To Paint or Not to Paint ?

[AnthP]

Would appreciate your views on the following.....

I bought my red UK GTIR in April 2011 and by the standards of any reasonable person, the car was in great condition for a 19 year old car and has proven to be a great purchase to-date.

However, it is a 19 year old car with 45k on it and it does have a few minor battle scars - scratch around petrol cap, couple of small dents in upper driver side door, plus two very small dents in the driver side wing and a scuff on the underside of the front bumper. Interestingly, its all on the passenger side, the driver side is blemish free.

I have been quoted £350 to fix this but in view of the problems matching red paint, I'm tempted to get the whole car done at circa £2k.

Although I've got no immediate plans to sell the car, if you were buying it, would you prefer a very good condition, but not perfect, largely original car
or a mint fully repainted car ?

A car can only be original once so I dont want to spoil it by giving it a full repaint at an increased cost only to find that I've reduced its value / appeal in the process.

I like original cars but I also like mint cars - very tricky combination to get right !:doh:

 

[warpspeed]

mint cars the way to go in my book

 

[Spikey]

The cars will go up in price in the next few years so if you love it and its valuable to you then get it done...
Im sure if you got the same paint code it would look awesome and red ones are rare now as they were only offered in the phase I.

 

[vss irvine]

do it if its a proper job,

but its the little touches that finish them off, like getting all the trims off then back on correctly (imo)

im just finishing a standard car and ive had a few bits painted as its deffo freshened the car up.

you got the ex-press/media car?

 

[Animaldaz]

Depends on what you want out of the car. If its a show pony then go ahead, but if not I wouldn't bother. It sounds like very minor damage so I would live with it and spend some money on rust prevention.

Properly mint cars are all well and good but if you want to keep it that way it'll spend most of the time in the garage.
Personally I'd rather have a usable example that won't bring you to tears if it gets scratched.

 

[johnny gtir]

if you do spray it take alot of close up pics to prove it was already mint. I have seen so many spray jobs turn out worse than original more so now with alot of bodyshops not using two pac. similar as martin said make sure they dont wreck your trims. In my opinion i would rather pay more for a original car than freshly painted.With its age i would think it was painted to cover up ie damage, rust, lots of dints

 

[AnthP]

do it if its a proper job,

but its the little touches that finish them off, like getting all the trims off then back on correctly (imo)

im just finishing a standard car and ive had a few bits painted as its deffo freshened the car up.

that's a good point re quality of job - my Pulsar (Saddlers old car) is mint but there is overspray here and there and the fact that every panel has been off at some stage for a repaint has caused some squeaks and rattles that my Sunny just doesnt have. Not sure if it was the ex-press / media car but it was allegedly on the Nissan stand at the 92 NEC Motor Show - the service history has some tenous evidence of this but I've never been able to find any supporting evidence.

 

[AnthP]

Depends on what you want out of the car. If its a show pony then go ahead, but if not I wouldn't bother. It sounds like very minor damage so I would live with it and spend some money on rust prevention.

Properly mint cars are all well and good but if you want to keep it that way it'll spend most of the time in the garage.
Personally I'd rather have a usable example that won't bring you to tears if it gets scratched.

I do love these cars but at the end of the day, its a £6k car, not a Bugatti so whether I go for the touch up or full repaint, it's going to get used. Done about 2k in 6 months so expecting to do 3-4k per year regardless of weather conditions and I wouldnt expect it to deteriorate to any great extent. I think I'll take John's advice and take a load of before and after shots so future buyers can see it was me being a perfectionist rather than a full restoration job.....

 

[red reading]

Repainting could devalue the car in the future, get the car done at a very good repair place and they will be able to match the paint perfectley for touching the car up in the area's discribed.

try dentbusters or similar for getting the dents out as they have a paintless dent removal system which does work.

 

[AnthP]

Repainting could devalue the car in the future, get the car done at a very good repair place and they will be able to match the paint perfectley for touching the car up in the area's discribed.

try dentbusters or similar for getting the dents out as they have a paintless dent removal system which does work.

the garage I bought it from got dent masters in but they couldnt do the door - something to do the doors being double-skinned or something I think. The garage its going to - Car Magic in Sunderland - have a good reputation for paintless dent removal and matching paint but I've never used them before. Think I'll go for the touch up and see what it looks like........fingers crossed.

 

[williams]

2k is a lot for a respray in the same colour imo. I paid £1100 for mine painted, that was for wheels, rear wiper and ariel smoothed, inner and outer rear arches replaced, a few dints smoothed, painted in grey and trims painted satin black. That was at my mates body shop. Always a top job from him aswell.

 

[vss irvine]

£2k isnt alot for a full hit from a decent shop your unknown to, i know people who've paid more.

then people like me who've paid £500!

like most things its who you know...