Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Deal with the corrosion and then camo wrap it, tell wife that it's OK, nobody can see the car.

Always fancied a grey, mid grey and dark grey camo. Off to Google :)

My votes in order:

1. Hammerite all over with a stripped bare bonnet and a sponsor stack(?) under the right wing mirror.
   
2. DIY Harley-style engine wrinkle paint all over.
   
3. Touch up rust, rust prone areas to a functional standard, and drive it. There is no point in spending more than the bare minimum on this car's bodywork.
   

Smokey and the bandit bonnet decal....

Glod lame wrap and matching track suit?

All of these are quite wonderful ideas, and I particularly like the thought of Hammerite and some sponsor decals. I'm sure most of the local takeaways would be happy to put in for a sticker...

I have also been mocking up a design in the best example of the Need for Speed series, I call it 'Liquigas team car stolen by tuners'

Volk wheels?

More like huffing liquigas eyyyyyyyy!

I’ll get my coat.

Which does also remind me that I’d love to green hammerite my e46 at some point. Always figured once the arches get bad enough to warrant fixing, it might be worth it for a laugh. Know a guy who raptor’d his raised Volvo, lol.

Excellent spot

Haha well, it is the King of Tough, so why not?!

My only experience with Hammerite was doing a gate with it about 20 years ago, but I can imagine it giving an interesting texture to a vehicle…

The rule of thumb for corrosion is that however bad you think it is, it’s a lot worse than that.

I’d either call Ty at Riviera Auto Body and ask for it to be done properly, or I’d not bother disturbing the rust dragon and just bang a wrap over the whole thing.

Who am I kidding? I’d have it back to bare metal whilst the engine is rebuilt- but I can admit that that’s rather silly.

TL:DR if you’re going to run it into the ground buy the vinyl/heat gun/spreaders yourself and have a crack at wrapping it.

Are they orbital sanding marks in the rear glass? Eek! Yeah the paint looks way too bad to detail, it'll cause more issues. Treat the visible surface rust and wrap it. If you dig too deep the car will be pulled apart to the point where you either scrap it or spend £10 or £15k bringing it back to life.

Nothing would surprise me with this one so I wouldn’t rule it out! The fuel filler is a state which I imagine was caused by a sander, that’s yet another thing on the list to look at. I have a vague idea of replacing all the silver bits (rear diffuser, fuel filler, mirrors, front grille) with carbon fibre or carbon fibre look, but that’s definitely something for down the road once I’ve sorted the big ticket items.

@Dammit yes I’ve sadly already had that experience with the rust dragon, prepping the underside for treatment with lanoguard we discovered a rather sizeable hole in the rear subframe so it’s going in for a new one of those and new spring pans, and whilst we’re at it the mag ride shocks are on the way out and the springs are corroded so we’re throwing some Bilstein B14s on it at the same time. I know the maths is going to show that once that lot’s done I could just have bought a Cayman to start with but where’s the fun in that? I’m not quite in the realms of a full engine redesign yet but give it a couple of years… ;)

Why don’t you just sack it off? It’s clearly beyond repair; sell it cheap and cut your losses imo

Sunk cost fallacy, and that I like a project. The engine is great, the electrics are great, the interior’s not bad, the integrity of the body is excellent, there are no fault codes and it’s fun to drive. Just happens to have the crap paint and a rear end that looks like it was stored in a lake for a while. I did get it cheap knowing there was work to do and will probably end up spending a bit more than just buying one in good condition would have been but outside of the paint a lot of it has been DIY and I’ve enjoyed the learning experience.

To me all of this says that it's worth keeping but that it's not worth worrying about the appearance.

Channel the Sierra Cosworth approach to aesthetics. You don't look at the outside when you're driving the car.

Yeah that’s a really good point. The bonnet irritates me because I can see it whilst driving, the bits I posted around the poor bumper joins I hadn’t even noticed until they were pointed out to me (of course, now I can’t unsee them…). I might see what the cost of just re spraying the bonnet and treating/sealing the rust around the boot would be.

Just treat the rust and leave it be? At least you won’t be fussed if it gets dinged in a car park. You’ll save a lot of £ too

James Martin just out of shot to start it up and take it home.

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Can't quite make out what's written above the Roger Clark decal?

Team Ford

The 1997 Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution homologation special rotting on my street.
It's not moved in the 7 years I've been here and judging from the moss has been there for many more.

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Heartbreaking.

I expect it will get a wash when its owner gets out of prison.

Any recommendation in South/M25 area for carpet lining my new van?

One of the few options around is Unique Vans in St Neots which is a bit far. Or Essex/Colchester.

Haha

My dad had one of these when we were young, epic car!

Edit.... he wasn't a drug dealer!