I Need Some "Cost effective" opinions...

[Zach9626]

Alrighty, Well here are the pics of the "other" side of my car... I am not quite sure what the last owner did to this but I am pretty sick of looking at it, however a trip to the body shop is going to have to wait till next summer, SO. I am trying to see if there is anything I can do myself to either fix, or make it look better??






And the pic below is of the roof... I have two spots that the paint is chipped away, not sure if you can tell from the pic, but the spots are literally just paint that was once there, and now left holes that I would say are getting close to bare metal?

[Kris GTwhat?]

go to an auto parts store that can mix paint into a spray can from your paint code (oreillys can do it in my area). spray primer on the bare metal spots and just paint over it. it'll get you by

[GTZfan]

Im pretty sure about what has been done:
For some reason somebody sanded down the paint and then it was primered without cleaning beforehand so the primer came off.

[Zach9626]

Thought about just painting over it, but the orange and yellow-e looking stuff I am assuming bondo of some kind, has places where it isn't completely flush with the rest of the car. I guess I would call them little pits where the stuff chipped off or whatever.

More Bondo? then primer, and some rattle can?

[keiffith]

I would advise against putting any paint over it.
The less work you give the body shop the better. so if it was me I would do the following:
-remove window molding. Preping past the exterior finish will better the end result.
-sand down and clean surface. As far as I know mineral spirits is the best prep before doing bondo or paint.
-work out imperfections
-spray with the redish brown primer. Won't realy match but it will at least make it look better. Then when you give it to the shop all they have to do is clean and blend the paint.

[DTMAce]

He will not be able to remove the window molding without removing the glass, at least for the side window. They are one piece.

[keiffith]

I could have swore I had seen the trim off with the window in. I guess he will have to work aroun it and have the shop do the rest.

[woody90gtz]

Wow, that's ugly. You will not save a good body shop any work by rattle can priming it. So just do what you can with a rattle can to try and temporarily hide the ugly until you can get it taken care of.

[DTMAce]

I could have swore I had seen the trim off with the window in. I guess he will have to work aroun it and have the shop do the rest.

Yeah, some of the earlier years were like that, but the later ones were installed as a single unit.

[Zach9626]

Hmmm... So is this impossible for me to do myself? I am by no means incapable of doing it correctly, but I suppose my question now, is, where to start, products I am going to need etc.. maybe info on removing th
e window?

[DTMAce]

Well, you are looking at a fair bit of work there. The window will be a pain the ass. I left mine in the last time I repainted, just because of the PITA factor.

It can be worked around, just have to be careful not to sand the trim. Cover it with some tape. And use the correct kind of tape, 3M masking tape, nothing else works as well. The green kind too.

Have to sand the area and get it primered. And you have to sand it so its feathered correctly, which is a lot of sanding. Don't use any paper heavier than 280-320 grit...

[Chad91GTZ]

Yeah looks like it had a dent or a rust spot or something. At first it looked as if it was welded on, but that black looks to be guide coat.

Just paint over it. It's going to look like ass, because you can't blend metallic paint on the same panel, let alone clear. But will look much better. As far as "work for the body shop", a bit of spray paint isn't going to make a difference. You want them doing the primer work anyway so you know your base coat will be under their warranty.

On the topic of the sail window molding, some years are removeable, some years are not.