The bodywork on my classic Impreza really is quite poor and its starting to really annoy me so looking to get it sorted.

I'm after some professional opinions of what to expect if I try to have the bodywork corrected. The bad spots are both rear arches and down the sides of both rear doors and the edges of both rear doors. Also the drivers side 'A' pillar is bubbling quite badly and there are also 5-6 spots on the roof and a few on the bonnet. Front doors and front wings are fine.

I see my options as a full respray or partial respray... in either case I assume I would have to have new rear arches welded in?? I'm also very concerned that to spend the money on a full respray for the rust to just come back through after a few months.

... or just source a mint shell?

Any further ideas/comments would be appreciated

PS. The colour of the car is black

 

Iam just on with a 1999 evo,was in for chassis rot,but after cleaning all the back end up,it was apparent that there was more to it,ive ended up cutting all the rot out of the chassis,the whole spare wheel well,the rear suspention turret,rear pannel its pita to do,but the owner will get another 3-5 years out of it after it is waxoiled,i say 3-5 years but he lives in scotland on the coast so maybe nearer 3

This is just a heads up,as what you see could turn into alot more work once than you first thought,you need to get it up in the air and give it a thourough looking over.

hth.

 

... or just source a mint shell?

 

I would ask for a couple of recommendations for bodyshops in your local area (ask in your regional section) and take it to them to look at, get a couple of opinions as is is very difficult to say without seeing the car, the rear arches could be really fecked as could the inners or they may just have some surface rust and pinholes...

 

Have had a couple of quotes, ranging from £600-700 for the rust cut out and resprayed... to around £1500-2000 for a full respray (although I would have to strip the full car myself)

And the bloke whos quoted is very good, he's just done a full respray on my mates '89 911 and has done a mint job... but whereas, he's got rid of all the known rust, a few bubbles (tiny) have appeared where there was no rust before.

I just see the opportunity of a new shell meaning I can get me a Type R and build it from scratch knowing that i've got a good engine already etc

 

On the basis you'd be stripping anyway for a full respray I would source a mint shell everytime Si2000 has a nice white Type R shell for sale IIRC.

 

Yup Thats what has prompted this thread... far too many temptations on this website like