My Pantera Got Wrecked

Adams,

I think I have something in common to share with you ...

I too, when looking for a car to purchase, wanted an original car with original paint. Exactly, " Let's see - I coulda bought a car repainted 27 times, but I didn't. I bought original " in 1990. I still have the factory orange today. To us, original paint is very valuable - one look at an original painted car will tell you the condition of the car. A repainted car means that some other work most probably was done to the body.

There are challenges: I cannot get lacquer paint to match the car to fix the stone chips. It is very difficult to get lacquer in the first place. I took the car to a number of auto paint suppliers (eg PPG). They all put an optical machine to it. The best I could do was to get enamel that is a close match. When I use the enamel for stone chips etc. I realize that I will not be able to feather the paint in without having a hard edge.

Usually, insurance companies will want to get away with paying out the minimum. They will want to restore the damaged area only. I would push them to "match the paint" with no hard edges. This would likely mean that they would have to repaint the entire car.

The question becomes what type of paint do you want? I would go with enamel. Personally, I would not like the base coat/clear coat system for my DeTomaso. It has long term durability and maintainablility issues. When chipped or scratched you have to deal with the clear coat and the base coat. My 1998 Jeep (base/clear) has the clear pealing off in places - It needs a repaint.

I am sure that there will come a time where I will be in a position like yours and I will need to do something about the paint.

Thank-you for your post and the responses. I am following this thread with great interest.

B.G

Adams,

My Sherwin Williams paint can has code J5-5876 00 Dk Green - Acrylic Enamel.

Good luck with the insurance work.

quote:

Originally posted by andriyko:
Adams,

I think I have something in common to share with you ...

I too, when looking for a car to purchase, wanted an original car with original paint. Exactly, " Let's see - I coulda bought a car repainted 27 times, but I didn't. I bought original " in 1990. I still have the factory orange today. To us, original paint is very valuable - one look at an original painted car will tell you the condition of the car. A repainted car means that some other work most probably was done to the body.

There are challenges: I cannot get lacquer paint to match the car to fix the stone chips. It is very difficult to get lacquer in the first place. >snip> This would likely mean that they would have to repaint the entire car.

The question becomes what type of paint do you want? I would go with enamel. Personally, I would not like the base coat/clear coat system for my DeTomaso. It has long term durability and maintainablility issues.
>snip>

Thank-you for your post and the responses. I am following this thread with great interest.

B.G

Thanks BG. I agree on all points, and had a longish discussion about the base/clear paint method and type with my very trusted shop. He agreed with at least one elder method favored by manufacturers that caused massive chipping. Said it was related to humidity coming back through the primer coat or some such. Assured me that chemistry had yielded a much better answer over the last 7 years or so.

I spoke with two different shops, both supportive of the base/clear, but said they 'would' do enamel, yet not in favor. (Touch ups if necessary were more difficult w/enamel, as was any matchining in the future, WAY easier to keep beautiful with base/clear.)


And Joules, thanks for the paint code! That was a huge help.

UPDATE: So far, the insurance folks have been quite reasonable. The 'second' round of negotiations went fine. It appears that 'yes' I'm gettng my car fully repainted. I'm NOT taking the glass out (roped). All else to be done.

Two issues - 1) Items to get rechromed. Antenna and door handles. Plastic-chromed for side markers. Any advice appreciated.

2) Do I leave my spot-weld marks as the car currently and originally had? Or go slick as I can?

Thanks again all.

Hi Adams,

Glad to hear things are appearing to work out OK. I hope that continues.

I was able to buy replacement side marker buckets from Wilkinson for a very reasonable price (a few years ago). New, original parts and he may still have some. Door handles are more of a problem to deal with, but there was a full set of new locks on eBay recently. Not cheap, but likely the best you can do.

Regarding the welds, if you want to maintain as much originality as possible, I would expect that leaving them would be the route to go, although it's hard not to want to pretty it up after going to the trouble of repainting everything. I did clean up mine, just for the record.

Cheers,
Mark

Adams, there is a shop in Toronto that re-chromes plastic parts. A friend with a Dino had the plastic parts done and the price was reasonable and he was happy with the work. I can get the info for you if you want it.
Richard T.

Thanks Mark, you resurrector of Mangustas. I appreciate the tip on side marker buckets. For some reason, I've not bought from Wilkinson, but have indeed "offed" one Pantera vendor, so will definitely make room for one of the good guys. (I can only keep up with 3 vendors at a time.)

Richard T - "YES" I would like the info on the good plastic-chromer. I'm bidding on some "like new" ones now (SO BACK OFF IF YOU DON'T REALLY WANT 'EM!) so your guy will be my back up.

Thanks again all. More to come, I promise.