mrshabo

Well i recently got into a car accident and the bumper needs to be replaced, chasis realigned (got pushed to the right but not noticable). I need it realigned because i'm going to be dropping my car 2 inches and currently part of my wheel is sticking out from the fender. Very minimal... It doesn't even look like i got into a car accident besides the scratch on the bumper and the dent up on the fender. I got clipped on the most outter edge of my bumper while making a left turn.. the impact caused my right rear quarter panel to get dented.


Now my question is do i get a full paint job or just get those parts painted. I was told that it is extremely hard to make the car look like it had a factory job even with a full paint job. On the other hand i don't want my car to be mismatched. What do you guys suggest? My friends have had a few paint jobs done by him and they range from decent to having the paint look "chunky". I'm stuck and i don't know what to do...

Guitarman

IMO, it kind of depends on what you can spend. If you're going to be doing it "on the cheap" and you're just paying for "decent", then you'll be underwhelmed by the work most body shops do for that price range. You may get lucky and get great work, but I see so much poor work even at mid level prices these days, that going up-market seems to be the only route to get results that satisfy us picky people. Even then, you have to shop around and get referrals.
If you find a high-end shop with a rep for outstanding work, then they can make the car like new again, and proabably better than oem paintwork, ie. less orange peel etc.

Like everything else in life Mrshabo, it all comes down to the coin =$$$.

Check your local car shows for people that have had high quality local work
done, then shop around for prices.

Lastly, I would get the whole car repainted if you can swing it, because that's you're best bet for uniformity and making the car look best, without them blending into existing panels. Chances are you will see the blends in certain light.

Just my .02. Let's see what some of the other folks say though, good luck.

mrshabo

is there any difference is the way they do the spraying between a 1k paint job and a 5k? i know with the 5 thousand dollar paint job they take everything out and spray the car in to out but they spray everything the same way correct? my paint is pretty decent for a 93 and i don't want to lose that and have my cars paint look chunky or full of overspray. on the other hand my car is a 93 and there are a few scratches and chips here any there... i don't know.. i notice fade on my bumper and several rock chips , spider webs on my hood. my doors are pretty mint but if i paint a piece here and there it's probably going to look horrible.. from what i've heard it's pretty hard to match what years and years of rain,dust, snow,salt has done to the original paint.



my friend just had his car painted there today (front and rear bumper). the paint looked like a totally different color than what he had on the body. he paint was white white and his car's color was a whitish beige. the owner said it will match up perfectly, just give it a week or two. my friend who had his body kit painted had the same problem and he told me that it went away after a while. i don't know who to believe and this isn't a thing that you really want to mess around with. I don't want my shiny old car to become a chunky oversprayed boat.

He tells me that if i'm goign to spray my rear quarter panel he's going to burn off some of the paint to make it match my car? I'm guessing he is going to burn off the paint i have now on my car and repaint the whole quarter panel then clearcoat? the thing that part of my car isn't really a piece or i would just replace that peice. it's part of the body frame so i can't just take it out and buy a new one...


ah i don't know what to do...

Guitarman

Those are all good questions, here's some answers ;


Surprisingly, no. Low buck econo shops spray every day, all day long, and high end shops spray all day, all day long, with pretty much the same level of equipment. The better shops may have better HVLP guns, but usually even Maaco guys have decent guns. There's a saying that goes "any monkey can spray paint" and to a certain extent that's true, I should know, I'm one of those "monkeys" ! I can spray paint without runs etc. but I also have old equipment (siphon feed gun) and I get a fair amount of orange peel, but I wetsand/block it out later and the result is show quality flat paint. So, the real question should be;

What kind / quality of paint are they going to spray and will it be orange peel free, and will that cost extra labor to do? And what does their warranty include?

They can either spray it to that ( flat) effect or get to that effect via block sanding it flat. The trick is to have them achieve it with the least amount of labor on their part, because that saves you mucho $$$. In other words, if shop A can spray it flat to begin with, but shop B says they will have to wetsand/block it flat at extra $$$, then shop A would be the better choice, given everything else (paint quality and prep) being equal. There are skilled people out there that have the best equipment available (Sato guns etc.) and can lay paint really flat. And then there are lesser experienced guys that can't. They have to do the extra work after the paint is dry to get it looking decent. That costs them time and you $$$.

Now, A young friend I see at car shows had his Lincoln Mark VIII resprayed (black) for $750, and it's a Maaco-ish type job with a fair amount of orange peel, (they did some body work included and you can see sanding marks under the basecoat etc. and runs on the underside of the bumper) and they did not spray door jambs, or just inside the trunk where the rear bumper ends inside etc. and when you open a door or the trunklid, it screams at you "CHEAP PAINT JOB!", because the old paint in those out of the way spots is almost gray it's so worn out. But then, I would have told him to expect that for bodywork and paint @ $750. They cut corners, you get what you pay for. For lower priced work, expect things like that, unless you get very specific with them about EVERYTHING they will be doing and how they will do it. Get it all in writing if you must, so you have no surprises.

I'm not following this at all, not sure what he means by "burning" off paint to repaint, unless he means stripping or sanding. That's not a term I hear painters use, but rather a term detailers use to refer to overheating paint with a rotary buffer. So I can't really help you much there since I'm uncertain on his intent.

They will have to be VERY good to do a piece here and there and get it to match well with the good oem paint. UV changes the tone or paint over years of time, and even "factory pack" paint from the dealer will vary from batch to batch, so they will have their work cut out for them, and almost certainly have to "blend" the paint in. Another thing they will have to do is match the oem orange peel. If your new paint is flat and your old paint has orange peel, it will stick out like a sore thumb. When you paint a whole car you can dictate that it all be the same flattness, i.e. orange peel free.

I have had bad personal experiences with body shops' blending on my other car ( which was silver), which led me to repaint it myself, black. It tricky stuff to deal with, and if you're picky, you'll probably hate it.

Tough decisions indeed.