Okay, I am starting with an original Ravenna Green 914 but stripping it completely to add factory flares, a large 6-cyl., substantially upgraded suspension and brakes, and a nice interior. I keep going back and forth between leaving it the original RG color (it is the reason that I bought this particular car -- a cool '70s color) and picking a different color like a silver, graphite, or titanium color. Some days I think leave it RG since I like the color and I'm not building it with the thought of resale value. Other days I think that I'd like to "blend in" a little bit better and some other color will allow that and perhaps be a little more classy (or classic).

Anyway, assuming that the color change is done correctly, will the finished car be:

awfully hard to get to most of that metal there.....if you're planning on doing a complete paint change, you should look for a roller in that color or something.

value only matters if you go to sell it.


b

Won't change value with everything else you are doing...

If you keep it stock, keep the color. if you plan to do all that work, paint it whatever you like best.

I have a color changed car, not changed well, and looking to change again, A LOT OF WORK, re thinking changing and going back to the original..

When you start give me a call some time, marginally handy, drink beers and watch real well

QUOTE (d914 @ Nov 13 2005, 05:15 PM)

When you start give me a call some time, marginally handy, drink beers and watch real well

Paint it the color you want..........................

Call me and I'll come over and drink beer with Greg

Bob

QUOTE (BIGKAT_83 @ Nov 13 2005, 01:49 PM)

QUOTE (d914 @ Nov 13 2005, 05:15 PM) When you start give me a call some time, marginally handy, drink beers and watch real well Paint it the color you want.......................... Call me and I'll come over and drink beer with Greg Bob

I agree. I will have a Corona please!

I've been wondering the same. Mine is (adjective) red, and I'm toying w/ going to signal orange - not too great a change.


Send me a beer.

I voted no price difference, but only becuase you said it was a complete color change. If there is any of the old color left on the car anywhere (under the dash, behind the VIN plate, on the underside of the car) then I think it's worth less. But you said complete so I voted no difference. The color doesn't change the price, but the quality of the work will. An half-ass color change will reduce the value.

When I bought mine 2000 ,I thought it was always Black, but when I was putting on new schocks ,From under the car looking up at the top scock mount, WALA
there was signal orange paint. I guess that was a good color change. If everything on the car is orginal and you plan to keep it that way ,keep orginal color. If you are not the sky is the limit. My 2 cents Dave

I voted with Mark but because you said you were going to add flares and a six. Once you get that far into modifying the car I doubt you would lose an additional 10% from a color change.

I also agree with the "complete" comments. That takes a lot of work to do right.

Your car... your color.

I'm weighing a color change on the GT chassis I'm working on now. It's Saturn or Chrome Yellow (not one of my favorite yellows). As much as I love Signal Orange and feel it's the GT color of choice, I'm still struggling with it because I don't want to go to all the work needed to do a complete change (as noted above).

My $0.02

QUOTE (McMark @ Nov 13 2005, 03:43 PM)

I voted no price difference, but only becuase you said it was a complete color change.  If there is any of the old color left on the car anywhere (under the dash, behind the VIN plate, on the underside of the car) then I think it's worth less.  But you said complete so I voted no difference.  The color doesn't change the price, but the quality of the work will.  An half-ass color change will reduce the value.

I voted to leave it Ravenna before I read all the work you had planned.

With that in mind. with McMark

But also with the color selection.... Come on, Ravenna is so cool and so rare! Silver is boring.

although no matter what you do to the car and how well you do it, if the future owner of the car or you request a COA from Porsche, they will list the color as the original.


In that case, i'd say that it would be worth less.

b

If I were the buyer it would definitely be worth less as a color change car.
I have a color change car... My black car was originally signal orange.

when I was 16 I thought orange looked stupid and black with gold wheels and gold lettering was COOL (what did I know I was only 16 then.)

Now after having done a color change car and also after living with a color change car.... I can tell you I will never do one again EVER.

