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I heartily agree with Ross on taking it to Maaco. I did this with my son’s VW. It had some dents, so a skilled friend did the body work, then I took it to Maaco. They prepped the barebones and painted it. It looked great with the trim back on it.
My ‘40 Super 8 has modern paint. It cost $9000 in 2011, but I took everything off and primed it myself, mostly to prevent rust. I sanded it, but the shop did the finish work. You can see it apart at the paint shop starting on Post #97 of the The Duchess Project blog here:
packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... ic_id=5878&order=ASC&status=&mode=0

BigKev, Ross, Joe Santana gave it to you straight. Not a fan of rods and customs, but some of those guys do good work. So, maybe ask around, cars & coffees, etc. find such a painter who might see doing an unbutchered old car as a challenge, more exposure. It'll still be expensive, as BigKev and the others well counsel, but you might save money. Look at some of his work first.

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Just curious...I always thought that you couldn't do that with single stage enamel. Like the original poster, I have a Packard that suffers from a (seriously) sub-standard enamel paint job. Can you elaborate on your methods as it might be a viable option for the both of us.

-Scott

Old, hard enamel can be "compounded" to smooth out a rough surface, if the paint is thick enough.

The paint surface on the hood and front fenders looks very rough in close-up. The most practical course for this car might be to sand all the rough areas smooth, perform any metal work needed, then lightly sand the entire car, spot-prime as needed, and re-spray the whole car with same type and color paint paint as used before. The running boards also need some attention. The fact is, in today's world, supplies alone to do a good paint job will cost more than the car cost new.

Think seriously About painting your car
Mine got me to were the cost more than I could sell it for
I had budgeted 20K and that was not enough for a total strip and a base coat clear coat paint job
It looks great, don't mind that I have more into the car than I can get for it. It my hobby, it's supposed to cost money, only have one old car, like it when it stops traffic when I go by
It took a year, the guy I found wanted to grind all the paint off so we did not have any chance of paint reacting with what was underneath but costly
Good luck with you project
W

I found the paint that the car was painted with.

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