I need advice here, lol. I have an flame red '87 GTA with 164k miles on it. It's in the process of getting stripped down for paint and when the paint guy told me the price of the paint I nearly fainted (materials alone $900 with a discount). I know I can go with white or black and it would be cheaper, but I was trying to stick with the original color hoping the car would be worth more in the long run. With this many miles on the car is it really worth it to keep it the original color? I would actually rather have white (car has carmine red interior). What do you guys think?

 

I guess it depends on what "worth more in the long run" means to you.

If you're talking about future collector value, then you'd have no choice but to keep the original color. But if you're simply thinking about a general resale value as a nice car, then I'd be of the belief that a car with a nice paint job will be worth more than the same car with a wornout paint job, regardless of whether the nicely painted car is the original color or not. And in that case, if white is what you'd prefer, then paint it white.

But how far is the repaint going? Will you be painting the engine bay, too? If not, then you'll have that red engine bay to look at everytime you open the hood of your white car. To me, that would be the key factor of my color choice. With a different color engine bay, everytime I opened the hood I'd be going, "why did I change the color?"

So unless you're taking the car down to its bare bones to repaint the whole thing, I'd suggest keeping it the original color. Just my

 

Yeah, I see what you're saying. The engine bay wouldn't get painted now (except for the tray part between the headlights), that would have to wait till the day when the engine gets pulled and rebuilt, however long that is. I think it's too cluttered to paint the engine bay with the engine in the car.

If the car had under 100k miles I wouldn't even consider changing the color, I'm just thinking with this many miles that the car will never be a true "collector" no matter how pristine I keep it. I only paid $1600 for the whole car.

I would like to see more opinions here though before I make my mind up, I value all of your opinions.

 

You can change the color, but remember....you will have to have the door jambs painted, under the hood inside the hatch as well. Flame red is a beautiful color on the GTAs I would keep it original.

if you want to see expensive paint.....get a quote on my Midnight Russet Metallic on my GTA......

 

My hood and both front fenders are being replaced because a tree limb fell across them last year, so the inside of the fenders and the underside of the hood will have to be painted regardless of the color. The "channel" around the hatch also looks pretty bad so I made it clear that I wanted that painted as well, he's going to remove the hatch before painting. The doors are having the pins replaced, so that would also be a good time to paint the jambs. The only place you'd see red would be the strut towers and the firewall.

 

Well, I found out that the $900 quote was after a 25% markup where my body guy works. He gave me some papers with the paint formula on it so tomorrow I'll shop around on my own and see if I can get it a little cheaper somewhere else. There's a PPG store and a Sherwin Williams Automotive store nearby, but I'm not sure which one is likely to have the better price (I know Sherwin Williams is usually expensive).

 

if you are going to change the color you really should pull the entire inside out, and the engine too and paint everything.
if you are going to do the original color - they you should still pull part of the interior out - that part around the door and the door panels too. and clean the entine bay and then hit it with the same color but you will not have to sand it or color coat it.
the more work you do the better paint job you will get.
make sure the primer it and if you can sand it down after primer to make sure you dont have ripples in the primer. that is when you do the real cleanup.
hire some day workers to help you and all you have to do is supervise and do the fine work.
then take it back and paint it. dont forget the clear coat - but only if you are happy with the way the car looks.
but my advice is wait on painting until all the real work is done - paint it last.

 

with any paint job original color is always better . looks much better & less work on jams etc. . good luck .

 

I'm not doing much of the work, the guy that's painting it has been doing body work for 28 years so he knows his stuff, I'm going to watch him do some of it though because I'd like to learn.

I'm leaning towards keeping it original, especially since I have the original window sticker and it clearly specifies "U74 Flame Red Met", I think I would kick myself later if I didn't. I'm am going to shop around tomorrow to see if I can get a better deal on the paint though. He told me he doesn't like to use DuPont paint because it doesn't spray well, so the only other choices are Sherwin Williams and PPG, both of which are expensive.

Frickin' economy has me afraid to spend too much right now.

(here's a picof the car, I have a new spoiler ordered from Hawks)

 

Wow.. I saw this and said "I should tell them how much my original colour was just for paint"... Ironically enough... It's the same damn colour.

The paint, cheap junk, was $180 a quart.. I would need 2 coats to cover the primer, and another to even it out... So it would've been around a gallon... Which was close to $700...... Just for paint!!! I still needed clearcoat, and the other fun stuff!

I went with a 44490 Pepper grey metallic, and I liked it better.. Cost me $300 with the booth to paint my car... Gratuitous car pic...

