Matt Black MX-5
Discussion
Basically, I pressure washed the car last night to try and get the last of the glue residue off it from the Le Mans stickers. I didn't just use any old pressure washer, I used £5k's worth of Clarke diesel steam cleaner. Having had a few beers I threw caution to the wind and attacked the car in the semi dark. To cut a long story short, I blew most of the paint off. I knew the paintwork was shoddy to say the least, but now I have gone past the point of no return. I can't afford a proper respray, and to be honest the car owes me so little it wouldn't make sense to do it anyway. Can't really decide what to do with it, but one of the ideas being thrown about was to rub it all down, and paint it matt black. My question is, on a scale of 1-10, how much of a bad idea is this?
Ollie
PS - If anyone has any better ideas, please feel free to voice them....
Ollie
PS - If anyone has any better ideas, please feel free to voice them....
To be fair, the cost of actually spraying it should be fairly low; its the cost of the prep that is the killer. If you are happy to do the prep yourself you are just looking at an investment in time and effort. Materials are minimal - some masking tape, some assorted wet & dry paper, maybe a touch of body filler.
But will it look like an absolute POS? Was debating trying to spray it silver as it is now but reckon with my limited skills I'd probably get a better finish with matt black. Is it worth actually taking the whole thing apart and trying to do a decent job or should I just mask it up and do it in situ as it were.
I'm suggesting that you do all the prep, and then have someone blow it over for you properly. No need to strip it, I would say you can mask it up if you do it carefully. Might want to remove light clusters, mirrors etc but nothing major. Whatever you do, forget about spray cans from Halfords!
Hmm, matt black would look good for about 2 minutes until you got bored with it.
Compressors are pretty cheap nowadays, so I'd have a go at that - but it's not easy.
I'd say for a whole car, budget £250 ish for materials, you could pick up a compressor and gun for circa £100, it'd do a job better than cans.
I did my backpanel and bootlid like this with the intention of doing the whole car at some point. I'd give myself a 6 for the backpanel and 3 for the boot, but it's mostly presentable!
Alternatively I know a guy in Melton Mowbray who does good work, he'd do a whole car for £1000 if there isn't too much work to do (like rust etc.). I've found spray shops aren't actually that keen on you doing the supposed elbow grease bit, so doing the prep work may not get the economy or result you want.
Hope this is helpful,
Compressors are pretty cheap nowadays, so I'd have a go at that - but it's not easy.
I'd say for a whole car, budget £250 ish for materials, you could pick up a compressor and gun for circa £100, it'd do a job better than cans.
I did my backpanel and bootlid like this with the intention of doing the whole car at some point. I'd give myself a 6 for the backpanel and 3 for the boot, but it's mostly presentable!
Alternatively I know a guy in Melton Mowbray who does good work, he'd do a whole car for £1000 if there isn't too much work to do (like rust etc.). I've found spray shops aren't actually that keen on you doing the supposed elbow grease bit, so doing the prep work may not get the economy or result you want.
Hope this is helpful,
You need to get yourself on some Volkswagen forums - sopme of the camper lot have worked out a way of using some kind of household paint, mixed with something, applied with a roller, for a very smooth, very professional, but cheap to do finish.
Sounds crazy, and involves lots of elbow grease, but apparently it works.
Sounds crazy, and involves lots of elbow grease, but apparently it works.
snotrag said:
You need to get yourself on some Volkswagen forums - sopme of the camper lot have worked out a way of using some kind of household paint, mixed with something, applied with a roller, for a very smooth, very professional, but cheap to do finish.
Sounds crazy, and involves lots of elbow grease, but apparently it works.
It does indeed sound crazy, would be interested to see how this works though!!Sounds crazy, and involves lots of elbow grease, but apparently it works.
Anyone know how much a vinyl wrap would cost approximately?
Captain Muppets car looks =
If I did paint it matt black, would it be a nightmare to ever get it back to some sort of normality?
Are Eunos'/MX5's known for s
tty paint?Sorry for all the questions.....
