What do I need to Know?

[clucas6308]

Hi everyone,

Now I am looking at having my 2001 white diamond Seville repainted, tiny rust spot on the rear fender, Michigan, Ugg, I hope to keep the car a lone time and want it to look new. What can I expect ? I realize GM had the High bake paint advantage but can a body shop reproduce a super clear coat finish?

Thanks Everyone,

Chris

[coolnesss]

They can do anything they want.

Do NOT pick a shop because a mechanic or someone in the trade sends you there - they're likely gonna get a referral fee and they'll send you because of that rather than the quality of the work.

Instead, I'd pick a few likely suspects, and casually stop by every once in a while and ask to see cars that they've just painted - and judge for yourself the kind of jobs they do.

Once you've looked at several shops' work over a period of a month or two, you'll know what you're looking at and the choice of shop will become obvious.

Also, to make sure you get the color you want, once they're ready to paint, and have the paint, ask them to spray a small piece of scrap metal for you to see the color and approve it before they put it on the car. And look at it in daylight, not under shop lights.

[CarlaValentine]

I definitely agree that you should see what kind of work a place does before you let them touch your car. If you have just the one rust spot, you might consider seeing if there is a place that can computer match your car's paint color and have just that panel repaired and repainted rather than the whole car. Unless of course you are looking to paint it a different color all together, or the rest of the paint on the car is in rough shape.

[BodybyFisher]

You are smart to be cautious, I don't believe that White Diamond is easy to paint. Please let us know the outcome

[MrEldo97]

First, I would check the car overall for corrosion, particularly the underside. You live in Michigan where the combined destructive forces of road salt and acid rain eat a car up – I’m from Massachusetts and can tell you everything you need to know about road salt… My point is that if your car is really beginning to rust on the bottom it just may not be worth it to repair and paint because the spreading rust will soon pop out somewhere else. This insidious corrosion will ruin your new expensive paint job in short order and could force you to spend a lot of additional money in a never ending quest to repair corrosion. My advice: really give your car a good exam to determine the extent of corrosion, make your decision on whether or not to repair paint on an honest assessment of what you find.

[CoupeDTS]

the white diamond, crimson red pearl and white lightning paints are all 3 stage pearls. Quite a bit more expensive than traditional base coat / clear coat. Any shop that paints cars regularly can paint a pearl no problem. Its not in how you paint it, its more of the mixture. But when youre doing a whole car its not going to mismatch so thats good.

Whatever color you choose make sure to have the shop or paint shop give you the exact breakdown of the color you choose so it can be reproduced exactly if you ever need anything else painted.

And alot of shops now have heated paint booths for the bake-on type of clear coat. Only advantage there is it dries quicker so less chance of runs and even coat of clear. Theres tons of different paints and tons of different clears. Each shop has their own preference as to what they are used to using and will only use.

Make sure to give the shop a list of what you want painted and what you dont want painted, door jambs, under hood under trunk, engine bay etc. And when you pick it up make sure to go over the WHOLE car. Ive seen overspray on rims, overspray under the car, on tailpipes, trim not on properly, bottom half of the car not wetsanded and buffed. Make sure its how you want it when you leave. Because if you come back a day later and say you just noticed a chip in the paint they will tell you it wasnt there when they had it.

[KHE]

You do not need to have the whole car painted - good body shops can blend the paint and clearcoat such that you'll never notice.

Make sure the shop has a spray booth and they bake the finish after application - it will be more durable that way.

[Ranger]

Tri-coats are harder to paint and they have to blend in the adjacent panels. I hit a deer over 2 years ago and the match was perfect. They put a used fender on it though and it started to rust. I got them to replace it with a new OEM fender and I just got it back 2 days ago. Once again, the paint match is perfect.

[clucas6308]

Thanks for all the advice, much more than I realized, after listening to everyone I will take a honest look and if I do decide I would go with the factory color and just the exterior,the slight rust bothers me the most as I know it is car cancer.

Thanks Everyone,

Chris

[coolnesss]

Also, check your warranty booklet to make sure that the corrosion warranty isn't still in force. Right now it's 6 years, but, I seem to remember a 10 year warranty sometime in the past. I hope I'm right.