Just tonight I decided I should remove the neon blue pinstripe and multiple hotpink chevy heartbeat "squiggles" the former owner had painted down the sides of my GTO and across the top of the Judge wing. The 80's were over 20 years ago so I figured it was about time. My plan was to remove the "kid stuff" and put on repro GTO stickers for a more original look.
I started with a buffer and compound and proceeded to buff through the paint along the body line necessitating a touch up. The car was painted in black urethane in the 80's that was hard as a rock. I never thought I could buff right through it. I could sand in 1 spot for 10 minutes wth 400 grit and not cut through the paint! I regrouped and figured laquer thinner would take the stripes off without harming the underlying
paint. I figured a quick wipe down, a light wet sand with 3200 and a buff would remove any etching the "one shot" used for the striping had done to the paint.
I spot tested and then did the Judge wing first and it worked great with a lot of elbow grease to get the striping off. I did the whole passenger side in about 4 hours, followed by the driver's side rear quarter and then the door. With the finish line in sight, I got to the front fender and found out the hard way the it had been spot painted and clear coated over part of the striping somewhere in time.
No turning back, so I wet sanded the clear along the stripe and then lacquer thinnered off the striping and the "squiggle". Now I have the feathered edge of the clear showing against the black in the outline of the stripe and "squiggle" and it looks like ass.
A local body shop said "Don't even start messing with it, we'll block, prime, basecoat and clearcoat, wet sand and buff the whole car for $1200 if we can tape off the jambs. That's sounding really good right about now.
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