OllieBirmingham said:
Are Eunos'/MX5's known for stty paint?
I think they must be - I looked at 3 and all had peeling or slightly bubbly paint. In the end the one I bought, which had been garaged for years with very little use and is generally immaculate, is starting to show little white spots in a couple of places (mostly the front and rear wing tops).tty paint?On the others the paint was starting to either peel away in large areas or produce little bubbly ridges, like it had been badly wrapped in clear plastic.
I'd go for matt black, wraps are great but not cheap - circa £1000 for something MX-5 like I reckon, you could have the paint fixed properly for that.
Have you got any pictures of the car in its current state?
I'd love to see how bad it is, it really is the kind of thing I could see myself doing after a few too many!
Have you got any pictures of the car in its current state?
I'd love to see how bad it is, it really is the kind of thing I could see myself doing after a few too many!
JimSuperSix said:
OllieBirmingham said:
Are Eunos'/MX5's known for stty paint?
I think they must be - I looked at 3 and all had peeling or slightly bubbly paint...tty paint?
Mine is one of the earliest ('89) and is red, has significant fading and areas of clearcoat peeling off. I bought it cheap so it doesn't worry me too much really.Gary, I ended up blasting my paint off after removing all my stickers from Le Mans.
Just got a bit sick of being pointed at all the time TBH. It made it a bit conspicuous, having said that a matt black Eunos would probably attract quite a bit of attention anyway.
I will endevour to get some pictures up, not the most technically minded though.
It looks really awful at the moment, when the paint started to lift my mate said "I'd just stop doing that and leave it there Ollie'. I said, 'Nah, lets just see how bad it is and how far it goes.'
He was right. I should have left it. I have stripped 90% of the paint off the O/S rear quarter, a patch of the O/S front wing, and a patch on the rear bumper (I had a huge blob of red fireproof mastic where I tried and failed to stick my fog light on before I just ripped it off.)
I stood back and surveyed the horror show that is my car and ended up spraying a load of mismatched silver plasticote over the offending area. This has made it look MUCH worse, but at least it has covered up the filler, (Another story).
Just got a bit sick of being pointed at all the time TBH. It made it a bit conspicuous, having said that a matt black Eunos would probably attract quite a bit of attention anyway.
I will endevour to get some pictures up, not the most technically minded though.
It looks really awful at the moment, when the paint started to lift my mate said "I'd just stop doing that and leave it there Ollie'. I said, 'Nah, lets just see how bad it is and how far it goes.'
He was right. I should have left it. I have stripped 90% of the paint off the O/S rear quarter, a patch of the O/S front wing, and a patch on the rear bumper (I had a huge blob of red fireproof mastic where I tried and failed to stick my fog light on before I just ripped it off.)
I stood back and surveyed the horror show that is my car and ended up spraying a load of mismatched silver plasticote over the offending area. This has made it look MUCH worse, but at least it has covered up the filler, (Another story).
JimSuperSix said:
OllieBirmingham said:
Are Eunos'/MX5's known for stty paint?
I think they must be - I looked at 3 and all had peeling or slightly bubbly paint. In the end the one I bought, which had been garaged for years with very little use and is generally immaculate, is starting to show little white spots in a couple of places (mostly the front and rear wing tops).tty paint?I'm not sure if its the same I will take some pics tomorrow and post them here. What I've been doing is using Autoglym cutting polish (I think its called paint renovator now). Rub a small amount over the spot and then rub the spot with my fingernail and they come of.
After that I used the cutting polish to take off all the old gloss from the chosen panel and then add a couple of layers of super resin polish. Just be warned it takes awhile to do it (30mins per panel) and a small amount of paint will come of onto the cloth but it doesn't ruin the paint.
The car now feels incredibly smooth and looks great. I will take some before and after photos tomorrow and pm them to you.
Back on topic. Is there no chance you could respray the paint yourself? If its only a few panel perhaps take them off and do it yourself or get a body shop to do it.
Edited by wtt on Wednesday 16th July 21:48
Gassing Station | Mazda MX5/Roadster/Miata | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff