A call to arms!

[templar2k5]

Hi everyone, I doubt any of you on here would remember me posting about my Mum's 1998 Micra a while back.

Sadly my Mum has passed away (after a very aggressive bout of cancer) and left the Micra to me. This has left my younger Sister's nose out of place, and as she's not the full ticket (and as I have signed it over to me best mate, it wound her up even more) she has decided to "key" the whole car, from top to bottom (As it's stored in my Mum's driveway, and my Sister lives at the house) Here's a picture of the passengers door:

So, as you can see, an excellent paint job is now "toast" It's such a shame, as the car's in pretty good nick (It will need new discs and pads, a CV boot and some brake lines for the next MOT, though - are these hard to fit?)

What's the best course of action for the paint job? I was thinking of doing the car in "rattle cans" (My Mum was amazing at respraying cars! She has trained me pretty well!) How hard would it be to do the car matt black, or something similar? How would I be able to spray the inside of the door shuts etc? Has anyone on here tried this?

Any help would be gratefully received, as I just couldn't stand to see it scrapped, as my Mum loved the car (Which shows just how mental my Sister really is.......)

 

[Stani1029]

id only ever rattle can my car a matt colour as getting the finish is simple. not sure what you can do to completely hide the scratches though.....

 

[templar2k5]

id only ever rattle can my car a matt colour as getting the finish is simple. not sure what you can do to completely hide the scratches though.....

Thanks for the reply, Stani. I've read that you can "fetch" most deep scratches out of paintwork, by wetting the panel, and going over it with very fine 2000 grit sandpaper. Either that or Scotchbriting the whole car to "key in" the old paint, so it's ready for the new stuff.

Does anyone on here think it would be a good idea to remove the boot and bumpers etc to paint them off the car? How hard is this to do? Cheers : )

 

[Stani1029]

Well thats good about the scratches then. Personally id remove everything to paint the car like bumpers/handles/grilles/spoiler/front and rear lights.

The back bumper is easy removed, if you want it in its easiest possible form then remove just the 2 screws at each corner of the bumper where it meets the wheel arch and give it a good wiggle from behind. If not there are another 4 (2 of which will most likely snap as they are underneath the car) the other 2 are inside the boot (1 to LH side the other to the RH side)

The front bumper is a fait bit if youve not done it before, you have the front sections of the wheel arch liners to remove, the plastic undergaurds (if theyre there) headlights need removed to access the 6x10mm bumper-bumper bracket fixings or 6x14mm fixings bumper bracket-front panel fixings, and then thats the bumper removed

 

[europug]

Matt paint is more difficult to spray than gloss , gloss is forgiving when it comes to dust and runs ( they can be polished out ) Matt paint would require a repaint. Also Matt paint is prone to showing striping more .

If you have a large area to key I'd suggest using this to save on elbow grease
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FARECLA-C...ssories_Car_Care_Cleaning&hash=item3a6e1fd281

Use with a grey scotchbrite pad with warm water .

Depending on the depth off the scratch ( has it marked the steel / plastic ?)
800 grit wet with warm soapy water or in extreme case 400grit .

 

[templar2k5]

Matt paint is more difficult to spray than gloss , gloss is forgiving when it comes to dust and runs ( they can be polished out ) Matt paint would require a repaint. Also Matt paint is prone to showing striping more .

If you have a large area to key I'd suggest using this to save on elbow grease
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FARECLA-C...ssories_Car_Care_Cleaning&hash=item3a6e1fd281

Use with a grey scotchbrite pad with warm water .

Depending on the depth off the scratch ( has it marked the steel / plastic ?)
800 grit wet with warm soapy water or in extreme case 400grit .

Thanks for the help, EP. Are you saying that if I needed to prep the car, to use the Farecla liquid, with the scotchbrite pad, then use 800/400 grit sand paper, as well? Or do you just do one or the other?

