Would you spray this car?

elmyra

Classic car wars going on in my house at the moment!

My grandad bought the attached at the weekend - 4.5l automatic merc, 70something, can't remember exactly and too young to decypher old reg plates.
Anyway, it's in perfect condition, there's no rust or nicks on the bodywork as is, but he is thinking of spraying.

He has 3 other classics - Rover P5 and P6 and a Jag (don't know the make, I'm very new to my classic car hobby) and they're all in British Racing Green and he wants to complete the set.

I'm on the pro-spray team. I've neven seen a merc in British Racing Green and I think it'd make for a truly unique car. My Dad and uncles are saying no, that to do a proper job it'd have to be taken apart and would never be right again.

What would you do?

Merrion

Yes - it's his car and it is not rare enough to fall into the "denying the public their right to history" category.

MercMan Ben

Merrion wrote: »

Yes - it's his car and it is not rare enough to fall into the "denying the public their right to history" category.

If the car is rust free, it is a very rare car indeed :-) the early SL and SLC are usually infiltrated with rust. If it is original, keep it original. A respray would devalue the car in my opinion.

Benjamin

galwaytt

if you're changing a car's colour, you're going to have to gut it. I really don't know that it's worth the trouble, tbh......otherwise you'll have a green car, but when you open the doors/bonnet.........it'll be gold. Awful, imho.

But there's another factor - does green suit it? Remember that car is in the colour of it's time - 70's bling/ Dallas/and all that - so a '60s colour like BRG could actually look awful. Spray in straight paint and you'll know it wasn't original, spray it in metallic and it'll always look like you re-sprayed it, i.e., that it's not OEM.

I think the gold/chamnpagne actually suits it perfectly.

--amadeus--

Leaving aside questions of originality your problem is the interior. From the photo it looks to be a tastefull brown velour and teh plastic is all brown. A brown interior with a BRG exterior would look stupid, you'd need either a sand or black interior to make it work. Gutting and re-trimming the interior as well as a re-spray to a decent standard would make it uneconomical, it'd be cheaper to just buy a green car.

3ps

I though BRG and tan/brown was the defacto combination. I nearly bought a 1970's merc which was similar to BRG and had a tan interior.... thought it looked quite nice actually.

I wouldn't paint it or if I did it would be the same colour.

--amadeus--

Green and tan would be nice alright, but look at the colour of the dash in the foto, it's a deep chocolate brown and would clash badly with green. Or I think it would anyway

MercMad

If it doesn't actually need paint, then dont paint it. Changing colour is a personal thing but should only be done if there is a large budget, it has to be done right. That would entail a complete stripdown and replacement of quite a lot of fiddly parts, rubber trim, clips screws blah blah.

I wouldn't bother, especially since SLC's are not commanding big money. You would never get it back but also you would quite possibly devalue the car considerably. Its alos very unlikely that you dont find quite a bit of rust on an SLC

Dades

The interior wouldn't work for me with the green - at ALL.

That aside I still wouldn't spray it unless it physically needed one. The gold looks great, and original too.

My SL was resprayed about 12 years ago - but only a different shade of blue, as the interior was blue.

Henry Ford III

MercMad wrote: »

If it doesn't actually need paint, then dont paint it.

QFT. Bang on Mercmad.

carchaeologist

ZVWhy paint a good car green,the interior will be wrong,and i doubt it will look good,as has been pointed out it will need to be dismantled to do a proper job,and the door shuts and under the bonnet to do a good job,i wouldnt contemplate it especially as its a good car to start with.

The reg isnt an old irish number its an age related plate(ZV)ZV 7789 was issued in dublin.

elmyra

galwaytt wrote: »

if you're changing a car's colour, you're going to have to gut it. I really don't know that it's worth the trouble, tbh......otherwise you'll have a green car, but when you open the doors/bonnet.........it'll be gold. Awful, imho.

But there's another factor - does green suit it? Remember that car is in the colour of it's time - 70's bling/ Dallas/and all that - so a '60s colour like BRG could actually look awful. Spray in straight paint and you'll know it wasn't original, spray it in metallic and it'll always look like you re-sprayed it, i.e., that it's not OEM.

I think the gold/chamnpagne actually suits it perfectly.

We were well aware of having to gut it as that was what happened with the P6 years back, it was stripped right down. However, the clash with the interior had completely escaped notice so fair play. Everyone's dead right - the green would clash with the colour of the interior which is brown. It works well in the other 3 because they've all got a sand coloured interior.

Looks like it's staying the gold colour!

I see some were skeptical on the lack of rust but restoration guy went over it today and said it's all original and no rust in sight - such is the report from home anyway.

Love the forum by the way - it's good to see other folk who just like to look at pictures of cars.

Thanks folks

S.I.R

i'd paint it satin black... or rust brown, either way... So i could keep it for life as nobody would ever buy it off me !! :pac:

VWPowered

Merrion wrote: »

Yes - it's his car and it is not rare enough to fall into the "denying the public their right to history" category.

i agree but does look mint so why spray it:rolleyes:

woop

dont spray it
paint is great, be suprised if thats the original paint...............that or its been minded like a baby

carchaeologist

woop wrote: »

dont spray it
paint is great, be suprised if thats the original paint...............that or its been minded like a baby

Well,if its the original paint and its in good shape and doesnt need spraying,more reason not to!!

woop

carchaeologist wrote: »

Well,if its the original paint and its in good shape and doesnt need spraying,more reason not to!!

true true

GubMan

you'd have to leave it the original colour, eventually the brg collection will be added to or broken up and thats when the colour would be queried, ie do we continue painting these cars green or why did they change the colour?

Originals that don't need paint jobs should be left in the original shades, there's enough mad looking cars out there without embarrassing a classic with an inappropriate colour.

Would anyone want to repaint a Fiat 131 sport or 2000tc to cover up that mad orange they used to paint them in? Thats what made them stand out! Or the powdershell blue that kadetts used to sport?? Leave it as is would be my comment:)