Getting car painted but have some questions

[88GThatchback]

A couple days ago a guy at work backed into the front of my car with his truck. It bent the hood, broke my brand new diamond lights, and tore the bumper. I got the money from him and bought from Cervinis a 2.5" cowl hood and a stalker bumper. I can get a good deal on getting the car painted so I can get pretty much the best paint job that I want. I want the car to look like it came from the factory after it is painted. My car is red now and will be painting it a different shade of red. What parts do people take off when they get thier car painted? Do the bumpers, side skirts, and moldings need to come off? I know all the trim pieces around the windows need to come off. What do you do with the roof rail moldings and the outer door belt moldings? They have a rubbery coating on them. Do you have to sand it off and then paint them? This is all I can think of right now. Im sure I will think of some other questions later.

Thanks,
Clay

 

[stang22]

You can take as much of the molding off as you want to, but it will require a little bit more work. When we painted mine, we did not remove the front and rear bumper covers, only loosen them to get in between the fender/quarter panels while sanding and painting. I would definately take all of the ground effects molding off and all of the window trim and belt molding as well. Of course you will want to take all of the lights out, front and rear. The mid-molding on the door is optional. We took mine off...

Depending on how back your 1/4 window molding is, just bump it with some sand paper and spray it with semi/satin, or flat black, along with the other window molding and plastic piece up front by the front windshield.

Take a look at my site, there is a "Paint" section. I have a few pics on there to maybe give you some ideas. Hope this helps,

Tim