Paint: Should I or should I not....

[rtaylor]

My car has original paint in most excellent condition. I am a member of the yellow Z car club as well. When my father in law purchased the car, he had the dealer shoot the entire tail gloss black. I am trying to figure out if I should have the tail resprayed yellow. I really don't know if I like it black. It seems it was taped off at the corners. If it is resprayed, do you think it will be real noticable as a respray? If so, maybe I should just leave it black.

And since I am at it, the rockers are painted black as well, should I repaint those too?

I don't want to respray the entire car.

What to do?

[geezer]

You certainly won't be hurting the originality by respraying these areas. If it is done by a true master of his craft, you will not be able to tell it was resprayed. It's possible to blend the color to near perfection. It sounds to me that you want it as original as possible, so I say do it. That was more of a passing fad then anything, when people painted thier rockers black.

[e_racer1999]

i say do it.... IF you can find someone who will get it right!

my 0.02

[Arne]

I also agree, Randy. Done right, it should be almost impossible to tell. I'd do the tail, rockers - and if it were mine, the spook as well, as it looks like there is some black accenting on it too.

[rtaylor]

Thanks Guys, I was unsure whether I could get a match on the paint. It's good to get other eyes on the car and get some learned opinions. The car just doesn't look right with the black tailend. It detracts from the lines of the car when viewed from the back. I have a painter in mind and he has done some good work on company cars for me. But when it comes to the Z, I have a much more critical eye. You are right Arne, the inlets on the spook gotta go as well. They may have looked good in 71 as Ron says, but they seem way out of place now.

I am going to drive it down to his shop tomorrow and see what kinda of pricing he will give me. How easy is it to remove the tailight finishing panel? Does it just unbolt after the interior trim panel is removed? And to paint I guess I need to remove the tailights, which means new gaskets while I am at it.

[beandip]

The interior trim doesnt need to be removed. there are plastic rivets along the hatch sill that need to be pulled and most likely replaced then there are two clips , one on each end of the finisher along the bottom of it in line , about , with the tail light. The finisher slips straight into the clips, like a friction fit. Just mask off the tail lights , the finisher covers this area anyway. License plate light must also come off , two screws on the sill and then three on the light . The finisher is in three pieces , and I cannot remember if it is screwed down or not , but it is a straight forward thing to remove. You can mask off the license light and then you won't need to pull the inside trim. You might think of removing the bumper as well , it looks like the lower vallance is also painted black difficult to see in the picture. Gary

[Arne]

Gary's got it right. Six plastic rivets across the sill, similar to - but smaller than - the interior panel rivets. The two side panels can then be carefully pulled off. No need to take the three screws out of the license light cover, the whole light will come off after removing the two screws in the sill. The trim under the license plate was retained by two more of the small rivets on my red car.

[Zak's Z]

Yep...I say paint it. From the sound of it, you'll appreciate it more. Then you'll be a full fledged member of the yellow club.

Z

[rtaylor]

The painter said he would paint tail, rockers and spook for $500. That doesn't seem too bad. He also said that it will be diffuclt to spot the new paint as he can match it exactly. I think that I will take it to him to do late this summer. He needs the car for two weeks.

Thanks for the info on the finishing panel. When pushing out the plastic rivet pins, where do they go? Will I be able to find them once they are pushed out?

[Arne]

Do it on a clean concrete floor. The pins will generally fall down and sit on the tail lights, or the flange of the tail light gaskets, but sometimes they can fall clear through to the floor. Generally not though, they normally get trapped somewhere between the tail finishers and the rear body anel itself.

[rtaylor]

Thanks Arne. I didn't want to lose them, like i did when I removed some interior panels, as I don't know if the smaller rivets are available from MSA.

[mars23z]

Maybe just paint the lower part yellow I think the tail light area looks good black