Full repaint - Orient Blue... should I go Carbon Black?

[Turbolex]

I have an Orient Blue 6mt Sedan going in for a full respray this spring. It doesn’t have any rust or body damage, just normal wear and tear and a faded roof. I hear Orient is somewhat rare, but carbon black is only a tiny shade off of Orient Blue. In my situation would you preserve the value by an OEM quality blue respray.. or go Carbon Black to go with an exclusive M color to the “4 door m3”? It would be the first as I know.. and have a bit of a cool factor.. but I typically prefer restore over mod. It is going to a shop 5 hours away that does very impressive work with pearl and metallic paint jobs so carbon black would be very easy for them. They can also add pearl or flake, but I think I want to go with a 100% oem color. (Though.. the carbon black could be tweaked slightly to best fit the contours of this car if necessary using a little more blue or black pearl, etc)

The vehicle does have a past rebuilt title, if that matters. It does make me slightly more willing to take a chance on colors etc. (it’s not a show car.. but a 91,000 mile driver with lots of life left). Just happy to get back into a ZHP after not having one for 5 years. For a while there I always had at least one

[joeybananaz18]

I was leaning toward keeping it with the factory color until I read about the title. I supposed and value you would have lost was in the title. Going CB could actually make it pretty desirable if it ever and time to sell.


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[BMWCurves]

As an Orient Blue owner, I'd say preserve the Orient Blue. Black ZHPs are pretty common. Then again, do what brings you the most happiness. Having a rebuilt title means the car doesn't have great resale value, so I doubt you would get more than a fraction of the money spent on repainting back out if you sold the car.

[Turbolex]

As an Orient Blue owner, I'd say preserve the Orient Blue. Black ZHPs are pretty common. Then again, do what brings you the most happiness. Having a rebuilt title means the car doesn't have great resale value, so I doubt you would get more than a fraction of the money spent on repainting back out if you sold the car.

Carbon Black is far more blue than black. If anything Orient looks more black than carbon in certain light. Am I stating the correct color? Yours looks navy even royal blue.. mine is very dark blue

Salvage title cars will def take a hit.. but it won’t be a $5,000 paint job: probably somewhere around $2500-3000 if keeping Orient as there is no real bodywork needed. Title matters.. but on cars like this, when replacing with all original Bmw stamped m-tech II parts, just a bumper could salvage a car. (Insurance sees it as just a 330i.. and bumper, grilles, fogs, etc add up fast. I’m not sure if headlights were damaged, but if so easily salvaged from a light hit

[Turbolex]

32257

This is carbon black... it is much closer to my color than your blue appears in signature. Mine is dark but pops in sunlight.

[Turbolex]

32258

[danewilson77]

CB.

Welcome

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[RUS_ZHP]

My vote is for Orient Blue. It's such a great color.
Plus, you will keep the original body color.

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[SaltyNC]

Have you ever seen San Marino blue? If you are thinking about changing the color, but want to stay in the blue family, it is truly an amazing color. It has a depth to it that looks like it is candy coated.

http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1162322

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1249791

Salty

[ZHPizza]

Have you ever seen San Marino blue? If you are thinking about changing the color, but want to stay in the blue family, it is truly an amazing color. It has a depth to it that looks like it is candy coated.

http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1162322

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1249791

Salty

Wow this gets my vote.

That depth tho

http://i.imgur.com/gW4GwO0.jpg

[slater]

Wow this gets my vote.

That depth tho

http://i.imgur.com/gW4GwO0.jpg

yeah. wowowowow on many levels.

[brettbimmer]

+1 for Carbon Black. Such a beautiful color, esp. when paired with a Cinnamon interior. Bet it would look good against Natural Brown as well.

I believe that there was a photo of a CB car on the forum, but may have been a Canadian spec.

