Can You Change The Color Of Your Car

There are many reasons why you might retrieve about changing the color of your motorcar, truck or SUV but there are a huge number of things you need to know and consider earlier yous embark on this course of action. In this article, I'm going to use my 20+ years of experience in the auto business concern to explain all the pros and cons of respraying or changing the color of a car to help yous decide if you really desire to become down this route. I'm also going to tell you most some easier and cheaper processes yous might desire to consider instead.

1. First consider whether your auto really is worth painting
ii. Do you lot know how much information technology costs to respray a car?
iii. Why do you desire to change your car color?
four. Do you know what'south involved in painting a car?
v. Should you alter the car color or respray the same color?
6. Laws surrounding changing car colors
7. Professional or DIY respray?
8. Yous might demand much more than just paint
9. Proper training is vital
10. What nigh the interior?
xi. Will changing the color assist or hurt your car's value?
12. Means to change your automobile color without pigment
13. How long does information technology take to change your car color?
14. Conclusion

First, consider whether your automobile actually is worth painting

There are lots of things you lot might non like near your car, peculiarly if you lot've had it for quite a while. You might not like the smell inside the motel, the cloth used to comprehend the seats, your damaged alloy wheels, or a worn steering cycle and gear shifter. All those things and more tin be sorted relatively quickly, hands and cheaply, but if y'all don't similar your car'southward color then irresolute the color of your car is in another league entirely.

The first thing you lot have to determine for yourself before you have some other step towards getting whatever car resprayed has to be is it even worth information technology? It'due south non just the sheer cost in terms of dollars and cents you demand to consider. Changing the color of a car is an incredibly big undertaking that should never be taken on until you lot're fully aware of what's involved, and past the fourth dimension you get to the end of this article, you should take a house grasp of the whole subject area.

Just because you accept an old car that'southward non worth much to anyone but you doesn't mean it will be cheaper to pigment. In fact, if you have a car worth less than a couple of m dollars information technology will probably cost more to change the color than the car is worth. And trust me; the money you'll spend changing the color of a car like that is money yous're never ever going to become dorsum.

Even if you have a reasonably new car that's worth tens of thousands of dollars, do you desire to spend the time, coin and endeavor it's going to take if you know information technology's money you'll never come across again? The exception is when you're looking to restore or restomod an sometime automobile. You might accept institute an original 1968 Ford Mustang GT fastback in a barn somewhere that'southward in really bad shape and you want to bring it back to its former glory. Whether you want to return it to its original red or modify it to the archetype Steve McQueen Bullitt light-green doesn't actually affair, it'south yet going to be well worth doing.

Of form, if money is no choice and yous just desire a different colour – perhaps one that wasn't even available from the factory – then by all means get ahead. There are unlimited examples of celebrities and height sportspeople buying incredibly expensive rides and immediately sending them to the body store for a color change, then who are nosotros to question them?

By the way, if y'all'd like to know about some of the very best products, services and companies I've found for buying, selling, and helping with vehicle ownership then please check out my recommended products and services page right here. Too as telling you lot where to go to get the very lowest prices on new and used vehicles, I too encompass finance, insurance, parts, detailing and other stuff also.

Do you lot know how much it costs to respray a car?

You lot might await at the cans of spray paint at the motorcar shop and think that changing the colour of your car wouldn't cost a ton of money, but I hope you that painting a car (properly) is a fourth dimension-consuming and expensive job. You'd be amazed not merely at how expensive the paint itself is, but how much yous actually need might come as something of a shock as well. Retrieve, in that location isn't just the exterior that needs painting considering a proper job involves painting the interior, the trunk, nether the hood and underneath the automobile.

And if you lot are going to have a professional do the entire job from outset to finish y'all as well have to cistron in the massive costs involved with removing all the interior and exterior trim (EVERYTHING!) and so preparing the bodywork for the new paint job.

Changing the colour of a auto will cost you annihilation from a couple of thousand dollars upward, and when I say upwards, the sky really is the limit. If you are having an average size car painted from bare metal up to a show quality finish in an expensive metallic or pearlescent pigment you could easily spend $12,000 or much, much more than. And the bigger the vehicle, the more expensive information technology will exist.

