Paint Job - Partial or Full car?

[Ocean View]

The paint on my 96' W210 is starting to fade but only on the roof and the hood. The color is black (040) and the sun has been damaging to it.
Paint on the sides of the car is in good shape.
I have been delaying painting the car because I thought in time the rest of the paint will also fade and I could just get the whole car painted at once.
Well that hasn't happened.

I fear that if I just paint the sections, the rest of the car may not look the same or it may fade at a later time and will require paint as well.
I hate the thought of painting a MB. But the lack of shine is showing its age.

So what should I do?
Paint the entire car or just paint the 2 panels that are fading?
Also, will this reduce the value of the car any?

[Hatterasguy]

Bring to a good body shop and see what they say. Any good body shop should be able to make it go away.

Kind of surprised that such a new car is fading, how often do you wax it?

[Ocean View]

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Bring to a good body shop and see what they say. Any good body shop should be able to make it go away.

Kind of surprised that such a new car is fading, how often do you wax it?

I am suprised as well but having a black car sit outside in the sun does tax any good paint job.
I wax about every 2 months.
It does help bring back the shine but I still notice it.

[Pete Geither]

It should be able to address the affected areas and not paint the whole car. Black is usually pretty match friendly and if the other panels are not affected, they should be able to be brought up to new shine finish.

[deanyel]

You're into one of the great tough calls. I would probably patch assuming you don't have any paint work on the unfaded sides. 040 black is single stage urethane, at least originally, and fairly easy to finese to a particular surface and shine. Color match is easy - 040 is true black, nothing whatsoever to add to the base. Get the shop to commit to quality single stage paint and a visual match with the rest of the car, which is probably not perfectly smooth.

[halman2228]

on the 280SEL (son backed into a tree by the driveway) on the left rear quarter. Really looks good although you can tell if you pay attention (anthracite - 22 years of Houston UV even affects the side/vertical panels.

A good shop can blend it/yours in pretty easily and only a really good P & B guy/gal would ever know and only then with with very up close scrutiny. You might ask them/pay for claying the parts they don't respray.

The blending would occur along the adjoining panels - chances are you have enough UV damage on those horizontal to vertical areas anyway (top of fender, etc.) .

Worst case scenario is it just can't be blended well enough and it goes back in the spray booth a 2nd time to do the rest.

I'd try Plan A then drop back five & punt (Plan B - a 2nd respray) if you just don't like the first try.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Kevin