KLR

The front bumper cover on my 951 (i.e., the big poly nose piece with the fogs, turn signals, etc.) needs to be resprayed. I've got a couple of minor scuffs on it and some decent sized chips. The nose panel and headlight covers don't seem to need it.

Is it possible to just respray the bumper cover and have it blend adequately, or does the entire front end need to be done? What would you guess that this should run? Has anyone done this before with success? This is the last thing that will separate the car from greatness after a few more projects... it would be nice to get it fixed.

944_S_TYPE

I would imagine you could get the lower valance resprayed for under 200.00. Is it metallic of solid? A soild will be easire to match, They may even want you to leave it on the car..... Good luck.

SamGrant951

I just had a new bumper mounted and sprayed on top of what they were doing to the rear of the car...

I think it was around 350ish just on the front...

fwb42

If you go to your local Dupont auto paint supply dealer,they can computer match your paint for fade and wear,thats what I just did to have my 951 nose freshened up.I don't know about the labor cost but the Guards Red paint(1 pint) was $50 and the clear coat was $29 with the hardener.I'm having the local High School paint mine.On another topic,I was just in New York city last week and was amazed at the number of "P'cars there in all that traffic and possible damage.I'm very glad that I live in a small town!!Don't get me wrong,I did enjoy N.Y. subways and all but not a place for anything but the wifes 92 Camray.Fred

FSAEracer03

Fred... I agree... I get nervous in higher traffic areas. When I was cruising Orlando last weekend the potential for damage was in the back of my mind. Seeing a large group of dumbasses screw around in a full parking lot (ebraking, burnouts, etc.) made me wonder why I stopped to look at the cars! My roomie, also from VA, looked at me and said "I think the farther south you go, the dumber people our age get!"

True.

KLR

Heh heh. I have to admit that the NYC factor is causing me to wonder about whether to get the nose painted or wait and see how it wears before I invest (I've only had the car for a few months). The key to success in NYC is keeping your car near an exit point (mine's in DUMBO at an on/off ramp for the BQE) and keeping it in a safe place (e.g., not in a garage that is constantly shuffling your car around). I keep mine in a garage that parks it nose in in the back with other covered, weekend cars.

It sounds, though, like it's OK to just get the nose resprayed and expect it to blend without having to spray adjacent panels?

944_S_TYPE

Hey, I now read that you have a slate gray car? Is that metallic? Sometimes...mostly always it is hard to match. Just take it in and get a couple price quotes, It is fast and easy....
Think about it...If you have adjacent panels done...nose panel and fenders. then their adjacent panels will not match...Hood and doors. Get the drift? You could just buy a nose bra and be done with it until you get the whole car sprayed...like me.

JoakimJ

I dah the nose on one of my car resprayed for $260.
It was a black solid paint.

AndyK

When they "re-spray", do they rough up the original paint, and spray right over, or what? I have some rock chips on the front panel (but my bumper is perfect).

Should be much cheaper to just repaint that front panel...right?

944_S_TYPE

That is correct. On a white car it should be no problem to match. You could even take off the nose panel and bring it in. Probbaly would save some prep/masking costs.

KLR

You definitely want to remove the nose panel when painting; it only takes 10-20 minutes. Oftentimes, it'll be worthwhile to have adjacent panels done as well, up to some kind of a visual cut line where a color change wouldn't be too noticeable (e.g., at the roof, for example, or where panels meet at an angle). My car once (at least once) had the nose, front of the hood, headlight covers, and nose panel painted. The match is flawless; I only know because I can detect a very slight difference in texture when I run my hand across the paint and because the car doesn't have as many chips in the nose as it should given the mileage (i.e., the chipping on the nose doesn't match the flag mirrors). Generally, it's easy to match dark colors and tough to match light ones, so a white car is actually not the easiest to match. Mine is metallic, which makes it much tougher, but it's actually received paintwork in three areas that I know of (the nose, right front fender, and left quarterpanel), all of which blend perfectly, so it can be done.

They do, indeed, just sand down the original paint and prime and spray over it.

interceptorgt944

I need my front nose, and valance painted and my rear quarter, actually they have some dings in there, since I dont have all the moola right now to fix everything, can they just match my paint up like he said in the prior post, and just repair and paint a section at a time? It is kind of faded, and I think I could deal with a few hundred at a time, but I dont want it to look really obvious, ya know?

AndyK

My whole hood has been repainted. Maybe the front bumper too (no chips @ 100k = respray?). Looks great, and matches perfectly. Could have been repainted many moons ago too. Not sure. I think the original owner did it.

I'm going to be daily driving to work this summer. Maybe I'll asses the situation in the fall, to see if any new rock chips happen, etc.

interceptorgt944

well actually I was just given a quote of $600 dollars to pull the dent and respray my rear quarter fender. Hmmmm sounds a little high, but what do you think??

KLR

It depends on the dent, but based on the estimates I got to fix my quarterpanel, that's not a bad price. Even without the time/effort to fix a dent, it would cost several hundred dollars to paint the quarterpanel.

I wouldn't carry the concept of painting only parts of your car too far. With the set up time required (e.g., mixing paint, putting it in the gun, masking, clean up, etc.), it quickly becomes worthwhile to have the whole thing done. Particularly when you factor in risk: depending upon your color and how much things have faded, you're asking for trouble with the mix and match approach. When I was in high school, I had a gold pontiac that had been partially resprayed due to an accident in the 70's. According to the original owner, the match wasn't very good at the time and it was dreadful by the time I got the car in about 1990.

The only reason I feel OK about trying it with this car is that it's been done with success already and held up well over many years.