The paint on my 92gt pictured is mostly original. The bumpers and fenders were repainted at one point by a previous owner and the quality was not good. The fenders have tiny hairline cracks in paint and the bumpers are a tad darker then the rest of the car. I did alot of clay bar, buffing and polishing. The rest of the car looks very good. I am toying with the idea of having just the fenders, bumper covers and ground effects resprayed. Some may say get the whole thing painted...but a good portion of the original paint is very nice. Am I crazy? I think 1500 from a good shop for respraying the bumpers, fenders and ground effects would be fair. Maybe even have them pop a couple small dents and paint the mirror covers and windshield trim while they are at it.
Paint Bumpers And Fenders...or Whole Thing?
- Thread starter danny g
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jcgafford
10 Year Member
paint it all, 23 year old single stage paint will not match new paint. plus you can have the added benefit of a clearcoat put on this time around.
jcgafford
10 Year Member
jcgafford
10 Year Member
Mo need to here. I used scratch and haze remover on a soft cloth and pulled up tons of paint either it was never there or it all fell off
My paint guy came over to give an estimate and called it out as single stage right away
Doesn't matter which it is because it is all coming off when I can afford it.
My paint guy came over to give an estimate and called it out as single stage right away
Doesn't matter which it is because it is all coming off when I can afford it.
Yeah, I would have the whole thing re-painted but that would cost over 3k I assume. I am definitely not dumping another 3k into a car i spent 3k for last year and put 3k into already (alot of that was for a new top). The car just wouldnt be worth 9k. Except for the plastic and fenders...the paint is in good shape. I have a day off coming up and will go around and get some prices. Will let you know what I find. Talking to body shops is always entertaining in my neck of the woods (staten island NY)
jcgafford
10 Year Member
Find someone that paints professionally bit does side jobs. My estimate for a whole repaint with me helping is a grand. Thats taking it all apart to paint too.
Wow, thats a steal. Good materials alone would probably cost 500. I debated even setting up my garage as a booth and getting all the tools required. I would prob need 500 in materials, new compressor (my portable wouldnt cut it), hvlp spraygun etc. I could strip the car and bring it down for a repaint. My neighbor did that and got great results from Maaco of all places. He did some great prepwork himself and got his jeep sprayed at Maaco. Came out very nice. Personally I dont trust them though.
jcgafford
10 Year Member
Luckily this is what he does he has all the equipment and a booth paint is expensive but prep is where it would kill me I believe I will be prepping under his guidance
Mine was painted a little over a year ago, had a few dings and some screwed up paint on the roof from birds and Mother Nature. Cost 3,500 to strip the damaged paint, remove the bumpers, quarter windows, trim and stuff and paint black.
It now looks brand new, in my opinion if you wanna save your money paint the bumpers, they're black I assume from the picture, how bad could it look? When your ready to spend the money on the whole car you'll be able to do it right.
It now looks brand new, in my opinion if you wanna save your money paint the bumpers, they're black I assume from the picture, how bad could it look? When your ready to spend the money on the whole car you'll be able to do it right.
Mintsick
10 Year Member
Nice to hear that someone has had positive results from Maaco with some good prep work, I am considering going this route with mine.
Just for the record... it was not Maaco who painted my car. Sorry if I caused any confusion.
A couple things,
you said, "Yeah, I would have the whole thing re-painted but that would cost over 3k I assume. I am definitely not dumping another 3k into a car"
Sounds like you made up your mind about not painting the whole car. A Maaco paint job isn't going to look better than having a professional repaint your fenders and trim. A pro should be able to tint paint to match the older paint so long as your clear coat looks good. If not, buffing it out would probably be a good thing to do and can really bring life back into your paint. That is the big benefit of BC/CC paint is that you can cut the clear again and make it look almost new again. You can't really do that with single stage.
A paint job is 50% prep, 15% materials and 35% with cutting, buffing/polishing and a S**T ton of patience and will still cost you a bunch of money. If you don't have a good foundation (prep/body work) then you will not have a good paint job even with the most expensive BC/CC. SS can look really good if the car is prepped and sprayed correctly and cut and buffed to perfection.
I can't stress this enough but there is more to it than just getting a compressor and HVLP gun, they have to be matched to each other!! You can't spray with a 15 SCFM gun if you have a compressor with an output of only 5.5 SCFM @ 40psi. You need to drain the compressor, get a water trap, build a booth with a ventilation system and filters. Sand, wash parts with soap and water, wax and grease remover, tack cloth, 2K prime, filler primer, block sand, filler prime again, block sand, and again.
There is sooo much involved in prep and what I mentioned isn't even the half of it. Completely disassemble the vehicle and masking and body work is a major chore as well.
Right now I'm in the process of body work on my 87 T-top GT and i'm prepping for primer. It's a ton of work and i'll be painting my car in my garage. This is not my first time either.
$1500 is worth it! Maaco does a horrible job prepping. They scuff it up real quick and wipe it down and shoot it with everything still attached for the cheap paint job and it won't last long. They'd paint the car with dents and scratches because they know they don't have a reputable name in the business that represents QUALITY and lasting paint jobs.
you said, "Yeah, I would have the whole thing re-painted but that would cost over 3k I assume. I am definitely not dumping another 3k into a car"
Sounds like you made up your mind about not painting the whole car. A Maaco paint job isn't going to look better than having a professional repaint your fenders and trim. A pro should be able to tint paint to match the older paint so long as your clear coat looks good. If not, buffing it out would probably be a good thing to do and can really bring life back into your paint. That is the big benefit of BC/CC paint is that you can cut the clear again and make it look almost new again. You can't really do that with single stage.
