Body work on my RX-8 to make it look new again!

[plas87]

Hello,

I've taken the plunge and decided I will be doing a significant body work on my RX-8. This may sound silly given the value of the car and the cost to carry out the work, but this car is something I will be keeping for a while yet.

First thing I wanted to sort out was the rust on the lower wing panels. I decided it would be best to remove these completely and replace rather than bothering to repair and re-spray so off to the bin they went. I got the body shop to remove the glued side skirts (which apparently was a pain in the as!) and check the sills entirely and thankfully they are in a decent condition. To be on the safe safe, I had the inner side of the sills angle-grinded and rust treated.

I found a set of (used) front wings for £180 delivered. They are in good condition (i.e. no signs of rust) but will obviously need a proper respray. I to make sure it all matches at the front and get a proper job done, I'm also respraying the front bonnet and bumper too.

The boot tailgate wasn't in the best of condition (poor previous paint job), so I've decided to get that resprayed as well. The central brake light had a bit of rust around the metal (common issue on the RX-8) so that will be rectified too. This will all be blended with the rest of the car.

Looking forward to see the car when it's back, I'll post up some pictures.

[Dr. FrankenRex]

Just a suggestion, if you're going to all of that effort, it's probably worth painting the whole car, rather than all those parts separately. By doing the whole thing in one go you will be (almost) guaranteed a paint match across the whole car. If you don't you risk a scenario where the remaining panels (by my calcs just the roof and rear bumper?) won't match - and weirdly would look like they have been resprayed rather than the other way around.

Good luck on the endeavour, though. I've toyed with the idea of spraying a car myself before but never taken the plunge.

[plas87]

Yes, I did think about getting a full re-spray done but the cheapest quote I found from a reputable garage was at least £1,500 more than getting the individual panels that needed attention. resprayed. The core body is actually in decent condition although the newly resprayed panels will be blended through so that the colour of the entire car is evenly matched

[Dr. FrankenRex]

Ah, I thought you were doing the paintwork yourself - which is how it read to me above.

[v-rex]

Yes, I did think about getting a full re-spray done but the cheapest quote I found from a reputable garage was at least £1,500 more than getting the individual panels that needed attention. resprayed. The core body is actually in decent condition although the newly resprayed panels will be blended through so that the colour of the entire car is evenly matched

Can you say what sort of cost numbers a full respray was coming in at ?

[Scartlead]

Check my build thread to see what silly is on a sub 2k car

[v-rex]

Check my build thread to see what silly is on a sub 2k car

I think the RX8 is definitely a good example of the value vs price argument....

[warpc0il]

Galaxy grey is a difficult colour to "blend" as it's a 3-layer finish and the result can mean that it's almost perfect in one light but totally different in another. I've seen cars that look fine in the morning but crap in the afternoon, just because the sunlight is hitting at a different angle.

The current shade of your paintwork may also vary from one end/side to the other, especially if it's been parked in the same place for a long time and faded.

These issues are most noticeable with colours like Velocity Red, that didn't all even come out of the factory the same shade, but also apply to any metallic finish on a car over 10 years old.

Don't forget that the RX8 was one of the first cars to be painted in water-based paint, which proved to be much less durable than the solvent-based paints it replaced. These days water-based has got better but it's unlikely that's what your paint shop will be quoting for.

[v-rex]

Check my build thread to see what silly is on a sub 2k car

Wow your car is amazing. Can't believe how much you've done to it !!

I'm gonna stop looking now as it's making my car look crap (relatively speaking of course) ....

[Scartlead]

It's not crap, don't see it like that, it's a long process, but enjoy it and take your time.

[plas87]

Yes, I did think about getting a full re-spray done but the cheapest quote I found from a reputable garage was at least £1,500 more than getting the individual panels that needed attention. resprayed. The core body is actually in decent condition although the newly resprayed panels will be blended through so that the colour of the entire car is evenly matched

Can you say what sort of cost numbers a full respray was coming in at ?

Full respray was around £3500.

[Ainmhidh]

Was that the 3 layer original colour, or something more custom?

[v-rex]

Yes, I did think about getting a full re-spray done but the cheapest quote I found from a reputable garage was at least £1,500 more than getting the individual panels that needed attention. resprayed. The core body is actually in decent condition although the newly resprayed panels will be blended through so that the colour of the entire car is evenly matched

Can you say what sort of cost numbers a full respray was coming in at ?

Full respray was around £3500.

That's not as bad as I thought it would be. Thought it would be closer to 10k.

[plas87]

Was that the 3 layer original colour, or something more custom?

The original Galaxy Grey 32S

[plas87]

Update:

Popped in at the body shop to check the progress and drop off some paint sealant and as of now, the car looks mint! The old hazy headlights were sanded now and looks new again and the rest of the panels were polished off. Can't wait to bring it back to the road and will share pictures

[HypoThermia]

Looking forward to seeing those pics after the work is done - really good to see that you're intent on keeping the car going and applying some TLC.

The current shade of your paintwork may also vary from one end/side to the other, especially if it's been parked in the same place for a long time and faded.

These issues are most noticeable with colours like Velocity Red, that didn't all even come out of the factory the same shade, but also apply to any metallic finish on a car over 10 years old.

I would add that colour matching is usually done against the car "as provided" in order to address these paint aging issues - something that I learnt many years ago when the club organised a tour of a friendly car dealership paint respray facility. One club member found this out to their cost when they provided a sparkling clean freshly waxed car for a paint repair (different dealership). It came back a particularly brighter shade of red.

Something else to bear in mind with a respray (apart from the cost) is that a hand respray is never going to be quite as good as the original factory programmed robot, something to consider if there is a panel that is otherwise untouched.

[plas87]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... HpwHkBOIjE

[plas87]

Please see the attached pictures. I had also put on a paint sealant - you can see the water beading effect in one of the pics on the bonnet.

[nasosmitro]

Hello,
After 13 years under Greece s hot sun I decided to refresh the paint of my Galaxy Gray too .
So there s my questions. I want to paint those black pieces at the rear bumper. I know that those two at the exhaust tips are easy to unclip. What about the center one? How is this piece on the bumper?

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