Fix front paint or get a hardtop?

[GhastRimsen]

Okay guys, I'm at an impasse. I'm a college student who's getting married in September, so not a lot of money to throw around. I got my car in January and have been slowly bringing it back to as good of condition as a can. I'm about out of my "fixing" money and I have two major things I want to do. Aparently the PO decided to drive 2 feet behind a rock truck for an hour as the entire front end: bumper, grill, hood, fenders, mirrors and windshield are all battered to hell. :( A picture is attached below, and no, that is not dirt. This picture is of my car being washed two days ago, all of those are little chips. It appears he didn't want to fix it as he clear coated over everything, so rust shouldn't be any issue (yes, many of those are all the way to the sheet metal).

Anyways, I have it quoted out to about $750 to take care of the everything but the bumper and windshield, which the bumber isn't that bad and I can get over all the little hits on the windshield, there aren't any cracks or major chips.

Well...I REALLY want a hardtop. I've never been a fan of the look of a ragtop, and my goodness seeing all of you guys with your hardtops is driving me insane. So each time I look out at my car, first I drool a little bit, after all I got my dream car :buttrock. Then I get a little pissed that my dream car has a bunch of chips in the front and a ragtop which I swore I'd never own. Which should I put my money towards?



http://imageshack.us/a/img35/5593/fronteye.png

[Sean4]

Based on what I have seen and read around here, you won't be able to find a hardtop for anything less then $1000 if you are lucky. And then you have to get that painted as well. I would go with the front end. It will improve the look of the car a lot.

[daves323ic]

I hate to tell you this, but if you are short on money now for car repairs, when you you get married it don't get any better.

[damonchoy]

Is that Fern Green?

If so give me your front bumper. :D

-

But in all seriousness, first of all, is everything mechanically taken care of? (Cooling system, especially.) If not I'd cover that first and try to leave some money left over "just in case" before covering purely cosmetic issues with the car that don't affect the driveability.

If that is all covered and you're 100% confident, I'd do the front end stuff with some Dr. Colorchip first to see if it helps any. I don't know how well it would work (if at all) seeing as how it's been clear coated over, though. If you find no success with that, I'd go with the hard top in your position. Function>form. I love going town down, though, so I'd never get a hard top except for Winter use.

[GhastRimsen]

Thanks for the responses guys. And yes, I have taken care of most of the normal maintenance issues, I still have some to go but I have that money already set aside. I'm actually selling my motorcycle and intending to put half into my car, which will be around $750-$1,000. That's why I'm asking this particular question. I figure I can have two vehicles in decent condition, or one that's in great condition. And to be honest, riding with the top down jamming to some music is nearly as good as riding my bike...so it isn't too painful.

And Damon, yes, it is Fern Green...but you probably don't want my bumper, I'm not sure if it's something I'm going to keep. Right now parts are being held together by superglue as the PO aparently had a tall curb on his driveway. Looks like he backed out a few times and just ripped it away. I'm going to remove it this week and see if I can piece it together better than it is as it rubs my tires at certain angles.

Also, something I've considered is that before I go spending $750 to get things repainted, I'd probably sand down the clear and try to do some touch up paint myself. Worse comes to worse, I go get it professionally done with nothing but a minimal amount of money down in paint. And if it works out okay, then I'd have saved myself a ton of money. So we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Thanks for the suggestion on Dr. Colorchip, I'll look into that.

Dave, I know it won't get any better, that's why I'm trying to make sure everything's out of the way now. Plus, we're driving away in this car...and I sure as heck want it to look amazing by September 13th.

[green96328]

You said in your first post that you swore you would never own a convertible. I'm confused as to why you bought one. Instead of dumping money into a car you don't want, why don't you sell it and get a coupe or sedan?

[GhastRimsen]

You said in your first post that you swore you would never own a convertible. I'm confused as to why you bought one. Instead of dumping money into a car you don't want, why don't you sell it and get a coupe or sedan?

No, don't get me wrong. I love the convertible. I swore I'd never own a ragtop because I don't like the soft top look. But a hardtop, well that's the best of both worlds. I bought this car with the intention of buying a hardtop down the road. The question is whether that'll be now or next time I have enough in my car fund.

[green96328]

Well then, the answer would be hard top.

[E36ic4Me]

I'm old fashioned I suppose. My process with cars is always 1) Fix what needs to be fixed 2) Add goodies. If the car looks poor, adding a mismatched hardtop sure as heck isn't going to help! If you can't afford the hardtop and having it painted ($1K for the top and about $400 for paint). Now you will have a pitted front end and a goofy looking top of a different color. Fix what needs to be fixed, get the car looking proper and then add things to it. I always laugh my ass off when I see kids in riced out Civics where the car sounds like crap, its 20 different colors, dented to hell but he just added a brand new fiberglass spoiler. Yeah........that is definitely the priority. LMAO.

[GhastRimsen]

I'm old fashioned I suppose. My process with cars is always 1) Fix what needs to be fixed 2) Add goodies. If the car looks poor, adding a mismatched hardtop sure as heck isn't going to help! If you can't afford the hardtop and having it painted ($1K for the top and about $400 for paint). Now you will have a pitted front end and a goofy looking top of a different color. Fix what needs to be fixed, get the car looking proper and then add things to it. I always laugh my ass off when I see kids in riced out Civics where the car sounds like crap, its 20 different colors, dented to hell but he just added a brand new fiberglass spoiler. Yeah........that is definitely the priority. LMAO.

I've always been soley concerned as to my enjoyment while driving my car. So in effect... The same order. You can't enjoy something that is broken. And at least for me, I have a hard time enjoying driving something that I know should look 30x better. I guess I'm just torn because I'd enjoy driving it about equal amounts more if either one happened. That's why I figured I'd look for some outside opinions.

Turns out that I might be moving here in a couple weeks, so that money might go for a deposit anyway. I'll keep you all posted with the results, whether it be paint, hardtop or new residence. Thanks again everybody... You've all done a great job of not making the decision easier. ;) (I was hoping you'd all be like-minded with "hardtop!" or "paint you idiot!")

[E36ic4Me]

Paint you idiot! LOL. Well, 71.5% of us did say to do the paint first. That's majority rule.