Refreshing a decade-old commuter: stock color respray?

After some consideration - and a cursory glance at our bank accounts - my girlfriend and I have decided to take a different tack with our vehicle strategy. Where we were going to sell her SVTF and buy something just a bit cheaper but newer for her to commute with, and I was going to sell my '00 ZX3 to have some play money, we're instead going to sell the SVTF and bank the money, and keep the ZX3 for appliance duty.

That said, in addition to desperately needing some long-deferred major services, the ZX3 has been languishing in beater car-land for a while, and while it's serviceable cosmetically, it's far from nice. Since this thing is replacing a 'new' car for the little lady, and since she spends a lot of time in the car for work, it would be nice if we could freshen the car up for her.

It's certainly not unsalvageable, but it needs some help. The interior will clean up well with a deep and thorough detail, but the exterior needs a little more attention. Being a 10 year old economy car, it has the usual door dings, scratches, rock chips and such, but the worst of the exterior trouble is a spot of rust bubbling under the rear window of the hatch, about 1.5" x .75" but slowly spreading.

So, I'm thinking of popping for a stock color (silver) respray on the whole body, but I'm also trying to keep this reasonably cheap. Would one of the Scheib/Maaco joints do okay with a job like that, or am I just creating new problems?

How else would you go about prettying up a utilitarian commuter to make it a little more tolerable for a couple years?

The "problem" with ANY body shop that is recommended is that A.) they can do an "okay" job on someone else's car...but a REALLY sub-par job on yours. And B.) I'm not really sure that a shop in YOUR area can be recommended by someone who doesn't live there, even if we are talking chain-type body shops.

Example? In my area, folks swear by 1 of 2 large grocery store chains. My preference is for "Brand S" but I have noticed that the Brand S stores in some parts of my city are not as good as those in other parts.

Just a couple more years? Hmmm.

Honestly, any paint job worth a damn is going to be at least $1500.00 and it wouldn't surprise me to see it go up from that. Dings and dents are usually figured per square inch and around here the going rate is $55 per inch. That's before the whole car gets painted. Maaco etc are 'scuff and shoot' specialists, they use cheap materials etc and they generally don't last very well. That rust bubble under the hatch glass is probably spreading from the glass recess itself, meaning the glass has to come out for a proper repair. There's always a chance of glass breakage. New glass = $$$$.

I'd bank the paint job money towards a replacement vehicle, since it's not going to increase the value. If it were a long term (5+) year keeper, then yeah I'd consider it.

Is a shinny vinyl car wrap the answer here?
The type of wrap that would look just like a painted exterior.
This may hide some of the dings as well as all the scratches while providing protection from future scratches.
All rust would be hidden by the wrap (but continue to get worse.)
Expected wrap life is like 3-5 years.

It's the bodywork under the paint that's important.

If the bodywork is nicely done, and the car is ready to be just scuffed and sprayed (including all trim removal, etc), then a Maaco paint job isn't bad at all.

I've had several cars sprayed at the local Maaco, and how well the car was prepared before paint has made all the difference.

You could do the prep work yourself, or find a local trade school or a retired body guy that will prep it inexpensively.

Around here, they spray the paint pretty thick. A good wet sand and buff after the paint has cured will work wonders.

Couple options: I'd first look into the cost of a thorough exterior detail. A lot of times a talented detailer can get more life out of your factory paint than you might think. It also allows you to keep the factory stuff on there, which is usually higher quality/finish than you'd find in a sub $1k paintjob.

Second - if the issue is the hatch glass, how much is a replacement hatch in your color? Sometimes it's easier and cheaper to just replace an entire panel and be done with it. The Focus wasn't a rare car, so I'd bet you could find something with a few trips to the junk yard.

Other than that, you can always cut the springs, paint it rattlecan flat black and raise the price $1k from what you'd normally ask. Some idiot will buy it.

alex wrote: but the worst of the exterior trouble is a spot of rust bubbling under the rear window of the hatch, about 1.5" x .75" but slowly spreading.

Chances are that once you start digging into it, this spot will be quite a bit bigger than what you can see on the surface...I just went through the same thing on my car; there was one rust bubble by the rear window channel, maybe 3/16" in diameter. Once the paint was removed and all the rust cut out, it turned into a hole about 1" x 3".

You might look at the bone yard and see if you can get another hatch without the rust. My son has managed to replace crash damage on both ends of his Escort without having to paint anything. Do some looking and you may be able to find one in the right color. Then a little buffing goes along way.

speedblind wrote: Couple options: I'd first look into the cost of a thorough exterior detail. A lot of times a talented detailer can get more life out of your factory paint than you might think. It also allows you to keep the factory stuff on there, which is usually higher quality/finish than you'd find in a sub $1k paintjob. Second - if the issue is the hatch glass, how much is a replacement hatch in your color? Sometimes it's easier and cheaper to just replace an entire panel and be done with it. The Focus wasn't a rare car, so I'd bet you could find something with a few trips to the junk yard.

These are both options I've considered. Time to start scouring the junkyards for a silver hatch.

And given the unknowns associated with a scuff-n-shoot respray, I'm thinking a thorough detail may be a workable middle ground between a junk paintjob and doing nothing.

jrw1621 wrote: Is a shinny vinyl car wrap the answer here? The type of wrap that would look just like a painted exterior. This may hide some of the dings as well as all the scratches while providing protection from future scratches. All rust would be hidden by the wrap (but continue to get worse.) Expected wrap life is like 3-5 years.

Intriguing. I certainly have been curious about this, and I suppose this is a low-risk project for experimentation.

Honestly, every, um, shall we say, "inexpensive" paint job I've ever seen pretty quickly became worse than leaving it alone. I have a car now that I wish like anything hadn't been painted a few years ago.

I have one of those window rust deals to take care of. I'm going to try to do it myself. I found a car in the junk yard and pulled the rear glass, so I have a back up piece for little money and I got to practice removing the glass. On this car it was surprisingly easy.

As for the rust repair, I think if you grind back all the rust you can to good metal and then use some of that rust stabalizer just to be safe, a little filler, some sanding, you should have a pretty good repair. At least I hope so!

I have a silver metallic fuel door from an older model focus you can have for shipping if you want it. The older model uses an attached arm to the fuel door, while the newer one has the door as a seperate part of the fuel door. Just PM me if interested. I bought it for my fathers car and couldn't use it.

If considering a junkyard replacement hatch and considering vinyl wrap then just get any color and wrap to match.

You can really make it nice try a wrap , Wraps in mmm usually $6 per sq ft plus install