Ive spent the winter fixing all my little rust spost and bodywork, so the car is a patchwork of primer. I have a buddy who will do the paint job for next to nothing.

The car has a worn out 305, not smoking yet, but well over 120K miles. I have a 350 in a buddies garage lined up ready for the install.

Now, due to time constraints Im only gonna be able to do one or the other in the near future. Whaddya think?

 

why dont u do both?

 

Sand and prime it all and then rebuild the motor. It'll still run in primer..butwon't run with a new paint job and dead motor...

G

 

I would do the motor first , hit it with primer and catch the paint next time.

 

I would definitely do the engine swap first, and then do a paintjob when the time comes. Like rat454 said, you can drive on primer and a good motor, but you cant with a dead motor and nice paint.

 

IMHO a bad looking camaro is just as much fun to drive as a nice looking one. Normal people spend more time in their cars than they do outside looking at them. So the question becomes: Who would you rather please, yourself or everyone else?

Engine now, body later. My camaro looks like crap from anywhere under 100 feet away, and it's going to stay that way until it runs the way I want it to!

--Jimmy

 

you dont want to scratch a new paint job,doing a engine swap.power now,paint later.

 

thats actually a really good point.. its always a good idea to work from the inside out, because you WILL mess up the paint.. something will scratch it or something will dent it.. it's impossible to avoid

 

woah never drive a primer camaro, damn we are getting as bad as civics

 

Sometimes its better to look good than it is to feel good. You can paint it and still stab a motor without doing damage. Really! its not imposible to be careful and pay attention to what your doing.
Primers and fillers are like a sponge. They will let moisture through and then you will be doing rust repair again.