Value after repainting

Just wanted to check in with this group to find out whether it's a good or bad thing to repaint the entire car. I need to get the rear bumper, front nosecap and maybe hood repainted so now I'm considering just getting the whole entire thing done. Would that be more of a warning sign than an added value? Many thanks.

great question... I have always prefered original paint, but on race cars they paint them about every race... My thoughts are that it wont hurt the value as long as you have it done right. (that is tougher than it sounds) It will be interesting to hear what others think.... My car is a multiple re-paint and I knew that going in.... still I didn't worry that much, in fact when I dinged the lower front clip at a track day "learing" about understeer it was comforting to know it had been painted before, so it can be painted again... DRIVE IT!! my .02

I'd buy a car with an entire repaint over a car with just individual panel repairs any day of the week. BUT doing an entire re-spray correctly with the attention to detail that is required to make the job turn out well is a $10-15K investment.

To do it right, they have to really remove all glass and rubbers, which is costly. DON"T let them tape the glass/rubber. But done right, with the same color, does not detract from value (compared to leaving it with mismatched panel textures, or paint issues on the OEM paint), if the car was not in an accident. Plus, with a quality shop job, the paint will be thicker & tougher, not waterbased. Of course, you'll never be able to sell it to Carmax, then...

doesn't matter as long as it is done right.

A quality repaint could be a great improvement over the original paint which has still has some slight orangepeel effect. But you'd be spending big bucks to get it done right, like Perry said removing the glass, etc, plus wetsanding by hand, but that's how the show cars get that tremendous depth. btw, your car looks nice -- do you run those amber French-style headlights on the street?

Even if they do a fantastic job with the repaint as said, unless you go way overboard and strip the entire car you simply cannot paint it a different color and have it retain its value. Nothing like opening the engine lid on a red car to find a yellow bay or something like that.

Regardless of what you paing, I'd recommend that you take pictures before doing the work. Maybe include a newspaper that has the date on it? Then once it's in the shop, maybe a couple of pics as they progress through the stages. It might not hurt for the body shop to put on the invoice the previous state of the car (just paint blemishes) versus an accident or anything else someone might think you're trying to hide. You might never need these pictures, but it sure doesn't hurt to have. How bad is the existing paint? I've seen some detail shops do some pretty amazing stuff with paint I thought needed to be resprayed.

I had to replace my front bumper cover (someone backed into it) and it had already been repainted by PO for the same thing. PO paint job was not well done, could see spray pattern in places, runs in the clear, etc. My hood was pretty stone chipped, as well as few choice ones on the fenders & mirrors. I bought new mirror covers and new bumper cover myself ($530 for all delivered) and went to a quality shop, had hood stripped, and fenders sanded. Full repaint of the hood, bumper, mirrors (off car, I swapped them myself to save a few bucks), blend of fenders to doors, and complete clearcoat of front to doors was $1500, and it looks great. I'll give it a few weeks to cure & harden more, then do a 3000 grit wetsand & polish. I had also had the wheels stripped and powdercoated after being trued ($800). So for $2800, the car looks much, much, better than when I bought it. So it turned out the $3k I had dealt off the cars asking price, ($35k to $32k, with 37.5k miles) a year ago was close to right on the money. Of course, now I wished I'd waited a year, and I probably could have picked up a newer one with less miles that needed nothing for the same or less..but of course that's a different rant. But back to the OPs original question..If I was in your shoes, and trying to save some money, and the doors and rear fender paint are still in excellent shape, (you don't say how many miles on the car, or existing condition), the car will look fine, with the other panels blended tot he door seams. The bumpers tend to be a slight hue different, depending on the light, anyway, because the poly bumpers just make the paint lay different than sheet metal.. If money is not an object, but a new car is not an option, I'd have the sides painted with the rear side windows removed. Avoid the rear hatch and roof repaint, as there is a lot of labor to do those sections right. Certainly, spending $12k on a paint job of a MKI 996 is crazy. That money plus your car, painted minimally, would get you a newer car. My $.02.

Porsche OEM paint is fairly special, according to my detailer making it a detailer's delight to make near perfect. I believe the factory applies 26 coats, and that may be tough to match by a typical shop. I think there is value in maintaining factory paint, but if it needs it...good luck w/ your decision.

i've had my front bumper and hood painted because of rock chips and you can't tell the difference. however the car has always been garaged and the remianing panels looked like new. had a quality shop do the work which included removing the bumper and hood from the car, preparing the surfaces and finished by wet sanding. came out beautifull. i would not hesitate to re-spray entire car if i had to as long as the same shop did it. as previous posters have mentioned, to do this the right way, the shop would have to practically dissasemble the entire car and would paint the same color.

