Anybody with new paint...please read...
 

I know some of you guys have had your machines repainted. I would like to get an idea of how much it is going to cost us to get ours repainted. Also, if anyone has had experience with getting their's repainted...should i go with the two-tone black and Claret? Or just all Claret? I would think it would cost alot more to get the black done too, so i figured it would be better for us to do a one color deal. Just looking for some figures here. Thanks.

A paint job that's not going to flake off in a few years will be a minimum of $3,000. A good one will be $4,000-$8,000

Paint, hardener and clearcoat starts at around $1,500 just for the cans of goo. Up to around $3000 for the good stuff. Add in about 20 hours of hand wet-sanding at $40-60 per hour. Factor in about 4 hours of masking and prep, 10 hrs if they take off the door handles, lights, wiper nozzles, exhaust tips, etc.. Then about 8 hours of spray time. You want the painter to be dedicated to painting. He shouldn't go sand bondo on another car in between coats on yours for obvious reasons, so plan to pay for him to sit on his but in the clean room.

If they don't wet sand the car thoroughly, the paint will not stick for long. The Subie OEM clearcoat is going to by design repel foreign materials, the wet sanding creates a microscopic war zone for the new paint to wrap around each nook and cranny and really hold tight against stones and sun stretching. Any claims of miracle "bonding agents" is a technology created and promoted by the insurance industry to keep costs down but provides a short lived life. If it holds for 2 years, its good enough for them.

My point? Don't do it if you aren't going to do it all the way. You'll end up kicking yourself in the pants later because it'll have to stripped next time to do it again.

Just my $.02

Doug