Michigan Viper Owners - Paint Shop / Paint Correction Recommendation

rchamart

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Hi Guys, new Viper Owner here. Picked this Beauty up with 18.7K miles on it last year, finally did my first handwash yesterday, and I went a little ham with what I thought was a bug with the pressure washer, but instead it turned out that I hit a paint blister :(. Huge bummer, it's been a downer all day today.

I'm attaching pics of the car, and the blister. Looks like I took out some clear coat, and a tiny bit of paint. Car is in really good shape otherwise, and you can kind of see how that broken clear / paint spot is hardly visible from even a small distance. That said I'd love to get some good paint shop recommendations / estimates on what you guys think this will cost to fix. Thanks so much!!!!

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TexasViper35

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If it were a true 25 year old blister wouldn’t it have shown itself long ago? Maybe you power washed an earlier repair out? But with 18,000 careful miles and hand washings perhaps not, maybe it was a blister. Who knows?

Your photos are not that clear on my old iPhone, but it looks like the area around the defects is dull, a spray washer wouldn’t do that. Before you go overboard try buffing that area by hand with Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound (about $10-$12) and see if it shines up. If it does then those two tiny defects can be addressed if you use the instructions in the attached videos, and take your time!

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I would think that trying to paint a small area of that hood and “successfully” blending it would be troublesome. Painting the entire hood would be a minimum of $700 - $1,000 I would guesstimate; take it to your Dodge dealer for a real estimate.

It doesn’t look that bad and you should not feel responsible, I’ve never heard of a paint bubble on a car this old and your power wash is really standard stuff.
 

GTSnake

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I would just do a touch up and not stress too much. If you drive it you will get more dings at some point anyway.
 

Paul Choukourian

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I am in Michigan too. Birmingham to be specific. I have a 2000 RT/10 with a few blemishes that I am going to take to get paint corrected. I have a good friend with an incredible car collection including pebble beach, Amelia Island show cars etc. He is insanely anal and really likes Tim from Complete Body and Paint in Wayne, MI on Michigan Avenue. Small place. (734)968-4135. I am taking my Viper to Tim in a few weeks. Let’s connect if you are local.
 
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rchamart

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I am in Michigan too. Birmingham to be specific. I have a 2000 RT/10 with a few blemishes that I am going to take to get paint corrected. I have a good friend with an incredible car collection including pebble beach, Amelia Island show cars etc. He is insanely anal and really likes Tim from Complete Body and Paint in Wayne, MI on Michigan Avenue. Small place. (734)968-4135. I am taking my Viper to Tim in a few weeks. Let’s connect if you are local.


Paul lets connect, I couldn't figure out how to dm you on this forum, but I'm right down the road in Royal Oak. I'd love to make some more local Viper friends, and I am incredibly down for that. I am super super picky, and pretty OCD as well, so that's why I've been pretty bummed about this. Gonna have Motor City Auto Spa in Royal Oak take a look at it too this weekend, but I'd rather even pay 300 - 400 and have it touched up properly, than have someone that has never dealt with cars like these touch it.

I'm good with the other rock chips on the hood. It's a car that's been driven after all, but I just moved so I'm not exactly jonesing to pay for a hood repaint rn. Much better with a quality touch up I reckon.
 

GTSnake

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If I see you guys out on Woodward I'll be the one in the Red GTS in front of a cop with lights flashing.
 
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rchamart

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Hell ya, I'm down for that, and nice to meet you Steve.

Also to wrap up my paint saga, I'm having Motor City Auto Spa touch up that spot, and do a full detail and paint correction on the car too. Took the car over to them Saturday for an estimate, and appraisal. Pretty good price, it won't be perfect, but it should be pretty good. Earliest appointment was in July, so I'll just have to live with it till then. They're doing my buddy's 91' NSX too, so in good company. I've heard good things about the place.

Might have to splurge for the front end xpel protection film next year tho :)
 

GTSnake

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I'm interested to know what they can do with the paint chip and how much that Xpel costs. I tried finding a window film installer around here but haven't found any.
 
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rchamart

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And its complete, I highly recommend Tim as Paul Mentioned
 

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rchamart

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He's just a body shop, so, so far just the touch ups. Full Detail is scheduled for early August, I might just do the PPF next year.
 
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