Classic car value

druss71

My 71 charger 500 is its original citrus yella paint color, I'm not the biggest fan of this yellow, and the car is going to need a paint job in the near future. first, should I bother painting her myself? I have the supplies, except I don't think I have the experience to do the entire car. Would it hurt the value to paint her another color?

Michaell

druss71 said:

My 71 charger 500 is its original citrus yella paint color, I'm not the biggest fan of this yellow, and the car is going to need a paint job in the near future. first, should I bother painting her myself? I have the supplies, except I don't think I have the experience to do the entire car. Would it hurt the value to paint her another color?

Let me round up some experts to share their opinions with you....

sb55

druss71 said:

My 71 charger 500 is its original citrus yella paint color, I'm not the biggest fan of this yellow, and the car is going to need a paint job in the near future. first, should I bother painting her myself? I have the supplies, except I don't think I have the experience to do the entire car. Would it hurt the value to paint her another color?

It seems to me that if it is worth some good money now and you may want to sell it in the future, you should have a pro paint it in the original color. If you are going to take it to the grave with you, do whatever will make you happy.

texases

I wouldn't paint it myself, bad paint job will kill the value. As for changing the color, that's a BIG ($$$) job, think about all the places that are yellow now that would need to be changed. I'd either repaint it yellow and keep it, or sell it as-is and buy one the color I wanted.

graphicguy

Plus....it will also be worth more if you keep it the same factory code color it was painted when new.

qbrozen

gotta keep it original. Different color absolutely hurts the value.

texases

Here's a question - how bad is the current paint? It' can be surprising how a good polish job will improve the paint's appearance.

gsemike

Is the car original otherwise? Hagerty only lists a 318 2 barrel with average value of 20.

https://www.hagerty.com/price-guide/1971-Dodge-Charger

I don't know that guide is accurate, but if it's a 20k car, I don't suppose that a 10% deduct would hurt too much if what you really want is a bad [non-permissible content removed] black Charger.

As far as painting it yourself, I'd imagine that most painters start on a grocery getter to get the hang of it before moving up to a classic car. It's very much an art.

Mr_Shiftright

If it's not an R/T, but just a 318 coupe, I don't think a GOOD paint job in another color will affect value. I've seen some very good home-done paintjobs. Sure, you see a bit of dust or orange peel in the paint sometimes but really a paint job is dependent more upon how careful you are with the prep work. If you aren't a patient person, and you can't control the painting environment (that is, build your own plastic shrouded paint booth) it's probably not going to turn out great.

But as others have said, changing the paint color is no mean feat---you have to pull the engine, do the door jambs and trunk and if you don't pull out the glass and interior, it never seems to look right. I think the Charger looks good in yellow. Maybe you could add some black striping? Again, if it isn't an R/T, it's not worth all that much so changing a few things is no big deal. I think you can find clean "driver" quality 1971 Charger 318s for around $12,5K . Add $2.5K or so for a 383.