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    Minor paintwork

    The time has come for me to consider getting some (hopefully) minor paintwork done on my car. I know nothing about paintwork other than hearing that it's very much a "you get what you pay for" thing, and cost (and quality) can vary quite widely.

    I'm hoping to get advice about how to approach this in the best way without going overboard in price.

    Here are the pieces that need paint:

    -Passenger side skirt (large scrape along most of it from very frustrating parking situation at my old place)
    -Front bumper (bottom scraped to hell from having a steep driveway approach)
    -Rear bumper (small scrape on passenger side)
    -Rear trunk (has some deep scratching from someone putting a gallon jug of water on the trunk while it was covered in dust/dirt, man that was upsetting)
    -Rear trunk handle (have a brand new one that needs to go on to replace the original one that fell apart, needs to be fully pained from scratch)

    Car is carbon black. My understanding is that there had already been some paintwork done on the passenger side from PO. I didn't notice until someone pointed it out to me, not sure if that's because it was well done or because my eye just isn't very discerning.

    When they re-paint something like the sideskirt, which has scratching down most of the length of it, do they just re-paint the whole thing from scratch, or do they just sand and paint as little of it as they can and blend?

    Is there a good way to understand, ballpark, what this will cost to have all of this done before I start looking into specific places to do the work?

    Since they'll be mixing up a large batch of paint for all of this work, is it worth having them touch up all other smaller nicks/scratches on other panels of the car, or is that asking for considerable added expense? I guess I have no sense of how much extra marginal cost is added to take care of one additional small blemish.

    Finally, I'm in east LA. Any recommendations for shops I should check out? Absolutely willing to go farther for a place that is of significantly higher quality per dollar.

    Basically I'm worried that I'm going to get quotes from shops that have a pretty big spread in price without really being able to discern a difference in quality up front. Any advice would be appreciated
    Last edited by ATB88; 09-09-2021, 09:59 AM.

    #2
    In my experience, most shops will (rightly) steer you towards respraying the full piece or panel, and ideally blending it with nearby panels.

    Fixing scrapes without a full respray isn't impossible but the results are very hard to get to "like new" vs. full respray.

    As for shops, I'd recommend checking out the Yelp/Google reviews, especially the photo section. If you see a bunch of clean European cars, that's a good sign! Also, pay attention to how they treat you when you inquire - does it seem like they want your business or are you just another job to them? The older I get, the more I realize that initial impression predicts a lot about the final outcome.

    Good luck! I'm planning to get my car back from the painter tomorrow
    2005 6MT TiAg | 1:47.01 @ Laguna Seca
    ..........................| 1:58.93 @ Sonoma

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      #3
      Originally posted by ridebikes View Post
      In my experience, most shops will (rightly) steer you towards respraying the full piece or panel, and ideally blending it with nearby panels.

      Fixing scrapes without a full respray isn't impossible but the results are very hard to get to "like new" vs. full respray.

      As for shops, I'd recommend checking out the Yelp/Google reviews, especially the photo section. If you see a bunch of clean European cars, that's a good sign! Also, pay attention to how they treat you when you inquire - does it seem like they want your business or are you just another job to them? The older I get, the more I realize that initial impression predicts a lot about the final outcome.

      Good luck! I'm planning to get my car back from the painter tomorrow
      Thanks! The full respray thing makes sense. Just to make sure I understand terminology.. respray=they strip existing paint from the panel do the necessary prep and re-paint it from scratch, yes?

      If I do end up going the full re-spray route on the bumpers, trunk, and sideskirt, I now start to wonder if I should just have the entire passenger side redone (so add in front and rear fenders, door -- car is a vert). The benefit being that I'd have a chance at getting the the passenger side to match the rest of the car better. But then, of course, that would likely double the cost right? Slippery slope...

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        #4
        Plastic pieces like bumpers and side skirts I doubt they would blend and I would personally respray those entirely. I don't like blending at all.

        Don't put too much stock into yelp reviews which are either untruthful due to friends/relatives posting reviews, sponsored pages removing bad reviews, etc. I find google to be more trustworthy.

        When you go there see if they care or are trying to hustle you. I would not take my car to a body shop where it will not receive any attention because they have a hundred cars they are cranking out in assembly line fashion. Avoid those places.

        A shop to consider is Strasse Sport in Irwindale, Ivan left LTMW and allegedly he has a really good painter/paint booth. Those guys are car guys and there are always nice cars parked outside.
        2003.5 MT JB/B - CSL SCHRICK SUPERSPRINT EISENMANN JRZ SWIFT MILLWAY APR ENDLESS BBS/SSR DREXLER KMP SACHS RECARO AR SLON MKRS GSP DMG KARBONIUS CP AUTOSOLUTIONS KOYO

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          #5
          Originally posted by ATB88 View Post

          Thanks! The full respray thing makes sense. Just to make sure I understand terminology.. respray=they strip existing paint from the panel do the necessary prep and re-paint it from scratch, yes?
          ..
          Yes. Ideally they'd sand it smooth, prime it, and respray it as though it was coming off the factory line.

          It is a slippery slope. I'd recommend really thinking through what you want your exterior to look like long term, and plan around that. Then get everything painted to match.
          2005 6MT TiAg | 1:47.01 @ Laguna Seca
          ..........................| 1:58.93 @ Sonoma

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