Hey guys. I was just curious about the installation of a body kit, in general. Does the whole car need to be repainted in order for a body kit to be installed, or can the parts be purchased and painted separately? Anyways, i've been thinking about installing a body kit, but i wasn't sure how much the painting would cost on top of the cost for the actual kit itself.
Thanks

 

Everything done 3K... give or take kit and quality of paint

 

Only the aftermarket kit needs to be painted. You can repaint the entire car, but that's just a waste of money, unless you're getting a different color than what you already have.

 

OP, how old are you?

 

https://my350z.com/forum/6592178-post113.html

this answers that question

 

Threads like these are the the direct result of the depreciating value of the z33. Affordable car + minimum wage ricer = Tragedy.

 

 

You don't deserve a *****.

 

Chassis code:

z31: 300zx 1984-89
z32: 300zx 1990-96
z33: 350z 2003-2008

 

Dude, don't mean to rag on ya but google it next time. Google tells you everything about life.

 

K so lets talk common sense.

All paint jobs from the factory are gonna have orange peel, but it is average to minimal due to the very fine mist put out by the factory equipment and consisency of the robots. Now if you take your parts to a painter there will likely be orange peel as well, how bad will depend on the painter. The orange peel will likely be worse than what is already on your car and it will likely stand out. So to cure this they will cut and buff the body kit, which will get rid of the orange peel. So if you go this route chances are you will have a nice smooth paint job on your body kit that wont quite match the rest of your car. Which i guess for most non painters is good enough. But i can tell.

If you have a pearl paint job such as my car, you could go through enough paint, time, and money painting the add on parts to match the pearl flow from the factory to where you are probably gonna be better off just getting the whole care painted. It takes a lot of trial and error to match the paint flow and color shift from the factory. Its just the nature of the beast when it comes to pearl paints, which is why i will likely go with a CF body kit. No painting involved.

So to asnwer your question, they best way to do it would be to re-paint the vehicle with the body kit and everything installed on it. If you have a basic color to include metalics, you can just go with a base/clear and pay a little extra for additional coats of clear say 4-6. Then have the body shop cut & buff the paint job. That is going to give you the best results. Guaranteed to come out better looking than anything coming out of most factories.

But if you go they way mot everyone else does which is just paint the body parts only, then make sure to have your painter paint the parts while mounted on your car. For basic paints expecially metalics you can tell by the paint flow, say on like a door, weather it was painted in its natural position or if it was painted on a flat surface. Paint spreads and settles accordingly. Again might not be niticeable by some but screams out "hey look at me" to others.

Remember when it comes to paint/labor/skill you get what you pay for.

 

z34: 370z 2009+

 

Well it doenst really need to be a show car to have this done. Its just a way of doing things if you want the most bang for your buck. You can usually find places around town that are willing to do this for you at a decent price. Thats what i would do for my car if I was in that boat but there are other things im doing to it that take presidence over a body kit for now.

 

and just for those that wondered:

S30: 240Z, 260Z, 280Z 1969-1978
S130: 280ZX 1979-1983
Z31: 300ZX 1984-89
Z32: 300ZX 1990-96
Z33: 350Z 2003-2008
Z34: 370Z 2009+

 

hmm, i wonder why the older ones didn't have a Z chassis but were still a Z

 

to add to lottness:

the answer to your questions also depends a lot on what exactly you are doing really... if you're just looking to make the car look right enough to not be embarrassed or the like you only need to paint the body kit... and depending on the kit it can cost anywhere from $1000 to $6000(like mine ) just for the kit. Now... if you are fairly picky you'll want to at least blend the colors in to the rest of your car. On the highly technical side the only way to make your body kit and your car match is to paint everything all at once, due to the slight change in color due to oxidization and spray angle and gravity the colors will be different no matter how well matched the actual paint is (ie you use stock paint code to paint it a stock color). so..... yeah... depends on a lot of things, you're price can be anywhere from $1000 to paint a pretty simple body kit to match your car pretty close. Or you could paint the kit a completely different color and that can look really neat too... to $10000 for a really intricate kit with full interior, engine compartment, and exterior paint job with high quality paints and such.... and i agree completely with lottness... you really are better off in the long run getting the whole car painted.. unless of course you're going to make the kit a different color than the rest f the car... then do whatever you want