sbrimer

Here is my situation. I have a Grabber Orange GT that currently has bumper to bumper black, over the top stripes (2 10 inch wide). I noticed a small paint problem with my hood and went back to the dealer. This dealer has a body shop on site. The body shop manager ask me if I thought about painting and clearing the stripes. I said yes and he gave me a price of $2000.00. I said no thanks, and then he made another offer. He said we will have to take your hood off, remove the vinyl stripes, prep the hood, repaint the hood and then clear coat it. He said, " I can paint the two black stripes and then clear them instead of vinyl and it will cost me $100.00." My problem is, how much of a difference will you really notice? He says most folks never will notice because of the distance (windshield and grill) between the stripes and paint you will not notice until you get close and look. Well........................

xoxomattyo

How big of a deal is it for you to keep the stripes? If it's not a big deal, I'd say just take them all off in my opinion, but if you want to keep them then I wouldn't mix the two. Either bite the bullet and drop 2k or just put vinyl stripes back on the hood.

03gt04mach1

It's just me, but I would have them repaint the hood and find the matching Stripes and re-apply them. I think after a while it would drive you crazy.

candymanjl

painted would be great but the small visual difference isn't worth the price to me. money no object then hell yeah! we're all different I guess, some people would never spend what I've spent to go faster, I'd never spend what people have spent on looks.

I guess I like the non-permanency of the vinyl. if you ever change your mind on color or style it's easy to change vinyl, paint, not so much

sbrimer

They will re-apply new vinyl ones for free. I'm also leaning towards the vinyl, because I'm so **** the difference would drive me crazy.

bm2088hp

+1. My car has vinyl stripes and I love them! (When I bought the car it already had the stripes) I would never spend $2000 on them. Way too much money.

Tylus

it DOES NOT cost $2,000 to spray stripes on...I'd be surprised if they even charged $500 at a Reputable Body Shop.

Sounds like the Dealership is trying to make a little money off you. Painting stripes on your car is stupidly easy. They don't have to worry about blending or overspray. just block off the areas and spray black. Then the clearcoat.


I suggest you stick with vinyl stripes...especially when they'll fix for free

sbrimer

I too thought the price was rather high, but the way it ws explained to me was the front bumper and rear will have to be removed to do this. I'm a doubtful bastard so I checked around and 4 different body shops have given me prices within $200.00 of their price. Their explanation is basically the same; they would have to clear all the way to where the body panels meet in order to not have a ridge in the clear coat. I'm not a body shop expert, so I take their explanation for what it's worth.

I'll just stick with vinyl, but it just seems to scratch amazingly easy.

candymanjl

yeah you can't just clear the stripes, you'll have a high edge, you'll have to clear the whole part to be smooth.

Tylus

your shops charge one hell of a high rate.

I had the entire backhalf of my SUV replaced and sprayed black last February. It only cost the insurance company $3,300 for new hatch, new bumper and all new paint/clearcoat.

given your explanation of price...I could grudgingly give them $1,000...but damn, $2k seems way overpriced to me. Especially for something so easy to do.