Andy Brookes
Poole, UK
Who else hates paint? The thin layer that protects our cars is a delicate surface that always causes me some anxiety. How perfect should it be? What protection should you give it? When does ‘good enough’ turn into the need to get it refinished? It’s an endless conundrum I find myself arguing about internally.
The SC has seen the inside of a body shop at least a couple of times, one that’s a pretty renowned establishment in the classic car scene. It was Thornley Kelham in the Cotswolds, which is probably best known for its cool Lancia Aurelia B20GT Outlaw builds along with many high-end, concours-winning cars. It feels a little above the lowly SC’S station.
The first visit was around 15 years ago when it started up and was trading as The Vintage & Classic Paintshop. Check out the receipt! I believe it was a repaint of the front bumper and the bonnet – I’m guessing to rid the car of stone chips. Its second visit was around nine years ago for the usual kidney bowl job, when both sides of the car including front wings, doors and rear wings were refinished. So my belief is that the roof, the deck lid and the rear bumper are the original paint.
As the saying goes on secondhand car ads now, the car presents well. But as the saying implies, it’s not perfect. It has a good amount of stone chips on the front end and around the wheel arches, some marks on the roof and on the deck lid, plus some hand-print dents where the deck lid had been pressed down hard when being closed.
I’ve had thoughts of getting the front bumper, roof and deck lid repainted to bring those panels up to the standard of the sides, partly driven by my thoughts that the roof aerial wasn’t right, but I’m at peace with that now as per my column last month. The SC is ‘Driven not Hidden’, so getting all those panels refinished will only hinder me driving the car, as I would be thinking the car’s too good to drive.
So what’s the plan? I can handle the stone chips and the rash in the arches. Those are like battle scars, and I’ll get a paint chip kit to ensure they don’t develop into something more than a flesh wound. But the hand dents on the rear lid were really grinding my gears. Most people probably wouldn’t even notice them, but they were growing in my mind’s eye by the day, to the point where I would have bad dreams about them.
A chance encounter with Craig from www.dentdiamond.co.uk at the Canford Classics meet in the summer was the prompt that I needed to sort the nightmares that I was beginning to have. Craig did an amazing job of smoothing the handprints. I can fully recommend getting Craig or a similar dent removal professional around to help. The big plus is that I can now sleep again at night.
What’s the moral of the story? Don’t be too precious, but get the things done that help put your mind at rest without going crazy and making the car too good to use. It’s a real balancing act for sure.