Getting my Integra painted next month, it’s a 91 in Rio red. I’m still on the fence if I should have the moldings and mirrors color matched. I was wondering if some of you guys could post pictures of your Integra with color matched moldings and mirrors.
I think It would look cleaner with everything painted the same color.
Thanks
I would most definitely match the mirrors.
The molding can look good either way… But the unmatched mirrors and door handles look horrid in my personal opinion.
I have the original black mirrors and mouldings, but I would say that color-matched looks better. The wide black window trim hides the mirrors somewhat, but if I had a choice, I would opt for matched.
Another thing that I have noticed is that the door moulding is not the same material as on the fender and rear q-panel, so at an angle, mine look different shades of black.
The process for getting paint to adhere properly to the mouldings may raise the cost a bit. In general, some of the cars in the pics on this web site have more than a typical $2K paint job, (including the one above). With a nod to the owner, 
I don’t think I can duplicate that in my area for a reasonable price.
You may want to ask a few questions here b/f you fork over the cost of a second car to someone whose main business is collision repair (chuckle).
Damn that does look really clean. Anyone have a pic of a repainted one with the black moldings?
Look at the last few pages of the pics thread in the “General” section of the forum. Lots to look at there.
Too kind PMI… but thank you 
This is one before I painted the car… But it was resprayed by Maaco, so, semi-fresh paint. Black moldings
And another… The lighting is terrible though, apologies.
[QUOTE=unified112;2322163]Too kind PMI… but thank you :D[/QUOTE]Credit where credit is due, and all that…
Didn’t you strip the car, b/f you repainted it? Most of the disappointment I have seen in people who repaint cars 20+ years old is, I suspect, the prep work. In other words, not the paint, but what was done before. If i thought I could get mine to look nice, not even show-perfect, but an overall good exterior rust-abatement & paint job for $2K, I’d be at a body shop with my checkbook next week…
I don’t think you can just sand/prime/paint these older cars and get the same results as a car thats a few years old, and just has some flat or peeling paint. And - most people with show-car paint jobs are simply too nice to say flat out that the rest of us probably don’t want to spend that kind of cash, LOL.
I’m actually going to have it repainted by Maaco. That paint job they did on the Integra is really clean. I’m going back to the same shop that painted my old Civic. Here’s the before and after on that car
[QUOTE=PMI;2322165]Credit where credit is due, and all that…
Didn’t you strip the car, b/f you repainted it? Most of the disappointment I have seen in people who repaint cars 20+ years old is, I suspect, the prep work. In other words, not the paint, but what was done before. If i thought I could get mine to look nice, not even show-perfect, but an overall good exterior rust-abatement & paint job for $2K, I’d be at a body shop with my checkbook next week…
I don’t think you can just sand/prime/paint these older cars and get the same results as a car thats a few years old, and just has some flat or peeling paint. And - most people with show-car paint jobs are simply too nice to say flat out that the rest of us probably don’t want to spend that kind of cash, LOL.[/QUOTE]
You are correct… I stripped the car to bare metal before painting it myself. My thought process was, if I am painting it, I’d really prefer not to have that many coats of material on the car. Factory primer, paint clear… Maaco paint and clear, plus my new primer/sealer, paint and clear… That’s when chipping and flaking issues occur.
Really, my main issue with their paint job was the adhesion. I was pressure washing it one day and blew about a 50cent sized piece of paint off the door.
Their prep work sucks… I had tape-lines on almost every one of my black moldings as well. The Orange peel (texture) was not ALL that bad. But not show quality by any means.
When I bought my car it came with the paperwork and receipt from Maaco… I think the job was less than $500, which explains a lot.
Here is a picture of it… The left side (fender) is after wet-sanding and buffing the Maaco paint. The right side (door) is the Maaco finish.
Now, if you paid Maaco for a better job… Or even did the prep work and trim removal yourself, I’m pretty sure you could end up with a decent job.
As far as what I did to mine, and cost… We’d charge 5k+ to strip, paint and sand/buff a car. Very pricey to do what I did.
Also, the Maaco job was so paper-thin that I ended up going through the paint twice on that fender… which is what really pushed me to to a full respray on it.
They put as little product on the car as possible.
I mean, in material alone I was right at about $450. That doesn’t leave much room for profit on a $500 job. So they use as little as possible to do it.
[QUOTE=unified112;2322169]…Really, my main issue with their paint job was the adhesion. I was pressure washing it one day and blew about a 50cent sized piece of paint off the door… [/QUOTE]My point exactly. The devil is in the details… errrr, the prepwork.
Most people can’t do what you did, not even close. I could not even get matched paint, primer, and other materials for a complete car for $500. I think I spent around $200 for paint, primer, filler, skim coat and materials for one quarter panel, and it looks barely passable.
