StealthElephant

He put ground effects on an old RS he used to own (drilled the holes etc etc)

My body guy is kinda not too excited about the idea of it. He says he can leave them on and I won't have problems with the paint not adhereing well where the metal bodypanel the ground effect(the ones under the doors). I'm kinda worried there might be some surface rust under there that may need to be taken care of. Granted the only rust spot visible right now is 1 of the wheel wells...I dunno....should I worry about it?

Picture

There probably isn't any rust under them, but I've got that nagging "what if" in the back of my head. Plus I know pretty much everyone is gonna say that the ground effects should be painted off the car right?

MikeC.86Roc

iTrader: (10)

I would say it depends if you are painting it black again. If so, you probably don't need to remove them. If it is a color change paint job, then I would definitely remove them.

It's not that hard to do anyway... For your body man to say that it is too hard makes me question just how much he wants your business.

STRIFE69

Well I would say it is more time consuming then hard. wich is probably why the body man said it was hard.

Like to get at the pieces on the door you gotta take off the door panel to get at the bolts. to get the piece off between the tire and the bumper you gotta take off some interior body parts. can look by where the spare tire is to get an idea. Rear spoiler has bolts the are behind some plastic/rubber plugs. Etc... basically like I said more of a time thing then HARD.

Time is $$ though and alot of people don't want to spend the money paying a bodyshop to remove the parts and put them back on.

StealthElephant

Yea thats what I mean't. He said it was a "pain in the ***" I think were his exact words. I mentioned that the bolts were fairly easy to get access to and he said "yea, but theres about 30 of them". So it's more of a time thing, because he has to pull them off, then deal with rusted bolts, then put them back on.

The car is being painted black again. I'll probably end up having him take them off just for peace of mind.

MikeC.86Roc

iTrader: (10)

Hey stealth, why don't you offer to take the parts off for him? Maybe you can save some labor charge and he'll sand them and paint them and you can re-install yourself too.

Sometimes body shops will work with you in details like that depending on how much you are spending with them and if you have a good business relationship with them.

Yeah, you guys are right too when you say it is more time consuming then hard. Often times when doing this on a car that old you will find broken mount studs and missing hardware too, especially on the rocker f/x.

Post some pics for us when the paint job gets finished. Love that car, it looks just like mine used to before it got dismantled for my restore job.

StealthElephant

Thats why I'd rather not do it, cause anything that breaks while I'm trying to get rusted bolts off would be my problem.

To be perfectly honest I wouldn't be comfortable reinstalling them myself after he's painted them.

My only 2 concerns are:

Paint not adhereing well and peeling off where the metal panel meets the plastic ground effect.

Possibility of rust on the body panel the rocker ground effect sits over.

I saw a car on here that was was rust free, but when the ground effects came off all the metal underneath had surface rust.

I mean if I tell him to do it he will, but he didn't seem to excited at the thought of it, and he was pretty confident that there wouldn't be any problems leaving them on. I even asked him about the possibility of the paint delaiminating where the panel meets the rocker and he said it wouldn't be a problem.

MikeC.86Roc

iTrader: (10)

Yep, your concerns are quite valid i.m.o. I would like new paint to go beneath the panels too, but sometimes money and time dictates otherwise right!?

Good luck with the paint job!

Zepher

iTrader: (1)

The lower door gfx is easy to remove, it's the lower rocker panel that is the pain since the back bolt by the rear wheel is hard to get to.

Personally, I would remove the gfx and then replace any of the brackets that are badly rusted.
On my 86, both the front and rear brackets for the lower rocker were so badly rusted that they fell apart when I took the gfx off.
I put the new rocker on without those brackets and it looked "ok", just didn't sit up against the fenders and rear 1/4 panel as good as I would have liked.

StealthElephant

How hard is it to get new brackets? Does gm even make them anymore?

I'm gonna tell him I want them off when I stop over this week. Hopefully there won't be any problems when he goes to take them off.

Zepher

iTrader: (1)

If you can cut metal and tack weld, you should be able to make a set. All it is is a rectangular piece of metal with one stud for the rear and 2 studs for the front if I remember correctly. It just slips into the rocker panel.

FastKitteN

Thats a good idea.. I've been doing my ground effect work myself. Switching from my 88 effects to 92 GFX'S. Has been a pain in the butt.

But this is what can happen over time. Now a I will need some weld work done to the rear quarter. Best to take off and paint under then and to paint them better.



It rusted so bad under that quarter piece that the ground effect almost fell off.