To Paint or not to Paint?

B6/7 S4/RS4
#1

It’s getting close to getting my car back and I’m making plans for making it look better on the outside. Some of the things I will be adding to my car will be relak carbon fiber side skirts:

http://www.relakhq.com/images/1332114006252779417997.jpeg

Euro Gear carbon fiber door blades:

http://www.audizine.com/gallery/data/500/0096.JPG

And ocarbon pillars:

http://nickscarblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/IMG_0401.jpg

Now, what do I do with the paint? The hood has the usual 100 chips in the front and there are some small issues here and there as you walk around the car. Don’t get me wrong, I love how it looks in black, but I think this is the chance to do something awesome with it. I’m really into going with a flat color. Flat black, dark gray, orange, red, or light blue would be my favorite choices. Part of me then wants to go the most permanent route and just get it painted but then part of me just wants to plastidip the whole car so I can easuly change it if I don’t like it, or if I just want a change a year from now or something. I’ve seen a couple fully plastidipped cars and wasn’t that impressed with all the orange peel. I do feel like they may have just done a shitty job though and I’ve since heard that putting the paint bottles in warm water allows for the plastidip to settle more evenly. There is then also the option of wrapping the car which lasts longer than plastidip, but I think I would need to repair all of the chips, nicks, and scratches anyways unless I want to see the imperfections in the wrap. Can anyone confirm? I also plan on dipping the trim in black and probably doing something with the chrome mirrors. I don’t want any chrome showing. Thanks again in advance for the feedback.

#2

You will really like the Relak side skirts. I have them on my car and they look really good. I did use a few additional zip screw to secure them as the supplied hardware just didn’t quite do it.

If the B-pillars between the B6 and B7 are the same, I have a set from OCarbon I never installed and never will. You can have them for $325 shipped (I paid $350) and get them right away instead of waiting 6 months like everyone else and dealing with “customer service”. Matt does great work but his turn around time is notoriously slow, and that was my experience with him too. Also, I never received my cf license plate delete that he said he shipped so I ended up eating that.

Don’t plastidip the whole car. I’ve seen a few examples too and thought they looked subpar. Wraps would be better if that is what you like. If it were me, as I don’t like the “flat” look, I would just respray the original color.

BTW, what is the color of the car now?

#3

It’s just the oem gloss black. Not sure of the actual name.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/01/28/azuganes.jpg

Thanks for the offer on the pillars. I may take you up on that, I’ll get back to you about em. I’ve heard the same things about ocarbon as well, amazing work, just takes too long.

#4

I agree with you completely about the relak side skirts too. I saw them on a red B7 Avant and couldn’t help but but stare at it for like 30 minutes. I felt like the contrast between the black side skirts and red paint was hugely contributing to how nice they looked.

#5

Yep. Those relak skirts are very nice. I damn sure would be rocking a set on a b6/7. Have seen a b6 imola s4 avant with them, hatch spoiler and bpillars in cf. Looked amazing IMO.

As far as wrap, you are correct in that to look best the chips need to be filled / repaired in order not to be evident under the wrap.

#6

Dip it. I had my hood stripped and refinished, within a couple months it had already started getting rock chips. SLC has terribly shit dirty roads so i figured that is just the way it is living here. But then I had my car dipped, since then it has not got one rock chip on the hood. Imo, that is the best part about dip!

#7

I would do vinyl. Dip is ghetto

#8

those door blades are butt ugly…dont paint…just take them off.

#9

Are you referring to door blades in general or the cf set? I don’t have the cf set and I think the door blades on this car are one of the features that sets it apart from other cars not to mention one of the reasons I love the look of it.

#10

He probably meant the color contrast if you leave them I painted on red or blue.

Don’t worry about him, he was trolling AR and he has an RS4. Door blades look great, I’d skip the CF though.

#11

So you think I should leave them the same color as the car? I think that may be the best way to go actually, but for some reason I’ve always wanted to see some contrast there; like a graphite color on a black car or if the car was a graphite have them black. I feel like if it’s done right it could look really good but I’d have to see it to make the best judgment. I’ve been debating the CF door blades for a little bit especially after looking at them on the blue car more closely. I’m basically over that now but I still kind of want to do something with them.

#12

I just dont like door blades. I am not sure but do the ones that come on a RS4 fit on a S4?

#13

I’m partial to a dark gray or carbon in matte finish.