My '65 GT coupe is Silver Smoke Grey, a rare color that I don't see around much. I love the color, and when the time comes, I'll have it painted the same color. She's faded on all top surfaces, pretty bad. Tried every buffing/polishing compound known to man, nada. Bummer.

What is the deciding factor to strip the whole car or not? It's a California car, and with the unfortunate exception of daily driver duty 10 years ago, the thing has never been hit, no rust, and it's overall cosmetic condition is pristine concidering it's age.

There are actually two schools of thought with the pros. Half of them say there is no better paint than factory paint and whenever you can you should use whatever is left and build up from there. The other half say that today's paint technology is vastly superior and you should strip all the old stuff off and start from the bare metal up.

I think the best way is to strip to bare metal, but only because I like getting to the metal and cleaning and treating it with modern chemicals and using a single paint system. I feel that way because I then know that the metal was in fact treated properly, and all the chemicals are 100% compatable.

My 64 1/2 vert had been painted an incorrect color and it was a Maaco type "quickie" to boot. I got the car over thirty years ago and I still have vivid memories of how much work it was to disassemble and strip it of paint. The vapors from the stripper will make you halucinate if you don't use it in an open space. The stripper will burn your skin and disolve your fingernails unless you use nirile gloves. After being stripped it must be neutralized to "kill" the latent stripper. I used brass (not steel) wool as an abrasive to aid in the cleansing.

That being said, the final result was an outstanding re-paint in the original Guardsman Blue. The car is still very sharp today after thirty years of pampered existance.

Keep in mind that any paint job is only as good as what is under it. Cutting corners on primer, sealer, metal preping, or bondo will shorten the life span of the topcoat.

Look at GM cars of 77-80 vintage with any light colored metallic paints,blues and silvers. They say the UV rays did it. But the primer under the paint turned to powder and the top coats all peeled off or flaked off. I had a 77 Cutlass Brogham light blue and bare metal.