Re: paint - advice please!

[Jim Buck <vwpride@mixi.net>]

I agree on the no flex agent route, but perhaps he could just shoot the front
airdam with flex.  That way you wouldn't have to worry about masking/removing
the rest of the body kit.  I think the airdam is the only part that really
flexes, maybe the rear valence too.  As far as the seams in the body kit go,
find the gaps and throw in some filler.

jim

Kevin Collins wrote:

> I finally got off my ass today and got serious about getting my car painted.
> I had to go by and see Ron Wood at VW Specialties to make an appointment for
> suspension installation on my GTI, and I knew he had a buddy with a body
> shop.. a very high-end shop that paints a lot of Porsches and charges TOP
> dollar.  He recommended another guy who he thinks highly of that works a
> lot cheaper - like $1500 - $2500 for a quality job, vs. $4k or so for
> the Porsche dude.  So I went by and talked to the <cheaper> guy.  Here's
> where I need some advice..
>
> He does work for the local VW dealer and has for years, so he's familiar
> with our cars - cool.  He's also familiar with dealing with the body kits,
> and says that they are virtually impossible to get off w/o damaging, then
> hard to get back on right again too.  He advises leaving it on to do the
> paint.  Couple of problems I see here - one, paint in the gaps between
> plastic and body, which will then of course crack and look like shit,
> also the issue of using a flex agent in the body kit paint, he wants
> to spray the whole thing at once, so this would not be practical.  He
> says that when the cars were new that nobody was even using flex agents
> on plastic parts yet (sounds questionable?) and he thinks the thing is
> hard enough to do ok without it.  Other than those things, he seemed
> like he ran a quality operation and was cool to rap with about the
> whole thing.  And he didn't look down his nose at it, like the one
> other German shop I took it to months back to discuss painting.
>
> Any comments on this anybody will be most appreciated.. the bottom line is
> that I want to get it done right - I mean show quality - and will pay
> to get it a quality job.  But if I can get it done at $1k+ cheaper than
> the ultra-anal place, naturally I'd rather do that.  If it takes $4k
> to *really* do it right, so be it, I'll do it.
>
> Oh yeah - the other thing is that this guy is so busy, the soonest he
> can start on it is a month from now, and that's not even definite -
> - paint-only work has to take a back seat to collision work.  And
> I'd rather start sooner than later if possible.
>
> Help Mr. Wizard!
>
> --
> Kevin Collins
> '86.5 Scirocco 16V 2.0
> '99 GTI GLX
> http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Factory/1780
>
> --
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