Why do you want to change your car color?

Have you thought deeply and seriously about why you actually desire to change the color of your car? Is the electric current colour so offensive to you that you simply tin't alive with information technology? And if that is the case, why did you buy a car in that color in the starting time identify? If yous bought it with the express intention of irresolute the color and you couldn't accept bought i in a color you like in the first place then that'south fair plenty. Just if y'all merely thought irresolute the color wouldn't be that large of a deal yous really ought to have researched the subject in more depth before buying the machine.

If the pigment isn't in great shape and needs some piece of work to arrive look the way yous want it to, you might remember you may as well change the color if you're going to have to paint the car anyway. If the current color is something you could alive with if it was in amend shape then at that place are much more than affordable ways to go your ride looking sweet without going to the fourth dimension and expense of a respray, and I'll look at those afterwards on.

As I mentioned earlier, restorations and restomods are an entirely different matter and they'll often involve a total paint chore then you might likewise go for the color you lot want if you're going to have to do a total respray anyway.

Do you lot know what'due south involved in painting a machine?

I touched on this earlier, but are you lot sure you really know what's involved with changing the color of a auto? To do the job properly involves a huge corporeality of time and effort – either by you, a body shop or both – and at that place'southward far more to information technology than nearly people have any idea about.

Yous could, if y'all're not bothered about the quality or the way information technology will look, just spray a new color over the one-time one after masking off the lights, grille, windows, etc. Nonetheless, if you lot desire to exercise things properly (which yous should) then the actual spraying of the new color is only a small-scale part of the whole process.

As of trim has to be removed from the outside, the drinking glass needs to be removed or masked off perfectly, the unabridged interior needs removing, the bodywork needs sanding and any impairment needs repairing, and then the whole procedure of applying primer, undercoat, several coats of pigment and finally a clear coat needs to be completed. Every bit if all that's not enough, a really professional person job might as well include finely rubbing down and so polishing the finished paintwork.

Should you change the auto color or respray the same color?

If you absolutely have your center set on an entirely new colour for your car and yous're prepared to pay the substantial cost, then practiced for you and go right ahead. On the other hand, if you liked your motorcar enough to purchase it in the first place in its current color then shouldn't you cease and recall for a moment before you go downwards the route of a colour change?

If the paint is tired and erstwhile there are means to bring it back to life and take it looking like it just came out of the factory for a lot less coin than the price it costs to respray a whole car? Several different processes can be employed to transform the exterior paint on a auto that are massively cheaper than a respray. After all, keeping the current color and making it wait similar new doesn't involve removing all the trim inside and out and painting every part of the metal.

Of course, if you do have to respray the auto you might as well modify the color to ane you similar more than, right? Well, if you are going to become downward to the metal and start again then yes, but if you're going to do what I'd call a part-job then you need to think near a few things first. You lot may be able to get a decent job past painting over the current color, only that's not always a skillful idea if you accept a auto worth anything similar decent money.

When you come up to have a car appraised when you're trading in a dealer won't await kindly on a paint task where in that location'south evidence of the original color on view. The exterior and the visible areas inside the cabin might wait fine, but if at that place are areas in the engine bay or trunk where the original colour is still visible so information technology's going to affect the value.

Respraying the automobile the same color volition avoid those tell-tale signs and help you become a amend resale cost, but I have to point out that someone who knows their stuff will still be able to tell that you've had a respray, even in the same colour.

Laws surrounding changing car colors

It probably won't come as a surprise to anyone that different countries accept very dissimilar laws most notifying the authorities nigh irresolute the color of your car, and in America, it also varies from country to state. As a general rule, it's a good idea to inform the DMV if you change the color of your vehicle even if there isn't a country constabulary legislating for information technology.

Yous'll probably notice at that place is a reference to the color of your car on its registration papers, although it will probably be referenced as a number rather than written equally the verbal color. Your registration papers may say the color is eight or 5 in the color cavalcade rather than something as verbal as "Plum Crazy" or "Go Mango." Even and then, information technology tin can only lead to trouble somewhere down the line if a state of affairs arises where y'all have to produce your documents and your automobile is now a different color from what it says on the registration document.

