I bought the kit from Dr ColorChip a handful of months prior. It sat on my desk. There was little motivation on my part to apply it to my car and watch as the decades old paint fails to match up to the brand-new dark blue hue in the little bottle from the kit.
On the top, the number “920” was written. That’s the paint code for my W114. Deep Blue, that’s what Mercedes calls it. On my car, they’d call it “mostly there”. As happens with an older machine, it earns its nicks and scars from years of life. I can’t attest to them as they’ve been acquired by prior owners and past incidents likely long since forgotten.
After staring at the kit for months, I finally decided to do something with it. The sun was shining down on my back and the car. It’s a simple enough kit with easy to understand instructions. Clean the area where you’re working before hand. Apply a fair bit of the paint using one of the supplied brushes, then wipe it flat with your thumb. Let it dry for at least three minutes and then use the included paint blender and sealer. After that, just wipe with a microfiber towel and stand back.
The last instruction not included is to pick your jaw up off the floor. This kit is amazing. While I’d expected to hit a few minor nicks I found myself cleaning up nearly an entire fender area worth of scratches. To my eye, the color match is excellent and the kit is incredibly easy to use.
This is one of the best ways in which I’ve spent money on my car. How about you? What have you done?
Hooniverse Asks: What's the best money you've ever spent on your car or truck (or bike)?
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15 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: What's the best money you've ever spent on your car or truck (or bike)?”
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I’ve used the multi stage headlight refinishing kits for plastic headlights on several cars with awesome results. The kits often go on sale for 20-30$ and it really cleans up the look of a car.
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Yeah those things work great too
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Tools, lots of tools.
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My love for cars goes back to my childhood . My first job was working summers at a Ford dealership , Doing prep work and cleanups after the new cars came off the truck . The first best money I spent was a decent buffer. Buy those old back row trade-ins and fix this and that, get that one tire and find that missing wheel cover . The next best money I spent was when I bought my Binks # 97 paint gun . Bought in 1977 and still have it stored away. Two Fords in the driveway now. This one just had its 20th birthday .https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c49aecbcf22b47d0a9b2bfe78aba03bc4ba18add308c07d0b8c84cf18fcda257.jpg
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My dad has an old Binks, too, and it’s what I used when learning to spray cars. He eventually bought an HVLP, but I couldn’t get the hang of it.
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Towing insurance.
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Wait, what did the quarter panel look like before?
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I’m a big fan of ridiculously expensive spark plugs and oil, and have absolutely zero evidence that they make a damned bit of difference at all, except they make me fell all warm and fuzzy. Give me more electrodes! More platinum plating! More proprietary synthetic esters!
Front end alignments, though, those are the real bomb. Especially on the motorcycles. -
Bought new shocks and front springs for my otherwise catastrophic Lancia Prisma 25y ago, car was transformed and I even thought I can live with it, until something stupid like driver’s outside door handle broke, 5. time in 3 months or something. Those few days of joy. Also, last year I paid pros to polish my then Alfa 159 wagon and it looked great after that, still very difficult to find a buyer though.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ec519bffbf088ef88a2c07dd79650923ac773db3cc66d1cba2aa21ac959713f9.jpg -
Tires.
My Dakota came with hard-wearing but low-grip tires that I was sick and, well, tired of after 30-some thousand miles… but they still had significant tread depth left. I had all-terrains put on for a few hundred bucks, brought the old tires to the farm to see if they’d be useful on something there, & my dad eventually used up my Dakota’s OEM tires on his Ram that could use that tire size. -
A Boyer Bransden electronic ignition to replace both the centrifugal advance and the breaker points on my 1978 BMW motorcycle. This simultaneously spared me the hassle of ever setting the points again and gave me a a better and more consistent ignition advance so the bike ran better. This makes the Boyer a much better choice than the more common Dyna that retained the mechanical advance, also Boyer is the only outfit to make a conversion for 79-80 BMW “can” points.
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Not money I spent, but my father had a colour polish done on his 50 year old Falcon, and it took the heavily oxidised, faded red paint to looking like it had been re-sprayed. A point of caution though – keep it away from commercial car wash detergents though!
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My ’81 Mercedes 300sd squatted in the rear and handled sloppy. A set of new H&R lowering springs changed the stance and *hugely* improved the handling without any compromise in ride quality. IIRC I also installed Bilstein shocks. The 15″ wheels from a later 420sel were also a bump up, but the springs, wow what an improvement. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1193364ab79d01b350c8e099f2c65f1083c496823bb1c5e5e8fdceff9cf8f2e8.jpg
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I’m way behind on my Hooniverse reading. The best purchase was also one of the most expensive, new wheels for my Thunderbird bought in 2005. Transformed the look of the car.
http://www.salguod.net/images/tbird/wheels_before.jpg
http://www.salguod.net/images/tbird/wheels_after.jpg
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