spider cracks

I have a 1976 corvette that looks amazing with one flaw, spider crack. Without striping the whole car and painting it, I was wondering if there is anyone who knows touch up the spider cracks?

Depends on the color.
Black or white can be touched up.
 

Does it look like this?
 

 
If so, ya take it down to the primer and start over.

It's black. The cracks aren't even close to being as bad as that but they are long spider cracks starting form the top of the hood down to where the lights are. Is there a way or item that could touch it up without it being incredibly noticeable?

I can't help ya with a touch up method, but it's just gonna get worse. I believe what is happening, is that your paint is shrinking which is causin' the cracks. It's just something that happens with age, sun, and temp changes. After all, your baby's paint is over 30 years old.
Wish I had better news for ya.

+1
 
If you plan to keep the car, probably best to invest in a new paint job.  You can help keep the costs down by doing some of the work yourself like stripping all of the things off like taillites, mirrors, rockers, bezels, script, etc.  Also can read up on it and strip the old paint off.

It looks like this:

http://gs275.photobucket.com/groups/jj317/T4OYHEQEG/?action=view&current=P1011031.jpg

http://gs275.photobucket.com/groups/jj317/T4OYHEQEG/?action=view&current=P1011033.jpg

http://gs275.photobucket.com/groups/jj317/T4OYHEQEG/?action=view&current=P1011035.jpg

My Vette is black too. The guy I bought 'er from covered the front with a blue nose that went back to flames. Kind of a cool idea, but the rest of the car is like the pic I showed ya.
Here's the blue nose.
 

 
Took this pic while doin' an engine swap.
 

 
I don't blame ya if you're not impressed, the flames are pretty funky,but the concept isn't such a bad idea.
Just a thought.

I hate to tell you this but your engine is missing.

Looks to me it is exactly what Starship said. I just finished a '76(well, I'll be buffing it tomorrow), that had cracks in the paint just like that maybe not as bad but very much the same type. It was from the paint shrinking and also due to the amount of paint on the car. This one had 5 complete paint jobs over the original as well as a few sloppy touch-up jobs. What a PITA! I wish the guy had told me it had a 1/4" of paint on it. Boy did I ever under-cut my self, LOL!. In oerder to fix that you will need to remove all the paint right down to the glass. The factory primer back then really was crap. Best bet is to Have it blasted with plastic medium or baking soda. Might sound expensive at first but believe me, spending 3 weeks sanding off 23+ layers of paint by hand sucks a fat one!!.... Waaaay sucks!!! Good luck with it. Cheers.

quote:

ORIGINAL: cyclic hardover

I hate to tell you this but your engine is missing.

 
Thanks, I never would have known.
Did a little lookin' around and here's what I came up with.
 

 
This ought to work, eh?

Talk to someone that does body work and has exp blasting vets with baking soda.
This way you don't need to take off any crome etc.
Maybe they can blast the front end if that's were the cracks are and just paint that area. Some of these guys are really good and can match up the new paint to the old.
 
Black is the best color to match up I am told.

Starship,
do you have any pictures of the front with the hood, showing the blue flames?

Sorry, no I don't. I'll set the hood on this weekend and drop a pic here, if ya don't mind waitin' a few days. She's been under a tarp the last week or so due to rain, but It's supposed to clear up for the weekend.