My quote from a local shop a lot like Maaco was around $2000 for the car, exterior only, plus $300 per q-panel to fix some rust… 
And I think the range for doing a complete exterior only restoration on a typical American Classic, local to me, is well over $5K, more like 6-8K. A similar restoration shop quoted me $1500, for the quarter panels only, no filler - including fab, welding, prep, primer and paint.
[QUOTE=unified112;2322171]I mean, in material alone I was right at about $450. That doesn’t leave much room for profit on a $500 job. So they use as little as possible to do it.[/QUOTE]I don’t know if there is a solution for these cars, honestly… unless you open your own shop, and the rest of us just flatbed our cars - to YOU… 
Gotta pay to play… People don’t realize how much a good quality paint job costs and it’s the main reason why I haven’t painted my car. I’m too picky to skimp and get a $1-2k paint job that I know I’ll be unhappy with. But I’m also too cheap to spend the money needed to do it right and instead chose to spend money on track days, tires, brakes…etc I’d still like to paint my car eventually though and when I do I plan on stripping the car myself (removing all trim, molding, lights…etc, possibly even the glass) then having it towed to a shop for them to spray. That way I’m not paying them to remove/reinstall all of those parts and I’m not risking that they’ll get overspray on stuff like moldings.
We do have our own shop in Utah 
Paint is like anything else… would you take your motor to the lowest bidder in the area to be built? Or would you take it to the people that are known to do top notch work?
Some people choose to do the former, and it ends up showing.
[QUOTE=unified112;2322178]Paint is like anything else… would you take your motor to the lowest bidder in the area to be built? Or would you take it to the people that are known to do top notch work? [/QUOTE]No, I agree with you there.
What i am getting at is this - $4~5k in paint will be reflected in the appraised (or insured) value of some cars. This one, not so much.
You basically built a show car. Granted it is a driver not a trailer queen, but still, a show car. Colin, if I understand what he did, built his for the track. In both cases, the math is different for you than for the rest of us.
I guess I would like a reasonable compromise between the Maaco paint-over job, and the restoration for $5K+ (not that I expect to find one, but it would be nice). By this i mean decent prep, couple coats of primer, good paint.
Oh oh oh…
I was speaking in generalities, sir!
The self prep method before taking to Maaco is worth its weight in gold. Trim removal and even scuff-work can make all the difference as far as adhesion goes.
We had Maaco spray a rallyX car we built about a decade ago. The paint came out looking great but it did chip off fairly easily (of course it was a rallyX car, so that is a factor…). We did all the body work and prep and just had them do the spraying. I forget the exact cost but we were very happy with the result.
If I was going to do this again (which I likely will at some point) I definitely won’t go to Maaco but instead try to find a local, independent, shop who is willing to work with me, pay attention to detail and let me bring them a stripped down car so all they need to do is body work and spray the paint. I used this basic concept when I had my engine bay painted and it worked out pretty well. I think if you went about it that way you could definitely get a great paint job for a good price. Also, not sure what your area is like but around here there are a TON of “ghetto” body shops and the like that I’m sure could do a good job if you were willing to take the risk and if they were willing to work with you step by step. Most of these places do super super cheap work on beat up cars so if you gave them the opportunity to make big bucks they might jump on it (a lot of these guys have better skills than their shop may lead you to believe). I always want to do this with stuff I don’t want to deal with myself, but it never really works out since I can’t speak spanish. I always feel like I’m the white guy walking in there not knowing what’s going on and if I can’t connect with the person then I can’t trust that it’ll be done right. If I wasn’t just some gringo walking in there I’m sure I could find a place that’d work. It’s always also a good idea to ask around and see what your friends have to say about people they’ve worked with and see if anyone has a paint/body guy they can recommend.
The self prep may be an option anywhere I suppose, but I don’t think that are any “cheap” body shops in this area. A few places that do nice restoration work, but at prices that make little sense on this type of car.
“attention to detail” translates to more shop time (as it should, chuckle), and there is always more money to be made on collision repair than anything else in a body shop. I think that is really the issue here. Most body work that pays well is insurance work.
I like lighter colored cars w/ black trim and darker colored cars w/ color matched molding…but i’d color match the mirrors w/o question
Thanks guys for all your help, so decided after looking at countless pictures. Going with black side moldings and color matched door handles and mirrors. Here’s how she’s sitting for the next few days, antenna is off and so are the turn signals. I was lucky enough to be able to get the rain gutter covers off without breaking any one of the clips. Last thing I need to do is take the axle back off. Once I get her back I’ll be putting her back together and installing a new interior carpet. Scored it at the junk yard, just needed a good cleaning. [/IMG]
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