I'm trying to convince myself to paint my car.....if i ever get ahead of all the typical wear items all wearing out at the same time.... Car is currently the mid-dark maroon color. I'd like either a blue (similar to the bar above, maybe darker, like the GM Indigo), or a DECENT muscadine purple, or something slightly off white, not really sure what color. Problem is getting the WHOLE car painted. I don't want to do a frame-off part for part paint job. It's my daily flying brick, and at 75 miles a day, I can't afford to drive our old ford pick-um-up. Ideas?? Color suggestions?
If you want to paint the WHOLE car and have someone do it for you, be prepared to spend well over what the car's worth for a quality paint job. A paint job on the whole thing (frame and everything) will eeeeeeeeeeasily cost you 2-4 grand, possibly more. But, I have to say, I've never seen a metallic silver E30...
No such thing as "frame off" on monocoque cars. Best you can do is to remove the engine, doors, hood and front fenders and "jamb" the car (make sure the door jambs match the exterior.) This is very very expensive unless you bring an empty body shell to the painter. I am a mechanic, and will only do this if I am restoring the car. If I were restoring the car, I would never change color.
Well, do you plan on selling the car? My car was repainted over a year ago and it's not the original color. It's close, but it's not the same. Almost all of the outside looks like it's the original color because the guy did a decent job. The only part that wasn't painted was the immediate area under the front diving boards, which is still the faded Zinnoberrot that the car once was. If you are not going to sell it, you could just have the outside painted and it will suffice.
Having gone through this more than once, my suggestion is, unless you plan to make a major investment and (like mooseheadm5 said) bring in a stripped shell...then keep it the same color! You will be much happier with a really nice original looking paint job where all the door sills, underhood area and trunk area match perfectly as opposed to a great looking exterior color that doesn't match the other areas.
I actually really like the maroon color. Pretty rare color for E30s, actually. I have one that I will be putting on the road soon, so I may be biased.
I am currently thinking about repainting mine aswell but i rather keep mine the original color. if anyone is going to the National chapter get together this week look over my car and give me some advice.The real question is where to get it done at in the Gaithersburg MD area.
