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Hello all. I'm a new to the Corvette club. I have a 68 Convertible that needs a paint job. It is the original red now but I was thinking of changing it to a more custom color. Will this affect the value of my vehicle as original? Any help or advice greatly appreciated.
Steve
I am not an expert, just an observer and user of this terrific website, but my feeling is that that would somewhat depend on how original the car is in total. If it doesn't have original engine and has other modifications the effect will probably not be as much as if it were otherwise original overall. Also, custom work and colors tend to be of a very personal choice and as a general rule may detract from the value. Bottom line is it is your car, however you choose to enjoy it is on you. After saying that, I think the consensus will be that changing the color from what is on the paint code will typically reduce the value. JMO
BTW, we love to see pics of these amazing machines on here, since you are new poster we (me for sure) would enjoy seeing your '68 roadster.
Steve, this is a "bad" question to ask. It can incite a potential riot here. It is like throwing gasoline on a fire!!
But to answer your question. It is your car so do what ever you want but I will give you my two cents worth of advise. If you plan on selling the car in the future and you change out the original color of the car, you will lose a group of potential buyers that want originality making it harder to sell. I am one of these people.
Is the rest of the car mostly original and correct? Has it already been modified? If it has, maybe not such a big deal to change out the color. If it is mostly original possibly more important to maintain the original color. Red is a nice selling color to have!!!
But let me repeat myself, the only person you need to make happy is yourself, so do with it what you like!!!! Ike
Last edited by general ike; Jul 22, 2018 at 11:59 AM.
I've been thinking of painting my car hot pink. Hubby says that will reduce its value to zero. I'm sure its not that bad. Whether or not you'll lose value depends a great deal on what custom colour you paint it.
Hello all. I'm a new to the Corvette club. I have a 68 Convertible that needs a paint job. It is the original red now but I was thinking of changing it to a more custom color. Will this affect the value of my vehicle as original? Any help or advice greatly appreciated.
Steve
At the end of the day, you will have a ton of conflicting responses, so you are going to have to make the call.
My personal experience: I have had several custom painted C3s and showed them extensively in the 80s and 90s. Some people will love your custom paint. Some people will hate it. Some people will tell you it’s so special that it only enhances the car’s value, but none of those people buy the car. It has been my experience that custom paint will reduce your potential buyers and lower the value of the car when it sells. Especially in a red chrome bumper convertible. Even if someone absolutely loves your custom taste, most buyers are savvy enough to know that custom paint will make the car harder to sell, and take advantage of those realities when it’s time to negotiate.
That said, there’s always uniformed buyers that will impulse buy and pay too much. Corvettes are that kinda car. If you want a custom color, paint it what you want, just know it might be harder to sell.
Originally Posted by Priya
I've been thinking of painting my car hot pink. Hubby says that will reduce its value to zero. I'm sure its not that bad. Whether or not you'll lose value depends a great deal on what custom colour you paint it.
Id agree with your hubby, but if this if the car with the extensive body modifications and interior changes, I don’t think a custom color makes any difference at all at that point. Why stop now? Fair Disclosure: I had a custom 1980 that was half candy magenta at one time in my life. You might like that color.
Last edited by vettebuyer6369; Jul 22, 2018 at 02:32 PM.
Id agree with your hubby, but if this if the car with the extensive body modifications and interior changes, I don’t think a custom color makes any difference at all at that point. Why stop now? Fair Disclosure: I had a custom 1980 that was half candy magenta at one time in my life. You might like that color.
Yes, this is the car with extensive body modifications. Interior is a colour change to silver but stock in appearance except for the velour seat covers done in a 77 Thunderbird material.
Yes, this is the car with extensive body modifications. Interior is a colour change to silver but stock in appearance except for the velour seat covers done in a 77 Thunderbird material.
I've been thinking of painting my car hot pink. Hubby says that will reduce its value to zero. I'm sure its not that bad. Whether or not you'll lose value depends a great deal on what custom colour you paint it.
Originally Posted by Priya
Yes, this is the car with extensive body modifications. Interior is a colour change to silver but stock in appearance except for the velour seat covers done in a 77 Thunderbird material.
I was about to suggest to the OP that whatever he chooses, it's been done before. And then I read this.
I had some similar misgivings recently.
There are a lot of red cars with silver interiors and silver cars with red interiors, but I've been thinking a lot lately about how hot pink would go with the silver interior and am leaning towards the Ford blue candy metallic below because I think it would set off the silver interior better.
I had some similar misgivings recently.
There are a lot of red cars with silver interiors but I've been thinking a lot lately about how hot pink would go with the silver interior and am leaning towards the Ford blue candy metallic below because I think it would set off the silver interior better.
Totally agree. I love the combinations of blue and silver a great deal.
