Hey guys. I am looking to paint all of the black plastic bits on my car to body color (Chili Red)- the fenders, side skirt, bumper bottoms, etc. I have looked around locally (Louisville, KY) and have found some body shops that do AUTO BODY REPAIR work after a collision.... And that's it! When looking to get a paint job, should I seek a DEDICATED car paint shop or would an auto body repair shop be able to do as good of work?

Also... do you all have any tips of getting these painted. I know it needs to be sanded, primed, painted, am I missing anything? Any helpful bits from anyone who has done this?

THANK YOU!

 

Go with a shop that do dedicated custom painting. You will be a lot happier. Orangecrush would be the best person to talk to about this becuase he owns a shop that does body work.

 

Pretty much any body shop would be able to do it. The prep work is really minor and the paint is just point and shoot. I forget the name of the shop in Clarksville TN, that was really good, and there was another good one in goodletsville TN. if you are willing to make the drive.

 

Best bet is to buy new parts and have them painted.

 

Any GOOD body shop should be able to handle it.. Mine was a 2-3 step process. Sand, body fill, dry, again an again, paint. Still looks great after 4 years and 70,000 miles...

 

You have to be careful when considering an auto body shop. Some of them do solely "production work", usually insurance-funded repairs. They want to get the cars in, replace all the damaged parts with new, shoot the paint and get the car the heck out of there. As such, a production shop might not have too much interest in the semi-custom work of prepping, sanding and filling your trim pieces.

Other auto body shops might do semi- or full-custom work and would be willing to take on the project. If you talk to a shop about it and they start hemming & hawing about it, or they give you a ridiculously-high estimate, they're just politely trying to get you to go away.

 

+1

 

There was a vendor here a long time ago you send them your black plastic ones they send you back painted ones of your choice. (or you can just buy the painted ones)

it was expensive. But I think not as expensive as having a reputable and good painter do what is essentially custom paint for you.

 

Just my two cents here,
I work in a collision repair biased body shop and I completely agree with Richerdsperry and scottriqui. the shop I work in is very get in, get out, beat shop time to make money, replace lots of parts and I hate to say it but make the paint look "good enough so that the customer cant tell".( please don't ask where, I don't really feel like admitting to talking bad about my job online) To be honest it drives me nuts, but as I'm freshly out of school, I'm just doing my time so that I can start my own custom resto shop once student loans are paid for.
Basically spend the slight premium and take it to a shop specializes in custom paint jobs and restoration work. Shops that do custom work will ( 9 times out of 10) spend more time paying attention to the little details and are more likely to stand behind their work. I'd always recommend using a separate set of parts whenever doing custom work like this, Maybe Im just **** like that but its worth it to me to know that if anything happens I still have my original parts sitting at home. Good luck and post pics when you get it finished, I'm planing on doing this on my own car once the winter rolls around. : )