Quote:

Oyevayboy,

I too came over from the NastyZ28 site back when the original thread was at around page 21. Boy, they STILL say this is a crappy way to paint a car over there, don't they?




Sadly not everyone is blessed with gobs of cash in the bank to toss into the ultimate pimp makeover of their ride. And also unfortunately there are elitest snobs that would consider this painting method to be sacrilege on a car. But I have never tried to let purist dictate what I do with my rides...

I have a 91 Mustang Cobra - but I dropped the charcoal leather interior from a 2005 Mustang in to it. Purist cry that it is 'not original' - but I happen to like the charcoal leather... so I ignore them. I even went a step further at irritating the 'purist' by dropping a Saleen Mustang leather backseat into that car.

My 88 Mclaren Mustang is a genuine limited edition car ( not just a badge that says so ). The 'original' McLaren Recarro's were totally destroyed by the previous owner - dried up, cracked, holes and foam missing). To remain 'true' to the marque, I would have had to spend about $2000 to replace the seats with original replacements. So I found a 'Mercury Mountaineer' set of light gray leather seats from a 2006 Mountaineer that had been wrecked with less then 550 miles on it. The seats were mint and almost identical in appearance to the Mclaren hight bucket. So I dropped them into the McLaren at the bargain price of $50 EACH ! My bum can't tell the difference, but McLaren 'purist' would cry and hold crosses in the air when they see what sacrilege I have done

My 84 Firebird TransAM also went through a similar transformation, using the tan leather interior from a 2006 TransAm, the spoiler from a 91 Camaro, the GTA body parts of a 1990 etc etc. Purist cry... but the car looks great, feels great and is built to please me.. not them.

The only thing I will say about elitist is that sometimes their quest to be purist or true to their marque is at the expense of their pocket book. So they will drop $5000 on a paint job so that their snobby purist friends won't frown on their paint job or to get some kind of boasting rights about how much they paid for their paint job.

But a funny thing just struck me... they are called the NastyZ28's ? I wonder how they feel about the fact that the 'same year' Firebirds were the more premium cars - just as the Cuda is the richer mans version of the Challenger. If there is any snobbier allowed, then it really should go to the Cuda and Firebird guys... since they were the upper scale or more premium cars ?

Dunno... but with most world economies in financial trouble at this time, and the economic crunch reaching down in to everyone's budget... I guess the best laugh you can have at any snob who wants to put down a 'roll you own' paint job is this :

Two guys have Z28's. Both cars are in identical need for a paint job. One guy rolls his own paint job and spends about $250 on paint, supplies and equipment - the other guy spends $5000 at the pro paint shop.

In the end you have a pleasant to look at $250 freshly painted Z28 and a lovely showroom quality painted Z28. One of these drivers still has $4750 left to buy some engine performance parts or to buy a ton of gasoline...

When you get down to the economics of 'rolliing your own' compared to sending the car off to a pro-paint and body shop... well I think I would prefer to have that extra cash in MY pocket to do with what I want...

.