joseph mitro

agreed. glad to hear a common sense approach for once.

I agree with you and completely understand your rationale. However, I've come to realize that cars continue living long past their owners, so despite what you may or may not care about for now, the likelihood that someone else will own your car down the road is fairly high. I've begun to keep that rationale in mind as I'm tinkering with cars nowadays

dan_189

Agree with all the comments above - front end resprays are common as most stone chips and debris with cover the front.

The only concern is - the chips all just happen again and again... The first one after a repaint hurts the most.

I'm thinking about a repaint and then xpel but then I think... is it really worth it?

jamren

Thanks for the all the feedback. Helpful for sure.

dan_189

I'm in the same boat, do I repaint then xpel or just drive it and the chips are part of the history and patina...

SoCal911t

Do you have any pics of how bad the chips are? I would probably try touch up first. It's cheap and if it doesn't come out how you want, you can always fall back to plan B.

dan_189

I'm just about to buy a Dr. colorchip kit - going to give that a shot first. If it makes it 80% better ill be content. My car is already covered in stone chips/stone chip repairs. With my new GT3 wheels and 8.5" fronts its only going to get worse.

jdoc1949

You said that you were going to keep it a few years before you were going to sell it, why paint it know you may get more chips. I would do what the other person said, sand with 2000 touch up with factory color (Brush), let it harden up , wet sand again with 2000, compound and then polish. You are the only one looking at the car at this time, when time comes to sell it then have it sprayed by a professional.
I have my C63 bumper sprayed 18mths ago, it now has some chips in the paint. I would not paint unless it was so bad that can not live with it, just touch up and polish.
Thanks
John

dan_189

I also feel that new paint is softer than what you've already got and might be even more prone to stone chipping too?

Just an unsubstantiated thought but paint that's new and soft vs paint that's old and been baking in the sun might be hard - the theory in my head has merit to it.

Optionman1

I put Xpel on full front end/side mirrors after recently buying an 03 c4s but chose to leave a few small blemishes/chips on the front bumper. I plan on driving it year round (already put 3k miles in <2 months) and decided to keep it from getting worse via the Xpel. No complaints to date. Wipes clean with warm wipe.

dan_189

Xpel would be a good option but then when I think of the cost of protection vs. cost of the repaint it gets very fuzzy in my mind.

My paint is good but its also 14 years old like a lot of other 996s out there - I am becoming more inclined to spend money on performance parts/upgrades than paint as the type of car it is and where its driven attracts stone chips.

Have to pay to play...

NYoutftr

Is that about $1600 ?

Optionman1

$1700, did it along with IMS week after purchase.

motoo344

IMO the only time repaint is going to hurt the value of the car is if its truly a rare, collectible car that value is dependent on being as original as possible or the paint work is bad and obviously mismatched. This is not one of those examples and as someone who has bought a lot of cars if you have documents and the work looks good it wouldn't bother me at all. I once bought a 95 M3, rare avus blue and hurricane grey interior. The owner was honest and showed me pictures of the fact that it had been slid into a wall at the track. He had all the work done out of pocked and besides some of the panels being replaced so no VINs it looked great.