To Paint Or Not To Paint

[Hetzer21]

I have a 2006 base model with manual transmission and only 145K miles. It belonged to a mechanic for years and was well taken care of. The clearcoat, however, is failing fast and there are numerous small gravel dings on the hood.
I paid $4000 for the car two and a half years ago. I imagine it will be around for a while. I wonder what the Vibe community thinks about the wisdom of spending a coupld grand on a 19 year old car.

[tpollauf]

Welcome to GenVibe. You failed to mention where this car is located OR where will it be primarily driven? How much rust is on the car? Rust belt area or sunny hot south? A couple grand is roughly 6 months of car payments, then after that you're ahead of the game. Get it painted and keep it

[joatmon]

Its a tough call, and depends a lot on your priorities. I've had a number of old cars over the years, and aesthetics took a back seat to keeping them on the road. For me, a couple grand for cosmetics on a $4K car isn't worth it, unless it was truly a classic, but that's me, and luckily we're all different.

gravel dings on the hood have been an issue since the cars first came out. On mine, I just tried to keep them waxed to fend off rust.

On the clear coat, you could
- accept it
- bootleg some clear coat out of rattle cans
- look for some vocational school or work a deal with an auto body place to get some students a training exercise
- drop the full money to make it look new again.

Don't know your money situation, but keep in mind you're likely to need some cash for new clutch at some point

[andrewclaus]

The paint on my '07 has been pretty much destroyed by Colorado sun and winter road sanding. But its appearance doesn't bother me--it runs great and that's all that matters to me. I personally wouldn't paint an older car. I did it once to an old Bronco and was never happy with the result, either.