Hey all, i'm new to the forum and just figured i'd introduce myself (and the car obviously!)

Although I've owned her for 5 great years now I've only just gotten myself into a position where I needed to look up some hints and tips, which is what led me here. I'm at the point in life where I feel I need to start doing my own mechanical work and the like, which is a bit of a learning curve!

Found a great post on how to change the crankshaft position sensor recently which has now been successfully completed so now I'm really just looking for some more advice.

The car is a 2003 (53 plate) Crossfire Coupe, Sapphire Silver, just clocked 100k miles. Recently I've noticed some rust creeping into the rear wheel arches I'm fairly confident I can rectify this myself but I'm struggling to find paint! Has anyone got a paint supplier or even a paint code that I can use? It's the only piece of the puzzle that is missing.

Any help or advice anyone can provide will be gratefully received, thanks for your time.

 

Hi chibob and welcome :-)

Paint code should be on the vin plate and good old Halfords can mix it for you.

 

OK so i know this is quite a subjective question but what sort of colour match am i likely to achieve from this?
I know its only wheel arches but im a bit of a perfectionist!

Thanks

 

Hi and welcome to the forum, I agonised over this when I first bought mine, I was going to have a go myself but wasn't confident and eventually I paid the professionals to do it, and to be honest i'm glad I did, it wasn't cheap but when they stripped the side skirts off and showed me the stuff I hadn't seen lurking behind the plastic I was shocked, if i'd done a DIY job the problem would have been back within months.

Paint match isn't too much of a problem if you are only doing the lip rather than coming out onto the main panel as it isn't easily seen, but if you decide to go DIY check behind the skirts at the front of the arches and make sure you get it all, if its spread past the lip onto the panel already I wouldn't even attempt it unless you have the kit and really do know what you are doing.

I did the other common area which is around the boot latch myself, as I decided any c*ck ups wouldn't be visible with the lid down, and it actually came out ok other than being a bit matt compared to the surrounding paint, its hard to get a good glossy finish with spray cans no matter how much laquer you apply.

 

mods, as the majority of this post is a very UK specific question shouldn't this be left in the UK area? PS - welcome Chibob

 

@pct

Thanks very much for the great advice. What sort of price are we talking to get them done professionally then?

 

It's hard to guess as it depends how bad yours is, mine was just bubbling on the lips and I think I was quoted around £450 initially but he asked me to come back and look at what he'd found after stripping the skirts off and it added another £50 to the bill to do the extra bits.

I also had all 4 wheels refinished at the same time which included filling in some pretty severe kerb damage on both nearside wheels (2 previous lady owners!!) so my total bill was over £700.

The best thing would be to drive it in to a couple of places and get quotes.