Yous should also inform your insurance visitor if you change the color of your car. At the very least, your insurance company will probably but be insuring you for the factory pigment to exist repaired if you make a claim, so you could exist left out of pocket if you've changed the color and endeavor to brand a claim when you haven't informed your insurer of the color change in accelerate.

In a worst-instance scenario, we all know how insurance companies like to avoid paying out if they can, don't we? Imagine your machine has been written off and you're making a claim running into the tens of thousands and the insurance company finds out the motorcar you lot're claiming for is supposed to be blue merely is in fact carmine and not blue. While some insurers might non be bothered or might arrange the merits downwardly slightly, at that place are jump to be other companies that will try and refuse the claim completely in those circumstances.

If you do change the color of your auto you lot really should inform the DMV and your insurer merely to be on the safety side.

Professional or DIY respray?

I have to admit that the idea of someone respraying their automobile themself to endeavour and salvage money sounds like a terrible idea, but of form, there will be some people out at that place with the equipment, knowledge and ability to paint cars effectively. If you practice have the training and feel to be able to do a professional-looking paint task on your motorcar and then you have my complete and total admiration, but in most cases, it'south a job that's best left to the professionals.

Fifty-fifty if you're capable of doing minor torso repairs and respraying a modest area to a decent level, changing the color of a car with a total respray is something else completely. Doing your own minor repairs and paint is extremely rewarding and it tin can save you a ton of money if you exercise information technology properly, merely you do need the right grooming and equipment.

At that place'south a comprehensive course available that I've found here that tin can accept yous from being a complete novice to an near professional level of auto trunk and paint repair. Even if you but ever do one relatively small repair with what you larn from the course it volition more than pay for itself, but you could find yous really take to it and end upward fixing all your ain dents, dings, scrapes, scuffs and scratches for years to come. Who knows? You might fifty-fifty end up doing jobs for others and making information technology a bit of a side-hustle, or even a new career could be in the offing!

Around the town where I live at that place'southward a guy with an former BMW three Series that he's patently changed the color of himself. Notwithstanding, he'due south evidently a fan of The Walking Dead or the wider zombie movie genre considering he's pained his automobile matt black and painted things like "Zombie Apocalypse Problems-Out Vehicle" all over information technology. Now that's the kind of machine color change only about anyone could do themself, although I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he tries to trade information technology in i day.

You might need much more than merely pigment

Most people have no idea about how much is involved in painting a car, and if the car is more than a few years erstwhile it could need a lot more than than just some new pigment to produce a professional finish. You only have to watch a few episodes of those motorcar repair or customization shows like Fast Due north Loud to know a lot of unpleasantness and grief could be revealed when you start to respray an old car.

Paint can sometimes be used to hide a multitude of sins, and if you start to remove the existing paint to modify the color of a automobile yous could find rust, filler, or dents and scratches in the metal that take been covered upward by layers of pigment. If you're going to respray a auto to even an acceptable level for most people, all of those imperfections will need attending to and that can go fourth dimension-consuming and very costly.

Proper preparation is vital

The actual spraying on of new paint and clear coat is but a modest part of changing the color of a automobile, and to get a truly professional person finish requires an immense corporeality of training before you can fifty-fifty remember most applying new paint.

Exactly how much training is required will depend on several things such as whether you are painting over the existing paint or removing information technology completely to do a proper job of the highest quality. Either way, there will exist an awful lot of rubbing, sanding and degreasing to exist washed before you fifty-fifty think near seeing new paint applied and who knows how many coats need to be applied earlier you lot tin consider the job finished. And that'southward before nosotros even discuss removing brightwork, mechanicals and other components!

If you lot neglect the training, fifty-fifty the most skilled painter will be unable to go anything close to a showroom end with your exciting new auto color. On the other hand, this whole preparation matter also presents opportunities.

