Hi all,

I'm thinking of respraying my whole car (too many stonechip, swirl mark and deep/light scratches). What do you think between BMW respray or outside paintshop respray? Any different (beside the BMW price is more expensive)? Any tips shd I look for when going for respraying?

Thanks alot

 

well bmw wherever you go will MOST TIMES send your car out to their local bodyshop that they are in business with. so really your paying the middle man extra for no reason . but the things you need to look for are past cars theyve painted and how many coats they do on average because to cover up minor blemishes you wont need a full fledged 8plus coats but then again a shady shop will charge you the full price so the best bet is make friends with someone or do some research on past clients of theirs to see theyre work

 

BMW doesn't paint cars. Any BMW/MINI dealer you take your car to is going to take it to another body shop. The only painting that BMW themselves does is at the factory.

 

If your going to spend the money, go to a local KNOWN shop that does good work, and get it painted a custom color.

-Cody

 

When you go to resale your car, whether BMW resprays it or an aftermarket company does it, it won't add value. So save your money and get a local shop with a good reputation to do it.

 

others said it first: dealers don't perform body work. they subcontract it and charge you a lot of money for handling it.

one said this: repainting doesn't add value. Perhaps not directly, but every auto and large motorcycle I repainted prior to selling sold faster and for more money. That statement countered, it is enjoyable to have good looking paint. You can't put a price tag on that.

I repainted a door on my 2006 S this past week. Excellant color match was obtained from a local paint jobber. I used high quality Dupont paint. It is not worth trying to save money on paint. The difference between good paint and inexpensive paint is obvious when spraying, finishing, and in the years that come.

Tell your painter to use the best paint. Also, discuss his/her preparation procedures. The majority of good paint results originates with surface preparation. Good paint isn't good when the surface is not prepared properly.

 

If someone is smart, and they ask "Is that the original paint?" and you say "No, it was resprayed." Most people are going to think "accident." Doesn't have to mean a fender bender, could be something as simple as a wind storm blowing a piece of wood against your door causing minor damage that needs some attention.

Yes, some cars might get sold quicker with a respray. My wife's car would definitely sell fast with her aftermarket paintjob. But the type of job she's got would only attract a ricer. If you get a custom color done, you better find someone with YOUR interests. If you get the car resprayed the same OEM color, you better be prepared to tell the buyer why it was repainted, or just not tell them at all, which is kind of a bad thing to do. So, ina nutshell, unless you are just not straight up with the person, or they just don't care, an aftermarket paintjob DOES NOT add value to a car.

 

Fatherdeth: "So, ina nutshell, unless you are just not straight up with the person, or they just don't care, an aftermarket paintjob DOES NOT add value to a car."

Billie: "I disagree."

 

Check with the nearest Porsche or Ferrari dealer and find out where they send their cars for body/paint work.

 

However how much does a front end with rock chips and major rash lose off the resale value?? Maybe $500 or more?? Maybe about the cost of respraying the front end?? If the car has been repainted the same color, and has been done correctly--no fisheyes, minimal to no orange peel, and no signs of body shop polishing--buffer swirls, bad swirls, compound in all the cracks--emblems and components painted over instead of removed, painted, and reinstalled--a new buyer that is attentive enough will know that you cared enough for the MINI to do a proper paint job and not a Mako job.

Take a yellow MINI and paint it black done the Mako way--what do you get?? A two tone MINI with a yellow engine bay, door jams, underside of the hatch--this will obviously spark questions. People don't always realize that to get a really good paint job, it costs money--and that money goes into the time to fully disassemble the car, remove the original paint, prep it, fix dings and dents, repaint it, and then do proper finishing work.

 

I just LOVE this site. !!! For you Billie. http://www.kenrockwell.com/bmw/collectible.htm

 

No where did Vodka say he was interested in owning a collectible, nor did he need tips on that. I'd say most MINI owners who love their cars to death want to keep it looking pristine and new, not junky and deterioriating with the hope that one day their daily driver will become a collectible.

If you want a collectible--buy a MINI and store it. Put 0 miles on it, and leave it protected in a vacuum bubble (yes they are truly available) to protect the paint from dust and the elements.

But if that doesn't interest you, then the real world MINI owner has many choices to keep their cars looking as good or better than existing cars on the road. Paint, clear bras, polishing, detailing, etc..

Give me a 30 year old car with original paint in tact---no matter how oxidized or trashed the paint is, no matter whether it was repainted or not---I'll add value to the car simply by making it look like it was repainted without actually doing so. A potential buyer will pay more money for that car than one that looks like it needs several thousand more dollars invested for a new paint job!

 

I like Ken's site too. He's a little prone to hyperbole, generalizations, and exaggeration (not insulting the man, he says the same thing), but he has some really good photographic advice.

As far as his article on car customization goes, he does make some good points. There's no doubt that original, unrestored, unmodified cars are the ones that bring the big bucks. You just have to decide whether you want to drive a bone-stock car (or one with mods that can be reversed without leaving a trace), or if you'd like to personalize your car. For something that you know will have collector value later (limited-editions, exotics, etcetera), I can understand keeping them original, but otherwise, I think the enjoyment of customizing my cars, and repairing/refreshing them as needed is worth more to me than a potentially-higher selling price some time in the future.

When I bought my 1972 Mercedes in 2005, I was happy that the car hadn't had much done to it, and I kept it pretty much as-is while I owned it. But with a recent mass-production car like the MINI, I think you'd have to commit to owning it for a LONG time before its "originality" became a major selling point when you decide to get rid of it.

 

A good detail can add a incredible amount of value to a car. A guy around my town owns a used car lot (well kinda... he just parks them outside his house) and all he does is buy the car, spend a weekend detailing it, and turns a profit on them. My dad sold his truck for a extra thousand dollars after I detailed it.

 

So did one of my friends.

And PS. So Dealerships have there own Bodyshops (Owned by the Dealer or Dealership group) but they operate much in the same way as a regular body shop.

There are allot of Body Shops that will not due a full paint job on a car so be prepared to get allot of funny looks when you ask for prices. Pluss things like brocken clips and moulding pieces will nickel and dime you to death.

 

I actually plan to have parts of my MINI repainted--definitely the bonnet and maybe the front bumper---Jet Black again--but I'll be doing the prep work--disassembly and reassembly, let the painters to the painting, and I'll do the final sanding and finishing. It's really ugly to see trim pieces that can be removed just be masked off--you see the paint edges stop instead of continue past or underneath.

I'll also be repainting my interior pieces--will just remove them and have them sprayed, and I will reinstall.

Richard

 

I had my hood repainted after a old guy in a truck backed into me. Fortunatly the body shop took the hood off and removed the trim pieces to paint it. Their guy burned through the clear coat twice on the final sanding and they had to start over both times. I'm thinking "uh... you want me to just take care of that?" They sacked him and got one of their best guys to do it. I still had to clean up wet sand marks later.

 

Well sadly, most body shops have very poorly paid guys with buffers doing the polishing. The shop that I'm at fired their guys before I got here because they would be the last people that would define the "signature" of the shops work. If they did a lousy job, all of the best work the shop did would be marred by these guys.

So now I do all of that. It's true. A good paint job really comes down to good prep, and good finishing. Lousy sanding, and you get sanding marks that will never come out--I've seen sanding marks that looked like the car was painted with a brush--and could see paint stroke grooves! You can never polish those out, and if you don't sand them soon enough, the paint will cure and it's now a permanent defect.

Whatever body shop you choose to paint your car, inspect their work under the sunlight and see if that's the kind of work you will be willing to pay for. Just make sure they don't say, "here look at this silver car under the sun!"

 

My next car will be silver I think (at least my daily driver)

Right after I got my black car back (after going back twice to find out they had to do it again) I looked at the hood for 5 minutes with my nose a inch away. I found a patch of wet sand swirls and a bit of overspray that I didn't like that much. When he offered to take it back in to do it again I replied "OH GOOD LORD NO I'LL DO IT MYSELF". I wanted my car back that badly. Once it warmed up (about a month later) i went out to polish the swirls and they came out no problem

 

Vodka didn't have to say that. YOU know what I was getting at with this article . It's the same basic principle. When you have the original paint, for some reason, people feel more secure. When a car is appraised, even if it's a 2003, they look for signs of repainting. That's just the way it is. And since you want to get on the MINI as not being a collectible, well one day some of them will ESPECIALLY the rare colors such as Solid Gold, Velvet Red, Purple Haze, etc.

 

I've seen all that myself. After the last fiasco with my wife's car, I will definitely do the prep work myself. I noticed one thing about the shop that did her car. They took in entirely too many jobs and they couldn't concentrate on one. So, avoid a place like this also. And yes, silver cars are very hard to see the defects in.

 

Actually, since I plan on keeping this car for a long time, I want mine repainted. I want to change it from Jet Black to Flat Black, but that's one of the hardest colors to do. I'll keep deciding. Either way, I'm going to prep it myself. It's not so much that people can't paint good, it's their lack of removing lights and trim.

 

Hmm, you got me confused. Jet Black is not a metallic--but it's not flat or matte either since it has a glossy clearcoat. Are you going for the primered look? Or are you going from Astro Black (Metallic) to Jet Black?

Richard

 

More of the primered look. I like ratrods.

 

You gotta check this out then....all sorts of flat paintjobs...even a few MINIs
http://www.motoringunderground.com/f...ght=flat+paint