A paint job is 50% prep, 15% materials and 35% with cutting, buffing/polishing and a S**T ton of patience and will still cost you a bunch of money. If you don't have a good foundation (prep/body work) then you will not have a good paint job even with the most expensive BC/CC. SS can look really good if the car is prepped and sprayed correctly and cut and buffed to perfection.
I can't stress this enough but there is more to it than just getting a compressor and HVLP gun, they have to be matched to each other!! You can't spray with a 15 SCFM gun if you have a compressor with an output of only 5.5 SCFM @ 40psi. You need to drain the compressor, get a water trap, build a booth with a ventilation system and filters. Sand, wash parts with soap and water, wax and grease remover, tack cloth, 2K prime, filler primer, block sand, filler prime again, block sand, and again.
There is sooo much involved in prep and what I mentioned isn't even the half of it. Completely disassemble the vehicle and masking and body work is a major chore as well.
Right now I'm in the process of body work on my 87 T-top GT and i'm prepping for primer. It's a ton of work and i'll be painting my car in my garage. This is not my first time either.
$1500 is worth it! Maaco does a horrible job prepping. They scuff it up real quick and wipe it down and shoot it with everything still attached for the cheap paint job and it won't last long. They'd paint the car with dents and scratches because they know they don't have a reputable name in the business that represents QUALITY and lasting paint jobs.
Hi, I never said I would use Maaco. But my neighbor did get nice results. I am familiar with what goes into doing the paint work myself. As I said earlier I dont know if I feel like upgrading my compressor etc to go that route. ill get some prices and debate again in my mind. On monday I hope to go down the shop that did some work on my ML after it was in an accident and get some prices. They run a very top notch shop. Ill update the thread with that info.
Some confusion? As the title states you're pondering doing only some parts of the car or the whole thing. Then you say you don't want to dump another $3k into the car so I guess that rules out your question as stated in the title of your thread you created (to do all or some of the car).
you said "I am familiar with what goes into doing the paint work myself."
So what's this thread about? What advice are you looking for exactly?
Debating it in my head for months. Sometimes I think I'll just upgrade my compressor and do the whole thing myself, other times i am like screw it just get a pro to paint whole thing, then other times i think ill just get the bumpers and fenders painted...I doubt I am the only one on here who has been confused and sought advice. Kind of the purpose of this forum.
Another funny thing...I said I dont want to spend another 3k.....bringing my total invested in car to 9k. But, on the other hand I say to myself....it would suck if i spent 1.5k bringing my total to 7.5k and i regretted not doing the whole thing.
Basically just seeing what others have done. Partial repaints vs whole car repaints. At what point do you say eff it and repaint the entire damn thing?
Another funny thing...I said I dont want to spend another 3k.....bringing my total invested in car to 9k. But, on the other hand I say to myself....it would suck if i spent 1.5k bringing my total to 7.5k and i regretted not doing the whole thing.
Basically just seeing what others have done. Partial repaints vs whole car repaints. At what point do you say eff it and repaint the entire damn thing?
Guess it all depends on what the car is worth to you and what your plans are for the car? Are you dating the car or marrying it? I'm sure you're well aware you'll never get the return on investment in the near future. My $.02 is always DIY especially if you're going to keep the car for a long time. Paint a couple pieces and compare it to your the body of the car and if it doesn't match right then be prepared to paint the whole car. Professionals know how to blend and tint paint to help match it to existing paint and that's where paying somebody to do it starts becoming worth it.
I've gotten in a couple accidents over the years from other people running into me. Had to repair/replace some hoods, grills, fenders and bumpers on both of them (they were trucks). They came out great but the paint on them were good to start with (not 22 years old). The older the car the harder it gets to make it less obvious that only parts of the car has fresh paint.
I've gotten in a couple accidents over the years from other people running into me. Had to repair/replace some hoods, grills, fenders and bumpers on both of them (they were trucks). They came out great but the paint on them were good to start with (not 22 years old). The older the car the harder it gets to make it less obvious that only parts of the car has fresh paint.
91TwighlightGT
Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
Having done this stuff, I have to say that the equipment investment for doing a single car probably won't pay for itself compared to having a reputable shop do the repaint. There are only a few reasons for doing your own paint job.
1. You already have all the equipment, in which case you can do pretty well with just the cost of materials and consumables.
2. You are attempting to go above and beyond the average paint job. A car that will be very bodywork intensive, involve a color change, etc. will be very expensive at any shop, so you may actually end up cheaper to DIY on this sort of repaint.
3. You plan to do multiple cars - in which case the equipment pays for itself over time.
4. You want to do everything yourself. You lose monetarily, but you gain knowledge, experience, and bragging rights.
1. You already have all the equipment, in which case you can do pretty well with just the cost of materials and consumables.
2. You are attempting to go above and beyond the average paint job. A car that will be very bodywork intensive, involve a color change, etc. will be very expensive at any shop, so you may actually end up cheaper to DIY on this sort of repaint.
3. You plan to do multiple cars - in which case the equipment pays for itself over time.
4. You want to do everything yourself. You lose monetarily, but you gain knowledge, experience, and bragging rights.
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