What to do - respray or replace (correct colour) panels??

[MARLBORO_LITE 0]

I am in a quandry.........I got a mechanically very sound (now!) 16v 93 Corrado finished in LC6V Pearl Green. She is badly let down though by the bodywork. If I could afford it I'd have a full (maybe not bare matal though) respray but funds are tight at the moment. Problems with the bodywork include:

 

Drivers side:

been keyed from rear wing to the drivers door

front wing has a slight rust patch under the lip of the arch

 

Passenger side

rear wing previously resprayed (not a good job by my reckoning)

door dinged in a few areas, couple of rusty patches

 

Tailgate

2 nasty rust patches underneath the screen seal (rusted right through)

 

Bumpers

front needs respraying, light damage in a couple of areas but quite easily sorted

rear, ok save for some slight crazing

 

Apart from this she's imaculate!! Now, most of the defects I can live with (for now) save for the key-ing damage on the drivers side, the scruffy passenger door and the tailgate. I don't know the number of Corrados sold finished in LC6V, but I have located both doors and a tailgate - ex 91 G60, and have been assured that all are in excellent condition. I have been on the look out for correct colour panels for a long while and this is my first success.

 

If I buy these parts, it ticks a number of boxes and if I scrape some funds together I may be able to sort out a respray of both rear wings, front wing touch up and front bumper and be left with a pretty tidy-like car for not much money. Or will !!??

 

I don't expect it'll be that tricky to do the door/tailgate swap, and I wouldn't expect the respraying I'd then need to cost a rediculous amount. But, and this is the crux of the matter, is it sensible to simply save some dosh, forget about chopping and changing doors etc, and book it into a good body shop to have eveything sprayed ('cept the roof!).

 

It's tempting to pick these doors/tailgate up though as they'll make a huge improvement over the current, and for not a lot of dosh I hope. The current tailgate and both doors have well established rust, so that in itself may make their replacements an attractive option as any future respraying activities will be that much easier.

 

I did a search for replacing doors and failed. If anyone can highlight a link I'd be very grateful. I have established you can swap post facelift doors for pre facelift having used the search facility.

 

What you reckon? Be grateful for any thoughts.

[boost monkey 0]

Yeah, i'd replace all the removable panels that need replacing (if you're a perfectionist that'd be both doors, tailgate and both bumpers) but if the bumpers are ok you will prob get away with a respray.

 

If the doors and tailgate are rusty, there's no point getting someone to patch them IMHO, especially as you have found some excellent condition donor ones.

 

You could always take the new tailgate and doors with you when you get the work done, and just ask the guy to swap them over. Shouldn't take too long to do, and you could always swap the locks over by yourself afterwards (providing the doors come with locks and you have the key!)

 

2p.

[Veearrhsix 0]

Considering rust, keyed door and other bits and bobs, you're asking for a temporary fix until you've got the funds for a proper job (full respray), aren't you? Massive compromise the temporary way - up to you. Forgive the harsh way of putting it, but IMO, it'll be like polishing a turd, unless you get the little niggles done to exactly match the rest of the paint work. By the way, I'm a nice guy, so not insulting you there on the turd thing. :tumbleweed:

[boost monkey 0]

LOLZZZ!!11111one.

 

Yeah ditto again really, rusty panels aren't worth tarting esp as you have some koscher doors and a gate lined up :D

[MARLBORO_LITE 0]

Cheers guys, welcome the advice, I like the analogy of polishing a turd by the way...no offence taken!.....

 

Well, an update for you, I bought the tailgate and the drivers door. Should be here soon, for the princely sum of £61!! Tailgate complete, door less handle and mirror. I hope to have finished the swap over by this weekend. The guy whom will be spraying my car - sometime soon - has assured me that the passenger door will spray just fine, so didn't pursue that item. Providing door and tailgate are in excellent nick I will be well happy. Got to be the sensble way of proceeding with my existing tailgate holed in 2 places and drivers door keyed, rusty, dented and dinted, and 'filled' in numerous places.

 

Once tailgate and door are fitted I am going to 'cut' the paintwork to see how she come up. I'll do the whole car, got a speed adjustable angle grinder which I'll fit a mop to, should remove a lot of the elbow work!! I'll see how well I can blend everything together. It's at that stage I will have to decide what panels I am to have painted or just say 'bwga it!' and get both sides done. After I done that I may stick a few photos up...before and after.

[boost monkey 0]

Sounds awesome Jules, let us know how you get on!

 

I've cut a whole car by hand before, takes so long and your hands stink and your skin cracks and ugh...

[Veearrhsix 0]

Cheers guys, welcome the advice, I like the analogy of polishing a turd by the way...no offence taken!.....

