(Possibly) stupid restoration / paint question

[Zaspen]

All the amazing restorations on this site gave me the bug to make mine "like new" again.  The various posts have given me a lot of good information but I still have several questions- most are probably rookie/stupid questions!  I have the car down to the shell and I'm getting things prepped to go to the body shop for some rust work and new 918 orange paint.  My question of the day is about the various rubber coated wire hold downs.  Do these just get painted and then bent around the harness post paint?  Will this cause the paint to crack?  When they media blast the car will the rubber tab covers get destroyed?  Thanks!

[SteveJ]

https://www.240zrubberparts.com/apps/webstore/products/show/6644319 sold by @nix240z

[jfa.series1]

Look at this way: the hold downs were already welded into place when the car was painted at the factory so they got sprayed body color.  Yes, there might be some cracks in your fresh paint when you bend them but that would also have been the case at the factory.  As to the media blast you might wrap them well with tape to protect the coating, then unwrap for painting.

Edited September 22, 2019 by jfa.series1

[Patcon]

I like the look of unpainted wire hold downs. So I will probably peel all the rubber off, paint and then get the new rubber from 240zrubberparts

[87mj]

Mine went through the blast/paint process just fine.  However, when I put the wire harness in, I haven't bent anything in place yet just in case I need to move things around in the future.  I left that as one of my last steps.

[Mike]

Yeah, all of mine were painted.  When I installed the wiring harness there was some cracking but nothing too bad...

[foosman]

I stripped the rubber off all the hold downs during the blast process.  There was some rust underneath a few of them, and a couple had to be removed and welded back onto the body.  Ordered a few of the different size repro covers from 240zrubberparts.com @nix240z.  The pieces seem nicely made, but in my case they fit very tightly, and that's before the tabs get a coat of epoxy primer.  The body shop has some concern that they might split after install, so they are going to install the few I have after the engine bay is primed, and see how they hold up before ordering the rest.  Not sure whether I will ultimately paint them body color or not.

[Zaspen]

Thanks for the replies.  I think I'll see what they look like after blasting.