Repainting

[Stephen@NCAutoUSA]

Ok ok. The time has finally come for me to maybe do my 02 conversion that I've been meaning to do for the past 8 years when I started to buy parts for it. I debated doing vinyl wrap and I bought white, I ended up selling it. I ended up buy plasti dip, then I decided against that and sold it. Now I'm debating whether to wrap it red since my car is red and I can't stand how my engine bay and door trims would be red or I want to repaint it.

My questions to you are, and I know this should probably be on an autobody forum but I know some of you have experience, is do I need to strip down to the bare aluminum.

I want to do this the right way and not the half assed way of sanding with 320 and then shooting on top of that. I really want to do a color change but pulling the engine I do not feel comfortable with.

What do you guys recommend. My roof has already been painted from black to red by one of the previous owners 15 or so years ago and it's holding up fine but I just have this issue where I think it's just better to strip everything down to the metal. Am I wrong, or is it a waste of time?

 

[cmc140]

Here’s my experience and I’m by no means an expert, but have done multiple repaints / color changes over the years. If there aren't any corrosion problems, poor previous repairs, or adhesion problems currently, it doesn’t make sense to strip an NSX to bare metal color change or no color change. From what I’ve seen most cars taken to bare metal are done so to discover prior damage and because the cars require a fair amount of metal work anyway. The factory did a superb job of preparing the aluminum for adhesion. I’m not an expert and this could be untrue, but I believe that this process is more difficult than getting paint to adhere to a quality previous paint job.

A few things that come to mind in answering your question are:
1. Mr. Pbjasso? is an incredibly nice guy and will give you guidance. I’m sure you know, as he’s been the resident expert here forever.
2. If you are told by a shop that stripping it is required for a quality paint job, get another opinion and stop by and have a look at my car.
3. I’m not sure how you would go about taking an NSX to metal without full disassembly, but I suppose it’s possible.

Now you can skip this part if you like because I’m going to blabber a bunch of useless advice to you from things I’ve learned over the years. I’m gonna be all over the place because I generally am. Growing up every car my father and I “restored” we color changed without even giving it a second thought. That’s how I was raised because the old man never gave a ratz azz about originality; which I find to be admirable on a higher level the older I get. This thread brought back a lot of great memories of all of those cars we color changed. Let me tell you, we were damn proud of every one we did, people always complimented them, and every one has been sold over the years without losing money...with the possible exception of my 91 NSX, but that one was probably a break even.

I’m guessing you don’t like red? I say this only because I hate red, but I like good deals more than color and damn near every car I’ve purchased over the years has been red. Seriously, I’ve had 4 red NSXs and my father’s is red, ridiculous! Anyhow, I’ve done the color change and 02 conversion thing and was incredibly happy with it. It took a ton of time and a lot of money, but my old red to silver NSX is still the best looking NSX there is to me. I’ve really got no regrets about doing it. With that said, I don’t think I’d be willing to do a color change on an NSX other than a black one or consider doing an 02 conversion if it wasn’t going to be a high quality NA2 NSX-R tribute, because of the heaps of TIME, MONEY, and EFFORT required for a high quality end result. Well, unless someone else was paying me to do it and I could be a grumpy old garage troll for the rest of my life.

These are three options I’ve made up for you, even though I don’t know you, nor did you ask. I’m in no way trying to sway you one way or the other, but the tone of your post makes me think you’ve no yet really decided what you want to do.
1. If you’re going to throw money at it, do exactly what you want to do, with absolutely no compromises. This is the most expensive option, but this is really what you want and anything less you’ll never be satisfied with.

2. Do the 02 conversion and do the wrap. You can’t see the door jambs and engine bay while your driving it or even looking at it. I mean I guess if you run over a squirrel they’ll see the red bottom if they haven’t been decapitated by the front lip. Do you take it to shows? If you do don’t open the engine compartment or embrace the red. Carbon6 guy has his red wrapped white (I believe) and it looks insanely awesome. If you aren’t taking it to judged corn cobb up the arse concours events, who cares? Plus, if you want you can de-02 it, return it to stock, and sell the 02 parts; should you ever want to sell the car. Easy peasy, very little money lost with the only difference being you have a red engine bay and front compartment. Heck the door jambs probably can be wrapped.