EDIT: Here's a thread on another forum, about a K11 in matte black:

http://www.micra.com.au/community/message.php?messageid=38794

 

[europug]

Use the grit paper on the scratches till there smooth then use the scotchbrite to key the surrounding paint .

 

[templar2k5]

Use the grit paper on the scratches till there smooth then use the scotchbrite to key the surrounding paint .

Cheers for clarifying , EP. What grit sandpaper would be the same as the Scotchbrite pads you are suggesting I use? Sorry for the stupid questions.........

 

[davey1991]

totally different tbh, scotchbrite is purely for roughing the surface it removes very little of anything, any sandpaper will remove layers. Scotchbrite is very cheap!

 

[europug]

Scotchbrite is used just to take the shine off the paint , want remove any scratches .

2000-3000 is roughly the same but would take longer to do .

 

[europug]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STARCHEM-...plies_Paint&hash=item53eba0ddf8#ht_1154wt_689

That is more than enough to do a micra , halfords do there own brand but you don't get as many and it's an assortment of colours.

 

[frank]

red scotch is about equivalent to 1500 grit, and grey scotch 3000 grit

 

[templar2k5]

Right, if my wonderful Sister hasn't buggered the main key for the car, and I can recover it, here's my plan of attack for the paintwork:

Start off by giving the car a good wash. Then, put some Mer car polish (have some already) on a lambs wool drill attachment. As Mer has very little cutting agent, it should be pretty delicate on the damaged paintwork.

I will then try some Meguiar's ScratchX 2.0 on the heavier marks. I'm hoping this will draw a few more out.

If this doesn't work, I will then go for the 2000/3000 grit wet and dry. After this, I will put another layer of Mer on the car to even out the lacquer. Sounds good?

Cheers for all of the help, by the way : )

 

[r-reg-sr]

tell sis if she can prove it,,to keep the car clean today then you'l give her it
after she's tyr'd cleaning drive off in it

 

[NeX]

sorry to say this, but your sister is a full on nutcase! it might even be worth talking to the police about criminal damage and getting her to repair the car.

there was another guy on here who had his micra stolen by his brother who couldn't legally drive, he destroyed the car so he called the police about it. though that made him a bit of a family enemy, but still its what i would do if someone damaged my car, i don't care who they are.

 

[templar2k5]

Well, I've hit a few other snags, today. Firstly, I phoned up my local Nissan dealer, to see if I could get a new key, for the Micra (As I'm 1000% sure that my Sister would have binned the original) "No problem" they said "Just bring the old one in, and we'll re-code the new one with that" What's the point in that?

And after charging the battery from the car (it has a long-standing problem, where the battery runs flat after a couple of days of none usage) it decided to chuck liquid everywhere, as it was charging! I give up! (Does that mean that the battery is no good, anymore? - Can I still use it to move the car?)

 

[templar2k5]

Sorry to double post everyone, but I've managed to get hold of the key for "Project Micra"

Now, I can't decide if it's worth spraying the car matt black, or trying to re-do the whole car in it's original metallic green (using cans) Any suggestions? (Please bear in mind, that the roof is FUBAR'd as well.......)

Many thanks in advance : )

EDIT: If I did respray the car in metallic green. should I do one panel at a time, or one side, as it would blend in better, surely? If I do a panel at a time, how could I "equalize" the paint finish between all of the panels?

EDIT EDIT: I was just re-reading what Europug wrote about gloss being more forgiving than matt paint. would it be better for me to try and do the car in "satin black" instead? I have used this product on old steel wheels before, and it made them look brand new!

http://www.hammerite.co.uk/products/direct_to_rust_metal_paint_aerosol_satin_finish.jsp

Would this work on the Micra? Has anyone tried it? (And what type of paint could I use for the bumpers etc?)

EDIT EDIT EDIT!:

Right, I've had a go again today at trying to remove a few of the scratches from the paintwork with some Mer. As you can see, most of them came out! (And with only elbow grease, as well) I have bought a polish buffing disc for my drill and some G3 scratch compound. I'll update you on how it works. Wish me luck!