Baremetal respray
 

I'm likely opening myself up to a world of pain, not least from my fellows on this very forum, but I am thinking hard about sending the D2 for a full back to metal respray.

Last weekend was the first time I've really had a go at the paintwork with a DA and much elbow grease. Unfortunately I've found quite a lot of, in my opinion, poorly repsrpayed panels. The bonnet in particular is really orange peely.

Ballpark figure I'm looking at for this is about £10k - not worried about the painting itself, the guy I know has the same levels of OCD I do, and is very well known as a top rate painter, hence the price, but I am more worried about being able to replace bits of trim and clips - I'm thinking milky aluminium trim, glass and sunroof surrounds, etc

Car appears to be good mechanically, has just had an oil service (and the diaphragm honking has disappeared), and is booked in at Mackies first week of June for a gearbox service.

Interior could do with some work, but that will come next after the exterior.

And I am going to get pelters for a slight colour change - am staying with black, but thinking of having a different colour metallic fleck, maybe amethyst, maybe cherry. Have a finish something like these in mind: https://youtu.be/mobBb9WeHLI?t=516

If I go ahead, I expect to have the best D2 paintwork in the country, non-OEM colour aside - did Audi ever offer custom exclusive paints on the D2, and if so, does anyone have any links?

Apologies in advance :eek2:

Given that its a real Final Edition, and there are fewer than 20 of those left, I think you'll significantly devalue it by changing the colour since that is part of what makes it an FE. There were two blacks used on the FE - Ebony Black Pearl which is what yours is I think, and then a solid black (Brilliant Black?) which is what Stephen's is. If you want something funky then it would make more sense (to me at least) to start with an ordinary S8, not an FE. Or use a spray-wrap in whatever colour you like?

Audi did offer Exclusive colours on the D2. There aren't many Exclusive D2s in the UK but they do exist.

In terms of dismantling it:

The brightwork around the roof is simple enough, as is the rear quarter. The doors would need fully dismantling to get the trim at the base of the glass off - that is very challenging to get off without bending it.

Windscreen trim and rear screen trim can be prised off without damaging them which is nerve-wracking but not too bad. The screens won't come out intact. Fronts are available aftermarket. I don't know about the rear though - I'd be inclined to leave that in, although if the trim clips are rusty it has to come out to replace those.

The interior pillar trims all need to come out to get the B-pillar trim and rear quarter glass out, which also need all the lower sill trims out, which means the rear seat has to come out.

The sunroof panel would need to come out so the seal can be removed, then mask off the hole (extremely well!) and paint the panel separately. By this point its probably prudent to remove the front seats as well to avoid any risk of overspray.

The plastic trim at the base of the boot opening is very fragile and NLA so extreme care is needed removing the rivets from that so as not to shatter it.

The 'S8' plastic sill trims don't come off intact and are NLA. They are glued on with VHB tape which by now is stronger than the plastic. There's an extremely high risk of irreparable damage here if you want to paint the door shuts. The various stickers are also mostly NLA.

A limited number of trims and clips are still available from Tradition, but there is no guarantee of finding something if it gets broken or damaged. The aluminium trims are pretty much limited to good used parts at this point.

Ah...a 3am in the morning post...I wonder if you're already reconsidered this (mad?) idea?

Aaaanyway...I'm with Michaela on this - don't do it, you'll devalue your D2 :tuttut:

...and she's also right on my S8 colour, which is an - allegedly unique - "brilliant black" ;).

Unlike your signature then! :tuttut: +++

:eek:

When's the last time timing belt was done on it?
Have you had the rear subframe done? They all look like titanic by now. That's what I would be looking at with 10k to spend first

Out of curiosity, I dug out some photos from the 2017 annual meet to see if I could tell the difference. Taken at a slightly different angle, but within one minute of each other. Best I can do is confirm they are both black!

"Allegedly" ;)

"Allegedly" ;) ...though I should probably update that :rolleyes:

I know that Mark had the rear subframe was done quite recently as well as gearbox rebuild at Mackie’s. He treated it the car very well, so I’m sure that the timing belt would have been done as required.

But the bare metal respray is a daft idea! A top class ‘paint correction’ would be a better bet IMHO.