Even if you're going to be entrusting a professional person to do the painting you can save yourself a great deal of money by doing some of the prep piece of work yourself. Once once again, if you check out the LABAP form it will provide you with all the training and information you need to learn how to prep a auto for paint that could easily save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars, depending on how much of the prep you make up one's mind to practise yourself.

What most the interior?

Virtually of what I've covered so far has related to the exterior of the auto, although I accept mentioned the fact that things like carpets, seats, door cards and the dash will accept to be removed to practice a total-blown professional person color-change of your machine. After all, y'all wouldn't want to have a shiny new blue exterior color but go out the onetime cherry-red colour on the inside, would you?

This brings united states to some other affair you demand to consider virtually changing the colour of your car, which is will your new color match the current interior or will you accept to change that also? I'g not talking about the metallic on the inside because I'grand bold you're going to have that washed equally part of the respray. What I'm talking about are all those bits yous're taking out so yous can have the metal painted.

If your automobile has a black interior you lot're probably going to be only fine any color you choose to paint the trunk. Even so, some cars can take some pretty funky-colored interiors that might work well with the original color but might await absolutely hideous with your chosen new colour. Permit's say the car's original color was green and the seats, carpets and door cards are all green too just you lot're changing the color of the car to orange or red? If you like the idea of that sort of color combination then good for you, but I'd like to be that wing on the wall again when you attempt to sell that auto in that kind of color combination somewhere down the line.

If y'all find you're going to accept to modify the interior equally well you might be able to find an erstwhile interior from a billow's k in a color that will become with your new color for a reasonable amount of money. If that's non possible, you might exist able to purchase a new interior or go the one-time 1 recovered. Some leather and vinyl seats and other surfaces can exist painted simply these are specialist processes that are not going to come cheap, although they would work out cheaper than buying a make new interior, of grade.

Will changing the color help or hurt your car'south value?

A fabulous new pigment job could add thousands to the value of an old car, although information technology will depend on the auto equally to whether information technology'southward going to be worth enough in the stop to justify the expense of a colour change. Having your motorcar's paint in top condition volition commonly enhance its value, even if the amount the car is worth in the cease however isn't as much as the color change actually cost you.

However, the bodily colour you choose can play a massive part in the resale value of the car, and not always in a good way. There are enough of colors y'all rarely go wrong with, such as white, gray, black and silver. Unfortunately, those are not the types of colors people more often than not choose when information technology comes to a color change. After all, unless we're talking about a really rare or special vehicle it would probably exist piece of cake to discover 1 in the colour you want to starting time with if nosotros're talking well-nigh white, gray, blackness or silver.

People who alter the colour of a car will often go for brighter colors like lime green, yellow, orange or purple. This is understandable as most cars are not offered in those sorts of colors from the factory, only just considering you lot similar it doesn't mean everyone (or anyone) else volition.

Some cars look swell in these bright colors. It's hard to fault a Dodge Challenger or a Lamborghini Huracan in one of those shades, only would many people be interested in a Canary Yellow or Metallic Lime Dark-green Escalade? Yes, I know there will be someone, somewhere who'll be reading this saying "I would," but good luck finding that one person in a state of 330 million when yous want to sell a Yellow Escalade!

Ways to change your car colour without paint

There are a couple of means you tin change the color of your car without going to the extremes of repainting it, although 1 of them isn't exactly changing the color in terms of going from something like cherry-red to black.

If a car's paint has faded over the years it could be almost unrecognizable from the color it looked when it first rolled off the production line. A automobile that was a brilliant red when information technology was outset painted could now look near like a dull pinkish after decades in the California, Nevada or Arizona dominicus, and there are ways that wearisome pinkish hue can be brought back to its brilliant, sparkling scarlet with some polishing techniques.

Whether this can be washed to your motorcar volition depend on the thickness of the paint on the car to get-go with as these processes involve rubbing away the surface layers and then re-polishing. The professionals who practice this incredible art have non-invasive tools that can tell them exactly how much paint there is on your machine so they tin can say whether the process is suitable for you lot or not. Of course, you can't shine a reddish car to be green or a blackness car to be white, and so these processes cannot bring about a genuine change of color.

