I have a 1987 944S, Guards Red. It is really in need of a paint job. I am concerned that many shops would not know how to do this job right. The owners manual states that the paint is a baked enamel finish?

I love the red color but would be sick if the new paint did not have the same glow. Anyone have advice on painting red Porsches?

 

Ummm... not a paint expert, but I think the "baked on" finish is just because they have the bare body to work with (no mechanicals or interior installed), and can speed things up by running it thru a tunnel oven on the same conveyor system that it was painted on. Thus, there's no time & storage space lost waiting for many bodies to air dry.

A good paint shop should be able to give you close to a factory finish, especially if you're not doing a color change or just painting part of the car. But bring the big checkbook; this quality of work isn't cheap.

Start by getting a recommendation from the dealership's service department on what shop they use. Then go look at some of that shop's work, both finished & in progress. Ask them if the fact that the body is galvanized will be a problem; if you get a blank look, go elsewhere.

Jim, "But I can't be out of money! I still have checks left!"

 

I am in the process of getting my car painted. For the full works, done by a high quality shop, it would be around 4 grand - ouch. So I'm going to go for a quality job (just not concouse) from the same shop and I'll spend the "extra" money on suspension parts. I'd rather auto-X and have fun with the car instead of worry about it constantly. I can't see spending 4K on paint when I bought the whole car for 6. Good luck - good work is not cheap.

 

I don't beleive you need to do enamel again.
I just finished re-painting my 83 944, full color change from Garnet Red to Cyber Green.. I did it in Urethane over the factory paint. Being Urethane it dries to the touch relatively fast (an hour OR 2) and can be color-sanded/buffed in about a week. Urethane is a very durable surface. If you have them do a basecoat/clearcoat job, That's more $$ but you will get that deep gloss you want.
*** The most important and time consuming part of a successful re-paint is in the prep. A poorly prepped car will peel/fade/and be wavy no matter how good the paint. Ask anyone who has had one of those chain-store paint jobs for more than a year.

 

Ask any body shop...Preparation is 95% of the job. Shooting the paint is the fun part. Here's what has to be done to get a first class job:

All trim parts must be removed, including rubber items, door handles, outside rear view mirrors, headlight buckets, bumpers(remove the rubber inserts and lights from the bumpers). Remove side windows so the shop can paint the window frames and not get overspray. Supply the shop with the bumpers and the headlight bucket covers for painting.

The entire body should be wet sanded with #400 grit or finer paper. The old paint need not be completely removed, but it must be made "rough enough" to accept new paint, and bad spots must be repaired properly. Ask your body shop. The body shop should spray the car first with sealer and then primer. This prevents unacceptable interaction between the old and the new.

The choice of material is up to you. I have used urethane, enamel and synthetic lacquer. Personally, I like the lacquer the best. It creates a hard finish which can be finished to a shine that is difficult to duplicate with other finishes and it dries rather quickly. I wet sand the car with 10 micron paper after waiting about 2 weeks for the paint to thoroughly dry. Then, I use a product like MIRKA, a microfine polishing agent, with a mechanical buffer. Both the paper and the Mirka are available from Red Hill Abrasives in Pennsylvania. (no association, just a satisfied customer). When reinstalling the accessories, use new gaskets for door handles and mirrors.

Expect to be sans car for a month or so from start to finish. Remember, Enamels are softer than other finishes, and take longer to thoroughly "set". The results are very satisfying and painting the car seems to give it the "new car smell" for awhile.

Now a word of heresy....Even a Macco paint job can come out quite good if the body of the car is properly prepped for it. It all depends on the results you are after.

Good luck

Bob S.

 

Ditto on the prep work being all important. I would also say that it is possible to get a better than factory finish on the paint if it is truly done properly by the body shop. I went to a recent car show and looked at the paint finishes of many high end cars and few (including the Porsches) had paint jobs that could beat a professional hand finshed job. It stands to reason that the factory can't devote the same time and resources to getting a hand finshed job that is possible with an aftermarket specialist paint job. But, If you want the perfect finish, you pay.

