Hey guys, I have a dilemma.

I have two options that my girlfriend is giving for me for Christmas.

1) Get my car painted to Kona Blue Metallic (Ford color/ my choice). Have a friend that does body work and he does for cheap with quality work. (Will not be painting door jambs, but it wouldn't be that huge of a difference because both are dark colors...)

2) Take $1000 and spend it on other things like J-pipe, fogs, suspension, navigation etc...

I have a 06 TL with no navigation with blacked out tail lights along with JNC V2 headlights. I already have a body kit along with wheels/tires. I took off all my performance options before and sold them because I took care of my little cousin for 6 months. I don't want performance (HP wise) at the moment until I get enough funds for the turbo. I do have a lot of marks on my car. Someone backed up and hit my car in the rear (and then fled) so the paint is chipped. The front bumper has about a million rock chips due to 18 wheelers in Texas.

I've been pondering over this for the past week and can't make up my mind. The blue looks really nice, unique than any other TL, and matches perfectly with my silver rims or I can possibly re-paint my rear bumper and add some mods.

Hmm...

 

Definitely paint job.

 

Take the 1k and spend it on other parts. The paint job will look like crap... Not meaning to offend your friend but there is no such thing as a good paint job for cheap. skipping the jambs says it all! You will ruin your value.
Or like you had said save the money and put it into a turbo!

 

buy other parts...

 

Parts.

 

I'd repaint but if you say you get a lot of rock chips. How many layers of clear will he shoot on for you? A good friend is still a friend. But business is business, there's only so much he can do for you. Or I'd put that 1k into your savings and save up for FI, if you don't mind the way the car is now. There are a lot of factors into what you should do. Some of the things I would think about.
1. Will the car be garaged? Yes
2. Is it a DD? No(weekend car for me)
3. Do you have a Beater? Yes(my trusty 96 Corolla Base, picked her up for 1k with 144k+)
4. What would you rather have more of, Looks-Luxury/Power?
Got my 04 since I wanted more luxury, and I always loved the look of the 3g TL's. Also getting older now, always scared of getting jacked with a civic/integra.
But this is just me.

 

The amount of layers of clear does nothing to stop rock chips, the only things that stop them is:
1. Not driving it
2. A bra (Ugly and ruin your paint in other ways)
3. 3m Clear bra.

 

It will cost more labor and two hundred more to do door jambs, and I don't really care for it that much. (My preference, not his). The friend has done good work and not only gives me a good price, but everyone else a good price. Paint job's aren't cheap because of the labor involved, not necessarily the paint or clear itself. Don't worry about the quality of the paint, just decide on the basis that the paint job is of good quality.

I have some stock that will purchase my turbo in due time .

I expected more people to do parts because you're getting more out of your money and most people wouldn't believe in a "cheap paint job". I was contemplating on some Halo installs, Visors, rear lip spoiler, and also repainting the rear bumper.

^



3 coats of clear

1. Not garaged.
2. Yup its a DD for me.
3. Wish I did
4. Looks/Luxury at the moment

Its very hard for me to decide because I really like the Sona Blue Metallic (saw it at a car show- marvelous!) especially since it lets me stand out from the other TLs. At the same time, with the money I could buy the products mentioned above and fix some of the imperfection on my car.

 

I meant 1 base coat 2 clear

 

i would thank your gf and take her out with the $1000 and spend the rest on the parts.

 

^ This

 

Haha to be honest the reason why she is doing this for me is because I spend about 100x more on her (what she told me the reason behind giving me this). We go out and eat 3 times a week, watch a movie every week, I sometimes buy her clothes, I pay for 80% of our vacation and such (California and Florida recently cost me $3,000 each trip). So I've been with her for 2 years and I've probably spent over 25k on us. I do work and make decent money for college student, but I spend almost twice as fast

 

Keep your car for 5 more years the value would be minimal anyway. Think about it, a new TL was 40k out the door 5 years ago and now its worth 15k. If you have a Lamborghini/67' Shelby GT500 and screwed up the paint job, then it would hurt your pockets. If your car is screwed up with chips and noticeable scratches, that would hurt your value more then a custom paint job.

Cars are the worst investment ever, so do what you want and I say paint job if you plan on keeping the car for a while. If you don't want HP and since you had your car for a while then don't get anything else for it that isn't detachable. I have the navigation and really its useful, but nothing a tom tom wouldn't do for me since I don't use it often. The only cool thing about my screen is the option to turn it to a DVD player or backup camera. Buy something that you can take off and sell.

