gsessler

Hello,

I recently purchased a Lapis Blue hardtop for my Seal Gray 996 under the impression by the seller that I would be able to have it painted for around $250-350. Have any of you had your hardtops painted? How much did you pay?

Thanks a bunch!

Alex

LVDell

I bought mine from my local dealer and they had it painted included in the price so I couldn't comment on the exact price to paint but it can be easily done. Mine was done in a day. If you email me I can send you a pdf of the hardtop assembly tsb so that you can give that to the body shop to make sure it is done properly and not just masked.

programmatore

Does the lining of the hardtop match your car's interior? My hardtop's lining is graphite gray which matches the interior. Do they all come in graphite gray?

LVDell

Mine does. When I bought mine from the dealer all I had to make sure was that they had a top in stock that was the same interior since we were going to paint if needed.

gsessler

They are not all gray, I looked at a couple with tan and black interiors also.

programmatore

Cool. That's what I thought -- I just haven't seen one that isn't graphite gray.

Like Dell said, I don't think painting the hardtop is a big deal just make sure you get one with a lining that matches your car's interior.

One last thing...I heard that some of the later cars that were ordered with the "hardtop delete" option do not have the mounting hardware on the car so just double check that.

Cheers.

gsessler

Yep, already made sure we had the hardware.

Also, you could always dye the leather. After all, cows only come in one color!

gsessler

programmatore -

Is Ocean Blue lighter than Lapis Blue? Your car is the first i've herd of ocean blue other than the Porsche web site.

programmatore

Ocean Blue is more "blue" than Lapis Blue. Lapis Blue has a bit of a violet tint to it. I think they switched from Ocean Blue to Lapis Blue in 2001 or 2002. Here's a better picture:

nycebo

THAT is a phenomenal color! Ocean blue is awesome looking. Enjoy it.

Kevin H. in Atl..

Ocean Blue has green in it, which Lapis does not.

jumper5836

wow! oceans blue is a very nice color.

programmatore

Hey Kevin, you're right. It does pick up a bit of a green color with the Savannah Beige interior. I never noticed the green before since I have Graphite Gray.

What's really interesting is that according to my dealer for 1999 to 2001, Ocean Blue was the most popular color for 996s in the Washington, D.C. Metro Area. In fact, my neighbor has an Ocean Blue 996 coupe and 2 other cars (a 996 C4 coupe and a Boxster S) at work are Ocean Blue! In 2001 the most popular color switched to Arctic Silver.

stanm5

Hi Dell,
Could you also email me the PDF? I have a midnight blue hard top on my lapis blue cab. I didn't have time to have it painted before winter but it deffinately needs to get done this summer.
Cheers,
Stan

I'll pm you my email address.

LVDell

On it's way!