Partial Paint Job

[ralphnct]

My 82 Targa has the original factory paint job (Pacific Blue). It looks pretty good with no serious dents and no rust. However, it has lots of dings in and around the hood and there are scratches, scuff marks, and a couple of small dents in other areas of the body (picture below). Is there any way to do a partial paint job to clean it up for less than $3500 . . . something like repaint the hood, fix the minor dents and scratches, then do a clear coat to make it shine? I don't want to spend the $8000+ that people are telling me is necessary to do a full paint job.

Ralph

[Palum6o]

The clear coats on these cars are pretty thick. Have you considered taking it to a professional detailer? They can take out all the dings without having to repaint and they can buff the paint to a mirror finish. Of course you can do all these things yourself.

Don't forget to take plenty of before and after pics.

[Crachian]

Short answer: of course it's possible to touch up only.

Long answer: I like the advice above. But think hard about doing a partial repaint on 25 year old paint. It's very hard to match, particularly metallics; the paint compositions are different now; 911s have many complex curves that hide mismatches, but the hood isn't one of them. Same for the sides where the door dings are.

You've described the perfect driver, in my opinion. That's a lot of money to spend. But it's your car and if the stuff bothers you, fix it. It's only money after all.

[hcoles]

IMHO a bit of honest wear and tear is not a bad thing... some actually give a car more value as some function of how much of the paint is factory... even if not in perfect condition
some of the dents may be helped by a paintless dent removal place.. try to find the guy that has been doing it for a long time and if possible remove panels to help him get backside access...

[ralphnct]

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to take it to a detailer and see how it goes.