If your dipping the car then MAYBE its ok, to color change. Otherwise its hard to get all of the paint covered. I covered ALL of my signal orange, but as soon as a rock chips the inside of the fender, or the spare tire chips the inside of the trunk, what color do you think shows through.

Its more than covering ALL of the original color. You would literally have to REMOVE all of the original color. Not just the exterior. And you can't sand away or strip away all of the undercarriage and under dash without dipping the whole chassis

when I was looking for the tub to build my vintage car I swore I would not touch one that was color changed. I chose silver, yellow, or orange as the only 3 colors that were acceptable to me and would only accept a tub that was and always had been one of my choosen colors.

this is not to offend anyone out there with a color changed car.
Heck I have one myself.
but it will always (20 years of fighting so far for me) be a constant battle to fight with the original color if you do the change.

If I were looking to buy it from you someday, it would drastically affect the value to me.

I intend to buy another 914 someday. When I do I will enjoy it the color it is or else sell it and look for one in the color I want. MUCH easier to sell and rebuy another car in another color than to change the color of the one you have!

brant

Where I live, I have the only 914 within 500 miles. To find one to restore I was lucky, but it was colour changed from Metalic gold to white to silver to white to white again and then I stripped the whole thing down and painted it chrome yellow. It was alot of work but in the end I had a car I love to drive. Under the front windshield (wiper motor area) I left the original gold to show what it once looked like.
If it wasn't my first 914 I would have left it gold because its original and so rare a colour to see these days. But hey, what did I know, I still love the yellow cause yellow is faster!

I would think any 914 that is orange or ravenna would automatically be worth more, especially if it was original!

You know Toyota Camrys come in nice "normal" colors. Do you want to be associated with them?

give me a call too, or a PM if you do it.

i'll watch too.


b

If you change the color, do it right. I'm planning a color change with a color that looks fabulous. Zambezi Green is the original, which is like "lawn chair green". I have yet to see an episode of "Overhauling" where the original color mattered much.

I was out lookin' at new pickemup trucks yesterday.
These sales types kept asking me what color I wanted.
I sez "don't much give a damn.....except white. I'm gonna buy a truck, not a refrigerator" Naturally, they had white un's and nothin' else.

Paint the thing any color YOU like. Some folks look past the color to see if you did a nice job on the conversion and general condition of the chassis.......unless the POS is white

I ended up with a wierd assed Delphi Metalic Green sumbitch when I bought my 914......cause the chassis was solid & it ran gud.

When I did a color change I chose yellow because:
1) YPAF
2) yellow hides flaws and attracts flying bugs.

QUOTE (rick 918-S @ Nov 13 2005, 04:20 PM)

Come on, Ravenna is so cool and so rare!

One man's cool is anothers ...

Mine is ravenna green underneath two colour changes. Son is already thinking about what colour he is going to paint it even though we have a ton of work to do on it before it moves under it's own power. Just to get him going I suggested we put it back to the original colour. He almost puked.

So let's look at this. We spend $10-12K restoring a car that is worth $5-8K on the open market. Does the loss of value for a colour really matter? If you are looking for concours points that's a different story. If you are not a concours guy (and with your upgrades you obviously aren't) do what you like. Life is too short to compromise with something that is not you.

hmm. I think I just figured out if it was worthwhile converting mine back to RG

QUOTE (thomasotten @ Nov 13 2005, 06:31 PM)

If you change the color, do it right. I'm planning a color change with a color that looks fabulous. Zambezi Green is the original, which is like "lawn chair green". I have yet to see an episode of "Overhauling" where the original color mattered much.

Lawn chair...I beg your pardon.....

do what makes YOU happy! These cars are not investments anyhow...they are FUN!

a high quality color change may even help the resale value... but this NAILS it!:

QUOTE

do what makes YOU happy! These cars are not investments anyhow...they are FUN!

Lawn Chair Green???

QUOTE (greenie @ Nov 14 2005, 12:32 PM)

Lawn Chair Green???

NO SHIT...Zambezi is beautiful....and fast...

