paint or leave it alone

Wise 85 · 09-07-06, 01:20

Hi,i'm not sure if this is the right place to post this,but i need your advice/opinions on a dilema i have.I have in my possesion,a 22 year old car(my late fathers)which is in very good condition and has competed in national concours,but it isn't perfect.There are some minor chips and a couple of 'scabs' on the paint that are begining to bother me.The car has metallic paint,so trying to paint small 'problem' areas is not going to work,so my question to you is,would you paint the car,or maybe just one whole side,or leave it as it is,while being aware that it could be 'perfect' if it was repainted.Sorry for the long post,thanks.

autoprecise1 · 09-07-06, 02:01

The problem with repainting an area on a 22 year old car is that it will stick out like a sore thumb (new paint vs. old paint). Unless you or someone else does a really top notch buff job on it, but depending on if it is SS or BC paint and the condition of the paint will determine how long your buff job will last as well.

yakky · 09-08-06, 08:18

Really depends on what your budget is too. A good paint job is very expensive, and by good, I mean matching a factory paint job. There is a general lack of pride in the body industry. Always exceptions but it seems most shops are more content to respray bumpers and fix fenders than paint whole cars. If you find a real pro, the touchup spots could be fixed nicely, not sure about the scabs you are talking about. You can always paint over crappy touchup work too, can't do the reverse.

jdhutchin · 09-08-06, 08:54

I wouldn't worry about it. Any car that actually gets driven is going to have occasional problems with the paint from stuff hitting it. Unless the defects are glaringly obvious, I wouldn't worry about them unless you plan on bring the car back to a concours. It almost sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

Accumulator · 09-08-06, 10:17

I have two mid-1980s cars that are in very, very nice condition. Both have metallic paint- one is 100% as-delivered and the other has had maybe 10% of it repainted as required (rust, etc.) so far but is now in the shop for more. Here's my $0.02 on your situation:

If I were you I'd be *very* hesitant to do any significant paintwork on your car. The more original the better, even if that originality is at the expense of "perfection". Unmolested, original cars are the best, better than 100% restorations in many ways (all it takes for the latter is a lot of money, but something's only original once).

If any of the problems are related to rust or other corrosion, then yeah, I'd get those areas fixed and the repairs blended in *by somebody who knows how to do that*. But no way would I repaint the whole side of the car unless it was absolutely unavoidable.

I waited a long, long time (over a decade) to find the right guy to do the necessary paintwork on my '85 Jag (Rhodium Metallic single-stage lacquer, a very unusual paint that caused lots of headaches for Jaguar). He's only repainting what absolutely *has* to be painted. It's a lot of small areas, but he understands the originality thing and agrees that this is the way to do it.

I've had countless metallic cars spotted in over the years. It almost always comes down to the painter and the paint...get both right and you'll never see it. But it can be hard to match old paint and there aren't *that* many good painters out there. But again, it absolutely *can* be done. We don't know how well the Jag's repairs are gonna match, but we're doing everything possible and hoping for the best.

Oh, and I'm not worrying about the chips on my cars (got two on the hood of the Jag from August of '86, I remember the exact moment they happened). As a museum curator said in an old magazine article- "real cars have paint chips", and he was talking about some *very* valuable cars. If a chip is rusting, get the rust stopped. If a chip really bugs you, try touching it up, but IMO a badly done chip repair looks worse than just the chip itself.

Wise 85 · 09-08-06, 01:47

Thanks Accumulator,i was hoping you would respond,and what you said about originality,only painting what you 'absolutely' have to,is just what i wanted to hear.I have to hope that i can find a very good painter,and put my trust in him/her,because the car has such sentimental value to me.

Accumulator · 09-09-06, 11:13

Wise 85- Yeah, IMO it's easy to ruin the sentimental value of a vehicle by doing too much "improving". Without the wear and tear (which I consider "patina") from our years together, my XJS just wouldn't be "my Jag" any more. Pleasing some concours judge at the expense of my connection with the car would be a dumb move for me.

See if you have any rust- you really don't want that to get ahead of you. You can do a lot by simply cleaning off the loose stuff and applying a rust converter, and maybe then touching it up with something like Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator (which sorta looks like black primer) if you want to do anything more. Just slowing down its progression can be very beneficial. Those chips on my Jag's hood haven't rusted or othewise caused trouble after all that time, and all I've ever done with them is apply some rust converter.

Wise 85 · 09-10-06, 02:03

Accumulator,can i ask where the areas your having done on the jaguar are?