the whole paint project would be helpful thanks, Josh

Heres a picture of the car as of now...it is very clean and the paint appears to be good but its not up close or in the sun

 

sweet GTA man.

 

Damn good lookin GTA!

 

Nice car, black is the toughest darn color to keep clean from scratches,dirt etc.

But when it's clean....there's nothing like a black car.