Uh oh... paint job's going south. What now?

[ryu_haneda]

Hey all...

The past winter, spring, and summer months have not been good on my gt sedan. I can live with swirlies on the paint, but there are sections (like my front lip, and spots on the rest of the car) where the paint has chipped off, or has been chemically damaged or scratched up.

It would be a safe bet to say that none of the areas are particularly huge. I just know I don't have a lot of money right now and would like to leave the car well enough alone (since I am not a mechanic or car painter by any means). My previous "paint-my-car" thread was basically pie-in-the-sky stuff, as I still have not painted it yet.

Any suggestions on cheap band aids for the moment (like rock blockers, touch up paint kits, or the like)? I would like to put a lid on these problems before they become big ones and cost me BIG time. (I don't have enough for a paint job - not unless it's an absolute necessity.) Laugh all you want, but I will start at Wal-Mart and work my way up as necessary.

September's here, and I'd probably estimate that the first snow will probably be in Pennsylvania sometime in December this year (I'm not clairvoyant, I'm just throwing mental darts :grin:). What have some of you tried that has worked on the cheap? If I can justify the expense, I will be content with any method - even if it doesn't look good - as long as I can stave off rust (and I already have some, so I'd better move), ultimately find a more financially stable time to repaint it, and - even better - not go into debt doing it.

[Huffer]

My tip for you is to leave the paint as is - wash it with fresh water as much as possible this winter, and every chance you get hit it with wax.

Next spring/summer, get a fresh paint job if you can afford it.

[ryu_haneda]

Thank you, I think that's exactly what I'm going to do.

I guess question number 2 is, how much does a typical paint job cost? It's common sense that it will cost less to keep the color the same (and I certainly don't mind green). I'm not going to pour money into the car since it will eventually be gone anyway in favor of a car down the road for my wife.

...although, ever since I decided to do a money makeover with my budget, I'm not going to buy a new car... it may actually be feasible to make the car have a cool paint job (don't worry, no house of kolors paint here), because I will own it for a whiiiile. Hmmm. Yellow again? :grin:

[deadlydave]

Are you keeping your side skirts/front lip/rear skirt black?

If so, and you're pissed because they're all scratched, just give them a light sanding and sprey them with a few coats of spray-can Plasti-dip, $5 a can at Home Depot. Worked great on the rear skirt I sprayed, made it black again! Don't even need to use primer.

[ryu_haneda]

Hmmm... interesting! Although I was thinking about body-coloring the skirts on the car to match the paint.

There's basically two ways I'm doing this:

1. Keep the car green. Paint the skirts to match, and paint my rims green as well.

2. Go with a different color, keep the skirts black and restore them (like you said or another way), spray the rims black.

(Sheesh, the color thread is coming back to life!)

[Huffer]

Stock color paint job from a decent painter is still going to be in the realm of $1100 to $1500 - the stock green has a metallic flake base (or pearl, I think).

You could go to Maaco and get a $299 paint job, but you'd then be paying for it again in a year or two.

A decent paint job will actually help to stave off depreciation on the vehicle - if the car looks stock, and doesn't have too many miles on it, it could still sell ok.

[ryu_haneda]

I am curious. You said stock color. Did you mean stock color as in "not fancy but basic car colors", or stock as in "stock subaru colors"? Because if stock Subaru colors are up for grabs, then theoretically speaking, I could pick an often-used cheap Subaru color paint and go from there.

On the other hand, if stock means not too complicated and relatively inexpensive, then I imagine I could get a good blue, black, green, or gold/yellow paint job. (I wouldn't pay $299 for a Maaco paint job... I would hope they would have a more detailed service process for painting a car)

I know I want a cool-looking car, but I'm not going to blow a whole lot of money on a paint job either. As long as it's quality, I'll learn to be happy with a decent, cool looking color. (And if I stay with conservative, common colors, I don't think I'll draw attention to myself either. I kinda like blending in with traffic.)

The cool thing is that I will have all of this fall/winter/and spring to think of it if I decide to go through with it. If not, even more money in the bank.

[Huffer]

I am curious. You said stock color. Did you mean stock color as in "not fancy but basic car colors", or stock as in "stock subaru colors"? Because if stock Subaru colors are up for grabs, then theoretically speaking, I could pick an often-used cheap Subaru color paint and go from there.

Stock = Subaru factory color.
And it won't be cheap to paint match parts of the car - your car has naturally aged allover, which means new paint has to be blended to match.