Doing up an "older" car

GreeBo

as mentioned in a previous thread I have inherited a 98 Avensis.
Its in pretty good condition but has a few stone chips on the bonnet and around the wheel arches.
The wheel hubs are also a bit rusty and the alloys are knackered, paint/lacquer is lifting badly.

Ive googled around a bit on chip repair and even wheel repair and it all sounds/looks easy enough.
Im a pretty handy person but as it will be my first time I have a few questions.

1) is it really as easy as "they" say it is to fix chips?
2) for the hubs/brake block can I just take off the wheel, remove the rust (wire brush/etc) and then paint with some Hammerite?
3) for the alloys, is it worth the effort trying to do it myself? How much would it cost to get the stripped and painted in a shop?

cheers!

astraboy

Greebo, most stone chips simply require the panel be sprayed. For a bumper, your talking in the region of 100-150euro depending on the shop.(This is the price I
paid last year.) As for the alloys, they usually need to be preped and repaired. If there is kerbing etc, it may be more, but I know most wheel repair places charge 70-100 per wheel.
If it is just the lacquer peeling, a bodyshop may be able to repair or spray a new coat for 50 euro per wheel

Also, it may be cheaper to look at getting a second hand set of toyota wheels in better condition. This would save you the repair cost.

If you plan on doing the above, it may pay off when you sell the car. You won't exactly make your money back, but your car will be more desirable, you may get a better price and
you will sell it faster.

As for the brakes, drums on the rear can be painted. Disks often build up some rust if the car has not been driven in
a few days. Use the brakes and the rust will be removed. If drums lock up, hitting them with a crowbar or hammer should loosen them out.

GreeBo

astraboy wrote:

Greebo, most stone chips simply require the panel be sprayed. For a bumper, your talking in the region of 100-150euro depending on the shop.(This is the price I
paid last year.) As for the alloys, they usually need to be preped and repaired. If there is kerbing etc, it may be more, but I know most wheel repair places charge 70-100 per wheel.
If it is just the lacquer peeling, a bodyshop may be able to repair or spray a new coat for 50 euro per wheel

Also, it may be cheaper to look at getting a second hand set of toyota wheels in better condition. This would save you the repair cost.

If you plan on doing the above, it may pay off when you sell the car. You won't exactly make your money back, but your car will be more desirable, you may get a better price and
you will sell it faster.

As for the brakes, drums on the rear can be painted. Disks often build up some rust if the car has not been driven in
a few days. Use the brakes and the rust will be removed. If drums lock up, hitting them with a crowbar or hammer should loosen them out.

thanks for that.
The chips on the bonnet look like they have been there for a while, most have rusted...
The alloys dont seem to be scratched, just the paint and lacquer has lifted in places, from my investigations it looked like it was possible to remove all this (working from a wire brush down to 3000 wet/dry paper) and then spraying with primer/colour coat/lacquer. Have you (or anyone else) tried this?

Sorry I wasnt clear on that, it was the drums that are rusting, the disks themselves are grand.

cheers

bazz26

You could get the bonnet resprayed but due to the large area it may not be cheap. Get a quote from a panel beater. It might also be worth getting some touch up paint from a motor factors or main dealer and giving that a go.

It is also possible to get the alloy wheels refurbished or if you have the money replace them with new or second hand aftermarket alloy wheels. Probably talking about €350 for a new set.

old boy

supposed to be a new product out that is put on with a cloth to remove stone chips a firm in n.i. has it, we used it and it works, but the young boy skedaddled, so you got to rechearch it your self

astraboy

Greebo, I have heard of people refurbishing their own alloys, it does mean you need them off the car for a day at least though. Scrubbing them down with a wire brush and reapplying the lacquer would do the trick, however I'm really not sure how good a job can be done with lacuer in a spray can. If possible a new set of wheels would prob work out cheaper, plus you might get some fresh tyres in with the bargin.

As for the stone chips, most will rust a little if they are exposed for a while. A respray of the panel will fix this.

GTC

astraboy wrote:

Greebo, I have heard of people refurbishing their own alloys, it does mean you need them off the car for a day at least though. Scrubbing them down with a wire brush and reapplying the lacquer would do the trick, however I'm really not sure how good a job can be done with lacuer in a spray can. If possible a new set of wheels would prob work out cheaper, plus you might get some fresh tyres in with the bargin.

As for the stone chips, most will rust a little if they are exposed for a while. A respray of the panel will fix this.

Good point, you can get alloys very cheap from scrapper's yards all over the country for around 200 -400 euro, with tyres.

GreeBo

GTC wrote:

Good point, you can get alloys very cheap from scrapper's yards all over the country for around 200 -400 euro, with tyres.

yeah I might try price that first
I have 4 brand new tires on it though, would I be better of keeping any tires that come with wheels and storing the new ones until needed?

GTC

GreeBo wrote:

yeah I might try price that first
I have 4 brand new tires on it though, would I be better of keeping any tires that come with wheels and storing the new ones until needed?

Whatever suits. If you use the new ones for a bit, it does no harm and will season them anyway. Whichever you find the most handy.

bazz26

I'd be very reluctant about buying second hand alloy wheels from a scrap yard. Chances are you will not see the car they came off of so will not know what happened the car. Visually they may look alright but chances are they were damaged in a collision.