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Who has the worst paint?

5K views 43 replies 22 participants last post by  cyclehead 
#1 ·
I grow tired of seeing Spyder owners with pristine paint jobs (except maybe Uncle Mush). These clout-chasing BAT garage queens just burn me up inside. I'm jealous. And when I see another yellow Spyder with zero hue separation from panel to panel, a piece of me dies.

I challenge any Spyder owner with more shades of 1 color than me.

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#5 ·
@MineCowMcGee

Matte finish akin to that of a public basketball court
Basketball court? Looks more like like a 10 year old basketball that got bounced on rough concrete untill failure. That's pretty bad man. Very Sivarty style. At least it makes your headlights look very clear? Will this sprout feathers eventually?
 
#4 ·
Feeling some of this precipitated from my recent post. Feeling a little bad too, like in that old shampoo commercial..."don't hate me because I'm beautiful". lol Btw, no hard feelings (also an opp to post to get my number up!)

Fwiw, while the hues may match, my paint is far from perfect. Lots of nicks on the frunk, from stones on I95 I expect as the PO lived near to highway. Guess I'm a beneficiary of it having been a 1 owner car...except for that damn rip in the front bumper cover under the fog. Very well hidden by yellow duct tape!

Any "Harlequins" out there? Like VW used to sell new?
 
#8 ·
Finally, someone mentions it, at least I wasn't the only one feeling the same!!

Its kinda funny cause I've been on both spectrums now with my current spyder. When I first bought it it was one of those pristine spyders but as time moved on and parking on the streets of NYC has done, it has literally deteriorated before my eyes. The entire front is basically sandblasted now with more than a hundred pits in the hood. Other than that I have the rear qtr panels, one door, one fender and the rear bumper all from different spyders of the same color. And the engine lid has these ghost lines from I think luggage holders from the previous owner.
 
#10 · (Edited)
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I just stripped it and sent it to paint this week. Bumpers had been previously repainted and did not match. Clear coat on windshield surround, top of mirrors and quarters was pealing. There were a number of small dings. Excited to see how it looks when I get it back.
 
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#11 ·
Don't knock the Harlequin, a 1996 VW Golf Harlequin sold on BAT in August for over $25k.
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I purchased my Spyder, which is all one color, from a 70-something lady who kept the car in a garage the entire 12 years she owned it. It resides in my garage now so my family affectionately refers to the car as "Princess". I've picked up a few dings in the few years I've owned it (rabbit threw his face into the bumper below the fog light 🐰, rock recently hit the front lip of the hood, and my initial noob mistake of forgetting to put the car in gear when I parked at an overlook on the Cherohala Skyway & rolled into the chrome exhaust of a vintage Ford). I'm trying to keep the car in good shape but it's definitely not a show car. I want a car I can drive so I'm not trying for pristine but don't want someone driving a piece of crap to slam their doors into it either :mad:
 
#18 ·
Don't knock the Harlequin, a 1996 VW Golf Harlequin sold on BAT in August for over $25k.
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Yeah, saw that when it was on BaT, but not the result. Impressive! I remember when I first learned VW offered them (probably in the mid-90s when I had a VR6 Passat Wagon...great engine!), but never met one in person. They aren't all the same pattern, think when you ordered it up that you basically got whatever panel color config by luck of draw.
 
#12 ·
Unfortunately "NYC street parking" doesn't fit in the same sentence as "pristine car" although tbh while I was commuting to downtown Brooklyn for school/work I never once had someone play bumper cars with the Spyder. I threw it in some pretty tight spots too....I think they actually purposely got close to /tapped the other car before doing so to mine which is a for better or worse outcome I suppose.
 
#13 ·
Yeah, I've watched NYC parking where you pull in behind another car until you hit the car in front of you and then back up until you hit the car behind you, then pull up a few inches, jump out, and go about your business. This is why many cars have bumper guards on their vehicles for parking in the city. I can't imagine parking my Spyder there- nope, keep it moving and get out of the city as soon as possible or better yet, park outside of the city and take the train.
 
#15 ·
I once watched a woman in a Lincoln Navigator (very large SUV) pull up to a 2 seater Jeep Wrangler's rear bumper & then push it ~6 ft forwards so she could then have a space large enough to park behind it. Some ppl have no respect for other people's things whatsoever [emoji58]

I expect Texas/California/Arizona to win when it comes to shades of paint fade
 
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#16 ·
@wrayturbo

Looks like we're bumper brothers. All thing being equal, do yellow Spyders tend to fade worse than other colors?

My other theory is that there is a certain personality type that seeks out a yellow convertible, and that type of person enjoys their car in the sun more than the guy who chose silver brand new.
 
#17 ·
@wrayturbo

Looks like we're bumper brothers. All thing being equal, do yellow Spyders tend to fade worse than other colors?

