some of you might call me crazy. some of you might be going wtf. some of you might not give a crap.

i just returned from paint. My car is close to showroom new paint (still needs one more color sand and buff in 3 weeks). they removed everything from the car. they sprayed everywhere they could even under the normal side panels. they used 4 coats of paint and 4 coats of clear and they prelim color sanded it before i took it. it has a new smooth finish again.

it was repainted its original color and it only took 7 days. the final cost with tips was $1270 USD. the lowest estimate i had was $5000 locally and it would take 3 months to finish.

how did i get a smoking deal? i went south of the border. surprising? not really i have seen 3 porsches painted there. i also took my ride down in may to have an estimate. contrary to popular belief all the parts that it went down with it returned with. this includes my $3000 stereo system, my amg wheels and other accutraments.

for the money they rolled fenders, the the normal repair of door dings, completely reglassed my sideskirts since they have been torn up by lifts that pick up the car from the side. they also shaved all the badges and repainted a few things black for me.

the only things i noticed were 3 paint runs that will be fixed on its next scheduled color sand in 3 weeks after the paint has fully cured. i also notice 3 fish eyes that will be taken care of when i return. the final color sand and buff is FREE of charge and will only take a few hours and can be done on a sunday.

i have to give it up to the member here that turned me onto the guy that took me down to tj to meet the paint shop. if i did the paint here it would be of similar quality yet i would not have my car for another 2.75 months. it doesnt need an interior detail because of the dust and 1 or two minor things were damaged when they redid the rearend (cosmetic and only a few bucks to fix)

here are some pics from my trip. you be the judge.
http://www.importaw.com/mycar/paint/P1010139.JPG
http://www.importaw.com/mycar/paint/P1010140.JPG
http://www.importaw.com/mycar/paint/P1010142.JPG
http://www.importaw.com/mycar/paint/P1010143.JPG
http://www.importaw.com/mycar/paint/P1010144.JPG

 

looks really good Eric. I'm really impressed on how it turned out, although I knew it would come back good. My turn to take my car south of the border when I have all my things gathered up and ready. and guess what. You're going with me.

So they took all the body parts off? How come the wheel wells are painted red? lol

 

looks good Eric....
can't wait to see it on the 13th !

gotta love TJ ! should of got a picture of it next to a striped zebra-donkey !

btw, my brother lives in Corona, near Lincoln (Buena Vista) & Magnolia.

Carlos

Saprissa@aol.com

 

carlos tell him to stop by i will give him a ride to our meet in irvine next month. i live at lincoln and ontario.

trust me when i say this paint is f#$king awesome. sure there are a few drips but that is what colorsanding is for. i am going to update my sig to show that really nasty show of my black bumper then have a third one with the new paint and new front end.

 

WOW!

they did a good job! congrats! i really like the outcome! we gots to talk about it again.

i will do a QA when we meet again.

 

oh here is a nice shot of the b4. notice the great looking clear coat on the trunk. btw thanks chris for taking this shot of my ugly *** trunk.

 

rami if you want the 201 done i got just the place for u.

 

Nice paint, and it looks like a great trip, too. This pic is my favorite:

Should have got some pics of the local ladies!

 

You paid what you get for.... oversprayed fender liners? Whoever was doing the job didn't really care much about your car I guess.

 

oh please
for 1/3 the price i'll take a little overspray. its not even like you'd notice it unles you knew it was there or were looking for it.

car looks good.
i was under the impression that you had fog/ driving lights?

did they say anything about keeping the car in the shade (but not under a cover) as much as possible in the next month or two while the paint cures?

 

um where is it? i didnt even notice it and it is sitting in the driveway.
you are correct. they had the old lights in them but when i took it down i removed them to be sure i got paint everywhere. i am also thinking of changing them to a clear lens instead of one that has all those facets in them
nope they didnt say anything. i wonder if you are supposed to do that.


that was the 2nd best highlight of the day. i went to aveinita revolution and on the way back a guy had a comealong attached to a street light. then at the other end he had a tab welded to a bumper that he was heating and cranking on the comealong at the same time; obviously he was pulling a dent from a bumper. now that was ingenios. lol, it reminded me of chimps and using sticks as tools to get termites. and no i didnt get a pic cause my carmera was in the car.

maybe next time i should go to that shop and have my dents pulled.

seriously tho if anyone is interested in having a car painted down there the guy i went to is one of the best in tj. all the street vendors knew him and 3 cars from the 914 porsche club had theirs done their as well.

i forgot to mention the 3rd best highlight was seeing a brand new 999 ducati just parked on the side walk out front of a club all by its lonesome. the darn thing wasnt even chained up.

 

i was replying to gorbettteam (somthing like that) who said you likely had overspray.

i might need to paint the old BMW this way.

ask around at paint shops. i was under the impression that you needed to keep the car mostly in the shade to let the paint cure or something. for about a month after you get it painted. stop at a paint shop and ask em. cant hurt.

 

Cars are usually baked for a while, so I would rotate the car in full sun to get even exposure. Don't wax it for 6 weeks.

 

thx for the good comments. i know they used the guchi paint of mex. someone commented on that when they saw my reciept. they said senor that is better then the ppg and dupont paint. being an ignorant fool i smiled and thanked them and i was on my way.

i will ask my buddy to ask ricky the painter. he paints a lot of hot rods and old customs to see what he says about the car being in sunlight after paint.

