I'm the recipient of a large scratch on the hood of my 997 thanks to some debris that flew up and hit me while driving down the freeway. I've had multiple people take a look at it and they all say it's body shop time. So... I got two estimates from two shops; one said not only does the hood need a respray, but so do the two front fenders in order to blend the paint properly. The other said that since the gaps between the 997's hood and fenders line up with the "humps" of the fenders, they create sight lines that effectively hide the variations in paint color between the resprayed hood and the original fenders.

My car is Arctic Silver.

The first shop's estimate is about 3X the price of the second. The second shop's estimate is less than the comprehensive deductible of my insurance policy (which is fairly high - $1000). Naturally I'm inclined to avoid making an insurance claim, even if it's comprehensive and not collision. Absolutely zero chance of a resale value killing negative carfax report with the second option. But will it look any good? Hence my dilemma...

Body shop #1 is a Porsche Approved collision repair center. Body shop #2 works closely with a well known Porsche indy mechanic in my area and also sponsors the local PCA chapter.

What would you do?

 

 

 

Buy a used hood? Sounds silly, but if you can put eyes on a good one, it will probably be cheaper. I searched long an hard for a TT tail until I found one in the same color as the car. Worked out beautiful.

 

I have a fantasy of getting a GT2 CF hood but that will probably never happen.
All fantasy of GT3/GT2 hoods aside, as someone who grew up around body shops, I would go with the cheaper indie recommended shop. The reason why is because you will just need to repaint it within 5 years anyways if you drive it a lot (esp. canyon driving with friends or tracking).

 

avoid somebody that says I will blend into the fenders. First choice, no options. He isnt even going to try to match the paint. He doesnt care if it matches the rest of the car, he is going to make it seem like it matches. Go to as many shops untill you find one that says they are going to paint the hood, and make it matchThere are plenty of good shops that know what they are doing. Ask porsche or mercedes dealers, or exotic dealers like ferrari, lambro, rolls, etc

 

^^^ that is a good point. Also, something your post made me think of, is when my mom had a shop, they were servicing a few dealers. I would guess that your local porsche dealer may have a body shop that they go though that can offer the same high level of service you would expect from OEM. I never wrap my front end and I have tracked a few cars. I just consider repainting parts of the front as maintenance. It is arguable between the whole wrap/clearbra stuff and just repainting every few years. In any case, I agree with okbarnett.

 

I'm leaning towards Shop #2 for all the reasons stated above. My car is in really great shape (otherwise) but it's definitely not a museum piece. It's a driver.

 

This ^^^. I dropped a garden tool on the hood of my -06 C4S. Took it to one of the premium body shops in town where they fixed the dent and painted the hood for $600. (almost 10 years ago though). No mention of blending into the fenders. Repair was undetectable. Or at least good enough where the Porsche dealer that took the car in as a trade didn't even mention it. The "blend into the fenders" guy sounds like someone trying make a small job bigger than it has to be imo.

 

Option 2, just the hood. A good shop can match the color. Leave as much of the original paint as original (fenders and bumper) which a blend won't do.

 

Definitely find another shop that guarantees a perfect color match with no blending. My experience is that this is a standard that a high quality body can and does adhere to, especially on a Porsche.

 

In a previous Porsche that needed a hood respray the authorized Porsche body shop insisted that the fenders needed to be feathered in. I reluctantly agreed and they were finished , the car looked great as if it was never repainted

 

"When they were finished" I need to turn off the crazy spell check!

 

I know how annoyed by dents and scratches can be. So you need a mind set change. Every day wake up and look at the scratch, see it clearly, and call it experience. Then put a thick coat of wax on so it does not rust. Ok. So the hood may be aluminum. Anyway.



To me a perfect 911 is not the same as a dirty/driven 911

 

if you have a scratch somewhere in the middle of the hood, they will probably fix and spot the paint ONLY around the fix, not put paint over the whole hood. they will blend with in the panel. That leaves the original paint out at all the meeting edges of the panel. Thats what I would do, and thats what a shop would do when possible. Not just say they were intending to go to adjacent panels for no reason.