My 87 944 Turbo is presently stripped apart and being repainted - the restoration pics are on my web page.

Wayne.

 

Guys, that is the kind of feedback I am looking for as well as questions to ask to select a quality shop. If I am going to do this, I plan to do it right.

Other suggestions or comments welcome.

 

Yep, had mine repainted(changed colors too...got rid of that hideous burgundy metallic..apologies to those who like it). It is damn expensive, but i offset the cost of mine by using money i got from an insurance claim to paint it. Neighbor backed into me, and i told the shop that i wanted a full repaint. It is expensive, but you get what you pay for. Total cost was around 4k. I also have a maaco paint job on my 77 truck and like i said earlier, you get what you pay for. If you want to save money, remove every last piece of trim yourself, including windows.

 

A friend of mine who owns a hi-end body shop in Santa Barbara regularly spots repair work by checking for panels that are finished smoother than the surrounding factory spray. In his opinion, a good professional spray job, with the proper prep work and color matching should be at least as good, if not much better than the appearance of the factory finish.

 

I watched the guy doing my body work as he worked on a new BMW. He had to stop working on the hood because he had gotten the finish so smooth that you could see it was better than the rest of the factory panels which still had that very very slight orange peel distortion.

Wayne

 

You know, you may not need a paint job. You didn't describe your condition (scratches? Spots?). My Guards Red '84 was looking very dull when I first bought it. One quarter panel was very noticibly duller than the rest of the car (replacement), some sections on the bumpers, sunroof, and pillers were faded almost to pink.

I bought some 3M polish (fine, and medium for the bad parts) and some carnuba wax (Meguire's?). I spent the entire weekend buffing my car by hand...polish then wax...It was a complete pain in the ***, but hey, I had tunes, food, and the thing looked brand new for over four years ungaraged. Still looks pretty damn good. This spring I'm going to polish/wax it again...and refinish the wheels...I can't wait (for it to be done)...

 

Wayne,

Please tell, if you dont mind, what you paid for you car? And maybe an estimate on your expenses to fix?

I have greatly enjoyed reading your account of rebuilding your car. I have been thinking about doing a rebuild on my car as well, and this is valuable insight into the process. My car thankfully is not as abused like yours seems to have been. I sold cars for years, and am well familiar with the astonishing abuse that some cars see.

I recently had a spinal fusion, and only in the last week or so have been able to drive my car. My first drive was heaven. Found a empty stretch of desert and slipped through 140mph. Biggest grin you ever saw.

But as part of my "rehab", I intend to restore/upgrade my 951. I would like to have one at the level that yours is obviously going to be at. And I would rather do it myself, than buy someone elses' car.

And that yellow kicks ***!

 

Tremelune,


I had a 85.5 n/a in Guards. She was also kinda faded from years in Arizona. Meguiars and elbow grease doubled my money when I sold her.

I also bought a set for my drill, with a foam pad and microbead abrasives, to refinish all the glass. I couldnt believe the improvement to the appearance of the car.

THe abrasives removed all the tiny pockmarks from the windshield, and really improved the visibility from inside as well. Even on my 951, which has a very clean front glass, with no defects visible, the difference was really noticable after I buffed it. All the small imperfections removed makes the glass almost invisible from the inside, and matches the high gloss of the paint from the outside.

 

[quote] Please tell, if you dont mind, what you paid for you car? And maybe an estimate on your expenses to fix? <hr></blockquote>

I paid $5500 for the car in about April last year. A week or so go I went through all my receipts and made a list of every single item that I had bought for the car down to the last Oring. So far I have put an additional $17,000 into it. I decided not to post the list on my web page coz its a bit too incriminating if my wife were to read it.

In reality the cost has been somewhat more than 17K because thats just the receipted stuff and I know there is some additional gear that I have bought that I could not find the receipts for.

Scary isn't it.

I guess I can post the list without prices if anyone is interested.

Wayne