Yes, the car was painted in 1999, about a year after I got it.
The entire underside was coated heavily with undercoating, and I later found some rust...not alot, but enough to be concerned with. I fixed some with fiberglass as a temporary patch, vowing to fix it correctly later.
About a year ago, I was greasing the front driver upper A-arm, and the zerk broke off! Holy Cow! Well, to replace the zerk, I'd have to remove that side of the suspension. Well, I should also replace the brake lines, as I don't know how old they were. Well hell, while I'm at it, I might as well pull the engine and freshen up the engine compartment. If I'm going to do that, I might as well go all the way and fix the rust on the undercarriage.
Painting the car that early was a big mistake, and I readily admit it. I just didn't know enough to know better. What made it worse was the bodyman screwed up the paint, and it bubbled, and I couldn't really get it fixed right. So....right now, the car is completely stripped of gear, and I hope to avoid further screwing up the paint job. If I do, well, that's OK too, but it will cost me more money than I have now. The restoration is kinda like therapy. I'm learning a lot in the process. Besides, I can't let everyone else do things on VMF that I know I should be able to do, but don't. So, I dived right in and will do things right. I figure about $2500 and 3-4 years should do the trick, so long as I avoid a full paint job.