EDIT : DuPont is a really nice paint, PPG is good too... I found sherwin williams too thin... Now if you could get ahold of some RM paint (Restoration Masters) Which is pretty much BASF paint, you'd be good.

 

Find out if you can get any Nason paint. It's made by DuPont and actually lays pretty good. I used Nason primer but DuPont color on my engine compartment.

The DuPont version of my paint is $220 a quart, the Nason brand is $130 a quart.

 

Hmm, maybe his quote wasn't so bad then?

Here's what his list said...

>DELTRON 2000 (DBC) 73263 Prime (FLAME RED POLY) 64.2oz - $238.68
>DT885 Warm Temperature 64.0oz - $37.61

>DCU2021 High Solids Poly. Clear 76.0oz - $138.86
>DT885 Warm Temperature 19.0oz - $11.17
>DCX61 High Solids Hardener 19.0oz - $81.47

>DP50LF Non Sanding Epoxy Primer Light Gray 17.1oz - $25.99
>DT885 Warm Temperature 4.3oz - $2.52
>DP402LF Epoxy Primer Catalyst 8.6oz - $14.92

>Misc Non-Sprayable items, ie sandpaper,tape,etc - $165.37

TOTAL = $716.59

Of coarse this gets marked up 25% at the shop he works at so it comes to a grand total of $895.73

 

why not go buy the paint yourself?

 

I'd say stick with the original color. It might be one thing if you hated the original color, but you seem to not mind it, and you won't have access to every single place the car was painted red.

I know money is tight, but is a few hundred bucks really worth changing the car's color, only to kick yourself later over it? You've done a ton of work on the car I'm sure, paint it the color you really feel it should be, you'll be happier with it.

 

Went to the PPG store this morning, and yes, the cost was considerably cheaper. I see now that PPG has a less expensive 'ShopLine' brand in addition to the expensive 'Deltron' brand. I'm thinking right now that I may use the Shopline for epoxy and base, and then use Deltron for the clear. I'm a little scared the cheaper clear may not have UV protection. I'm going to talk to my paint guy tonight and see what he says. That $900 estimate is now down in the $500's so that's a lot better.

 

Yeah I'm going to keep it the same color now that I see I can get the paint cheaper. I guess that $900 quote was just a shock to my system.

 

Just wanted to update, I ended up buying the Dimension base and Finish1 clear from Sherwin Williams in the original 74U 'flame red metallic'. It was their "value line" and they we're running a package sale but hopefully it'll last awhile as long as I wax it two or three times a year. The 2K primer, base, clear, and numerous supplies totaled about $400. My painter sprayed the underside of the hood and the inside of the fenders yesterday, I'll post pictures as it comes along. My new spoiler from Hawks won't be here until mid-August. I'm finally getting excited about this car after seeing it look like crap for the year that I've had it, lol.

Oh yeah, I brought home the long metal piece that runs along the front between the headlights (hood bumpers connect to it). I painted it with some gloss black 'Rustoleum Automotive Finish', and I can say that is the best spray paint I have ever used.

 

please do keep me posted in your car's painting progress as i too am in the process of restoring my ride as well! I also do own a flame red metallica GTA only mine is a 89....i'm slowly purchasing the restoration parts i need to get it ready for paint...

let me know about the rear spoiler as i too am going to need one and want to know about the fitment and design when it's mounted on the car.
I keep hearing good reviews and bad reviews about aftermarket spoilers...(did you purchase the oe design type?)

I'm pretty clueless about paint in general and can only understand it to a point. However it doesn't stop me from wanting to get ideas on what to get and how to get it. Good luck and keep us updated!

 

Will do. My painter is working on mine on the weekends, so it's going slower than it would at a shop. For the spoiler, I'm going with the fiberglass oe style one from Hawks.

Not sure of you seen this thread, but it's inspirational.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...aint-body.html

 

Thanks for making that reference 80schild! I was just getting ready to go look it up. I read that thread too, and remembered my first 3gen Camaro, a flame red 1990 IROC-Z

I went thru this dilemma a few years back with a Grand Prix I had. I was thinking about getting it painted a different color. Got a few (disappointing) quotes... finally one body shop manager said in most cases, folks are better off just buying another car of the color they want instead of doing a color change on the first one. Door jambs (I know you have a special situation, due to the new hood and all, but still), trim, odd little spots like the nooks and crannies under the hood... it all adds up.

Soon your front bumper will be GLOWING just like this one

 

wow those pics and that thread was very inspiring! I so can't wait to do exactly the same way! Spoiler and all...I just need at least 5k to do it that way...and the collection of parts and we're all good...

again keep us updated on your ride's status...later

 

I don't remember where I saved this pic from, but this car looks AWESOME! I can only hope mine turns out this nice.