Painting a car. Lots of questions.

[Mutad0r]

So I have an "opportunity" to buy a Fiat Stilo 2005 for what might be considered cheapish. The car is mechanically ok, but what really worries me is that it has a lot of problems with paint. There's parts where the paint is missing and bare metal is showing. And THEN the contrast of the paint has changed over time.

The car is red... but it's orange. When you open the car doors and see the part of the body that's usually hidden, it's bright red. The front bumper was changed a couple of years ago because of bugs bunny, so the bumper is very noticeably more.. red.

I'm trying to figure out whether to buy the car or not. Having it professionally painted would cost probably about the same or even more than what he's asking (1500€), which means that it's not an option.

I could use orange paint to fix the places that need fixing and be content with a red/orange car, but that's not nice. I would also have to buy 2 different paints because the red front bumper scraped a fence, so it's missing some paint.

I could do the whole car myself, but I'm pessimistic by nature. I don't have an indoors space to work in, so I might end up with stuff in the paint. Paint isn't that cheap by itself. It might still cost hundreds of €.

I might have forgotten to ask those questions that I promised so here they are: What are your general thoughts on what I have just written? Should I even bother buying it (It's mechanically pretty well off)? If I was to paint it myself, should I go for red/ orange, or full red? If I was to paint it completely, would I have to remove the existing orange tint, if I was to paint the car red again, or would I have to remove everything and start from the beginning? If I don't have to remove previous paint, then does that mean I'll save some money at some point? How much could this whole ordeal cost me (it's the 3-door version)?

[rallymaster]

you're one the wrong section of the forum, here we talk about scale models, so even if some of us may be able to answer your questions you would have more and more relevant answers posting your questions on the general section of the forum, especially in the Fiat section.

[Mutad0r]

Originally Posted by rallymaster

you're one the wrong section of the forum, here we talk about scale models, so even if some of us may be able to answer your questions you would have more and more relevant answers posting your questions on the general section of the forum, especially in the Fiat section.

I can accept that. There however should be a specefic section for painting cars. there's nothing special about painting fiats. I don't need information from people that only visit the fiat forums, what if there's a paint wizard that hates fiats and only visits chrysler forum? I put it here, because when I searched for DIY paint, then most of the topics were here, I figured this forum was for visual tuning of cars :P I suppose I should have investigated it a bit more, before posting, but it was late at night, and I have to make the decision to buy as fast as possible. So if anyone is kind enough to move this to wherever it's supposed to be, that would be swell.

[sjelic]

even thou it is not in best section I can try to help a bit. Since Fiat red paint is very sensitive to some atmospheric influences you should first try to save what you have, wash the car, then polish it with some good rubbing compound like 3M. It will be a nightmare to do and you will need at least 5-6 hours to do it properly. Do the whole car, bumper too, then put some wax on it and you will see that it will not be orange any more. As for the hood, only painting can help but I am sure you will be very surprised after you give it a good polishing job.

[generationx]

Unless this is truly bargain of the century, why would you buy a ten-year-old car that needs so much work? I can´t imagine a Fiat Stilo is a super-rare collectors car, so why not look around for a better one if that´s the model of car you simply must have? You need to balance the amount of work required against what you think your time is worth. There´s always bargains to be found.
BUT if this is what you want then take Sasa´s advice.