Porsche 944 - respray or wrap?
Discussion
I’ve had my 944 for 11 years now. It lives outside and has done since I bought it. 170,000 miles on the clock, burns no oil whatsoever and has never let me down. So I’m going to keep it, hopefully until it’s tax and MoT-free - 2030.
Living outside though has done it no favours. It’s been keyed, reversed into twice, had the mirror knocked off, shat upon by pigeons on a regular basis etc. I kinda gave up really looking after it paint-wise after the keying incident about 8-9 years ago. The lacquer is now coming off in several areas. The dashboard, which was perfect when I bought it, has several cracks now.
I’ve decided to probably sell my 240z in the new year and put the 944 into the garage, buy a runaround for daily use and put some love back into it. I have a replacement uncracked dash and I want to redo the instrument lighting, the clock, headlining etc - all the usual 944 stuff.
Anyway, here’s the question, do I have it resprayed or get a wrap? I could do all the prep for a respray, glass out etc - but it would probably cost me £5k still. Or do I go for a wrap - problem is, unless most getting cars wrapped, I don’t really want to change the colour, but I can’t seem to find an ice blue wrap - 3m did do one but discontinued it as it wasn’t popular - after all, who changes their car to ice blue … everyone wants more vivid colours … find me an ice blue wrap!
I reckon a wrap is £2500 minimum if professionally done. I know that a local red 928 that I see at shows is wrapped but you’d never know.
Or do I go for a vivid colour myself or a silver or something (boring I know) as that’s as close as I’ll get to the colour under the bonnet.
Once done it’ll live outside again, I’ll get another classic for the garage and the whole cycle will begin again …
Living outside though has done it no favours. It’s been keyed, reversed into twice, had the mirror knocked off, shat upon by pigeons on a regular basis etc. I kinda gave up really looking after it paint-wise after the keying incident about 8-9 years ago. The lacquer is now coming off in several areas. The dashboard, which was perfect when I bought it, has several cracks now.
I’ve decided to probably sell my 240z in the new year and put the 944 into the garage, buy a runaround for daily use and put some love back into it. I have a replacement uncracked dash and I want to redo the instrument lighting, the clock, headlining etc - all the usual 944 stuff.
Anyway, here’s the question, do I have it resprayed or get a wrap? I could do all the prep for a respray, glass out etc - but it would probably cost me £5k still. Or do I go for a wrap - problem is, unless most getting cars wrapped, I don’t really want to change the colour, but I can’t seem to find an ice blue wrap - 3m did do one but discontinued it as it wasn’t popular - after all, who changes their car to ice blue … everyone wants more vivid colours … find me an ice blue wrap!
I reckon a wrap is £2500 minimum if professionally done. I know that a local red 928 that I see at shows is wrapped but you’d never know.
Or do I go for a vivid colour myself or a silver or something (boring I know) as that’s as close as I’ll get to the colour under the bonnet.
Once done it’ll live outside again, I’ll get another classic for the garage and the whole cycle will begin again …
I’d go for paint as well.
If you don’t want to go for the full respray in one go, sort the car panel by panel as you go so you can keep it mobile.
A good shop will be able to match the paint but UV might have changed the existing panel colour so new paint might look deeper, not a problem if you get round it all in a couple of years or so.
The wrap won’t add anything in my view versus the cost and a lot of the prep is the same.
Good on you by the way for running the car as you do, I’d love a 944 for daily use and it’s great to see one being properly used like this!
If you don’t want to go for the full respray in one go, sort the car panel by panel as you go so you can keep it mobile.
A good shop will be able to match the paint but UV might have changed the existing panel colour so new paint might look deeper, not a problem if you get round it all in a couple of years or so.
The wrap won’t add anything in my view versus the cost and a lot of the prep is the same.
Good on you by the way for running the car as you do, I’d love a 944 for daily use and it’s great to see one being properly used like this!
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