Hi,

The 'shade' will invariably be different - your 'car' has 22+ year old paint , newer if resprayed by yourself or previous owner and the new parts will have '2/3/6+ months old' paint

So it comes down to what you ultimately want - cheaper pre painted panels with the high chance of a shades mismatch, or a all one colour car

For comparison, My car led a very very .. very hard first 3 years of its life as a Police car, looked ok from 20 years, close up , peppered front end and hologaphed to hell and back... twice ! come decommisiioning , i reckon they pulled off the reflective livery and light bar etc and polished it with a saucepan brillo pad and then sold it off at auction !

I purchased it, and a couple months later had a friend run his polisher machine over it and it made it look much more presentable - so I left it for 12 years ! then I decided to have it resprayed and I did think to just have it vinyl wrapped, but that would have shown up all the imperfections, small dints and dings. So saved up more and had it prepped, issues dings, dents taken out , one new front wing panel and then a full outer body (glass left in etc) respray . I have one colour shade and I prefer this .

If your car has less imperfections consider vinyl wrap as well ?

Cheers, Dennis!

 

Hi,

The 'shade' will invariably be different - your 'car' has 22+ year old paint , newer if resprayed by yourself or previous owner and the new parts will have '2/3/6+ months old' paint

So it comes down to what you ultimately want - cheaper pre painted panels with the high chance of a shades mismatch, or a all one colour car

For comparison, My car led a very very .. very hard first 3 years of its life as a Police car, looked ok from 20 years, close up , peppered front end and hologaphed to hell and back... twice ! come decommisiioning , i reckon they pulled off the reflective livery and light bar etc and polished it with a saucepan brillo pad and then sold it off at auction !

I purchased it, and a couple months later had a friend run his polisher machine over it and it made it look much more presentable - so I left it for 12 years ! then I decided to have it resprayed and I did think to just have it vinyl wrapped, but that would have shown up all the imperfections, small dints and dings. So saved up more and had it prepped, issues dings, dents taken out , one new front wing panel and then a full outer body (glass left in etc) respray . I have one colour shade and I prefer this .

If your car has less imperfections consider vinyl wrap as well ?

Cheers, Dennis!

Agreed. The car is 20+ years old so don’t want to spend too much to paint it. Had some front end fire damage A while back so the and fender was peeled. Quotes just to paint the front end were ridiculous. The rest of the car actually still had a nice shine to it. Maaco told me $1900 for their premium paint which is supposedly to be close to factory. The guy had a few cars he just painted which actually looked good. I considered a wrap too but opted to just paint. Idk, I’ll figure it out ! Thanks man!!

 

I have ordered a new quarter panel and front bumper cover for my silver 528, it’s the titansilber metallic, from “Chicago painted auto parts” outfit. They don’t quite match in color but it’s very close, the gloss is the same, the rest of the car is “minty” for it’s age, ‘98.

I also ordered a new hood from the same company for a ‘99 that is black, don’t remember what it’s called. To be honest, it looks awful. The color is fine, the shine and application is horrible. Cracks and after two attempts they just can’t package a painted hood to survive shipping from Chicago to semi rural South Carolina. The first hood had a hole in it from a forklift fork (shipping damage), the second hood has similar forklift blade damage but I kept it, installled it, and it’s just okay. Can’t beat the prices though.

The quarter panel and bumper cover on the other car are pristine and fit/finish is as good as I would expect without working the whole front of the car over at a body/paint shop.

Take a look and decide if you feel lucky. You do have an option of local pickup if you’re able to drive to Chicago. (If they are still in business).