Paint advice

[josephvman]

I'm dropping off my new-to-me '84 Targa tomorrow to have the damaged trunk latch panel repaired, the front bumper refinished (a bad refinish of one corner needs to be done right) and some minor dings in the rockers (bad jacking probably) taken out.

The paint is original on this 43k car (with the exception of the paint on one edge of the front bumper) but the hood is pretty chipped up, as is the area around the headlights. I don't think I can do too much to improve that area short of repaint. My initial thought regarding the rest of the car is to have the chips touched up, wet sanding, and a deep paint correction. My second thought is that I'm painting nearly half the car, being a Targa, and maybe it makes sense to do the whole thing. It's not a color change, and there's no corrosion anywhere on the car, so the paintwork is pretty straightforward.

Mechanically the car is amazing, but I know it's not a collectible and I'd like it to look as good as it runs.

I've got another $8-10k to spend on exhaust/chip, stereo, and a/c upgrade (necessary in Houston), so throwing a full repaint in there and you're talking about real money!

So, any advice or thought from anyone who's been in a similar situation?

[Canada Kev]

I'd get a pro to do a paint correction instead of paint. And I'd do it before you got the bumper/hood painted. You might decide that it looks fantastic and only the bumper needs attention. Once you spray it, it'll never be original paint again.

[AG81]

I agree with Canada Kev and what I ended up doing.....only painting what was necessary. Results were fantastic.

[sugarwood]

43k is a low mileage unicorn, and repaint may drop its value.
I would spend a year with the car and focus on mechanicals.
The patina may grow on you. It's a 35 year old car. It's not supposed to look brand new.
Post some pics of the hood

[josephvman]

I dropped the car off today and we decided to paint the hood and blend the area around the headlights, paint the trim rings, and do touch-up on chips and minor scratches then progressively wet sand and polish the whole car. Values are moving in the wrong direction anyway (if you own one!) and I think this is a good compromise that will largely keep the patina intact but still have an excellent result. They're only virgins once anyway, and the bumper has had some minor paint and the latch panel has to be painted, so doing the hood isn't a big deal IMO. Bodyshop is quite confident that I'll be happy with the results.

Mechanicals, service history and recent services performed are phenomenal on the car, which is great and lets me obsess on all this cosmetic stuff!

There was a Miami Blue GT3 like mine at the bodyshop, and it had the rear bumper cover off. It's crazy how big the wheels/tires on that car are when the bumper is off and you see all that rubber!

[Hotshot]

I’m in the same boat, with having a great mechanical car, just dealing with tweaks.

How deep is your orig paint? I’m trying to figure this out on my car. I know one fender is re painted but the rest of my car looks totally uniform in depth. Inside paint 4-5mm. Outside paint 7-8mm. And the fender 9-12mm in parts.

The blend from inside the door panels and trunk are seamless with orig stickers.

Rather be rust free and looking good than orig paint but orig and rust free wins

[rrichar]

Josephvman,
Can you share with me who you are using in Houston? Would love to here update once done as well. Will subscribe.

[josephvman]

Rob,

I'm using River Oaks Paint & Body, off the SW Freeway and Newcastle. It appears that they do a lot of 911's and I've heard nothing but good things about their work. I'm leaving town for vacation tomorrow and get back in a week, then I'll try to get over there to see how it's going. I'm expecting it will take a few weeks.

Originally Posted by rrichar

Josephvman,
Can you share with me who you are using in Houston? Would love to here update once done as well. Will subscribe.

[Sajan]

Originally Posted by josephvman

Rob,

I'm using River Oaks Paint & Body, off the SW Freeway and Newcastle. It appears that they do a lot of 911's and I've heard nothing but good things about their work. I'm leaving town for vacation tomorrow and get back in a week, then I'll try to get over there to see how it's going. I'm expecting it will take a few weeks.

oh man. i wish you best of luck. i took my 991 there last May to get a minor dent out of the rocker panel fixed and it was a mess. car fell of the jack and created a crease on one side. had to pull it out and repaint the entire rocker panel. this is my review I left on google:

If I could leave zero stars, I would. The amount of stress I went through with this body shop was totally unnecessary. I originally got the quote from the Newcastle location but I ended up dropping it off at the Kirby one thinking they do the same quality of work. Newcastle location is Porsche certified. I don't have time to go into all the details but let me list some of things I had to deal with.
1. They don't have a Porsche guy at the Kirby location (i only learned of this later on in the process). why didn't they just transfer the car to the other one and do the job right?
2. They couldn't give me a status on my car or even locate it in their system anytime I called. "Oh..it's a Porsche you say? white? we don't have it..."
3. They had to redo the repair FOUR times!!! Is it 100%? No but I got so tired of the process I am living with it.

Please take your car elsewhere. Between the incompetent customer service and the terrible quality of work..there's no reason to pay a single dollar here.

I am looking for someone to repaint my bumper also. I need to repaint bumper, do paint correction on rest of the car, and then wrap the front (bumper, hood, fender and mirrors).

[rrichar]

Saman,

Sorry to hear you such poor service and outcome from River Oaks Paint! Sounds awful but good to know.

Hopefully Josephvman has better experience and results.

Let us know who you find that is good. I have car that will.need a complete repaint.

[Sajan]

Originally Posted by rrichar

Saman,

Sorry to hear you such poor service and outcome from River Oaks Paint! Sounds awful but good to know.

Hopefully Josephvman has better experience and results.

Let us know who you find that is good. I have car that will.need a complete repaint.

Ya it was a nightmare.
First time I went to get it, the paint wasn't blended properly. It was so obvious and the crease wasn't pulled out fully either.
Second time, the texture on the rocker panel was different compared to the other side.
Third time, they repainted correctly but didn't pull out the dent fully..
Fourth time, it looked "ok" and I really wasn't about to have them redo it again. Of course they forgot to put the stone guards back and I had to go back...again. Not sure why they even had to paint that far up.

I have used metropolitan collisions for my (BMW good experience) and 991 front bumper / hood (subaru backed up on top of my car and caused about 1000 in damages). The 991 experience at metro was okay. Had to get them to redo it because the gap between the hood and bumper wasn't even across the entire front. They never made it perfect but only I could notice it.

My mechanic wants to charge me for 7 hours of labor to get the bumper off on '87..plus 1000-1200 to paint it..thats well over 2200 bucks. Coincidentally he is going to take it to metropolitan for the actual paint work. I am not sure if i will save any money going directly to metro but then metropolitan will be the one taking off and installing this old bumper. Chances of screwing it up is higher.

[adias]

Clean up the paint, but no repaint. The value is in originality and well preserved cars.