What will a shop charge to paint my hood and valence?

[Ryann]

Yes, old paint fades more quickly. It'd look proper for five years or so, though.

Where did you find this single stage info? I'm Brillantrot, & my clear is lifting.

[StereoInstaller1]

You sure it is original? The wifes Zinno is definately SS, you can tell from the pad on the buffer...

[Eric Giles]

Yes, old paint fades more quickly. It'd look proper for five years or so, though.

Where did you find this single stage info? I'm Brillantrot, & my clear is lifting.

If it's actually Brilliantrot, and the clear is lifting, then it has been repainted. The only E30 base/clear coat paints were the metallics. Non-metallics were single stage.

Now I will say that a seven years ago when I bought my first E30 M3, it was Brilliantrot and the bumpers, side mirrors, and side skirts were all fading. I removed them from the car and had them painted (base/clear) and the paint match was damn near spot on-and this car had all original paint. All I did was use a Porter Cable polisher with P21s polish followed with P21s wax and the original paint looked as almost as new as possible for a car of that age-and it wasn't a garage queen.

So it's possible to get a very good match without blending, but it will depend on the condition of the original paint to a large extent-and of course to how well they mix the paint.

[1990m3]

Yes, old paint fades more quickly. It'd look proper for five years or so, though.

Where did you find this single stage info? I'm Brillantrot, & my clear is lifting.

my brilliantrot has no clear. It was repaited in a few places and you can easily see the diff. from where the clear was blended into the non-clear original paint. Sucks especially since the clear is also peeling.

[Ryann]

Shee-it. Hope there's not a lot of Bondo under there. I think I'll contact the orig. owner and ask him about it.

[StereoInstaller1]

Now I see why you were confused!

I used to work on lots of these back in the day when they were new. I was shocked to hear they were single stage. Dad was a body man since the dawn of time and I basically grew up in a body shop...never had I seen single stage come out like that!

[Kershaw]

if your car has been at the body shop over 10 times, either they´re not very good at it, or you can´t drive!

all comprehensive claims.. parking lots, vandalism, little girls with soccer balls.... you'd think $100 deductible wouldnt be so bad, but after 10 claims...

-_-

most body shops use a computer to calculate paint fade and then just spray. usually this comes out looking anywhere from crap to ok. however, a truly high end body shop employs artists that only use the computer as a starting point. they can match anything.

[Yakinho]

I can vouch for his bad luck.

Pissed off ex girlfriends/parking at CVS...$
Little girl with a soccer ball + rx8 paper thin fender...$$
Chunk off ice...$$$
Parking down the street when roads are getting re-paved...$$$$

Bad luck... Priceless.

[884door]

All non metallic color e30s were single stage? Wow, Thats almost unbelievable. If you go to any southern california junkyard you will find 10 e30s with peeling clearcoat.

[StereoInstaller1]

"Clear Coating" was a dealer scam in the late 80's too

[Kershaw]

I can vouch for his bad luck.

Pissed off ex girlfriends/parking at CVS...$
Little girl with a soccer ball + rx8 paper thin fender...$$
Chunk off ice...$$$
Parking down the street when roads are getting re-paved...$$$$

Bad luck... Priceless.

dude, my e30 has been hit twice already. its only been 3 months.

[McGyver]

"Clear Coating" was a dealer scam in the late 80's too

more on this "scam"?