 

damn, what do you do for a job?
also if u spend 100x more on her than she does to you then go spend every penny that she gives you

 

Parts.

 

parts

 

agreed.

 

Well I volunteer at a local hospital and get $xxxx amount of money for Med school (in the next year or so). Also work at the Cheesecake Factory and making $400 or so a night (I have a gift in hospitality )

Also I have several scholarships that pay for my school and leaves me with extra money that I usually don't spend (3-4k a semester in free money )

 

Yeah that is what I was thinking also because I've always wanted navigation. I'm not worried about the resale because I would either pass it down (car) to my little cousins or drive it to the point where the damages is worth more than the value of the car. Problem is with navigation (OEM that is) it would cost me nearly $1600 or so to get it installed without backup camera. I don't have time to do a DIY or learn how to make the wiring harnesses so the best place I've found was the one on eBay selling the full Navi system (minus camera) with harness + install for $1600.

 

throw in the extra 200 bones yourself and get the complete paint job. i'm interested to see what it would look like. .02 cents.

 

Parts for sure

 

I would save up for a complete paint job, not a half-assed one

 

Sweet girlfriend to give you options!

 

She's giving you money??

I refuse to lend my opinion until we see pics of said gf..

 

Haha I would if I could :x

This is a picture of his recent work. The paint job was $1800 I believe. Complete different color (I think he went from black to Lime green)

 

 

Well wait nevermine on that M3 he spent $20,000 on that paint lol.

The paint job I'm getting is usually $2500-3000, but I've brought business with him and stuff so he's giving it for me for $1300-1500, but I think I'm going to just paint my rear bumper, and install some exterior mods. Lip spoiler, halo install, rear re-finished/painted, and other things. I talked to him today, he didn't recommend me paint the whole car just because its still practically new, but he could do it with PPG clear or Dupont Clear for me at a lot lower cost. I don't like asking for favors so I just said that I would paint the bumper and do parts.

 

I think thats the right decision!

 

if it were me, i would use that money and get a navi conversion... even if you don't plan to keep the car, the NAVI actually helps the car value...

 

Yeah I plan to keep my car, but where can I find a NAVI conversion for $1000 that is OEM with installation. I don't want CarPC.

 

Navi conversion.
NBP is an ill colour.

 

I did my full OEM nav conversion for 1200-1400 with the OEM trunk liner that everyone skimps on! Way better then a half ass paint job! :-) You just have to search around for parts, the most expensive is the wire harness, head unit, and rear drive. I hit up LKQ and got the rear drive, head unit and GOS antenna for 650 shipped! Its a real easy conversion, took me 4 hrs max!

 

I'd do the paint job, because none of the other mods will look good unless the TL looks good first.

 

^Well technically the TL already looks good

 

Keep the 1k and put it in the bank.

 

Not necessarily, especially if he's considering a repaint....

 

This.

 

"He's" is me.

No point in adding money to my bank at the moment as this is a gift from her and she wants me to use it for my car since I talk about it 24/7.

I really want the color change, but can't justify also changing the color. I love NBP, but always wanted blue on my first car.

I also wanted something to stand out from other TLers like the the AZ user with the purple-ish TL. (Sorry forgot his name )

That is why I'm 50/50.

The conservative way would be fixing the rear, and adding mods onto my car. I asked my friend and he told me that the car looks really nice already and that I should just fix some of the imperfections and add some mods that will make it stand out even more.

I've decided on just fixing the imperfections and modding the exterior of the car. Blue will have to wait until I really have a problem with it or I get enough funds after I get the turbo.

I'm not sure about getting NAVI, I really, really want it, but I doubt I can get everything within my price range ($1000-1200 installed, trust me I will fail on installing it myself). I'm one of those people that spend money and feel bad for spending so much on something that is luxury especially since I do a lot of volunteer work for the unlucky. (Also not having a smooth life myself)

Thanks for everyone who helped me out, greatly appreciated.

 

if you want to go through with the navi... save up a few hundred more.

Martin's kits have been used by members of azine and they work flawlessly... you can also try sending him a best offer... it is literally almost plug and play...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/04-06...fAudioQ5fVideo

 

GET the go fast goodies...