Painting Deluxe Pallet Kit

[Thoroughbred]

Has anyone of you had your car painted by Unique, (the Deluxe Pallet Kit) prior to shipping? Is it difficult to finish the car if ordered this way? How hard would it be to wire etc. I am trying to form my plan of attack and any words of advise would be appreciated.

[weaver]

I would say 3 out of every 5 kits we sell leave painted, I would also say that most people who have their cars painted locally wish they had gone the other route. We even have trouble with our painter at times, most shops are going to put insurance jobs ahead of a paint job and that can add months to wait. My guy takes about 4 weeks while some customers report their shop takes several months. You will pay the same if not more so why take on the hassel. I am sending a painted kit out soon to a customer who is installing his alumiunum 427, with the hood removed it should go in without a problem, it will be tight but it will go. We are still running our DPK with some incentives but it will run out soon, are you getting close.

Thanks,
Alan

[cal.cheesehead]

T-bred. My dpk was delivered in Feb of 09. I delivered the body to the painter in May. This guy had great reputation. It came out great. However I did not get it back until Mid November. I did tell him I was not in a hurry because of the license issues here in Cal. Regardless, unless you know someone personally, I would consider having the car delivered painted. Good luck.
Tom

[Aggressor]

I scheduled with my paint shop months in advance. I "Guaranteed" that I would drop off the body on a "hard and fast" delivery date of July 1,2001. On that specified morning I arrived early and turned over custody to the shop. October 15, 2001, out of frustration, I picked up my body and brough it back home. No work had occurred in the 3 1/2 months I waited. My wife and I painted our car - which we found is difficult and very costly for the amateur.

I understand why many customers have the Weavers do their body prep and paint. From several visits to their facility I can say that I have personally seen many finely finished cars waiting delivery.

- Geary

[twanita]

i used bruce bunn in atlanta a few years ago and the paint job looks just as good today as when he finished it. not sure if he still does this but he picked the body up at unique and brought it back and unique mounted it and shipped the whole dpk to me in boston. i would go with a painter that has done several uniques because there are ideosyncracies that the average body shop won't know about and they will marry the job like the guys have said.

[Thoroughbred]

Thanks for the feedback guys. It looks like a good way to go. Is it possible to wire the car with the body on or should it be removed? Does the car still have to be disassembled? What is the cost of painting through Unique?

Thanks,
Gordon

[Slither]

You'll need to get with the Weavers to determine the painting costs, since it depends on a number of factors.

Also, consider shipping your drivetrain components to them, and they can install them so that you do not need to remove the painted body once you receive your car. And it will save a ton of time to have that sorted out. Good luck!

[Ric S.]

Gordon,

I have the DPK and Unique sent mine out for paint. No regrets here. I did the finish with the body on. Wiring was not too difficult. You are under the car quite a bit but I now know every inch of the car. I would suggest you tape the corners, side pipes and fender openings and such as they will get "touched" from time to time. The other concern was not having space to have the frame and body off at the same time. Garage build for me.

Hope this helps.

Ric

[diegokid]

I have a brother who is a great painter. He has also had my car for six months, I'm going to pick it up and pay someone else to paint it for me since I'm tired of waiting. Hindsight is 20/20, not only with paint, just be careful when finishing already painted.

Since the Fairlane may be my next project maybe I need to learn how to paint so I don't have to depend on other people.

[diegokid]

Really wish I knew how to do paint and body know, the daughter hit a deer last night. Was a big buck, I didn't see the deer but the piece of horn in the door was a dead giveaway.

[RJacobsen]

Really wish I knew how to do paint and body know, the daughter hit a deer last night. Was a big buck, I didn't see the deer but the piece of horn in the door was a dead giveaway.

Did my deer hunting in Montana with an Olds Sillouette mini van, got a big buck with it. kind of an expensive way to hunt though

[diegokid]

I stopped to thank the man who helped my daughter out yesterday he owns one of the local buisnesses here. He found the deer, one antler was broken off the other had 4 points so my daughter killed her first 8point!

[289/271]

May be a little late in replying, but for what it's worth, my DPK was painted by Unique's painter and delivered to me in Nov. 2009 with the engine and trans. also installed by Unique while the body was in the paint shop. The color is Viking blue with a red stripe and it looks great. As others have pointed out, care must be taken during the finishing of the car to avoid dinging the paint, but these are not cheap cars, so you're going to be very careful anyway...right? I would suggest drilling through masking tape for the wiring harness holes...it lessens the chances of chips. I have not had any real problems finishing the car with the body on the frame. I estimate the time saved by doing it this way is at least 50% and maybe more. The car was in the paint shop about a month, but I expect this time could vary depending on how busy the painter is at the time of scheduling your job. The cost through Unique was very close to estimates I had gotten locally (central Florida) and I didn't have the problem of hauling the body around. I think it was a good decision.