^^^^^^^
+996


nick49 & sunir... very informative post.

 

could someone please elaborate on nick's comment about 'as sprayed texture'and explain what stippling is? I'm still not sure why that is preferred to a mirror polish.

I've always thought that aftermarket jobs were capable of producing a better paint than lots of single stage factory paints because they can acheive a deeper color with a lot more protection with clear coats but I guess that's not really true, huh?

 

I think in this context "quality" is subjective. A factory paint job can be perfect but will be different than a "shop" job. They use different equipment with different signatures (stippling etc.). Yes, you can get a wonderful, deep, transparent, metallic... paint from a great shop, but it won't be a "factory" job which might irk some purists. Each owner should have what he/she wants. If you're a collector you'll want as authentic paint work as possible. If you simply want your car pretty or properly painted go for it. Aftermarket paint jobs are frequently better done than factory but not always.

 

To each their own. Most everyone would perfer a very smooth highly reflective and glossy finish to a factory one. Myself included, until a friend of mine that was working on a restoration of an old rare Mercedes that would have a value in excess of a million dollars, enlightened me.

It was going to very difficult to match the factory paint. He elaborated and mentioned the color would not be the problem but the stipple or very slight texture that occurs after drying would. Many factors contribute to this like the thickness of the final coat, spray angle, viscosity, air to paint ratio, evaporation of solvents time, ambient air temperature and humidity, possibly others. Anyway the most difficult part is you don't know how the finish will look until it is totally dry.

As sprayed, it will look perfect and when dry it will develop a texture. The difficult thing is for the texture to be uniform on the entire car, vertical and horizonal panels. Factories have acheived this with their automated systems, and the top tier human painters have this pretty much in control as well. The uniform part is only one point on a high dollar restoration, the texture should match how it was done on that particular model atthe time.

All paint will dry with texture. Most shops care little about this and many painters aren't even aware of what I posted above and have never thought about it. To them, it's a given that all paint must be polished and smoothed to make it look good. Some shops sand between coats to remove high spots and runs, some apply a heavy top coat, sand it smooth and polish to a high gloss.

Most everyone perfers a super smooth high gloss finish to an expertly applied evenly textured factory finish. They equate the smoothness and reflectivity to the quality of the job. I can appreciate the factory stipple that can be seen in certain light at the right angle more. It's more difficult to acheive.

Another probably most important point, is a paint job should be judged by how well it protects the body, chip resistance, elasticity, durability, fade resistance, etc. All these are more important than the look. Any paint can be made to look good.

Finally, any painter, even an amature painting in the driveway at home is capable of painting a car with a beautiful finish. Apply enough coats of paint for good coverage and a few fairly heavy coats of clear. Sand smooth when dry and buff to a high luster. The paint will look gorgeous. It may shrink, crack, craze, chip, dull, fade or have other issues in the future, all being more important than how the finish looks when delivered.

Hope this helps.

 

^ I agree with the above, with the exception of where you say a stipple effect is more difficult to achieve

Bring your car to me, give me a rattle can and a few beers and I'll stipple the **** out of your car

 

lol, can't say I haven't done that before too!

This is fascinating, I've never heard this about paints before, though I'm admittedly, a total newbie to this stuff. My extent of knowledge is that some paints are single stage (base and clear combination layer) and some are multi stage (base layer and then clear layer).

Are there any high res pics available to show the difference or are their any cars I can inspect that have pronounced stippling?

Are factory paints are better at preserving the body?

 

Is it possible? Sure, can even be "better", just not exactly the same. Now I think the general concensus is that doing so will not be cheap. My question would be why would you spend so much to do it? For cars that are going down in value, that probably wont be collector cars any time soon its not very cost effective.

I'd be interested in the opposite extreme which would be getting scratches and nicks out that would still look good at a good price. Here the 996 is awesome since you can easily take off the bumper, fenders etc, so I'd save some labor.

 

Have you made a decision on repainting your car? I don't know where you are in VA, but I am in northern VA and have a great shop I use. I had some self inflicted damage to my bright silver 2005 A6, which is known to painters as one of the most difficult colors to match.
The same shop performed a partial restoration to my friends 1986 steel blue 911 several years ago and he is delighted with it.
They will be repainting my 996 turbo in the near future. Let me know if you are interested in their information.
Good luck with what ever decision you make.

 

^^^ What shop are you talking about? D&V autobody?

 

I have not made a decision. I may just go with what I have for now. It is still very nice, just no longer perfect. I am about to start a higher priority project as soon as the parts come in, so the repaint is a long-term consideration. In a couple more weeks I am putting in a Moton suspension and a Safecraft fire suppression system. The suspension components should be in any time now. This will finish pretty much everything I want done inside and underneath. I will continue to mull over ideas for the outside.

 

Well... It looks like I am getting that total repaint after all, and much sooner than expected. Christmas day I banged up my baby pretty good on an exit ramp guard rail. I had it flat-beded back to Piper Motorsport for the mechanical repairs, followed by a very well-reputed custom body guy. I definitely have the right people for the job, it's just a matter of waiting my turn for the top body guy; about two months.

 

Ouch! That defiantly sucks. Not exactly the best way to get a present from Santa, but it's something unexpected, none the less. Good luck with the new paint job, and post some pics.

 

Sorry to hear about the mishap

Just incase you're thinking about putting a clear bra on it - be very cautious, and speak to your paint guy first

I've just removed mine and ripped the clearcoat off my wing mirrors!!

 

Thanks for the tip! Sorry that happened to you. No clear bra for me. I talked to the paint guy. He is the same guy who did the Franken-Beamer V-10 M3 in Maryland (Dale, at Old School Enterprises). He said he can use a super-tough paint and clearcoat. I think it may be aviation paint. It costs more, but that would be worth it to me if it holds up better. The factory paint was super-soft. If you looked at it wrong it got a scratch. It was the softest paint I have ever seen, and black.

 

I was too busy when it happened, loading it onto the flatbed and making phone calls. I will try to post some pics when I get them. I asked my guy at the shop to take some for me. It will be hard to look at!