rwiii

My paint looks terrible. Black car with white primer makes the road rash look speckled. There are scratches from rubbing hay bales at the track. Nearly every panel has a ding and a scratch. I know a good paint job costs $8k-$12k. Local guy says he can clean up the body work and paint it for $3k. Sanding, clear coat, de-trim, etc. Is the only risk is that I waste $3k because it only lasts a few years? If you think it can come out worse than it is now, that's not possible. If it doesn't last or look good couldn't it be stripped down and done right at a later date? I'm never going to put $8k-$12k into a $20k car so I'm not going to "save my money and do it right". Any data based reason not to do this? I know most of you will say "I wouldn't do it, just drive it", "you get what you pay for", etc but is there a real reason outside of poor judgement in your eyes?

halik

dr color chip it; it will make the white stuff disappear.

kenmhall1

Not sure how much they run, but have you considered a solid color vinyl wrap? I think it would probably be in the $2-4k range...

rwiii

Thoughts in the paint job? Color chip won't remove dents.

rwiii

Willit fill in the dents?

dennis hiip

With my limited experience on one car( not my Porsche) with a cheap paint job, I was able to get an acceptable result by wet sanding with 1500 grit followed by compounding with a rotary buffer and then followed by a finer polishing compound and wax. I actually get some compliments.

dotframe

This!!

rwiii

So vinyl wrap proponents: you would favor doing all the body work and then wrapping? Would cost significantly more than bodywork+paint

yoda888

I say fix the dents/dings with the mobile repair guys (doesn't matter if they crack the paint), then wrap the car. Also every couple of years you can re-wrap it to a different color if you want.

rustymon

I've been curious about vinyl wrap myself, as my car has tons of chips and the beginnings of some flaking clear coat... can't imagine that a wrap would shine like a nicely painted car would, and I also wonder how visible all the tiny paint chips would be as small indentations in the wrap. Maybe that wouldn't be noticeable. Anyone with experience on this, or just lots of fans of the idea?

Macster

Spending $3K paint job -- assuming the cost doesn't go up once the job's begun -- and it will almost certainly compromise the corrosion resistance of the car's original paint.

Then after a few track sessions the car looks as bad or worse -- depends upon the paint job quality -- than it did before.

And you're $3K poorer.

Put the $3K towards track driving lessons to learn to better avoid the hay bales so when you get another nicer looking car it doesn't suffer the same fate at your current car.

Leave your current car as it is.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Marc Gelefsky

Do it right, or don't do it.
Of you get a crap job it will make you more unhappy than your car withs it's patina.

ivygreen

Shop around. You can find a decent painter in the $3k range. Ask to see a painter's work and look at several cars as they're completed. Most shops will work with you on price if it's not an insurance job and you're paying cash. Under that tree below is my wife's Escape. It needed a quarter, a rear door, roof, hood, bumpers and some glass. Every body panel on the truck was damaged. It's getting completely straightened out and an all over paint job. All the work is guaranteed for life. The total is $5,300. You don't have any body damage that'll take more than a few hours to smooth out, so your bill should be far less. You can get nice paint in your price range. It'll just take a little leg work on your end to identify the right shop.

rwiii

Thanks to Macster on the data corrosion as a real fact base reason to not do this. I live in Texas so it's not an issue. The rest of the post had nothing to do with my question but thanks for the one semi-relevant comment.

aviography

Doesn't help now, but this is why I believe in Clear Bra for my cars, so that it will at least prevent the bulk of the stone chips from happening in the first place, I'd rather pay $1.5K for an excellent full front end coverage Clear Bra job than contemplating about if a $1.5K cheap paint job (for the same area) will be good enough........

For now, work out a good deal with PDR guys and wrap the car if you want to keep the cost down.