New Paint?
 

I have a 2011 Obsidian ISF. I am the only one in my city with an ISF, very few that I have seen in my province (maybe 7-10) Alberta. I love the car to death and I love the fact that I am the only owner of the car and most likely ever will be.

I am to the end of trying to keep a black car clean. I bought it because of how amazing it looks when its clean :egads:. I love detailing a car but it is now becoming too much work. I can see every scratch and swirl in the paint and overall the paint quality seems to be much lower than I expected.

Has anyone ever painted their ISF to a new color? I know its almost unheard of, especially on such a new car, but I cant take it any longer... I was thinking I would do it over the winter when I cant drive it anyways, they can take the car away for a long time, take the engine out, do everything right and pay a lot of money for it.

I know that I will most likely go to Gun Metal Grey or even a lighter Silver so that it is super easy to keep clean and not notice any scratches or swirls...


Thoughts, Questions or Concerns?????

I would rather wrap the car so if you wanted to you can take it off and go back to black also if you ever end up selling the car respray might hurt the resale value. Wrapping the car will also be cheaper than a whole car respray.

Painting is a bad idea with re-sale value. Get it vinyl wrapped for $2k or so, at least that is price here in the states. Why didn't u just buy a silver or grey F to begin with?

I didn't buy a silver one because I wanted black at the time as I stated in my OP. It was a terrible decision obviously.

Honestly, I'm not too worried about resale value, I don't plan on selling the car, it only has 12,000km on it or about 7000 miles since I bought it.

I have never heard of vinyl wrapping at all??? No clue what it means to do that? Everything costs double for something like that here in Canada for some reason, it will probably cost 4k for vinyl here.

Does it wreck the original paint? How does it work? Can I choose any color? How long does it last? Does it cover the car perfectly, like you cant notice my black paint underneath?

Thanks tips. I read that already, didn't help with my questions though...

I was right when I assumed that the cost would be upwards of 4k. I looked up some vinyl forums for Calgary and saw that people are getting quoted anywhere between 4-5k for the wrap.

There was quite a few posts about it peeling or coming off? It better have warranty for that...

I wrapped my car myself for just the cost of vinyl which was $500. It won't peel paint off or fall off if you don't cheap out on vinyl. 3M 1080 (my personal favorite), Hexis and Avery Supreme have a vertical application lifespan of 8-10 years and horizontal application lifespan of 6-8 years.

What does it do to the original paint? Can you notice the original color underneath? When you open the doors, the inside of the doors will be black?

So 6-8 years for vinyl at probably around $5000 or the lifespan of the car with a new paint job for about $10,000?

It doesn't do anything to the original paint. You would need to wrap whatever you don't want to see.

Most people don't keep their cars for 6-8 years. Plus if you get tired of the color you can change it or go back to the original color. You wrap it yourself and get it done with a budget of $550.

Why don't you just trade it for the color you want? Dealer or private owner willing to swap with you.

Yes the inside of the doors will still remain the original color. But who cares, its not like you stare at the inner panels.
A good quality wrap in Canada is about 2 - 2.5 K..even with the highest quality of vinyl. Run away from anyone quoting you more and it will take less than a week to install.

LOLM3 just did a beautiful job on his car himself, but time and effort passed onto others will cost you more.

The wrap is removable, and does nothing to your paint.....but if your going to the effort or wrapping it why would you want to remove it. The only reason you would remove it, would be if it was a lease. Just be aware that the extreme cold you have in Alberta may be a factor over time.
You also have a lot of rocks and sand as you do not use salt. It will still damage in a similar way paint does when hit by rocks and grit.



Digger08

IMO, you'd be far better off selling the car and buying a different color. A complete color change (engine bay, inside doors, etc) from a good shop is going to be at least $8k and probably a lot more.

Wow! Great post digger08! That's the kind of information that I was looking for. And you know about alberta and quoted our rocks and weather. Thats great! The car us garage kept from oct until may so extreme cold is not an issue. Only time it feels cold is when the garage door opens. I will look into vinyl for sure now and find a place for 2-2.5k price range.

I would get raped on the price if I trade it in just to get the color I want. Ya I would go up to a 2014 but it would cost me another 20k minimum. I only have 7k miles on the car, its not worth it.