3. Leave it alone and figure out how to be satisfied with it or cut the cord and sell it because no matter what you do, you won’t be satisfied with it. If you’ve been sitting on the 02 conversion parts for 8 years I can’t imagine they really excite you. Sell them for more than you paid for them 8 years ago and go make it rain at the bare body club… :smile: See what I did there?

If you made it through this hot mess of a post……sorry or you’re welcome. If I were you I’d go with number 2, then roll with it for a few years and if you fall in love with it make arrangements for number 1, sometime in the future. I’d also be willing to bet you never feel it’s worth it for number 1. I’d also bet repainting red is not ever going to be what you want, 02 or no 02 conversion. BTW these are all beer bet to be paid out in my garage.

 

[Stephen@NCAutoUSA]

Here’s my experience and I’m by no means an expert, but have done multiple repaints / color changes over the years. If there aren't any corrosion problems, poor previous repairs, or adhesion problems currently, it doesn’t make sense to strip an NSX to bare metal color change or no color change. From what I’ve seen most cars taken to bare metal are done so to discover prior damage and because the cars require a fair amount of metal work anyway. The factory did a superb job of preparing the aluminum for adhesion. I’m not an expert and this could be untrue, but I believe that this process is more difficult than getting paint to adhere to a quality previous paint job.

A few things that come to mind in answering your question are:
1. Mr. Pbjasso? is an incredibly nice guy and will give you guidance. I’m sure you know, as he’s been the resident expert here forever.
2. If you are told by a shop that stripping it is required for a quality paint job, get another opinion and stop by and have a look at my car.
3. I’m not sure how you would go about taking an NSX to metal without full disassembly, but I suppose it’s possible.

Now you can skip this part if you like because I’m going to blabber a bunch of useless advice to you from things I’ve learned over the years. I’m gonna be all over the place because I generally am. Growing up every car my father and I “restored” we color changed without even giving it a second thought. That’s how I was raised because the old man never gave a ratz azz about originality; which I find to be admirable on a higher level the older I get. This thread brought back a lot of great memories of all of those cars we color changed. Let me tell you, we were damn proud of every one we did, people always complimented them, and every one has been sold over the years without losing money...with the possible exception of my 91 NSX, but that one was probably a break even.

I’m guessing you don’t like red? I say this only because I hate red, but I like good deals more than color and damn near every car I’ve purchased over the years has been red. Seriously, I’ve had 4 red NSXs and my father’s is red, ridiculous! Anyhow, I’ve done the color change and 02 conversion thing and was incredibly happy with it. It took a ton of time and a lot of money, but my old red to silver NSX is still the best looking NSX there is to me. I’ve really got no regrets about doing it. With that said, I don’t think I’d be willing to do a color change on an NSX other than a black one or consider doing an 02 conversion if it wasn’t going to be a high quality NA2 NSX-R tribute, because of the heaps of TIME, MONEY, and EFFORT required for a high quality end result. Well, unless someone else was paying me to do it and I could be a grumpy old garage troll for the rest of my life.

These are three options I’ve made up for you, even though I don’t know you, nor did you ask. I’m in no way trying to sway you one way or the other, but the tone of your post makes me think you’ve no yet really decided what you want to do.
1. If you’re going to throw money at it, do exactly what you want to do, with absolutely no compromises. This is the most expensive option, but this is really what you want and anything less you’ll never be satisfied with.

2. Do the 02 conversion and do the wrap. You can’t see the door jambs and engine bay while your driving it or even looking at it. I mean I guess if you run over a squirrel they’ll see the red bottom if they haven’t been decapitated by the front lip. Do you take it to shows? If you do don’t open the engine compartment or embrace the red. Carbon6 guy has his red wrapped white (I believe) and it looks insanely awesome. If you aren’t taking it to judged corn cobb up the arse concours events, who cares? Plus, if you want you can de-02 it, return it to stock, and sell the 02 parts; should you ever want to sell the car. Easy peasy, very little money lost with the only difference being you have a red engine bay and front compartment. Heck the door jambs probably can be wrapped.

