355 Colour Change?

Newbie alert. Apologies, I know there have been some threads on this over the years. I wanted a contemporary opinion.

I’m thinking of pulling the trigger on a 355 GTS. Ticks all the boxes at a price within reach. Except one. It’s Corsa Red. Although it’s a great colour, I’m a bit of an introvert and may feel too self conscious. My ideal colour would be Argento Nurburgring or Blu Tour de France.

Options include a vinyl wrap (circa £5k), paint protection spray with colour change (circa £10k) or formal respray (circa £12k+).

Would be grateful for any advice the community could give.

 

your car, do what you want…but be prepared to affect the value. eg if you respray you will take a double hit as you will loose at least what the respray cost you.

anything else you need confidence it wont damage the paint. else again you will loose more!

market is very sensitive to non oem changes.

you will attract attention no matter what colour, and if that isn’t comfortable then maybe not the car for you.

 

Currently have a Grigio Silverstone FF. Love it. But it’s time to move on. The 355 is on the bucket list!

There is another car available in the “perfect” colour combination about £10k cheaper but with an F1 gearbox. Nothing against this at all. I’ve driven both F1 and manual, but a gated manual is a personal preference.

I’ve read the threads on F1 to manual conversion but sounds like parts are getting harder/impossible to find. That and labour costs for conversion would head into £20k to £30k I’m guessing.

A penny for your thoughts.

 

I know of a blu manual GTS with carbon bucket seats for sale.

 

You could change the color, but it's still a Ferrari F355. People might remark you while you'll driving it, whatever color it will be
The only good reason to change the color is because you don't like it, otherwise keep it!

 

What year is it?

 

It's a 95. 2.7 car RoW spec.

Blu Le Mans on Blu scuro interior
Carbon seats
Manual of course

Currently going through a deep restorative engine out.
Compression test just done before we start and all good across the board.

All suspension bushings and components being refreshed as well.

DM if you're serious and aware of comparable sales.

 

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OP, I would wait for a car in a color you like. Will be far cheaper in the end than a wrap or a respray. I would not consider a color change -- if anything, do a wrap.

 

I'm about to do this. You get to a point in life where you want what you want. While conventional thinking is typically to buy the color you want, there just aren't many F355 2.7 Berlinettas in my color of choice. Besides, there are lots of older color change Ferraris (Daytonas/Dinos). I think it's more commonplace in the Ferrari world than say the Porsche world. My only worry is removal of the rear glass.

 

With a color change on a Ferrari, more often than not, you are paying to devalue your car and even more so if the paint job isn’t great, which is always a risk. You’re better off simply paying more for the car in the color you want.

 

I think it also depends on the color you're painting the car. In my case, it will be TDF Blue. I've never seen a 2.7 Berlinetta in that color. I'm sure there are some, but it may be 20 years before I find one. And then what will it cost? I'm not planning to sell my car and it's completely sorted so it makes sense for me.

 

TDF was introduced in 97 and most prevalent in 98-99 355s. There are no TDF 2.7’s.

 

No wonder I could never find one. Well, there will be one soon......

 

Blu Swaters and Le Mans are the most prevalent blues between 95-97 355s. TDF became the most prevalent blue in 355’s in 98-99.

I would document the hell out of the paint process and I would pay no less than $20k for the paint job.

 

I would be very interested in that. Provided I can afford it!! Please would you be able to share the details?

 

Agreed Ken. And you're right in the ballpark on cost.

 

Rookie mistake! I just realised you're in North America. That beauty looks to be the "unicorn", but sadly too far away from me in the UK.

 

This is a really good point I had not considered. The curved rear glass is a piece of art and I imaging would be very easy to damage and re-fit badly. Would be a issue with any mode of colour of change.

 

Repaint in a different color is a wast of money unless you do a bare metal repaint. And that will cost a lot more than £12k.

 

One of the biggest problems with color changes, IMHO the biggest, is disassembly and reassembly. Prep and paint is pretty straightforward -- it's the same on every car. Strip, primer, block, paint. But disassembly/reassembly is where it gets hard. There is stuff that is half art, half science, like latches, glass, trim, door alignment, etc. I speak with some experience here, as I've done glass-out repaints on a couple of 911's I've restored over the years. I have only ever done this part of the job myself, because in my experience shops cut corners or simply don't know how to do it correctly. Not saying such shops don't exist, but for a 355, there are probably only a few in the country, and you're going to be paying a lot of money to have it done right.

Reassembly is exacting -- it's the difference between a car that feels like it came from the factory and one that reminds you every day some dingbat high on paint fumes put your car back together. I would not respray a 355 unless I was doing this aspect of the work myself or knew a person I could trust to do it right.

 

this Wait for a color you want. I wouldn't even consider a wrap

 

Colour is not going to reduce the "hey look a me" effect driving a Ferrari F355 brings.

 

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