Micropaint review
So I haven't found a ton of threads on these guys on Beyond.. so I took a bit of a leap of faith and decided to try them out.
I had a TON of rock chips on my E36's nose and hood. Big ones, that the PO did a pretty nasty job of trying to touch up. My daily driven E36 M3 isn't a garage queen, so a total front end respray was not required. So I decided to take the plunge and give Micropaint on Forge Rd (MPS) a shot.
They are pretty clear in terms of what they can do. Kelly from there reiterated many times to me that it's a "60% solution". I believe this is due to many customers in the past expecting perfection, not getting it, and then getting mad. I, on the other hand, am fine with 60% as that's what I expect to pay for.
My initial quote was about $460 for the front bumper, hood, nose plate, and some PDR. When I went back to book, I was somewhat disappointed that the bumper could not be included at the $460 quote. In the end, there is nothing they can do with the bumper, as with a lot of our ABS bumpers, they have been essentially sandblasted by Deerfoot. So again, managing my expectations, he just explained it was out of the realm of their abilities. So that's OK to me.
In the end, he had a brutal time trying to remove the PO's previous OEM touch up paint (word of advice; don't use touchup paint unless you're very accurate. Otherwise just go here). It ended up taking double the amount of time required, and my car was there for two days. My quote was not inflated because of this, which I appreciated.
In the end, after tax, it came to $500. The job does look like 60%. The rock chips have been filled to approximately half their existing relief, but the colour is dead on. From a few feet away you can't even see them. You really need to scrutinize them in the sun to see the chips. In the end I am really pleased with it, and feel that my expectations were met and my goal of covering up the existing rock chips to protect the body work was met. They put a ton of extra work in, including taking out a nasty dent in my hood. They gave the car a little polish after. I still need to take my PC to it, but it was a nice sentiment.
The other option here is the 100% solution, which is to have a front end respray. I have had quotes all over the map on this. But in the end, it was just an E36 M3. I'd rather put the extra money to sways or something. So it worked out.
So things to take away.. if you have concerns about exposed bodywork, I would definitely go here. I would also completely avoid using touch up paint. It never looks good (especially on extreme colours like red, blue, etc.) and is nearly impossible to remove properly as I found out from the Micropaint guys. I'd say just take your car here once a year. You could probably get in for cheaper than I did given that my car was so much extra work for them.
AND.. it looks good in photos, aka win
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