colour change

[gko88]

5 year old 599 in argento nurburgring (silver). Thinking of respraying it to blu mediterraneo which I think looks stunning. Do you think come resale time there'd be a big problem with the fact that colour had been changed? Nothing really wrong with the paintwork bar the usual wear and tear accumulated over 5 years, and not really interested in doing a wrap, as I don't think it looks that good up close.

[UH-Matt]

For me I would not buy a car that had been resprayed, regardless of reason.

[964Cup]

Comprehensive photo record of the respray (to show that it is not to hide accident damage) and I don't see a problem. After all, it would seem that half the Carrera GTs in the UK have had a colour change, and that's a lot more value to diminish than a 599.

[-DeaDLocK-]

It's funny - here in Asia and the Middle East, resprays are common as muck, and if changed to a nice colour from a drab one, significantly immproves the value and saleability of a car. Everyone does it, so people here are just not bothered by resprays (and neither are they anywhere near as mileage sensitive as you folks either).

[Tuvra]

Make sure the silver is mint underneath and then wrap it?

That way you could have the car colored the way you want, then changed back to the original (mint) paintwork come sale time.

[911Thrasher]

I would wrap the roof in matt black, add a yellow stripe on the front as per "ecurie francorchamps" racing colors and get the wheels done in a much darker tint (almost black but not black)...and there you go: almost new car

[TISPKJ]

I think it depends very much on who does the wrap but that would be the route I would take for any resale purpose.
You can wrap in any colour you like totally OTT or plain and simple, could probably match that blue colour you mention.
I have a pal who has to have everthing perfect on his cars and has wrapped many of his, I can ask who he used or recommends if you like.

[JazzyO]

For me, a respray can be serious improvement. Ferrari's original paint sucks. I've even considered ordering my 458 in plain vanilla and immediately respraying it on delivery, only deciding against it because of cost. I am not the only one who thinks like this, so a respray should not necessarily hurt your resale.

But there are a couple of caveats.

1. It needs to be done properly. Since it is a colour change you cannot just remove windows and seals, you need to do a full bare metal. But even if you do only windows and seals out, there can be issues. I don't know about the 599 but the 550 and 575's rear window is impossible to get out in 1 piece as it is under tension. A new window is 4k.
2. You need to get a decent specialist in. Get the car hand prepared, no machine sanding. The result will be worth it.

I would budget 25 - 30k for the work. Question is, when the car is in bits, do have anything else done? Will your interior match the new colour, and is the leather still good enough? The engine is out, why not do a major service and check the transmission while you're at it. Before you know it, this becomes a serious project.

But for a car thusly resprayed, I'd be willing to pay a premium over an all-original.


Onno

[cc8s]

I would go for something like this - matte black roof and HGTE kit - totally changes the look of the car.

[E30M3SE]

JazzyO said:

Ferrari's original paint sucks.

For what reason, too much peel, variation in colour/shade, too thin/depth of finish, contamination?

[Streetrod]

E30M3SE said:

JazzyO said:

Ferrari's original paint sucks.

For what reason, too much peel, variation in colour/shade, too thin/depth of finish, contamination?

I agree with most of what Jazzy says. The standard paint jobs on both modern Ferrari’s and Lambo’s do not stand up to close scrutiny. The cars are currently spayed by robots who with the best programming in the world cannot match the quality of a hand sprayed finish. Last year I looked at a new 458 that was for sale at Meridian and was frankly shocked at some of the errors in the paint work. I spotted four occurrences of dust contamination in the bonnet alone that somehow the quality control guys had missed. Even a young female passer by pointed them out to her husband.

And I have seen similar issues on a number of cars in the past. You would be surprised by how much work certain detailers get on brand new Ferrari's and Lambo's correcting faults not picked up by the factories.

A good body shop of which I know a couple can produce results far better than the current factory standards, but as Jazzy said it will cost you as re-spraying a car is massively labour intensive. Don’t expect much less than 400-500 hours labour at £50-£55 per hour for a top notch job.

Will a standard Ferrari benefit on resale from such a job, very unlikely but a classic Ferrari most certainly would as the standards expected are a lot higher and the customer base is more discerning

I know wraps have gained a lot of popularity of late but I have yet to see one, and I have seen a lot, that does not look a little cheap and low rent as soon as you get within ten feet of the car. The technology just does not exist at the moment for a wrap to compete with a decent spray job

Edited by Streetrod on Wednesday 25th January 12:01

[iandc]

cc8s said:

I would go for something like this - matte black roof and HGTE kit - totally changes the look of the car.

That looks stunning!!

[kryten22uk]

UH-Matt said:

For me I would not buy a car that had been resprayed, regardless of reason.

Why not?
I think with most people it's largely psychological. Many cars have been resprayed in part or in total, but usually the same colour.

I have to say that I would actively desire a car that has been resprayed in the original colour, but for reasons I can't explain, I would avoid one that has undergone the same process for a new colour. Weird.

[Koing]

Streetrod said:

I agree with most of what Jazzy says. The standard paint jobs on both modern Ferrari’s and Lambo’s do not stand up to close scrutiny. The cars are currently spayed by robots who with the best programming in the world cannot match the quality of a hand sprayed finish. Last year I looked at a new 458 that was for sale at Meridian and was frankly shocked at some of the errors in the paint work. I spotted four occurrences of dust contamination in the bonnet alone that somehow the quality control guys had missed. Even a young female passer by pointed them out to her husband.

And I have seen similar issues on a number of cars in the past. You would be surprised by how much work certain detailers get on brand new Ferrari's and Lambo's correcting faults not picked up by the factories.

A good body shop of which I know a couple can produce results far better than the current factory standards, but as Jazzy said it will cost you as re-spraying a car is massively labour intensive. Don’t expect much less than 400-500 hours labour at £50-£55 per hour for a top notch job.

Will a standard Ferrari benefit on resale from such a job, very unlikely but a classic Ferrari most certainly would as the standards expected are a lot higher and the customer base is more discerning

I know wraps have gained a lot of popularity of late but I have yet to see one, and I have seen a lot, that does not look a little cheap and low rent as soon as you get within ten feet of the car. The technology just does not exist at the moment for a wrap to compete with a decent spray job

Edited by Streetrod on Wednesday 25th January 12:01

Which other manufacturer does good paint? Just wondering. £20k and 400hrs+ is going to hammer the production line a tad...

Koing

[Streetrod]

Koing said:

Streetrod said:

I agree with most of what Jazzy says. The standard paint jobs on both modern Ferrari’s and Lambo’s do not stand up to close scrutiny. The cars are currently spayed by robots who with the best programming in the world cannot match the quality of a hand sprayed finish. Last year I looked at a new 458 that was for sale at Meridian and was frankly shocked at some of the errors in the paint work. I spotted four occurrences of dust contamination in the bonnet alone that somehow the quality control guys had missed. Even a young female passer by pointed them out to her husband.

And I have seen similar issues on a number of cars in the past. You would be surprised by how much work certain detailers get on brand new Ferrari's and Lambo's correcting faults not picked up by the factories.

A good body shop of which I know a couple can produce results far better than the current factory standards, but as Jazzy said it will cost you as re-spraying a car is massively labour intensive. Don’t expect much less than 400-500 hours labour at £50-£55 per hour for a top notch job.

Will a standard Ferrari benefit on resale from such a job, very unlikely but a classic Ferrari most certainly would as the standards expected are a lot higher and the customer base is more discerning

I know wraps have gained a lot of popularity of late but I have yet to see one, and I have seen a lot, that does not look a little cheap and low rent as soon as you get within ten feet of the car. The technology just does not exist at the moment for a wrap to compete with a decent spray job

Edited by Streetrod on Wednesday 25th January 12:01

Which other manufacturer does good paint? Just wondering. £20k and 400hrs+ is going to hammer the production line a tad...

Koing

What you have to remember is that a majority of that time is going to be spent tearing the car down, removing the current paint job and prepping the car to respray it. Then obviously you have to put it back together afterwards.

A manufacture will not have to cover most of those stages as the spray shop will receive the car in white and will just need to add colour and that will be done by a robot.

As for companies currently producing high quality paint jobs from the factory two currently stand out for me. McLaren and Bentley/Rolls Royce

[JazzyO]

E30M3SE said:

For what reason, too much peel, variation in colour/shade, too thin/depth of finish, contamination?

Combination of lack of good preparation of surface and the robotic spray painting. The effect is too much peel. But colour variations have also been seen regularly. They do resprays of part of the car when something goes wrong. The thickness of the paint is not important, just as long as it is kept very thin. Thick paint will always sag and form unevenness. Thin paint, however, shows up the surface flaws. So factories prefer thicker paint causing peel to thinner paint which requires more work.

One trick that I have learnt when I bought my 330GTC, now restored 22 years ago but still looking like new: watch the reflection of a fluorescent light and move your head slightly side to side. On 99.9% of all cars (including some high profile fresh restorations), you will see a wave effect on the fluorescent light. On a truly good car, you will not, the light is perfectly straight (except for the curvature of the panel underneath) and the reflection is almost comparable to a mirror. With hand finishing, even glassfibre cars car attain this finish, witness the reflection on my TVR Griffith. In contrast, look at the reflection of the tiling on the 458, in front of the front wheel. It is all wobbly, because the paint is wobbly.

The downside to starting to see these flaws is that almost every car, and certainly every production car, looks bad once you know it.

But for cars that cost GBP200k and up, they really should try harder.


Onno

[JazzyO]

Another couple of examples of the finish on my Griffith.


Onno

[Streetrod]

Jazzy that paint looks good, who did it? Its almost as good as one of my paint jobs

[SirMark]

Lamborghini Murci are painted by hand along with Aventadors not sure about the g''s though


Nice paint job

[Guyr]

£25k for a paint-job seems excessive. One of the CGT re-sprays I know of was done by Porsche GB themselves and only cost about £10k.