Conflicted about painting for $2013 Challenge

We're planning on entering my '86 300zx rallycross car in the $2013 Challenge. The car is well sorted, makes great power, and actually does pretty decent on asphalt with some gummy rubber, so I think we should be fairly competitive in the drag racing and autocross portions of the challenge.

But, then comes the question of the concourse. We plan on painting the car in the old factory Datsun rally Z-car livery, but then again I really don't want to paint the car at all. As far as the way the car looks now, sure it's ugly, but it's honest. Every dent, ding, scrape, scuff, scratch, and greasy handprint was earned while fighting for it's 3 rallycross points championships. It just seems wrong to paint it to look like some other old race car when it has it's own story to tell just as it is.

So, should I just suck it up and paint it, or leave it as is? And if we leave it as is, how big of a hit in concourse points will we take?

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The concours is just as much about creativity as it is about aesthetics. If you don't want to paint it, don't. Make sure you have a good story about why it looks like it does and point out your clever build solutions to the judges.

Roll it through the Concours on knobbies with all the dirt, scrapes, dings and "patina". Then swap tires and post good times on the track. Let the car do the talking. Enough said!

I wouldn't paint it.

I'm not a judge, but i find battle-scarred warriors way more interesting than the creampuffs that show up.

I know there's at least one judge that agrees with me. There was one judge that put my nasty daily driver ABOVE the absolutely gorgeous MX3 that was there in $2012.

That said, the rest of the judges didn't agree with me. Time to decide how important the concours is to you. It's not real important to me. My car is a mess, been totaled twice, and i'm the 15th owner. It's my year round daily driver, and it picks up dings and chips constantly.

All i can really do is make sure it's clean and go with that and hope the judges like the story of how i've resurrected it and beat on it for 4 years unmercifully with nary a complaint. There's going to be more "WOW" factor to it this year, but it ain't gonna be because i pussied out and painted the damn thing.

I definitely would NOT paint that car, at least on the outside. The patina gods would never forgive you. It looks visually interesting and coherent as is.

What I would do is clean it up inside the cabin and under the hood to the greatest extent feasible, and dress up / neaten everything that can be seen inside the car. So you've shown that you have pride in the car in both ways.

the only reason i'm painting mine is because I got the crazy idea that I needed wide wheels and flares. . . the yellow rabbit flares on a red car was a little to team mcdonalds for my taste so now i'm spending all my free time block sanding a "budget" car that I had no intention of painting when I purchased it. If you like the patina, leave it. just detail the living hell out of it like said above. I kinda prefer ultra clean rat's over trailer queens anyway.

Duke wrote: What I *would* do is clean it up inside the cabin and under the hood to the greatest extent feasible, and dress up / neaten everything that can be seen inside the car. So you've shown that you have pride in the car in both ways.

This.

Wouldn't paint it. I'd run it though the mud, run the wiper, let dry. Done.

How about a mural on the hood of a parrot playing an electric guitar while doing donuts in a 300z?

Unless you are outright trying to win this thing, I would not bother.

at the end of the day, it's your car, and it has to suit your personal wants / needs. except for the parrot playing electric guitar while doing donuts in a 300z. there's really no way to not have that on your hood.

NOHOME wrote: Unless you are outright trying to win this thing, I would not bother.

Said in a much nicer way than what I was about to post.

Ojala wrote: How about a mural on the hood of a parrot playing an electric guitar while doing donuts in a 300z?

Ha! It can't get any worse than our Windstar Fap Van