 

Eric. Looks great. you can fix that overspray int he fenderwells easily. it is called ruberized undercoating spray..

Regardless, It looks great if you ask me.

I can't understand why people would pick it apart so badly.

Frankly, for the money, the paint job looks very good.

AshMan

 

Nice ride eric...

 

amgfan thank for the comment.

ok time for an update. i finally got the car into the shop tonite to finish up wiring lights and what not. the overspray areas are under the bumper cover, one of the ac return pipes next to the front fans and a little on the light plugs that connect to the corner lights. so that tells me they at least pulled the corner lights. alas i cracked one tonight when i popped it in. so i will call beckers import in the morn and have them ship me out another one.

i have also noticed a few fish eyes and a total of 4 runs. being that i am going back to them in 3 weeks for a free color sand i will see if they can rectify those. additionally they painted over my door handle rubber. its ok because i told them i forgot to order new ones. that was done today at the dealer along with 3 other clips i forgot to order. i still need to order up my / / //amg badge again but i wont install that until after the final color sand. i also noticed two things i wanted painted black (the rear trunk lift area and the wiper blade) didnt get repainted. i will tell them about that as well.

other then that every person that has seen this car is AMAZED at how good it looks and cant believe it was done in TJ and that it was that cheap. a few people even want to go down in 3 weeks when i return for the color sand to check the place out. i should head up another caravan...hehehehe

 

I think it looks pretty good for what you paid for it!

I'm not a paint expert, but here is what I'm thinking: I've seen a lot of painted cars in my day from $100 Earl Schrieb jobs, to multi thousand dollar custom shop jobs. Paint jobs always seem to look nice (better) at first. Like any kind of work like this, the prep work is very important, and mistakes can sometimes be easily hidden only to become apparent down the road. Hopefully, you don't experience any problems down the road and can report back to us that you are still 100% satisfied. I know a concern (at least one that I would have) would be trying to get problems fixed using a Mexican shop.

If this is a quality paint job that is worth the money spent, time will surely tell.

 

i couldnt agree more. time will tell. atm i have a big smile on my face. i hope to have it for a few more years. if the paint only lasted maybe 2-3 years i still think that would be a good deal.

as far as the service they asked me to return just to fix the blems. the work will be done for free. that speaks volumes to me because stateside some guys care nothing about customer service.

 

Red paint without a clear coat will oxidize and fade quicker than any other color. Use your favorite wax, sealant, or whatever on a regular basis and stick to the schedule before it needs it.

 

it has 4 coats of clear. any suggestions on detailers or wax? i want to start detailing it every 6 mos again.

 

I like Zaino, doing a couple of coats a time in a month. I don't think I have ever gone 6 months between wax jobs, so maybe one of these from the guru tests might be the answer.

3M Perfect IT Show Car Paste, Armor All Protective Barrier, BlackFire, Blitz, One Grand, Collinite Marque D'Elegance, Collinite Super Doublecoat, Eagle One Pure Carnauba, Eagle One WET Polish & Wax, Finish First World Class Auto Polish, Formula 113, Gliptone Original Carnauba Paste, Gliptone Platinum Series Paste, Griot's Garage Best of Show, Griot's Garage Carnauba Wax, Kit Carnauba Paste, Klasse All-In-One & Sealant Glaze, Lemon Pledge (just for fun), Liquid Glass Ultimate Auto Polish, Malm's Carnauba, Meguiar's #16 Paste Wax, Meguiar's #19 Professional Cleaner/Wax, Meguiar's #26 High-Tech, Meguiar's Gold Class, Meguiar's Medallion, Meguiar's Quik Wax, Mothers California Gold Carnauba Cleaner, Mothers California Gold Pure Carnauba, Nu Finish, P21S Concour Look Carnauba, Pinnacle Paste Glaz Carnauba, Pinnacle Souveran Carnauba, Prestone Bullet Wax, Race Glaze, Rain Dance Premium, Rally Cream Wax, The Wax Shop Super Glaze Liquid, Turtle Wax Emerald Series, Turtle Wax Extreme Cleaner Wax, Turtle Wax Finish 2001, Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell, Wizards Shine Master, Zaino Brothers Show Car Polish, Zymol Carbon Carnauba, Zymol Concours Carnauba, Zymol SUV (Zurtle) Natural Liquid, Zymol Titanium Carnauba

 

Quote: ask around at paint shops. i was under the impression that you needed to keep the car mostly in the shade to let the paint cure or something. for about a month after you get it painted. stop at a paint shop and ask em. cant hurt.

I don’t mean to question your advice but purely for my own edification as I’ve never heard this stated about new paint before, would you explain the reasoning behind this?
JonM

 

i asked a paint guy and he laughed at me. he said how can the paint cure if it has no heat. he said let that car shake and bake in the sun.

 

I do understand that heat will help the paint solvents to evaporate (outgas) that’s why most modern paint/body shops use an oven. The problem I would have with leaving a freshly painted car outside to ‘bake’ in the sun is that heat will expand the plastic (polymer) paint allowing the ingress of pollutants.

I also realize that most fresh paint is ‘protected’ with a ‘paint safe’ glaze, but 180oF heat and they’ll melt away, one rain and they wash away . . .(thinking aloud) I guess the answer would be to apply a polymer (like Zaino) as they are heat resistant, allow the solvents to outgas and being chemical brothers with the paint will expand at the same rate
JonM