[downwind4final]

I love everything about my new Si except the paint. I'm kind of OCD about paint, of which the Civic is severly lacking. Since I chose an Si, I spent way under my car budget and have some room to spend on it without feeling guilty. I'm thinking of a repaint instead of wheels and bolt-ons since I'm pretty happy with it stock. I saw an 07 Mustang GT BASF show car at a show last winter that had a red satin paint job and it looked sweet.
Similar to this texture:

I'm thinking of maybe a satin job in a shade of blue or maybe even satin white. Except for the $199 Maaco job on my old track car I have never had a car painted. The Civic seems like a fairly easy car to mask and since its new, there would be minimal prep. I'd do the door jams and all the sills but leave the engine bay alone. What do you think?

 

[NIGHTHAWKSI]

if you like the factory color of your car, you can just get a coat of clear or two to go over the factory paint. it should make it much more thick and durable. alos much cheaper than a complete color change and repaint.

 

[tite681]

if you like the factory color of your car, you can just get a coat of clear or two to go over the factory paint. it should make it much more thick and durable. alos much cheaper than a complete color change and repaint.

How much?

 

[NIGHTHAWKSI]

how much what? is a full paint? or clear?

either one i dont know exactly, but i would expect if you just get the clear sprayed it is at least 1/2 the price of the full paint/color change.

 

[tite681]

Clearcoat for half the price of a full paint job doesn't sound to shabby.

 

[k20z_tuner]

I've done body work since I was a little kid with my dad. If you've never painted before, let the professionals do it... and Maaco are not professionals, we paint in booths for a reason, humidity control, air quality... but beyond that stripping, bedding, masking, priming all of these things take lots of time and lots of expertise. If you really want to change the color let some one whose done it before do it... and for the sake of god, get a rent car while you do this, nothing pissed me off more than priming a car them taking it for week, and getting it back dent so now i have to bondo the car, and reprime it just retracing what was already done. Think about everything that can happen first. Then decide. But like Nighthawksi said... if you don't mind the factory color take it to a pro, and let them put a few more clears, much easier than stripping the whole care bare.

 

[RaskyR1]

Masking off FTL!

If you are doing a color change and want it done right that means removing door handles, lights, emblems, bumper covers, ect...if you mask things off it looks like crap and will only kill your resale value.

I say do it right or don't do it at all.

Just my $.02

 

[k20z_tuner]

oh and a clear is still up there, similar prep, just no stripping and priming.

 

[RaskyR1]

Here is one of two cars I've done a color change on...

My '86 Monte SS which was black and repainted to GM Raspberry. I removed everything on this car!!! It really didn't take that long....a day to disassemble and 2 days to put it back together. :biggrin:

 

[sikaren07]

The SS looks awesome, liking the GM Raspberry

 

[downwind4final]

I'd do the clear maybe but I have dust specs in the actual paint. I think the stock paint is too thin to wet sand something like this down ad wet sand ?? This speck is ~2/10" wide

 

[CUPRA]

Also - if you wanted to change the color of the car at all... you could add a contrasting flake to the clear, so say you have a blue car right now, add some green flakes to the clear and get you a psudeo flip paint effect... '

Just a thought.

 

[RaskyR1]

The SS looks awesome, liking the GM Raspberry

Thanks! I had it pictured in Car Craft Magazine Dec of 1998.

 

[rmfa]

Also - if you wanted to change the color of the car at all... you could add a contrasting flake to the clear, so say you have a blue car right now, add some green flakes to the clear and get you a psudeo flip paint effect... '

Just a thought.

Yea, that was cool back in the 90's. Didn't Master P have a car like that? :iorun:

 

[fl07si]

does anyone know what a decent price on a few layers of clear would be? i have a 07 si-dan in galaxy grey, there seems to be hardly any clear coat. the paint feels rough, i washed and waxed it today hoping it would help, but it did not. any clues?

 

[shingles]

I hate to break it to you, but "thin paint" isn't just a honda "problem... it's pretty common these days. The other issue to consider is the civic hood line is lower than a lot of cars... that's bad news... clear bra is your friend.

Lastly, you live Texas... no hope my friend... I know, I live in texas as well... it's crazy with this road debris, but I can be driving down the road, with no one in sight for aleast 1 mile in front of me... and I hear a rock hit my windshield... those are "wtf" moments for me.

 

[07mugencivic]

yea the paint sux.........

 

[mijc13]

does anyone know what a decent price on a few layers of clear would be? i have a 07 si-dan in galaxy grey, there seems to be hardly any clear coat. the paint feels rough, i washed and waxed it today hoping it would help, but it did not. any clues?

Yeah I was wondering that too... anyone done this before that could give a quote/idea?

 

[downwind4final]

I called a couple local places for a ballpark phone estimate for a clear coat. They ranged from $1200-2000.

 

[mijc13]

I called a couple local places for a ballpark phone estimate for a clear coat. They ranged from $1200-2000.

thanks for the info! A bit more than I can spend right now...