King320

Alright guys, i havent done any serious modifications on my car since my last birthday when i put the suspension in. It has been alot of fun, and made the car way more fun to drive. Here is the background on my car so you can makegood suggestions. I bought it used (and abused) and have been bringing it ever so slowly back to good condition. So far i have put in over 100 hours working on the paint, have had the wheels refinished and had the differential replaced. Im thinking that this time i need to do something aesthetic, so im considering the following options...
1) hood repaint. The hood has three dents and about 40 rock chips in it. Apparently the previous owner didnt care for it very well. This is my leading option since it bothers me the most (it makes cleaning the car far less rewarding).

2) Impact strip paint matching. The car still has the gray impact strips that came on the early CLKs, it kindof looks awkward, since it is a black car the lower plastic being black isnt a huge problem, but the gray strips are a visual curve ball.

3) Fix broken sunroof. Im thinking about delaying this a bit, the problem is that the track is somehow broken and the dealer wants alot to fix it. Im thinking that later i might just take the headliner down myself and have it upholstered in suede and do the sunroof repair myself, or take it in to the shop having already taken off the headliner (to save money on labor).

4) Retint the windows. The window tint is scratched up in places, not too noticably except on the drivers side.

5) Possibly in addition to one of the above choices, have the entire car touched up (chips on other panels filled in, dents popped). Basically a refresher for the car.

Alright, those are the options. Im not wanting to put tooo much money into the car because it just hit 106K miles and im going to be getting a job soon so might be looking at getting a replacement in a few years. So, what to you guys think???

P.S. if i were to remove the side signals in favor of mirrors with side signals, how big is the hole behind the lights? is there anything that can be put in there (like a sport badge or someting) instead of having a body shop fill it in?

acb3nz

I voted for the Hood

King320

thanks acb3nz, it looks like im going to have to get some pics up here to generate some feedback...

41 views, 5 votes, 1 post is a pretty harsh ratio.

DemonaL

i think tint, a messed up tint would make the car look so unattractive... but then again the hood also... my hood has bout 6 chips in it, 1 very small dent i can fix when i have time...

Ghostrider

OTAMYWY

Almost sounds like it time for a newer car. This thing sounds like its hammered. If you add up all the items that need to be fixed, would you ever get your money back from it?

King320

eh, i wouldnt say its hammered, it has alot of life left in it and actually looks pretty good. Besides, im a college student, so that means little to no income. I will have a great internship this summer, but i want to use the money for something other than a car. This one just needs to get me through until i have a job and 30-40K to go towards a car. Im thinking either an e46 M3 (laguna seca blue) or a black CLK55, or something faster. Right now im just trying to make it look nice, its most definitely not a financial issue as far as the repairs go, although i should add that repainting the hood will help with resale, but probably not as much as i will pay to have it done.