IMO, the car should be FULLY stripped to do a proper color change.

The RS (was metallic gold):

The TurtleGirl project (was red):

Joe,

Did you dip the chassis or media blast (soda blast, etc.)?

No matter if I change color or not, I will be soda blasting the tub inside and out as completely as possible.

Here is some Zambezi.... which will be sanded and covered in a nice blue!

QUOTE (db9146 @ Nov 14 2005, 09:17 PM)

Joe, Did you dip the chassis or media blast (soda blast, etc.)? No matter if I change color or not, I will be soda blasting the tub inside and out as completely as possible.

The RS was dipped, the TG project was blasted.

QUOTE

The RS was dipped, the TG project was blasted

Well, since I started this I guess I can hi-jack it a moment.

Joe, you are the right person to ask having had experience with both. Since you dipped the RS, why did you change on the TG project? Which produced the best results? Any concern about rust inside certain sealed areas?

In other words, spill you guts, which is better?

QUOTE (db9146 @ Nov 14 2005, 09:27 PM)

QUOTE The RS was dipped, the TG project was blasted Well, since I started this I guess I can hi-jack it a moment. Joe, you are the right person to ask having had experience with both. Since you dipped the RS, why did you change on the TG project? Which produced the best results? Any concern about rust inside certain sealed areas? In other words, spill you guts, which is better?

The RS was dipped with a special non-acid process available at only one place in the country (Ft.Worth). It was about $2000 when all was said and done with travel and gas.

There's no danger of acid eating at the RS in the future because none was used. It's a good process and I'll use them again. The only down side, besides travel to Ft. Worth, is that the longs must be opened to remove the heater ducting.

The TG project was blasted in town for $400. Yes, it was a good deal, but they used iron oxide which is quite harsh. The metal feels like 120 grit and will have to be sanded smooth again. That's the primary reason we went with undercoat on all the non-exterior surfaces. It would have been a hundred hours of sanding in the compartments, wheel wells and underside to do otherwise.

The lids and doors will be soda blasted to prevent further problems.

The downside: Blasting doesn't get everywhere, doesn't remove all seam sealer, and requires significant labor before hand because you have to scrape undercoat off by hand.

I like soda blasting, and will likely use it in the future as well.

At this point, I have a hard time envisioning building a project that wasn't totally stripped first.

Tabula Rosa....

Me in my "lawn chair" in turn 10 at Putnam Park

Hmmmmmm........

call me too for beer with greg and bigkat!

QUOTE (bd1308 @ Nov 13 2005, 12:30 PM)

value only matters if you go to sell it.

Besides, ravenna is a great color, but I'm biased.
If you wanted another color and for it to look right, you'd have to totally strip it down to the chassis (like some of the others have done).

You're customizing everything on the car anyway...color change won't effect the value any more/less. If you were going stock?

If you were going to leave the car original, then the color change will more than likely effect the value. Being your doing other mods, go for what ever color you like. A future buyer for the modified car, will less likely be concerned about if it's the original color if it's done right.
Don't see alot of the Ravena green around. Great color. Good luck with your project.

Ravena is such a great color, if i had another 914-make it Ravena....

See my post above

Since this thread is four years old maybe we can find out what he ended up doing.

"Lawn chair green?"

Hell, one of the reasons I bought my car was because it was Zambezi. The chicks dig it.

This was my favoriet RG

with Lou, except that's Delphi

Hi Lou

Ravenna

(sorry, couldn't help myself)

I thought Delphi was a radio.

if you're not going to go with the concourse route, then do what you want. Any color, as long as it's well done and is what you want, you wont go wrong

Its only a virgin once

not anymore then flares big motor and stiff suspention....not gonna sell it go nuts! jmo..have fun

I like Ravenna and would keep that color, but to answer the question, I believe original numbers-matching cars should be kept their factory color whereas for modified cars it doesn't matter much at all. Personally I would never even consider buying a color-changed car unless it was done properly though, meaning all surfaces (trunks, jambs, interior etc.).