Painting bumper covers it common place (because they can be removed and painted properly). They get pretty chipped up over time. I'd say that painted bumper covers, as long as the color matches, adds to the value of the car. Painting the entire car is nearly impossible to do correctly. I'd say that a full repaint detracts from a car's value. The caveat is: a $30k car with a $15k paint job may be a $35k car. So, the car's value has gone up $5k - but you're still losing $10k overall. (A $30k car with a $10k paint job is still a $30k car... A $30k car with a $5k paint job is a $25k car.) So, unless your car looks like that rusty 356 that's someone's avatar (or if it's been damaged in an accident), keep the paint original and just paint the bumper covers and maybe the hood.

When I had the factory repaint one of my 911s it was 5000 DMs,--in 1978! So you had better be paying close to $10,000 to get a decent job today. If you paying less than $8,000 you are detracting from the value. If it seriously needs paint, then you are doing the right thing. Glasurit paint is the way to go. If you can afford the time, let the primer cure for at least a month before you add the color coat. Rush jobs never look good.

All - Many thanks for the replies and great advice. Overall, it sounds like my best bet is to simply paint the front/rear bumpers and the hood. Painting the entire car the right way ($10k+) just doesn't make sense. For background, the car is an '01 with 70k miles on the clock. The rear bumper has some parking blemishes. The front bumper and hood has the usual small chips from road debris. I think because the car is black it shows up more than would be noticeable on other colors. perryinva - It sounds like we're in the same boat. I bought the car about a year ago and have put quite a bit of money into it to get it up to snuff. This next round of cosmetic improvements is exactly what you've done, including the wheels. Would've been a whole lot easier to wait awhile and pick one up that was already in great shape! Thanks all!

We have a shop here in Orlando that can do a quality job for $6 to $7K we do full restorations on older 911s. and don't skimp on materials, just compensate for today's economy.

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As a professional detailer I can tell you there's nothing "special" about porsche paint, number of coats, etc. They do use a top notch paint but it's not really special. However he is right in that it's a detailers delight because it's soft, easy to work with and easy to correct defects on. Some of the newer and harder paints you can go over numerous times with a polish and still have more work to do. The downside to the soft paint on our cars is it's easy to put swirls in it during normal washing. Andy

Unfortunately, these are not rare and valuable collector cars. They are a rapidly depreciating enjoyable and pleasent to look at form of transportation. Chances of selling your car to someone that really cares or can appreciate a pristine and all original paint job may be slim. A potential buyer of a 5-10 yo 996 will most likely buy it because of what the car represented when it was new or for preceived appearances, or hopefully because it's a wonderful car and just fun to drive. It's not an all original Speedster, GT2 or even a 993 which may have collector value and original paint would be icing on the cake. As mentioned before, to do an acceptable paint job, all rubber, trim, and glass has to be removed which sets itself up for many more problems. Painters and helpers can't seem to R&R this stuff without breaking it. Rubber gets streached, cut, torn and distorted and is not often replaced because it's ruthlessly expensive. Trim gets mounting tabs twisted or broken off and hole plugs get lost, screws get put in the wrong place and the horror stories just keep going. I've found this standard proceedure in the best, highest end euro shops recommended by Porsche and Ferrari. Problem is the guys doing the work (helpers) are under skilled, under paid, often don't speak the language, drive a beater 20 yo Civic, and don't realize the importance of learning how fasteners interact with related parts and how they should be disassembled and reassembled correctly. They do know, faster is better and if they do it fast they will make more $$. So as far as I'm concerned, the change of paint can be minor compared to destroying the car in the process. Most potential buyers can't tell and don't care, and don't know what to think even if being told of a repaint. It's not like 20-30 years ago.

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original paint. Even when I took my barely 5 month old like new '01 Chevy Camaro Z28 to used car dealer to sell on consignment for me he checked paint thickness with an electronic paint thickness gage. Said its common practice to check cars for non-factory paint and generally just walk away from the cars if non-factory paint found, even for on body panel. Repaint brings too many more unknowns into the equation. Unless paint damaged to the point the body's in danger of corroding I'd leave well enough alone. Even then I'd seriously consider just having the one panel touched up or repainted. Or even sourcing an untouched/damaged replacement panel from a salvage yard. Sincerely, Macster.

For many years I would go to incredible lengths to ensure that my car was kept in near perfect condition to ensure that I would get the maximum trade-in value. Then when it came time to trade the car in the Dealers would offer me below the good condition, forget excellent, book value listed in KBB, Edmunds etc. I'd go to several Dealers and their offers were all within a couple hundred dollars of each other. I recall one time being offered around $45K for my car when the books all listed $50K+ for good condition, and when I inquired about the low price, the Dealer asked me why would I offer you $50K when I can go to any auction and get your car for $5K less. I don't know if this applies to all areas of the country, but in my area, they just look up the auction price and that's what they offer you. So my advice is if the repaint makes you happy, go ahead with it and don't worry about the resale price because the Dealers will screw you regardless.