To Spray or to Wrap? Your Opinions Please!

[triang]

Hi all,

got a 2003 Porsche Boxter S in black...in good nick but...

It had a small collision in a car park about 7 years ago and the previous owner had both front and rear driveres side wings replaced..

So far so good but the nominated spray painters were obviuosly cowboys as after 3 years the paint began to craze and now both wings .

So I have been quoted £800-£950 for a respray.

However I'm not a big lover of black - would prefer the very rare Forest Green Metallic...so should I have a total respray fro approx £2,500?

Or

How about a total vinyl wrap in Forest Green??? Price = ????

Decisions!

Anybody care to share their general view?

Thanks!

[blademansw]

Get the bad paint resprayed. Then wrap it in the colour of your choosing.

[Shnozz]

I should imagine the wrap would be close on £2k. I priced up wrap v respray on an Exige a few years ago and there isn't much in it - to be fair there isn't much reason why there should be either when you look at the labour involved between the two and the material costs are negligible in either case.

If you do have the black resprayed and then wrap it you will need to allow for the new paint to cure before the wrap.

[triang]

Ah never thought of having a respray first before wrap.

Is that becasue the wrap will look carp if it's put over crazed and bumpy paint?

[mk4gtiturbo]

Check with your insurers. I changed my Octavia vRS for an Audi S4 last month and I can do any modifications I like to it (subject to additional premium) except wrapping or Rollcage.

[triang]

mk4gtiturbo said:

Check with your insurers. I changed my Octavia vRS for an Audi S4 last month and I can do any modifications I like to it (subject to additional premium) except wrapping or Rollcage.

Wow never knew that - thanks

Thanks all for your replies.

I have been pricing spray/wrap and found out

a) The crazed wings will need treatment before they can be wrapped anyway (as someone pointed out above - thanks)
b) Wrap will actually cost a lot more due to thea materials...

So the only advantage to wrap I can see is you can strip it off if I sell the car and the buyer wants black...but the paint underneath will still be the original old paint job.

Also I have contacted a garage on recommendation of a mate and they seem very reasonable....so respray it is - hopefully the Porsche green colour thats dark enough I might get awy witout painting the door jams>>> Result

[300bhp/ton]

I think wrapping sounds good in practice. But it seems to cost a LOT.

And any wrap can look tatty quickly if it starts to lift or peel. In which case you would probably end up spending more for a reputable place to wrap it, should or when these problems present themselves.

There is also no guarantee that removing the wrap will not harm the old paintwork. Mostly it doesn't, but it could.

I think the biggest benefit of wrapping is sign writing/commercial vehicles.

The next biggest is the choice of colours and finishes. You can get some very striking wraps with a very shiny finish that you can't normally get with paint.

I think you'd also want to keep a wrapped car in a garage and possibly only use in certain weather conditions. Paint is likely to be more rugged.

[Shnozz]

You also have to avoid a jet spray too. I appreciate many PH'ers hand wash their cars but some of us don't.

[SydneySE]

I've got my murcielago wrapped. Its been about 7 years (2nd wrap) and I'll be re-wrapping a 3rd time before next summer for a change of colour again.

The wrap has many advantages:
-self healing to an extent
-more resilient to scratches
-protects paint underneath from stone chips etc
-easy to change/repair a section
-you can wax it or coat it with nano/silicon sealant for shine, same as paint.

I'm currently having my DB9 resprayed (original black) as it was damaged by someone hitting it (bumper/wing); after the paint cures (6-8 weeks) I'll be wrapping it a metallic red for a change.

A good wrap on a large car, including door jambs, will run you about £2K, but I can't imagine a full respray of a car, even a Boxster, costing £2.5K being of any decent quality... my lotus exige cost more to respray (original colour). for that price, they are unlikely to remove your windscreen etc, you're likely to see the colour change in the returns.. but then you did say you thought you'd get away without respraying the door jambs when changing from black to green (even very dark green), so that makes me think you're really not concerned about the quality of the job....

to be fair its a tough call, if its a 986 boxter, the work you're talking about is about half the value of the car.... so probably not worth a better job.... you can always try to wrap yourself.... plenty of youtube videos..