There is another process that tin can go much, much further than a simple color change and it doesn't involve any paint so information technology's also completely reversible if you lot ever want to go back to the original color, and that process is vinyl wrapping.

With a vinyl wrap, you lot can absolutely any color you can imagine right upwards to and including a chrome mirror look. You tin go fifty-fifty further with any complex graphics in whatsoever number of colors you tin can think of, so the only limitation on what you tin do with the look of your car will depend on your imagination and your budget.

Fifty-fifty though a vinyl wrap tin be removed, delight keep in heed that removing a vinyl wrap could still leave a lot of piece of work to be done to the original paint to become information technology looking proficient later on being covered in an agglutinative for some length of time. If you try to sell an expensive car with a vinyl wrap, a dealer may hitting y'all hard with a low valuation to take account for the unknown of what may exist beneath the wrap when they become around to removing it. Just every bit pigment tin can be used to cover a multitude of sins, and then can a vinyl wrap to some extent.

Don't be fooled into thinking a vinyl wrap is a cheap manner of irresolute the color of your motorcar though. I used to think that until I started looking into it, and I promise you lot, it isn't. The designing of a graphic or the vinyl itself isn't massively expensive, but applying it to the car is a skilled, time-consuming job that needs a professional to get the desired result.

Trust me, I've had to employ simple vinyl lettering such every bit "Depression Charge per unit Finance Available" to cars in showrooms before, and getting those straight and without creases or bubbles is tough enough. Applying a full wrap to the unabridged bodywork of a car is a chore I wouldn't want to even retrieve about attempting, which is why even a reasonable simple wrap can still run to thousands of dollars.

How long does it accept to change your motorcar colour?

Fifty-fifty applying a vinyl wrap tin take a team of trained professionals a couple of days, and a conventional full-color change with a respray tin can take weeks. To brainstorm with, all the $.25 that are not going to be painted need to be removed, then there'southward whatsoever bodywork training, and then there could be layers of primer and undercoat to be practical.

After that, there will be several layers of pigment at least, and so y'all'll probably have the clear coat to exist applied earlier you start on all the finishing touches of rubbing down, polishing so refitting all the stuff you lot took off and out of the machine to begin with. Oh, and don't forget the time each layer being practical needs to dry out properly before the next layer is put down.

Even a relatively straightforward car color change will take a couple of weeks, but it could take considerably longer. If you tin do without your car for that amount of time and then fair plenty, only don't say you weren't warned. And by the manner, when was the terminal fourth dimension you hired a contractor to do a job for you and they started and finished exactly when they said they would? I'm merely proverb…….

Conclusion

I didn't set out writing this article with the intention of putting you off changing your automobile color, simply I did set out intending to brand anyone thinking of changing the color of their car fully enlightened of only what's involved and what they will be letting themselves in for. I suppose if I was to offer ane piece of advice from my extensive experience of the auto business organization it would be to pay attention to the color of a motorcar before you buy it in the offset place.

I once had an early used Range Rover Sport for sale in my dealership in a colour called Lugano Teal, which I knew would exist a hard sell. To my surprise, we soon had a constabulary officer wanting to purchase it on a four-twelvemonth balloon finance deal to keep the monthly payments manageable.

A couple of weeks afterwards he drove information technology away he came back wanting to swap information technology for something else because his wife couldn't stand the colour and refused to ride in information technology. If you have whatever knowledge of auto finance and the difference betwixt retail and merchandise prices of used vehicles you'll know exactly what I hateful when I say he was seriously upside down on the deal and simply couldn't come up with the money information technology would take to get him out of that automobile.

After that, I always fabricated a big deal of talking to customers near the potential downfalls of unusual colors if they were considering buying that sort of affair. As long equally I made them fully aware, my conscience was clear when they came dorsum in a year or two and found the trade-in value of their motorcar was considerably lower than an identical model in black.

Past the fashion, to larn more than about how much the colour of your auto matters you might want to check out other articles I've written on the subject such as "This is why the Color of Your Auto Matters," "Do Luxury Cars Have Better Paint" and "What Pigment Colors are Best for Hot Weather condition."