3. Leave it alone and figure out how to be satisfied with it or cut the cord and sell it because no matter what you do, you won’t be satisfied with it. If you’ve been sitting on the 02 conversion parts for 8 years I can’t imagine they really excite you. Sell them for more than you paid for them 8 years ago and go make it rain at the bare body club… :smile: See what I did there?

If you made it through this hot mess of a post……sorry or you’re welcome. If I were you I’d go with number 2, then roll with it for a few years and if you fall in love with it make arrangements for number 1, sometime in the future. I’d also be willing to bet you never feel it’s worth it for number 1. I’d also bet repainting red is not ever going to be what you want, 02 or no 02 conversion. BTW these are all beer bet to be paid out in my garage.

I think I'm going to go with option 1. I want to do it right. I don't mind stripping the paint for the panels myself and dropping them off at a shop to do the work that takes skill.

I think that may be an option. I can strip the trunk lid, side rear quarter panels, rear bumper, front fenders, and doors and also roof area.

All the other items will already be stripped like side skirts, bumper, rear diffuser and hood.

I don't hate red I just am tired of it. I've had red for the past 10 years. I get bored of things easy.

 

[Lamchop168]

Steve,

Before you make any decision, ask Pbassjo first. I personally would not do any of this until I get a second opinion from Joe. He did my respray (LBBP), really difficult to match and took him a while but it came out perfect!

Frankie

 

[Stephen@NCAutoUSA]

Ok. Yeah maybe I'll call him up. I know Joe at Vince's auto does the best paint work in the country for our cars. I spoke with him right before I moved to New Orleans about maybe getting work done too. It just sucks because he's so far away now!

 

[cmc140]

Another option.
Buy a black car, swap your mods, then do the paint however you want. As long as a black engine bay and front compartment don't bother you it'd be a lot easier, cheaper, and faster.
Then sell the red car as a stock example.
Color changing any color other than black is a ton of work and if you want to strip everything along the way I can't even image how long it will take and or how much money it will cost.

Stripping is not fun work. There are places where you can get parts dipped which would be easier if you're hell bent on that. However, you're looking a a complete disassembly to do the chassis and that's the only area I could possibly see stripping being of any value. If you're not doing the disassembly reassembly yourself it's going to cost even more money. You'll also need a ton of space for parts and a trailer to haul parts to different places.

If it doesn't need a paint job, which I think I've seen pics and it's a nice car, I'd wrap it. Cheap, easy, reversible, and when your bored again you can decide what you want to do.

I'll be curious to hear what you learn along the way. For a reference the painter of my 98 coupe charges $65 an hour. I'd estimate that I'm somewhere in the 8k to 10k range and that's just for a same color half assed sand and shoot.:smile:disassembly / reassembly and painting of the bottom and wheel wells performed by yours truely. Oh for the record. I don't think a sand and paint is half assed. Then again it'd be calling every car I've ever done half assed. I can tell you I've never had anyone call one of my cars half assed, not to my face anyway and I'm not very intimidating.

 

[7tcatvert]

If get bored with colors, just wrap it. The cost to do a color change right is very expensive. Think of all the tight spaces in the car. Engine removal and most of all time, guaranteed it will be over a year before it gets done. With a wrap 1/3 of the cost and when driving will look great. As far as the jambs and engine bay you could always plasti dip those to come close to matching if you wanted.

I am am lucky my car is black but if I were to color change I would wrap it. Good luck with what ever you decide. One last piece of advice. If you decide to paint make sure to get everything in detailed writing with a timeline. Nothing worse than body shop jail...

 

[LJSB]

Aluminum begins to corrode the moment it hits the air. It is something one must be acutely aware of when doing repairs.
Taking the car down to bare metal is not something I would advise. I would keep the factory primer substrates if at all possible.