Painting non-mod car

The easiest way to paint it is to take the car fully apart then work ont he body separately - even if you aren't 'modifying' the car other than paint. To strip the paint off completely you can use paint stripper or soak it in thinners overnight, or sand it back with a wire wheel on a dremel. Then paint it up with your choice of method.

If you don't want to pull it apart, then you will have to very carefully mask the wheels and window areas to stop any paint getting on them. If you wipe all the decals off with some acetone (nail polish remover) and give the whole thing a light sand with something like a scothbrite or fine sandpaper, then you can spray some primer over the body and then the final colour you want. An airbrush or spray can will give you a nicer finish than a brush generally, unless your brush skills are really good.

Technically hydro should work, but I haven't heard of anyonedoing it yet, but if you have access to it, then you might as well try it :) However I would only dip the car if you take the body off as there is too much risk of contamination or rusting of the axles if you're going to race it still. Colour change axles shouldn't rust, but they could still get gunked up from the paint in the dip process

Just remember, it's only paint. If you mess up you can always repaint it :)

Just understand that if you're racing the car it won't be considered stock any longer once you drill the rivits and take it apart. If it's just for show then surely taking it apart is the best way to go about painting the body.

I just wrap the wheels with masking tape and then spray paint. Works well enough if you're careful and liberal with the tape. 

I just did it for the upcoming Pink race.

I find when doing a custom paint job on a stock, it's easier/safer to keep it simple and work with the existing paint job. On the left here, is one I did for Indiana Diecast Racing. I hand-painted a coat of white enamel down where I wanted to do the decals and added some quick-and-dirty detail paint too (because sometimes I don't know when to stop). You could obviously hand-paint more than I did, but you get the idea. Decals are also your friend.

On the right is just detail painting over the existing paint job. It's a lot of stress going that close to the windows and wheels, but if you have a fine brush and a steady hand, you'll do great!

Also, you can remove existing tampos with acetone nail polish remover on a cotton swab. Here's one I'm currently modding for Pinks for the Cure: 

Nice thing is, I was able to remove the ones I didn't want (on the side, used to say "Spring 2020") and leave the ones I liked.

Thanks all so far for the guidance! I'll explore the options and see how it goes. If liberal taping works as adveetised then I'll try that out!

Masked off the windows and wheels. Seems to have gone very well considering it was my first go at it!

Thanks again all! Disassembling will be the next attempt as that seems way easier than what I just tried lol!

Just got a slue of cars from Live Young Die-cast (6 to be exact).  They submitted stocks and at least 4 of them are hand painted.  I'm loving what folks are doing for this race!