My other theory is that there is a certain personality type that seeks out a yellow convertible, and that type of person enjoys their car in the sun more than the guy who chose silver brand new.
Bright colors fade faster. Red the fastest.

This one got redone today.

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#19 ·
I bought my car with what I like to say is 50 shades of yellow. Several fender benders with poorly matched paint. A couple of parking lot dings that I pulled almost out with the hot glue gun tool. I covered the road achne on the hood with vinyl wrap. Only two or three wrinkles I couldn't get out. Not bad for my first try. O
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riginal painted wheels are looking poor. I did paint the heavily rusted brake calipers blue. She is a daily driver that runs good.
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#20 ·
I bought my car with what I like to say is 50 shades of yellow. Several fender benders with poorly matched paint. A couple of parking lot dings that I pulled almost out with the hot glue gun tool. I covered the road achne on the hood with vinyl wrap. Only two or three wrinkles I couldn't get out. Not bad for my first try. O
I can't see them in the picks, so for a first time I'd say you did well!
 
#22 ·
I bought a Lexus GX470 for overlanding last year. I wanted one that had "patina" and boy does it have it: Big scratches on the side, paint fade, and some actual patina on one door. It has no rust but one back fender around to the door has lots of bondo (magnets don't hold for quite a bit). I love it. There is something truly freeing about driving a car you don't car to get nicked. I have been looking at newer sports cars but maybe I should come back and get a junky MR2? There is a youtube series on lifting and offroading an mr2. Might be interesting.

Love this thread.
 
#26 ·
I do. It looks good at night. Looks decent from 20 feet away. Looks fine after a polish for about a week.

Pressure washer ripped half the clear off front fender and bumper. Rear bumper and quarter panel blended with rustoleum as a temporary fix. Hood doesn't quite match the bumper, driver door is turning pink along with rear hood.

One of these days I will sand and paint it, but probably not until next spring.
 
#27 ·
My yellow car also has terrible paint.
I think only the rear hatch is original paint, the rest is all different colors and mediocre paint jobs.
It is good from far, but far from good.
I do not care much, I own the car for the driving and this beater style fits me well.
 
#29 ·
Pictures don’t do justice to my paint. Chips and dents everywhere. No clear coat. It feels like a chalk board. The bumpers are bent with cracks all over.

gotta see it in person tho.
The lack of clear coat is a good thing (to some extent). These cars have one stage paint and it can be buffed to a beautiful shine anytime. It is actually quite remarkable.

Now as for the dents and chips...
 
#30 ·
I just love the fact that there's no orange peel effect anywhere on my 16 year old paint. You can't walk through a new car lot in this country without seeing orange peel everywhere, it's really disappointing.

In my opinion, spending $40k on a new car would be a much easier pill to swallow if they could at least get the paint right.

My wife and I were car shopping a few years back, looking at Mustangs, Challengers and Camaros. NONE of them had a paint job worth half a shit, and the Camaros all had crooked embroidery in the seats where it was supposed to say "50th Anniversary"...

Quality in this country is nothing compared to Kaizen
 
#31 ·
/rant on

I was at three different Kia stealerships today. Forget the fact that none of them had the inventory on the lot that was claimed by their websites. Focus on the fact that the paint on every car they DID have was completely orange peeled from bumper to bumper. Everywhere I looked, I felt like I was wandering through a citrus farm.

DISAPPOINT.

/rant off
 
#34 ·
Wow, what caused that? Was it just cleared, didn't stick, and popped off after it got wet?
I recently looked at a Spyder that "only had a few scratches" according to the seller but it was like that all the way through the base coat on one door and quarter in addition to the few deep scratches it had.
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The car was filthy, missing parts, and a total POS so I had to pass on it.
Curious what happened to your clear coat.
 
#41 ·
You might want to go back and bring the Spyder home before they sell it.
The salesmen were all eyeballing it. I'm picking it up this afternoon, and taking her out to OTP Automotive for installation of the following:
  • Hard Dog single diagonal roll bar
  • Ray Manufacturing rear crash bar
  • New (reman, powdercoated) brake calipers
  • New brake rotors (standard)
  • MWR steel braided lines
  • Phat's 2nd gen mid brace
  • Ride height adjustment to allow for slightly higher profile tires
  • New-to-me freshly honed green axles
  • Front to back "Hey Ken, if you see something, FIX it"
 
#43 ·
My front bumper looks like it tailgated a grading truck down a gravel road for a few thousand miles. Someone actually touched up the hundreds of chips with paint although it probably would have taken less time to respray the whole bumper. Someday I will fix it…someday.
 
#44 ·
I had similar with my black bumper cover. I had it repainted and the chips were even worse (soft paint). I tried clear bra stuff. It was also poor and the bra stuff tore and gouged. Finally I did a black vinyl wrap and it has been fantastic. Very very few tears or nicks after years of use.
 
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