What would it cost to have a car painted a different color?

[LeeH]

I'm just thinking out loud here. I really liked Mazda's "Winning Blue" color on the early Mazda3. I currently drive a 2006 Mazda5. I'd like a 2008-2010 Mazda5 because of several upgrades they made to the car, but am not at all excited about the color choices. I've seen several black Mazda5s lingering in dealer's inventories. Black cars just don't sell here in Phoenix. That got me thinking about buying a cheap black Mazda5 and having it painted Winning Blue. Crazy? I'd have the only one around!

If I were to go through with a color change, I'd want it to be a very nice job. Door jambs done, etc.

[saxen]

What a loaded question- cheep side 500 bux- concourse level 10,000 and everywhere in between

[DanielDudley]

Doubt you would get a decent job for less than 3K. Basic, with door jambs.

[VaSteve]

Post photos of what you're talking about.

I can't imagine the trouble of repainting a modern car.

[PorscheGAL]

Was in a paint shop last week, they said minimum 3-4K to repaint an entire car, properly.

[gr8fl4porsche]

Earll Scheib, Maaco, etc. if you have those around you will squirt it cheap if you don't care about quality.

For a daily driver, might be worth checking into.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by LeeH

That got me thinking about buying a cheap black Mazda5 and having it painted Winning Blue.

With Tiger Blood pinstripes?

[stomachmonkey]

You already know you'd need to get the car cheap enough to offset the paint job cost but it's also likely to devalue the car so take that into account.

FWIW getting a paint job that looks factory is not always easy.

[Steve Carlton]

Bad idea. I don't think $3-4K would even get you a nice job. Repainted cars chip more easily and it will hurt the value of the car, too. Not a single factory color would work?

[VincentVega]

Wrap it in vinyl.

[Aurel]

Originally Posted by VincentVega

Wrap it in vinyl.

+1. It will cost you about $500 in materials, another $500 in labor if you have it done, and you can change the color in a few years if you want to.
I am going to wrap my 911 in glossy black myself .

[Dantilla]

I did this with a truck a few years back-

Finally found a used truck that mechanically, was exacrly what I had been looking for, but it was a bland metallic tan, with tan interior, that screamed "Old retired guy" sitting on the skinny steel wheels.

After looking further, and the tan truck sitting on the lot for a while, I negotiated the price down, bought it, and quickly had a local body guy paint most of the truck black, leaving the bottom of the exterior tan for a factory two-tone look. Leaving a bit of tan really tied the exterior and tan interior together nicely.

Driving it right from the spray booth to the local tire store to mount new aftermarket wheels & tires, and I finally had the perfect truck.

We stripped all the badges off for the clean look prior to paint, and I couldn't have been happier with it. I got lots of compliments when I had that truck.

[LeeH]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Bad idea. I don't think $3-4K would even get you a nice job. Repainted cars chip more easily and it will hurt the value of the car, too. Not a single factory color would work?

The light silver is ok, but other choices (black, pearl white, dark blue, a tomato red, charcoal) aren't my favorite. I think I could live with the pearl white, but the interior is tan (including carpet). I haul too much stuff to have a car with a tan interior.

Like I said... just thinking at this point. I walked around my car this morning thinking about what it would take to repaint it. I think the areas of concern would be around the sliding doors. But, if I started off with a black one, then they could just be left black with the blue visible on the outside.

I have a friend who ALWAYS buys salvage cars. A 4 year old, lightly rear ended Mazda5 shouldn't cost too much and would make up for the extra money in paint. This is the color:

[kaisen]

I'd second the idea of a wrap. They can be very, very convincing these days. Many Lamborghinis and Ferraris are running around wrapped and you'd barely notice.

The biggest question to consider, IMHO, is resale value.

That blue will not sell as well in a minivan as pearl white or gray or even a darker blue. So a wrap allows you to quickly and easily restore it to the factory color when you are done, even protecting the factory finish from the types of light scratches and damage that it might see in family duty.

If you did paint it, even if someone liked the color, there would always be the question of why it was painted. If you choose that route, take extensive "before" photos, and maybe even "during" process photos to document that this wasn't a previous taxi or the one that got hit by a train and welded back together from two different vans.

Buying a salvage "lightly damaged" van is a zero-sum deal in resale value. Sure, you saved a bunch when you bought it. Guess what. You'll lose what you saved when it's time to sell it. People are pretty saavy nowadays, or at least they think they are, so a CarFax incident or stamped title will turn away the majority of buyers and those that remain are only interested because they want to steal it.

If resale is completely unimportant to you because you will never sell it, or get hit by another car, or otherwise total it, then do whatever you want.

[Jim Bremner]

Thinking of wraping the chevette in a Matte argent.

[Jim Richards]

Is it really the case where the vinyl wrap protects the factory finish? Or are you going to end up with some visible marks in the paint, like you do with vinyl numbers/lettering/striping? My thought is that there may be places where the vinyl wrap is more than a single layer and that's where you might have this issue. Or is this just worrying about nothing? Thanks.

I'd love to consider wrapping my plain-Jane GP White 964 in some cool period color.

[LeeH]

Originally Posted by kaisen

If resale is completely unimportant to you because you will never sell it, or get hit by another car, or otherwise total it, then do whatever you want.

I figure I'll keep this vehicle until it has very little value. I've been very happy with my '06 Mazda5. It's a great multi-purpose vehicle.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

Is it really the case where the vinyl wrap protects the factory finish? Or are you going to end up with some visible marks in the paint, like you do with vinyl numbers/lettering/striping? My thought is that there may be places where the vinyl wrap is more than a single layer and that's where you might have this issue. Or is this just worrying about nothing? Thanks.

I'd love to consider wrapping my plain-Jane GP White 964 in some cool period color.

Wrap really does protect the finish. The problem with letters or stripes is that they protect the paint and the paint fades around them. With the wrap all of the paint is covered....

[vash]

full color change?

engine compartment? interior? that would cost some major bucks.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by vash

full color change?

engine compartment? interior? that would cost some major bucks.

He's talking about just painting the outer skin of the vehicle. Normally I would recommend against doing this to any car or truck but if it's a used Mazda minivan, and especially if it's a salvage title one, who cares?

Commercial vehicles are painted only on the outside all the time. PU trucks, vans, small cars, etc... Doing a complete color change on any vehicle is almost always dumb. Even when it's a *money no object* rotisserie resto on a valuable old Porsche or muscle car, it seriously devalues the car from a collector standpoint. Of course some people don't give a shake. It's always the owner's car and people can do whatever they want.

But that doesn't change the fact that it devalues the car. In the case of a used Mazda that you are going to keep until it's worth nothing anyways, paint it any darn color you want. On a side note, some of the coolest cars around are custom paint jobs done by owners with no regard for resale value. There is a well known example here in L.A., an artist bought a new Mercedes S-class in white and then painted each panel different colors ala Mondrian, primary blue/primary red/yellow/etc. It looks like a rolling Mondrian hotel, a cubist masterpiece on wheels.

Ironically, the car is considered a piece of art and is worth several times what it would be if he'd left it alone. It's now getting old and in bad shape but still changes hands between various hipsters for big $$. It was Flea's car for years, now another writer guy has it.

This would not apply to the blue Mazda. Enjoy it.