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V1 Ark's City Goblin #187 (2008 SS/TC donor)

Ark :D
This part is always super-tedious and is, by far, the worst part of the driving offseason as it relates to the car. I went from not minding it much at the beginning, to really minding it now. Makes my whole upper body sore. :mad:

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But hey, at least I'm legal for another year!

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pisco
Ark :D said:
Yes, I change the color of the car every year, pretty much.
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If you don't mind me asking what do you pay for a wrap? What would you consider a "reasonable" price?
Locally I was quoted $1800 for just the hood in a solid color and I am not ok with that!
For that money I'll go with paint I guess or attempt a diy wrap.
 
Ark :D
pisco said:
If you don't mind me asking what do you pay for a wrap? What would you consider a "reasonable" price?
Locally I was quoted $1800 for just the hood in a solid color and I am not ok with that!
For that money I'll go with paint I guess or attempt a diy wrap.
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I don't wrap my car. I spend between $200 and $400 to re-do the plastidip coating.

$1800 for wrapping just the hood is highway robbery. Wrapping the hood is very tricky but you could wrap it yourself for less than $200. I'd pay no more than like, $1000 for a wrap job on a Goblin, including the engine cover.
 
pisco
Ark :D said:
I don't wrap my car. I spend between $200 and $400 to re-do the plastidip coating.

$1800 for wrapping just the hood is highway robbery. Wrapping the hood is very tricky but you could wrap it yourself for less than $200. I'd pay no more than like, $1000 for a wrap job on a Goblin, including the engine cover.
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I agree when I spoke to them I expected $400-$800 for hood and sides, engine cover maybe bringing it to the $1k range.
They said $2300 for hood and sides and $1800 for just hood, granted I only called one shop so far.
Plastidip sounds like a good option and one I hadn't considered.
 
Ark :D
pisco said:
I agree when I spoke to them I expected $400-$800 for hood and sides, engine cover maybe bringing it to the $1k range.
They said $2300 for hood and sides and $1800 for just hood, granted I only called one shop so far.
Plastidip sounds like a good option and one I hadn't considered.
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Dipping the car is quite easy. The sprayer represents an added up-front cost, but I've used the same sprayer since I built the car in 2020 and it still works great. It's very newbie-friendly, but it definitely has some quirks you can only learn by doing (and screwing up). But really, if you can paint with a compressor and spray gun, you can use plastidip.
 
Rttoys
Ark :D said:
I was quoted $2k when I looked into getting it done.
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ToxicBill and I were talking about it at autocross yesterday. I think he said his was $250 to custom wrap. I just looked at my notes and I have $700 in mine, but it was one wrap that didn’t work real well (cheap product), then I had a body guy cover the windshield mount holes and smooth out imperfection in the fiberglass hood, then wrap it how it is now, with 3M carbon fiber look. That was mid 2020 prices for me and 2022 for Brett and bill.
 
Ark :D
I think all that proves is that it varies widely, town to town, state to state, coast to coast. The people I had quote mine didn't even bother to see the car in person, they looked at a few photos and whipped up a quote for $2k. Kinda crazy.
 
Desert Sasqwatch
I would think that some places just don't want to do the 'small' jobs like a Goblin and only want the 'big' jobs like a truck or expensive exotic car - so they quote a ridiculous price hoping you will go somewhere else. :(
 
Ark :D
That's a great price and I'd definitely have it wrapped for that cost. Changing the color of the car every year is wearing on me a little bit but I still like being able to do it.
 
Markm
I priced the wife’s Goblin and got a quote of 1100 from two different places, both a custom print. The one place was a custom print and drop off the car and also suggested a squishy type of marine flooring for the inside of the side panels to cut down noise, apparently they do this for sxs too. The second quote was bringing them all the panels off the car and just regular wrap for the inside of the side panels. Quoted hood, side panels and engine cover.
 
Ark :D
I just finished wrapping up the offseason stuff, including the new look for 2025. I really like it. The color is called Phoenix and it shifts from red, through orange, to yellow, depending on the angle.

Pardon the blurry right edge of the photos. I think my phone camera has seen better days.

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Aside from the color change, I only did maintenance items and a few other small things:
  • New wheels. They're basically the same wheels as before, but gloss black. I was just going to powder-coat the old ones, but then I found these on sale and the price was actually a little less for four news ones than it would have been to powder-coat the old ones. Score!
  • Changed out the dash and courtesy lighting to a neutral color: white. They were blue before, to go with the dip job.
  • Re-did my backup camera. It's higher-res now (1080P) and no longer needs an HDMI adapter.
  • New turbo intercooler pump: I found out at some point that it stopped pumpin'. It turns out the pump was good, as were the fuses, but I still didn't have 12v on the + pump wire. I gave up and ran a new + to an unused 10-amp fuse. Maybe one day I'll dig deeper and find the problem but.... probably not.
  • New ATV-style bar clamp phone holder and cup holder. Never again will I suction-cup anything to the windshield. It makes a mess eventually.
Next year's color will be..........
 
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