have a '05 966 with artic grey metallic paint. there's a fair number of chips on the hood. the dealer has offered to repaint the hood and blend the color onto the bumpers on his nickel. the chips do bother me. should i let him repaint it? pros/cons...tks

 

I do not know why he would have to blend into the bumper (or did you mean fenders).

 

meant fenders...thoughts?

 

There is no reason that they would have to blend paint into the fenders unless you wanted them repainted. Metallic paint matching is also a challenge but your car is fairly new and unless it has been in weather (sun, etc.) and has faded, a good painter should be able to match the hood very close.

I do not like to have anything repainted as IMO repaint is never the same as factory; however, as stated above, a good painter should be able to match the paint with no noticeable difference. With that in mind, and I just went though this on my car, I would suggest the following:

Post on numerous Porsche forums and ask if anyone has had any paint work done matching your color. If they have and were happy with the color matching, find out where and see if you can get the paint mix formula that they used. This is helpful as your base.. Then, make sure the painter/body shop you use paints a number of samples before he paints the hood. Make sure you review the samples to the hood for matching. Also remember that there are generally a number of variations for paint as they change over the years. Make sure you are happy with the color matching before the hood is painted. Worst case is the hood has to be repainted because it does not match. That is ok. Having the fenders blended with a noticeable difference is not. You need to be there and approve the color matching before the final spray.

I would not have the fenders painted or blended unless they need to be painted for some reason... My opinion.

 

Just curious: Why would a dealer want to pay for your respray? Mine have never been that nice...

 

I just had new bumper covers and side rockers installed and the proper thing to do, especially with a metallic paint, is to blend or feather the new paint onto the adjacent parts. Aside from the differences in paint manufacturers (size and distribution of the metallic particles) and the conditions under which the paint is applied, a difference might be noticed, particularly on Arctic Silver (the greys are either Seal Grey or Meteor Grey) if the paint is not blended...

Rudy

 

i recently bought the car from the dealer. when I bought it the hood looked fine. he agreed to put the 3m bra on it. when i picked it up there looked to be 2 darker spots which we thought were in the bra on the hood. there was also a scratch on the front bumper that they were supposed to buff out before they put the plastic on. so they took it to redo. well i got it back last night and there were 15 or so white spots on the hood. they buffed the entire hood even though it was not required and we're guessing the previous owner may have had the chips touched up and the buffing exposed all of them. one of the reasons i bought the car was that it was in perfect condition. so he offered to repaint it to make it right. i'm leaning towards doing it, but being my 1st 911 i wanted to understand the +/- s from you guys. Any other input would be greatl appreaciated.

 

btw the color is atlas grey metallic...not artic...sorry

 

Well one thing to consider is if you are a trade in guy and not a private sale guy, a dealer is very likely to pull out a paint thickness gauge and deduct 1000's off your trade in if you repaint any panels.

 

Blending is a standard procedure. I would rather have a repainted hood and fenders than rockchips, but thats just me

 

me too but i'm planning on keeping mine for a long time so trade in value is not a concern, if you are planning on trading it in a few years its probably not a good idea

 

Another solid reason to never ever trade in a car to a dealer. I personally would rather have a car that I am happy with than worry about what some future buyer might think.

 

Unfortunately, it is not going to become a collectors item. Go ahead with the repaint. Just ask the dealer to confirm they use the same brand of paint as OE. That is the best you can do for matching the color. I think it will be fine.

 

My 99 996 is Arctic Silver. I hit a concrete column while pulling out half asleep in a parking structure. It left my side mirror hanging, and the left door panel and left fender collapsed. A mess.

Since I was coming back from San Jose, I stopped by a shop in Lompoc that I know works with Chip Foose. I was not in a really good mood due to my stupidity as you can imagine. I left the car there and took the train back to OC.

They do work on muscle cars, not Porsches. I figured that a car is a car, paint is paint and body work is body work. I did buy a mirror from suncoast and had it shipped to them.

They returned the car in a few days flawless. They of course mentioned that matching metallic old paint is challenging, but they performed and I cannot tell the difference. Body work flawless too. Cost, $700. Try that at dealer. It helped that I knew them of course, very nice guys.

Let me know if you need more info.

 

I'm having my bumper cover, hood and fenders resprayed, with a blend into the doors and roof.

To me, it will look much better that way. I didn't buy this car to resell, I bought it to enjoy.