 

Well, an update for you, I bought the tailgate and the drivers door. Should be here soon, for the princely sum of £61!! Tailgate complete, door less handle and mirror. I hope to have finished the swap over by this weekend. The guy whom will be spraying my car - sometime soon - has assured me that the passenger door will spray just fine, so didn't pursue that item. Providing door and tailgate are in excellent nick I will be well happy. Got to be the sensble way of proceeding with my existing tailgate holed in 2 places and drivers door keyed, rusty, dented and dinted, and 'filled' in numerous places.

 

Once tailgate and door are fitted I am going to 'cut' the paintwork to see how she come up. I'll do the whole car, got a speed adjustable angle grinder which I'll fit a mop to, should remove a lot of the elbow work!! I'll see how well I can blend everything together. It's at that stage I will have to decide what panels I am to have painted or just say 'bwga it!' and get both sides done. After I done that I may stick a few photos up...before and after.

Been a while - any pics of your masterpiece? :wave:

[Leonard 0]

I have just been through this, spraying a pretty much immaculate car bar for a few marks on every panel due to rust, vandalism. :mad2:

 

Sooo glad I went and had it sprayed now though rather than just touching up and replacing panels.

 

Lets see the finished results mate when your finished :)

[MARLBORO_LITE 0]

Well, aint the world a funny place........here goes my update........

 

The panels I bought never arrived.......the courier van broke down en route so everything was taken back to the depot. Between the breakdown and the return to depot the delivery address label fell off, so when the delivery was re-arranged, the panels were returned to the chap I bought them off!! 2 failed re-deliveries later I asked for (and received) my money back. This took me in to mid April 08 if my memory is intact....then, whilst laying a patio, I felt a huge pain in my neck (no, not the wife demonstrating why the female of the species is more dangerous than the male :nono: !) which caused me to recoil in agony. Now, for a good few years I've had the same pain in the neck (through numerous relationships so not exclusive to my beloved :norty: !!) which I attributed to a trapped nerve from a long standing rugby injury. This occasion was different though.......are we sitting comfortably? Then I will continue...

 

Anyhow, after 3 visits to the osteopath (the final one of which I can only liken to being wired up to the National Grid - if I could have controlled the nerve impulses shooting around my body to provide me with a rudimentary control of my limbs and fingers, I would have ensured aforementioned osteopath would have regained a familiarity with a part of his anatomy that he'd not seen since he was in his mother's womb!!) I quickly realised this was something else. Anyhow anyhow (and trying desperately to cut to the chase......), after a trip to A&E where I had to resort to pleading for morphine I was admitted, posted into a MRI scanner (I can tell you how boy's bits feel when wearing mackintosh...think about it......such was the closeness of the fit) where 48 hours later I was told I had slipped my c6 vertebrae. 'Kin joy and jubilation. As is my general run of luck these days........(mother in law hates me, she went to the Dominican Republic and I swear she picked up a voodoo doll off a Tahitian chalet maid!)...........my disc didn't slip out - easier to sort - the :censored: disc travelled inwards and compressed my spinal column. Small wonder then why any attempt to move my head, arms, shoulders (bowels or sphincter...ahem!) would generate enough electricity to power a Prius for 12 minutes (don't you love Clarkson) or 6 miles, whichever arrives soonest.

 

So, armed with diagnosis........hi ho, hi ho...it's off to join the NHS waiting list I go to await a nerve block injection. Whilst wating for this injection the doctors quite merrily threw large quantities of diazapan, tramadol and diclofenac at me and I duly swallowed them all...'specially the diazapan...at predetermined periods (diazapan more frequently :norty: ). This all ensured that at any given point of the day I was unsure whether my name was Julian or Cross Dresser Sandra, and whether I peed sitting or standing. But, after four months of enduring life as a virtual bystander, I was summoned for the nerve block injection.

 

Did I tell you I like Diazapan?

 

Now up till the point where I was being strapped to the reclining bench in the hospital, I hadn't really been too worried about receiving a small prick (ahemm again), but, once Hattie Jacques had strapped me in (to something more suited to a Dominatrix's dungeon), and in a most light hearted fashion stated that most people requiring this jab to the neck only receive a partial dose cos of the pain, parts of me started to twitch. Sparing the detail, 10 mins later it was all over...I had been a good boy and taken the full dose. 6 weeks later after intense physio I returned to work, just before Xmas and just before I was about to go on half pay. Result!

 

Right then, now I have bored you all to death, my Corrado project is back on, I am off to Gosport on Saturday to collect a tailgate, drivers door and drivers front wing from 'go-rado' (cheers matey, see you soon). When all the new panels are located, my aim is to continue where I left off. I'll get some photos up of the car as it is so that progress can be mapped.

 

ciao for now

[__Andy__ 0]

fair play to you, sounds a very nasty injury. i tore my mcl in my right knee last august through rugby and its only just getting to be ok.

 

glad your all sorted and back to work now though, and good stuff for cracking on with the rado, you'll be pleased when you meet lee at the weekend hes a top bloke..

 

Lets see some progress pics soon :salute:

 

Regards,

 

Andy