So... I have been thinking of doing some custom paint on my CF hood, plus I wanted to repaint the front bumper, and I have a new rear bumper that needs paint too. After finding some rust on the doors and a touch in the wheel wells, I decided may as well paint the whole car.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am crazy about my paint, it needs to be perfect, free of defects and swirls, and that is finally what I will have, better than OEM.

It is at a friend's body shop, only guys I will trust, and I can help them out with some of the stuff that I have done 100x, like removing the bumpers, strakes, etc.

Here she is sans door, getting ready for some love and then some paint

 

John I'm assuming you're keeping it the same color, right?
Usually the rule of thumb is any car that has a total repaint while it's still relativly new (no matter how perfect it is) it hurts the resale value.
That being said, the Crossfire's resale is in the garbage anyways.
It's 10 years old, so just exactly what constitutes being "new" is debatable.
Your color is nearly impossible to match.
You are a perfectionest.
You can afford it.
And you don't plan on selling it any time soon, so go for it.
By the way, missed you and Molly at Woodward.

 

Mike, you are absoutely right, but mine is an ealry VIN, so at this point the paint is nearly 12 years old and since it was midwest driven for the first few years of its life year round, the rust is inevitable.

I am going with factory color, I absolutely love the color. As you said, I am not worried about resale because it will never be for sale and with the money I have in it, I couldn't get a fraction back out.

We missed Woodward and seeing all our friends as well but we are trying to buy a lot and build a home while we are planing our wedding/honeymoon, so we had to cut something out, especially if I wanted to repaint my car and get 18" AMG wheels for our E class

We will be there next year in a fresh crossfire, with some non-xf friends tagging along.

 

you mean that getting married is more important than going to Woodward and enjoying the gang???
so so uncrossfire

 

Let us know how it turns out. I want to get my hood painted as well, but most places I have asked do not want to deal with trying to blend the Aero Blue

 

John: Just so happens, my Blaze Red Metallic is going into the paint shop coming Monday..hey, that's Labor Day!.. Same color . To fix: 3 small dents on passenger side door, paint front bumper and spoiler lip, and to paint the rear bumper; to take care of clear coat that is flaking... mine is 10 years old Nov... .. Will miss you and Molly at the Dragon...maybe next April...Carl

 

Thanks everyone!

My guy down here can probably do it, but with this car, you would definitely have to hit the tops of the fenders as well if you are painting the hood. That is part of the reason I am spraying damn near the whole car, graphite metallic is difficult to blend as well....

 

Yeah, for sure on the blending in to the fenders.

 

Ill let you know how it works, maybe if everything fell into place you can come down, have the hood painted and grab one of the belly pans I have laying around, if you haven't gotten one yet....

 

Here are a few shots of the doors getting some love. If you have not yet taken care of the rust issue under the door molding, do not wait. I do not even drive the car in the rain and it sits all winter and they were both still pretty bad.

A few custom touches coming as well

 

Looking good, what were you thinking on the hood? Leaving the center carbon fibre and painting the sides body color might have a nice look to it. Or the reverse, and then you might be able to get away with not blending to the fenders


I need to pull the driver's side door seam, check to make sure my repair is holding up, and do the passenger side if it has. Is your friend (forgot his name...) any good with scratch repair? I have a couple that are bothering me, but not enough to repaint the whole panel...

 

I am going to leave the cowl and vents CF, then put a stripe of red/orange to match the calipers between the CF and paint the rest body color. Since I am painting the entire car, I want it to be perfect.

They can do some scratch repair, but if you aren;t wanting to paint, just fill in, it is a crap shoot, depending on how bad the scratches are. You can basically make them look better yourself, but no one will be able to get them perfect without a repaint...

 

Sounds nice, I really like the CF with the graphite metallic... As for the scratches... Yeah, mostly just want to get the ones that are gouged down to the primer filled, definitely not expecting perfection, but I'm not very good at scratch repair (been there, failed at it...)

 

If you order the touch up paint that is actual chem based, not the water based stuff most shops spray, I can bring home a few specialty touch up brushes and we can knock them out one day when you stop over...

 

I've been meaning to get some ordered.... Hopefully the offer of a little assistance will give me the motivation I need

 

I'll up the offer with some free craft bier

It would be great to grab that liner while the car is torn apart so I can just throw it on, if that is not too much trouble...

 

It's no trouble at all for me, just let me know when... I'll go ahead and pull the trigger on a 1oz kit from painscratch.com

 

The sooner the better, let me know when the paint comes in and we can get 2 birds...

 

Wow... I've got to see about finding another place to order, as they estimate 7 business days before it even ships...

 

Wow, you can typically pick on up from the stealership if you get in a bind. I would call them, soemtimes with shipping, the online places can be more expensive...