I had a 67 SS that some dumbass had yanked the 396 out of to use in a drag truck. Mine had a hopped up 350 in it with Muncie 4 spd. Bought it from a co-workers husband. He told me the driver's seat wasn't bolted in, and I thought - who cares? I was on a 3 lane street between two other lines of...
People have done it quite a bit. Like do a paintjob on the inside, then on the outside use a matte clear paint to layout stripes or flames for a ghost stripe or flame look. It's really cool. I did it years ago when I was in my 20's on a 1/32 slot car body.
It's no different than painting the inside. It will of course get scraped off in wrecks. But you can paint the outside. I've seen a few of the tough bodies painted. Never owned one myself.
That's why my friend had 5 of them. They were fairly easy to find dirt cheap. Then the drag racing guys...
My friend in school had 5 Nova's, all 69 -71 or so. All that same body style anyway. Every one of them was primer black, snd jacked up in the back with fat tires. So every time I see that flat black Nova body I remember Leroy and his fleet of primer black Nova's 😜