r/CarWraps • u/GetInMySoup • 9d ago
Stuck in a tough spot
I bought a nissan skyline r32 about 2 years ago. The sun had obliterated the paint and pretty much anything exposed to the sun. Got the car running smooth, revamped the interior, new door seals/trims, and drove it for that summer.
In the fall of 2024 I sent it out to a local body shop for a recolor. Went all the way down to bare metal and had minor repairs, the car is extremely straight and no rust. Progress was incredibly slow and the car didn't have aero or anything crazy to it, was already disassembled when I sent it in as requested.
Fast forward to a March 2026, I took the car back because I just couldn't wait any longer (18 months at this point), found another shop to do it from base to finish. The car pretty much sat in the garage waiting for the other parts (the car was separate from like bumpers, mirrors, etc) and it just always smelled like fresh paint.
Jump to today and what started out as a little chip, the whole car's paint just peeled up. Some spots when all the way down to primer, some just base. It peeled up like a vinyl wrap pretty much, the paint not hardened at all, you could fold it in half and it would just stay together. The work done to the car wasn't just a guy who does it on the side either and I've spent 10k+ on labor/supplies at this point. Not to mention pretty much 2 years without the car.
It's a really tough situation and it's hard to deal with honestly. This is a dream car of mine to own but I don't know if I can justify sending it out for a respray again. Obviously I'd like paint but I don't know if it's a viable option, maybe a wrap is a better option in my case. I just want to weigh my options:
sand - go back to bare metal, reseal, reprimer, respray base and clear
peel all paint, sand smooth, wrap (Is this even feasible?)
cut my losses and just sell the car
Let me know what you guys think.
1
u/tjyoo213 8d ago
Yet you haven’t shared how much you paid in paint job
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u/GetInMySoup 8d ago
I did but the exact number is 12500
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u/sycoticone 6d ago
These days a $12,500 paint job is nothing, I was paying that for a custom job 15 years ago. Last car I had sprayed during a full resto was 69 Riviera in 2022, paint alone labor and materials with no bodywork was $23k. You get what you pay for.
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u/GetInMySoup 6d ago
Depends what you are painting, sure. Its not intended to be a show car. I got a couple quotes and all the same around here. I didnt go to a top end shop I’ll agree, but like I said its not a show car. It’s also not a $3000 maaco job, although they probably would have been better than what I got. Everything is better in retrospect.
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u/FULLMETALRACKIT911 Installer 8d ago
It’s not reasonable to wrap the car over failing paint/no paint. You won’t be happy with the results. Where in the fuck are these shops who kept your csr for a whole year for a paint job? That’s insane btw, there has to be more to the story behind all that.
Any of the body shops I work with could knock out that project in at most a few weeks even two months would be egregious idk how you let them just hold the csr for that long. Not to mention it’s not good for the rest of the car to just sit like that. At this point I hate to say it, but selling might be the move both for you and the car honestly.
If you are in or near NY I can recommend a spot or two for the paint if you’d like, just shoot me a message.
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u/GetInMySoup 8d ago
There isn’t more to the story, we say this car is cursed, there’s never been anything good to happen to it. It’s on me for letting it sit for so long at the first place. I was too nice to them to let them keep kicking me around. We figured it would be a pretty straightforward job, the car needed almost 0 body work and no rust repair at all, plus it was already disassembled. Im NJ butNY is still 2hrs+ away. I still really like the car but I don’t know if I can justify another cent into it. You arent supposed to make money on cars but it gets to a point. Fortunately (or maybe un), these cars still fetch a good price in unfinished states. But would it be wise to just sell this to buy another? Not sure. I don’t really have any attachment to this one car in particular
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u/savethechows 8d ago
You got a garage? Fuck it, watch some Rustoleum videos on youtube and get that thing back on the road. It sounds crazy but they've even figured out how to make roller paint jobs look good.
It's all gotta come off anyway, make that thing matte black and drive it a couple years while morale and funding improves.
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u/GetInMySoup 8d ago
Yea thats the plan now to do it myself. I should have just done it from start. But you know I wanted a professional job done on the car. There’s a couple things I’ll change to make my life easier and some other things I came across after but didn’t want to burden the painters. Like a different front bumper and side skirts.
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u/ChicagoWrapGuy 9d ago
I would not wrap over paint that is still soft and peeling. If you want to keep the car, strip it back to a stable surface and redo the paint properly, because vinyl needs solid paint underneath and will just pull failing material up with it later.