Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My car is 18 years old and some of the paint is coming off. I took it to Maaco for an estimate and they have 3 different paints: enamel (lowest quality), urethane (mid quality), and base coat/clear coat (highest quality).
The guy suggested the urethane paint job for $900, and he said I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between that and the base coat/clear coat (which would cost $1300). The urethane paint would have a 3 year warranty vs. the 4 or 5 year warranty of the base coat/clear coat.
My car only has 125K miles on it, and I might still drive it for 5 years or longer. Would urethane paint be able to last for several years?
I took my car to a few other body shops in the area, and they said they only use base coat/clear coat, which is the best quality paint. They would charge a lot more than Maaco, though.
I just had my truck opined a few minutes this ago and the guy did a paint/clear coat. It fort a lot more than $1300. What I can tell you is if you remove the exterior trim you'll get a better paint job.
IWhat I can tell you is if you remove the exterior trim you'll get a better paint job.
Are you referring to the rubber moldings on top and on the doors, etc? One shop I talked to said that removing and replacing them would be the proper way to do it, but of course it'd cost a lot of money to replace all of them (he said you can't reuse them once you remove them).
A base/clear for $1300? You won't be getting much, if any, body work, trim is not removed. Clear is sprayed and that's it. What you see is what you get. No hand sanding and buffing.
Are you referring to the rubber moldings on top and on the doors, etc? One shop I talked to said that removing and replacing them would be the proper way to do it, but of course it'd cost a lot of money to replace all of them (he said you can't reuse them once you remove them).
You can peel off the old double sided tape and buy a roll of 3m double sided tape. Clean the old glue cut/trim the double sided tape and reuse the old moldings. Most moldings can be found aftermarket really cheap too.
Unless the car is some old man 1980/90 domestic it shouldn't have that much trim in it. Usually domestics had a crapload of chrome trim and junk glued all over the place. Lots of trim is held on by clips and screws too. It should be removed to get a better paint job. Really depends on how good a paint job you want and how long you want a paint job to last.
You just get a better job by removing trim because if they mask trim when they prep they can't get in that small edge next to the trim where it meets the metal surface of the car. When they paint the paint line where the paint landed will be next to the molding edge. They can't overfill that line because you get a build up of paint and runs. Eventually the new paint will start peeling at those points because the paint is thinner (more of a overspray area) If you're gonna blow 1300 on a paint job I'm assuming you plan in keeping the car a while. What car is it? Brand/model. Just trying to figure out what trim you got that needs removal
A base/clear for $1300? You won't be getting much, if any, body work, trim is not removed. Clear is sprayed and that's it. What you see is what you get. No hand sanding and buffing.
They gave me a written estimate which includes "surface reconditioning", which says "surface sanding of delaminated paint providing an economical option to paint removal - roof and trunk lid". The roof and trunk lid are where most of the paint is coming off, but they said they would repaint the entire car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Electrician4you
You can peel off the old double sided tape and buy a roll of 3m double sided tape. Clean the old glue cut/trim the double sided tape and reuse the old moldings. Most moldings can be found aftermarket really cheap too.
Unless the car is some old man 1980/90 domestic it shouldn't have that much trim in it. Usually domestics had a crapload of chrome trim and junk glued all over the place. Lots of trim is held on by clips and screws too. It should be removed to get a better paint job. Really depends on how good a paint job you want and how long you want a paint job to last.
You just get a better job by removing trim because if they mask trim when they prep they can't get in that small edge next to the trim where it meets the metal surface of the car. When they paint the paint line where the paint landed will be next to the molding edge. They can't overfill that line because you get a build up of paint and runs. Eventually the new paint will start peeling at those points because the paint is thinner (more of a overspray area) If you're gonna blow 1300 on a paint job I'm assuming you plan in keeping the car a while. What car is it? Brand/model. Just trying to figure out what trim you got that needs removal
It's a 97 Honda Accord. I'd like to keep it for another 3-5 years or longer.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,551 posts, read 81,085,957 times
Reputation: 57744
For a car that old with the plan to keep it only 5 more years, I would go cheap. It's just not worth the money to get a good paint job with the labor cost involved with proper preparation.
For a car that old with the plan to keep it only 5 more years, I would go cheap. It's just not worth the money to get a good paint job with the labor cost involved with proper preparation.
Chiming in. Unless it needs body work or rust repair I wouldn't even bother repainting that car at this point.
Urethane is the chemical type of paint. Base coat/clear coat can also be urethane (and in fact, usually is these days). Urethane is a plasticized, crosslinked form of Enamel.
In a base/clear system, the urethane basecoat has no gloss to it, and is only there to get coverage and color. The clear, (which is simply a non-pigmented version of the paint) has the UV protection and the glossiness. It also gives depth to the color. But both levels are urethanes.
In the old days, there was a lacquer basecoat and clear coat, and for a short period of time (before lacquers were banned) you could do a lacquer base and a urethane clear.
What the OP was describing was a "single stage" paint (a urethane base that needs no clear over it). And yes, it's easy to tell the difference by the depth of the color, and if it has a metallic finish, it will always be dull and lifeless with no clear over it to give depth.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