My painter said my Candy Magenta would look fine with my red interior. I didnt think so and when I got the car back I didnt like it at all and took out the red interior and replaced it with black. Calmed everything down.
I was a little nutty in the 80s. My friends back then would never recognize my stock only cars now.
Here's that car... old picture, and that color was very difficult to photograph.
Hello all. I'm a new to the Corvette club. I have a 68 Convertible that needs a paint job. It is the original red now but I was thinking of changing it to a more custom color. Will this affect the value of my vehicle as original? Any help or advice greatly appreciated.
Steve
I have a 68 convert that is Rally Red. Original factory color was Le Mans Blue, but was re-painted by the previous owner. Since the engine is not the original engine and other modifications were done, the color change had little effect on the car's value. If anything, painting it "re-sale red" increased its value. If your car is pretty much stock, you might want to see some cars with a new paint job in the factory red color before making your decision.
A '68 vert - by all means paint it the original color! Even if it has a different motor or flares. The value will be better if it has original paint color. JMHO.
Is the sub thread about hot pink serious. If it is, ok but if this sub thread is just to be funny please start your own thread.
If I really disliked the original color, I'd paint it another year correct color. This goes over in resale much better than most personal choices. Take it a step further and get a repro trim tag with the color of your choice.
As time goes by, the smart person buys based on the condition of the car, i.e. rust issues, not the original color if you are looking for the best car at the best price.
Thank you for your response I certainly don't want to incite any riots here.lol Thank you for your response a I guess the consensus is that I should keep it red and not pink lol. Background on my car is that I bought it from a Streetside Classics in Charlotte, NC. The previous owner restored it and put a crate 350 in it. Did a good job. Also came with the original 327 motor. I dont know if its the original paint. If he repainted it, its not original anyway, am I right? Anyway, I thank you for your input.
Originally Posted by general ike
Steve, this is a "bad" question to ask. It can incite a potential riot here. It is like throwing gasoline on a fire!!
But to answer your question. It is your car so do what ever you want but I will give you my two cents worth of advise. If you plan on selling the car in the future and you change out the original color of the car, you will lose a group of potential buyers that want originality making it harder to sell. I am one of these people.
Is the rest of the car mostly original and correct? Has it already been modified? If it has, maybe not such a big deal to change out the color. If it is mostly original possibly more important to maintain the original color. Red is a nice selling color to have!!!
But let me repeat myself, the only person you need to make happy is yourself, so do with it what you like!!!! Ike
If I really disliked the original color, I'd paint it another year correct color. This goes over in resale much better than most personal choices. Take it a step further and get a repro trim tag with the color of your choice.
As time goes by, the smart person buys based on the condition of the car, i.e. rust issues, not the original color if you are looking for the best car at the best price.
Quite frankly with my recipe for the best car at the best price, trim tags wouldn't be much of a concern for me. If I was buying say a 435hp sidepipe car, I would make sure I knew what I was getting. Not that hard to do these days. A run of the mill small block coupe, who cares. It is however nice to have the best of both worlds but solid example come in all colors, mostly bad it seems.
Thank you for your response I certainly don't want to incite any riots here.lol Thank you for your response a I guess the consensus is that I should keep it red and not pink lol. Background on my car is that I bought it from a Streetside Classics in Charlotte, NC. The previous owner restored it and put a crate 350 in it. Did a good job. Also came with the original 327 motor. I dont know if its the original paint. If he repainted it, its not original anyway, am I right? Anyway, I thank you for your input.
The question isn’t really if the paint is original (although that’s another good thing to have), it’s if the color is the original that matches the trim tag. For example, if you painted the car late model Torch Red, it would still be red, but still be “wrong.” If you repainted the car the correct code 974 Rally Red that matches the tag on the car, then that’s where “value” comes in. And in your case, even though the car has a replacement NOM, you have the numbers matching (original? Hopefully if not a restamp) engine with the car. To me, a chrome bumper ‘68 roadster in (Resale) Red with the original motor needs to be painted the correct Rally Red. That’s my opinion.
Also, no one has discussed that there simply are some colors that enhance value and sales more than others, while some colors don’t help at all. Most would agree that in mostly all old Corvettes through 72, red and black are the premium colors, generally adding value to the car, as long as they match the trim tag. I think red and black are particularly sensitive in 68-69s, where red is always enormously popular and black was discontinued for several years after 1969.
Owners will often change their cars to red or black and sometimes back that up with fake, fraudulent trim tags. These are terribly common in C2s. Not as much in C3. When I was shopping for a black ‘69 roadster, almost every car I inspected had a trim tag for Fathom Green.
At any rate, repainting your car the correct Rally Red if it needs it, will not hurt the value at all. Most other options will.
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