I’ve been thinking about doing some body work (small rust spots mainly) and getting an exterior respray (?) or quick paint job, something that hopefully matches the under hood factory color. The car is 90% original from Southern California and the clear coat has definitely disappeared in some places. Would this hinder the opportunity to sell my Z as a “survivor” later down the road?

Pic for reference

A "quick" paint will diminish the value of your car. Don't be a cheapskate. BTW  240Zs didn't have clear coat. They were painted with single stage paint. 

Edited June 16, 20213 yr by bpilati

Agreed.  There aren't many things worse than a cheap paint job.  They tend to raise uncomfortable questions, the most damaging being, 'What's he trying to hide?'.

I guess I wouldn’t be looking for a cheap paint job but one where I don’t need to strip the car completely. Unless that defines a cheap paint job then I guess I’ll probably just leave the paint and body as is. 

If it had clear coat it's not original singal stage paint the original to the early Zs. My 9/76 has singal stage paint. It fades but that's it, no clear coat failure. My cars, my guess is if you have clear coat spots it's not the original paint. Paint it to your taste.

Edited June 16, 20213 yr by siteunseen

So if you do quality work on the restored portions  (assuming the rest of your paint, and rubber components are very good), you can detail and buff the rest. A good painter can try to match color. All this and you might get by with it.

I had mine buffed down to slick original color. Single stage allows that. Good luck with it. Nice looking car.

Just now, siteunseen said:

I had mine buffed down to slick original color. Single stage allows that. Good luck with it. Nice looking car.

Try a $100 buff out first in my opinion. Maybe $200?

 

1 minute ago, siteunseen said:

I had mine buffed down to slick original color. Single stage allows that. Good luck with it. Nice looking car.

How come your score is bigger than mine? I'm suffering from score envy. 😅

I'm a bored rattle trap that reads everything.

Went down and took a few pics for you to compare your's too. Hope it helps determine if it's  OE paint?

 

I'm in the American Pickers camp. Leave it alone. Patina looks best to me unless it's a show car you've spent $$$ on. If not, sale it and let the new owner make those decisions. My $.02.