escargot

Hi,
My car paint looks like @$$. It's got mini scratches all over it, i have some cheesy dents, and it's a bit faded. Anyone know where is a good place to repaint it? Is it even worth it? How much money will it cost? MAACO any good? I have a 1993 Audi 90 CS Quattro... take a look at some pics at <A HREF="http://predator.inventioncity.com">MY WEBSITE</A>. Click 'My Car' on the left. I appreciate the help.

Cheers,
Mike.<ul><li><a href="http://predator.inventioncity.com/audiquattro.html">My Car (direct link)</a></li></ul>

StormChaser404

Hi,

A QUALITY paint job will make your car look may years younger, but a cheap one will make it look worse. I had my 1985 Impala SS sprayed by Macco. It looked GREAT for about 2 years then went to complete crap. I had my 1988 Audi 90 repainted and it looked perfect more than 5 years later when it got totaled in a rear ender... Go for a good respray in the original color. That means a true 2 stage paint job for your baby. Assuming no rust anywhere and dents you can live with (in other words, the cost of the paint job alone/no body work) a good respray will be $1000+.

Style12v

There is alot of prepwork involved in painting your car.

Maaco just paints over the old stuff, with little to no preping. It will crack and look bad very quickly.

To do a quaility paint job, there is alot of sanding involved to make sure the paint looks smooth when put on. Otherwise it will look wavey (seen it, its very odd). Plus filling in dents, masking off the rest of the car well, etc.

You might want to look into a good professional detailing. Someone skilled with a highspeed buffer, wet sanding, and using touch up paint can make your car look new for $300 or so.

HDClown

It depends on your area and how saturated with paint shops it is.

I paid $430 and got a Dupoint paint job gauranteed for 5 years with cleacoat and full prep work. They filled in ALL the dings and fully sanded the car. They also painted ALL the black on the car. (this was not my audi, but my previous car).

It was a VERY nice paint job. MINIMAL orange peel except on the low door panels.

My friend paid $350 for a paint job at maaco. The ENTIRE car had orange peel and they DIDN'T paint his blacks. He got robbed.

Maaco paint jobs are the "my car looks like crap, I need to get it nice looking to sell it" paint jobs that you pay $150-199 for to increase resale value. If you want to KEEP the car for a while,look into private shops.

Seattle Scott

Don't change colors. Under the hood, in the trunk, under moldings, etc will look like crap.

RKA

Your pictures aren't going to reveal the things you complain about, so without having seen your car, I will tell you than *most* paint can be reconditioned. Depending on the extent of the damage that exists, you may want to contact a professional detailer. The dents could probably be address by your local DentWizard, or similar mobile service that delicately "bangs" out dents without the need for paintwork. Most do an excellent job.

As for the condition of your paint, DennyTT (in the TT forum...doh!) did some fantastic work on a friends Z a few months ago. The paint was neglected, and in pretty bad shape, and he brought it back to a shiny state. It's a LOT of work, so if you know you don't want to do it, start looking for a detailer. If you want to do it yourself, email him for tips, and expect to spend the following:
Random Orbit Polisher $125.00
Polisher Supplies $40.00
Aggressive and Mild Polish $25.00
Quality wax $20.00

Other things you will need are quality buffing towels (lots of them), car wash soap, wheel cleaner, clay bar, and a general purpose heavy duty cleaner and degreaser. I'm assuming you already have this sort of stuff. If you don't, add on another $80-$90 for this.

It seems like a lot of money, but you will then have the supplies to continually detail your car many times over (or if you have a wife or sig. other who wants some detailing done...it always happens..."Honey, that looks great!!! Can you...?").

Singletrack

As long as you have enough clearcoat left you may be able to get the minor scratches and swirls out with a high speed buffer. A good detailer will tell you if the car needs to be repainted though. Make sure that he matches the color very carefully. For pearl especially which is a 3 step paint process, it is difficult to match the original color. Ask him for a step by step of how he will do it. A good paint shop will try several different settings of the pearl effect on a scrap piece of metal. They will then compare it to your car and pick the setting that matches the closest. Crappy shops just try to eyeball the different layers - it doesn't come out well at all.

Good luck man,

-st