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[BMWCurves]

Carbon Black is far more blue than black. If anything Orient looks more black than carbon in certain light. Am I stating the correct color? Yours looks navy even royal blue.. mine is very dark blue

Salvage title cars will def take a hit.. but it won’t be a $5,000 paint job: probably somewhere around $2500-3000 if keeping Orient as there is no real bodywork needed. Title matters.. but on cars like this, when replacing with all original Bmw stamped m-tech II parts, just a bumper could salvage a car. (Insurance sees it as just a 330i.. and bumper, grilles, fogs, etc add up fast. I’m not sure if headlights were damaged, but if so easily salvaged from a light hit

Did not realize Carbon Black was not, ya know...black :facepalm

But my thoughts still stand: Orient Blue because it's rare and was an available color for the car. At the same time, it's your car, do what will make you happiest. Carbon Black looks interesting, and SaltyNC's suggestion of San Marino blue is also a good consideration.

[FungShui]

+1 on San Marino Blue

[Cabrio330]

I used to have a 2002 M3 convertible in Carbon Black, and currently have a 2015 X5 in Carbon Black - it is a beautiful color.

I darn near pulled the trigger recently on a 2014 M6 convertible in San Marino blue just because of the paint color! It is beautiful too, but just couldn't see myself as an "M6" guy so I passed. Anyway, my opinion is that San Marino is not an E46 color. It just looks a little exotic for our cars, if that makes sense.

But as others have pointed out, it is your car and it has a branded title so you should do whatever makes you happy. Post pics when done, and let us know final cost too. Good luck!

[bandwagn]

Have your guy spray out a couple samples of Orient and Carbon - I’d be curious how close they are (Carbon is likely more blue than Orient, or even Monaco)

Since they are so close, I would lean towards keeping it original - keep the costs down on door jams, trunk, hood, etc..

However, I’m with the others - if you do a hue change, might as well make it meaningful - San Marino really stands out (a ‘better’ Mystic), or maybe Toledo or Velvet Blue for something unique - Tanzanite Blue may also keep it dark, but give it a bit more ‘pop’

[I would love to track down the Velvet Blue vert, if anyone knows where it is - or even the other Velvet ones, for that matter]

[sillieidiot]

I hate carbon black, so go with orient blue. personally, i would take interlagos blue.

[D1ESEL]

Orient is amazing when it is mint but it doesn't wear very well.

Here is a photo of my freshly painted/corrected/sealed hood on my old ZHP

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7191/27469594441_45ed19f962_h.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/HRoRpg)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/HRoRpg) by MNBoarder (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mnboarder/), on Flickr

[Newjack]

Wow this gets my vote.

That depth tho

http://i.imgur.com/gW4GwO0.jpg

That color reminds me of Stuart's wagon. Does anyone know what color that wagon is?

Color looks great btw

[joeybananaz18]

That color reminds me of Stuart's wagon. Does anyone know what color that wagon is?

Color looks great btw

not sure if its mystic or interlagos.

[az3579]

Orient > Carbon Black IMO. And it's the original color, so even better.


That color reminds me of Stuart's wagon. Does anyone know what color that wagon is?

Color looks great btw

It's a Corvette color. I forget the name.

[san]

Orient > Carbon Black IMO. And it's the original color, so even better.



It's a Corvette color. I forget the name.

Admiral blue metallic?


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[az3579]

Admiral blue metallic?


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According to this article, it's LeMans Blue with additional Pearl. I remember him saying something like LeMans as well.
It's not BMW's LeMans Blue, though - it's the GM one.
http://ultimateklasse.com/blog/2013/5/27/stuart-moultons-e46-zhp-touring

[Hornung418]

According to this article, it's LeMans Blue with additional Pearl. I remember him saying something like LeMans as well.
It's not BMW's LeMans Blue, though - it's the GM one.
http://ultimateklasse.com/blog/2013/5/27/stuart-moultons-e46-zhp-touringYeah, GM LeMans Blue and now it will have a properly skookum engine!!

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[ELCID86]

Wow this gets my vote.

That depth tho

http://i.imgur.com/gW4GwO0.jpg

Mmm mmm mmm.

OB for OP.

[Turbolex]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm still a few months away from a repaint, but I'm leaning towards Orient Blue. I didn't realize there were only 197 sedans made

[ELCID86]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm still a few months away from a repaint, but I'm leaning towards Orient Blue. I didn't realize there were only 197 sedans made

I’ve owned two of them. Great color.

[johnrando]

I'd say change it to whatever you want.

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