Do you value a paint color you like or original paint more?
 

Say you find a car - Vette or otherwise - that you really like for a great price, in excellent condition, pristine factory paint, but it's a stupid color. Some granny beige, or whatever you consider an undesirable color. Would you paint the car or leave it as is?

I'd leave it for someone who wanted "pristine factory paint" and find a car in the color I like.

Amen.

Collector car, original paint.
Driver, whatever color I like/can afford.

Or get one that needs painted anyway and have the exact color you want without paying a premium for good paint.

Ha! Sounds like my car! This is factory paint (except the bumpers). Personally, I like the Frost Beige. :cool: I would say leave it for someone that will appreciate it.

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I recently bought myself a 1971 coupe... I was looking for blue with blue or black interior. I found a couple really nice cars in white, war Bonet yellow and brands hatch green. Really nice colors but not for me. The white vette had everything I was looking for with a black interior. The price was right. Investigating the price to properly paint a Corvette was around 12k. Then I found a Bridgehampton blue with blue interior and everything thing else I wanted. It was in great shape but 5k more than what a good 71 was going for... I bought it and saved 7 grand... I’ll have an all original matching numbers, paint and interior C3 that in ten years will be worth a lot more...

Wait it for the right car, don’t buy the first one that comes along. Think it through, what will it cost and how will it affect the long term value of the car if you change the color...

I’d never buy a car to change the color. I’d also never buy a car with a color I found ugly.

Color is likely the number 1 priority to me once Ive chosen a model to buy.

^^^ Who wants a car they dont like looking at? Besides most rare colors are that...for a reason.

It is ridiculously expensive to have someone paint a Corvette, and the preparation is crazy -labor intensive, especially if you are changing colors.

Just saying

You can paint a car a thousand times but it will have original paint only once [sic].

Not only because of the price for a repaint, but you take a hit because the color doesn't match the trim tag.

On the other hand, stories abound about people that bought a color they didn't like only to find it grew on them with time.

Color is several lines down the list of importance for me when it comes to collector cars.

get it wrapped.

Depends on the value of the car and on "why" it has that value.... If it is a museum piece, it better have original paint or a same-as-original repaint. If it is a driver car, get whatever color you want--stock or non-stock color doesn't matter, but the quality of the paint job does.

Interesting question. My take is this - - if I have a car that I like, but don't care for the color, I won't keep it long. Been there, and after a couple of years they're gone. The latest one like that was a '15 C7 in Daytona Sunset Orange Metallic. I liked it in the sun, but it was dead in the shade. Wife didn't like the color. Sold it and got a '17 GS in Admiral Blue - we both really like it.

After looking for quite a while, we recently purchased a '68 427/435. Last owner had it 11 years and drove it 1,000 miles. The owner before had it for about 15 and, horror: he had it painted Rally Red (original color was British Green). Whoever painted the car, about 16 years ago, did a wonderful job. I'm picky (I used to belong to the ISCA and won several best paint awards on cars I restored and painted) and this was done right. I've taken the door panels and trim parts off cleaning them up, putting new door handle gaskets on, etc. Whoever painted the car took everything off and did a fantastic job, and the paint is still an 8 - it'll be a 9 when I have time to clay it and buff it. But..................it's a low mileage completely numbers matching car, with partial tank sticker, etc. Many purist's would say that it's awful that someone painted the car a different color. But the previous owner wanted it red, the next owner did too, and we bought it partly because we really like the color. It's a late car with Saddle interior and a beige top, and it goes together well. If I ever decide I want to, I'll paint it myself back to the original green. But for now, and maybe for as long as we own it, it's a beautiful red. We paid about $6-8k less for the car than one with the original color, but it was still pretty expensive. As Cuisinartvette said: 'who wants a car they don't like looking at?' I'll just smile at the 'all knowing' experts who whisper to others that 'it's not the original color - and you couldn't get that combination in '68'.

Let's help each other enjoy our vette's - no matter what changes we make to them. That's part of what makes it a great hobby! :cheers:


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When I shop for a car I want as perfect a body and paint as possible because I dont want to do that myself. All mechanicals are easy, and easy to do again if I screw it up. Paint and body are a one shot thing and if you screw it up you loose a lot of money. Now I didnt realize this when I bought my car but after being here for the last 4 years I've learned how expensive body work and paint for a car has become. I really dont want to have to paint a car with todays prices, but eventually i will have too.

Thats my long answer to our question, short answer is buy the color you want on some one elses dime

I would say that a pristine original car with a color that you don't like should be left for someone else, go buy what you do like

:iagree:

you , or somebody else, will be paying certain incremental amount of the price of the car for pristine factory paint.. find you a car without that will give you more motivation to pay the extra for the newer, but wrong paint, fresh paint, better color, or better condition..

+1.