aljolyn

I'll be painting in the next week or two and wanted some opinions. On the rocker panels under the doors did you sand that smooth or leave the rough finish? I need to do some body work there, some put a jack in the wrong place. Did you remove and replace the stick on stone guards or leave them off? If I replace them I'm thinking of replacing them in black, car is being painted silver. Any done that? Pics? Thanks!

V2Rocket

i think black on a silver car would look nice.

PorscheDude1

Replace the stone guards. Your new paint will be fubared in short order.
Also I'd leave the texture on the rockers for the same reason. If they are smooth and glossy, they will be sand blasted in a year or two. Just look at 968's that have been driven. The rocker panels usually take a beating.

DarylJ

Definitely replace the stone guards. Whether you use clear or black....you need something on there. My paint is pretty dinged up after a December 08 repaint because I've been too lazy to do this. So I guess I'll be putting black ones on.

As far as rocker panels, I roughed them up without a sanding block so that I wouldn't take too much texture off. In the few small sections where I had to do rust repair, I took the rockers down to metal, repaired, and then used truck bed liner with a foam brush to attempt to duplicate the texture. It was a bit too "pointy" when I was done, but I knocked it down with some sanding by hand without a block once it dried and it matched up just fine.

Also, just to make sure you are aware - be careful about sanding too much off. The bodies of these cars are galvanized. If you have rust, it's because of a previous ****ty repair, or because of DEEP digs that went below the galvanization.

Before (ouch):


Prep:


More prep, including child labor:




Yes, I did make a poor man's positive pressure down-draft booth in my garage out of bailing wire, 3/4" PVC, painters plastic, a tarp, a furnace/fan, tarp, and some filters.




Prime:


Paint (garnet red metallic + clear):


With lots of pieces parts hanging from bailing wire in the "booth":


And, done:


Lessons learned:
- If I were to do it again, I'd have more light. I thought I was pretty well lit, but you really, really can't have enough.
- I wouldn't do it in December. Although I never intended to do that in the first place. I just got a decent week where I had high 50's to low 60's so I could actually get the shop/booth up to 85 degrees with a 65k btu gas heater/downdraft machine
- If I were ever masochistic enough to change colors, I'd be gutting the entire car, painting it with the doors/hood/hatch off in addition to what I'd done. And even after that, I'd be pissed that I didn't pull the motor to do it right. This is why I stuck to the factory color.

Edit: I also took the opportunity to get rid of the bumperettes in the front and back.



It requires some creative filling in the front to get rid of the holes near the marker lights:



Yeah...I put it on too thick. I used some putty to fix this when I did the final smoothing:

67King

Yes, painted mine. Absolutely replace the stone guards. As for the spray on stuff on the rocker, use a 3M pad to roungh it up.

https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...oject-car.html

Ronin-951

I did a spray 3 yrs ago, factory color. Colored the lower black plastic bits too. No stickers or stoneguards replaced, got em, dont like em. No chips yet. Ya, I know their coming but I'm dreaming of a flat black treatment some day. I'm happy so far and I dont miss the advertising on the back. Re-arranged some details on the back and now I can find mine in a parking lot.

DarylJ

That looks NICE. Do they not use lots of salt and crap on the roads there in winter? Or do you hibernate the 944 when its crappy?

I daily drive mine (after its been plowed), and the crap on the road here in southeast PA is just horrible on everything. I actually rotted a hard brake line out on an Explorer (they're rot boxes anyway), and just replaced both wheel cylinders and both calipers on my pickup because I couldn't reasonably get the bleeders out on the front right and rear left anymore.

Ronin-951

Generally do the maintenence in the winter as the city is always saying their broke and plowing is hit and miss, might get to work, might not get home. Ya, the de-icer is rough on parts and leaves the roads with deep snow ruts. [Lots of those alarming sounds coming from under the car.] When things clear up a bit though, the cold asphalt makes for great burn outs![Just testing the maintenence things, Officer]

J Berk

I had some rust repair done on the rockers this year and had i done in flat black texture. I don't have any pics handy but I like the way it turned out.

xsboost90

painted my red n/a years back. I stripped the lower rocker panel crap off w/ a razor blade. Also never replaced the stickers. My lower rocker area was chipped up within a few years. If you strip the lower rocker guard, put a big piece of plastic 3m rock guard on there.

Wipeout

I love looking at the photos from you guys who are brave enough to do paint...I'm too nervous/OCD to do it meself.

Dan, you've painted what...3? 4?

apierce918

when i did mine with my dad, i scraped the textured **** off.. BUT i bought a can of 3M textured spray, and did 3 light coats of that from a rattle can, then painted over that, looked factory.

drift a 944

I painted my 'track car' myself... did not replace the stone guards after painting, and have had no chips in that area after over 2 years.... however the car is not driven daily, more like a weekend car.

Before:


2 years After painting:

DarylJ

I'm pretty sure 99% of my dings and chips in that area are salt and cinder related, so its no surprise you're doing okay in FL