I am looking to sell my 96 Z28, but I'm wondering if I should paint it before I sell it. The nose had some damage which I tried to repair myself, but the paint on it does not match at all. So I was wondering if the $300 Maaco special would bring up the resale up 300+ dollars and make it worth it. There are few other small blemishes, like where the clear coat is coming off by the window, but nose is by far the worst. I wouldn't be driving the car for more than a month after the paint job, so i'm not worried about it flaking, I'm just wondering if it would bring up the resale value enough to warrent it. Or, I could just put the bra back on and hope nobody looks, like they did to me when I bought it...

 

IMO the $300 special won't look any better than what you have. But there's all kinds of variables involved; you never know some of those Maaco guys out there know what they're doing and can make $300 worth of paint look like it cost more, but overall you get what you pay for. I would shop around and get some in-person estimates, you might be better off just having the clear taken off, one shot of your original color, then clearcoated, provided the paint underneath is in decent shape.

 

I would never buy a car that had been cheaply repainted. the money is in the prep work. If you remove all the trim, lights, spoiler, mirrors, emblems, bumpercovers and other odds-n-ends before taking it to have it painted, it might come out OK. BUT I would never just let them mask off the trim and paint it. You'll end up with little paint seams everywhere.

Also make sure they put on lots of clearcoat so you can wetsand the crap out of it before buffing it up nice.

And, the bumper covers require special flexable paint so they dont crack when flexing. They should also be chemically stripped before painting so they old paint doesnt promote cracking.

If you take a weekend and remove all the misc. body pieces I mentioned and strip the bumper covers yourself you might be able to get a shop to do the rest for $1000 and get a decent paintjob out of it. Anything less may just be a turn-off for a potential buyer. You could wet sand and buff it yourself too and save money, but it doesnt sound like you are looking to put any effort into it.