your paints flaking off because it was never rubbed down properly before painting. that leads me to suspect there may have been shortcuts in the panel beating too, so yeah better to start from scratch really.
the problem is how much time and money do u want to spend on it.
its good to do work yourself, but bodywork and paintwork arent for everyone, so get some advice along the way from someone who knows how to feel whats "straight" and whats not if u r thinking of doing the bodywork yourself before getting it sprayed elsewhere, if u r thinking of spraying it yourself too, practice on old panels 1st.

I think you're forgetting how immature I am Pigdog, hehe. I'd be quite happy to sit in the car with the engine dummied up making engine noises for the next few months.

Basically the car is a present to my Dad so I'll ask him what colour he wants on it although I already know exactly what he'll say; same thing he says whenever he paints anything - British racing green with white stripes. I think he would have had me born British racing green with white stripes if it was possible. So I'll have to work on that. I might just go get some samples and spray them on an old panel and see what looks nice.

Having looked though the albums here the coupes seem to look quite nice in bright colours like danger yellow or vitamic c orange. I don't really want red or blue, but again, it will be up to my old man.

well if the coupes going to be off the road for a long time, want to practice fitting the CA into my car.....just for kicks

would be a shame to have a freshly build CA just sitting around, i'd let you sit in the passengers seat while i drive

you saw my front guards, that was my brothers first go at painting(with no prep work).....so going from that painting seems rather easy

I had bad run the first time I had my 1200 coupe painted. I bare metal prepped the roof, bonnet, and front gaurds. The rest was rubbed back. Took it to the paint shop in primmer ready for final blocking before colour applied. The bastards just painted it.

So after 12 months waiting they re-painted it and it come out pretty good. Few imperfections and the odd ripple down the rear quarters. What people often dont realise is how hard it is to get a perfect new car like finish on a 30+ year old car.

Im pretty happy with what Ive got now. A little bit of good quality body filler is fine and no rust.

All going well the Perth boys should see it at Motorvation.

Back to topic, strip it back and get it professionally done and their are alot of coulours which suit the 1200 coupe. Other than the factory ones.

Just my 2c, nothing personal at all, didnt mean to offend. I mean custom as in bonnet airbrushing and big lightning bolts, nothing wrong with a little pearl here and there.

Hell the racecars having two colours, but thats a racecar, I would feel like a tool driving it in traffic.

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now be nice my ute isn't gonna be horrendous as you put it..i am going a stock colour but i am having my own little cutsom twist to it so it will be easy to get touch-up paint for!!

As for practicing spraying your car yourself, just grab some spare parts that are bent n dented n just basically useless, then strip off whatever is on thenm and then you can get an idea of what colours you like that would suit.

and as for doing prep work yourself, Luke and I are doing it all ourselves, with the exception that he wont be the one spraying the ute when it comes down to it...when we had my ute soda blasted, one of the guys that was doing it actually is a spray painter by trade, so i got his details somewhere n will prob give him a call when its ready and he said he'll come out n do it so he has already seen the ute and the work we have done n was happy with it, and also a friend of Luke's, his brother sprays cars as well, so we have 2 options at this time or we can send it out to someone we don't know.

Thanks WhiteSedan,
That's good to know. I know extremely little about painting though so I was going to get someone else to do it. I suppose I could practice on my 200B and see how it turns out. Think I'd rather get it done nicely though.

I've been photoshopping a lot too trying out different things, two tone doesn't seem to work very well on the coupe. Too square. Might give the Mopar/Hemi colours a go. Curious Yellow, Plum crazy..... there are some nice colours there.

Be careful and talk to whoever is painting it first before you start prepping, some painters wont want to touch it with a ten foot pole when you say its all ready to spray. Painters I know like to do the prep work themselves to get it right. Why not paint it yourself?

My 2c on colour, go original for that car, leave the horrendous custom stuff to the ute guys .

Thanks guys,
I agree totally. At tafe one of the guys gave his car to the paint and panel department for the students to practice on (he was happy because he got a cheap whole vehicle respray out of it)...... wasn't too happy when it was done though.

I'll do all the prep and panel work myself then get it painted. I'm a bit scared though about what I'll find under the paint.

Yeah Converted, it's not my daily thank goodness. My daily is a Ford ute that just got defected for being basically a big piece of junk. Thanks Ford.

I think I'll stay away from the stock colours though. If it's my car I want it to be mine and custom, but I want it to plain and simple. But I don't think it will be painted until next year, unless I give it to Burke_a_lot

I should get a photo album at some point and put up pics. Especially if I two tone my GX bonnet *drool*

90 % preparation is the key to good paint. Thats why a really good job is very expensive. Its very time consuming in the prep stage. If youre gonna keep it and you worry about its looks then do it properly. Bead blast it or have it dipped then start from the ground up. Purple is not my colour..and if you do a really good job and use a factory colour youre coupe with stand the test of time and will be worth alot of money. They are already expensive. Have another car you can use as a road car. Restos on a car that your daily just doesnt happen, or you do a have assed job.