[thalavoy]

Folks. A paint related question. If you change the colour of your car, do you have to register (RTO) again with new colour? Thanks

[gods-envy]

Yes thalavoy, you would need to get the same approved by the RTO.

Edit - Its advisable, but then again there are a lot of people who change the color and not update the RTO.
This might become an issue when you are trying to sell the car. It would be though to convince the buyer

[Ravveendrra]

I had started a thread on my acquisition of a Fiat Palio 1.6 GTX and the initial work I had done on it. A stray remark by me on another thread brought forth a suggestion that I should post pictures of my GTX in the painting process.

Just for the record, after the initial work recorded in the thread Fiat Palio GTX 1.6 acquired 2nd hand, the only work I did was replacing the clutch plate, pressure plate and clutch release bearing.

Now to get on with the subject on hand, I intended to paint the car from the day I bought it. I was waiting for the transfer and registration process to get over before I painted it as I wanted a change of colour. However more than a year has passed but the local govt. office that is supposed to do the job is still sleeping on it. In the meanwhile the car suffered a huge gash on the right rear door therefore the denting and painting became imperative.

I dropped the car off at the workshop on the 29th evening. On the 30th the fitters had stripped the car and handed it over to the denters by the evening of 30th. The denters started with fixing the tear in the rear door and removing all other small dents etc.




The left side of the car afters the denters removed the paint in the places with a dent so that they can work on the dents.




Above & below a nasty bend in the front cross member. This is going to be difficult to remove.






A view of the right side after the tear in the rear door was sewn together using MIG welding.




The bonnet did not have many dents.




The inside after the seats and dash were removed




The doors with the door pads, speakers etc. removed








In this pic. one can see the skin sewn together.




The roof too had a few indentations that needed to be removed.




A view of the insides of a door. The black stuff at the bottom is differential/gear-box oil poured in to prevent corrosion. This is common in coastal cities.




Yikes! What a mess. Putting it all back together properly is going to be a challenge.






Above - the ceiling of course




Above and the next two pics: supports / braces for the skin of the hatch show signs of some previous damage. The guys who fixed the damage then did not bother to set these right.







Above & below - the only signs of corrosion we found. It was at a place where some accident damage was repaired on the tail gate.

[kingofmyworld]

Hey, Where is this garage? How much did they quote for the entire thing? Any ETA ?

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by kingofmyworld

Hey, Where is this garage? How much did they quote for the entire thing? Any ETA ?

This is at New Mars in Moosapet. A paintjob starts at Rs.20000 but my bill is going to be much more as you will see in a little while. They are normally able to dent paint and deliver a car in one working week (for a full paint job). I am going slow on the process as I was not in town for a few days.

Last night I had posted about the stripping and denting. The denters finished with the car by the 1st evening and had handed the car over to the painters that evening. A team went to work preparing the surface 2nd and 3rd being holidays, work started in earnest only on 4th.

By the time I went to the workshop on the 6th they had done most of the filling and sanding. They had also done with the corrosion treatment.



A closer look at the rusted bit.




The old anti-corrosion treatment.




Under-bonnet showing the new anti-corrosion treatment. This coating also acts as a damper, sound deadener etc.



The wheel wells get a liberal dose of the under-body anti-corrosion treatment.

The total under-body got the treatment as did the roof, floor and insides of the doors as can be seen in the following pictures.


















Some pics of the outside of the car after the filling.













All that black stuff came out of cans like this (about 7 of them).



I decided against dismounting the engine so the engine bay esp. the aprons are now prepared to get a coat of paint.

The car would have got a coat of primer all over yesterday evening. Today they will start with a coat of solid glossy paint.

[JVH]

That is some treatment the car is undergoing. And appreciate posting all the details which can be a useful reference for folks who are planning something similar in future.

What colour will the GTX adorn? And IIRC, the car had suffered no accidental damage (reading through your previous posts), but am surprised by the bend in the cross member.

[extreme_torque]

Oh brilliant! To this day I long for a GTX even though I have Palio 1.2. I might think of getting rid of mine if I can find a good used example, but its very very difficult.

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by JVH

That is some treatment the car is undergoing. And appreciate posting all the details which can be a useful reference for folks who are planning something similar in future.

What colour will the GTX adorn? And IIRC, the car had suffered no accidental damage (reading through your previous posts), but am surprised by the bend in the cross member.

When I bought the car, the seller did mention that there were some shunts, the usual minor ones that one expects in cities today. Even I was surprised by the bend in the cross member but a closer look at the damage showed that it was not a major shunt just some unlucky placement. Luckily the aprons and other chassis are true.

What colour? That was something I had toyed with for a very long time. I first thought of British Racing Green, but discarded it as too dark and getting the right colours for the interiors to compliment the green would have been difficult. Then I thought of white but decided it was too boring. I was totally sold on 'racing stripes' but seeing them on Indicabs put me off them forever. I finally narrowed down on a yellow but with a twist. Keep coming back for more.

@Extreme Torque: The 1.2 is a good car, the 1.6 is a totally different thing. There are a few for sale one IIRC was in Delhi and another was in Ahmedabad. Both owners were quoting about 2.5 for their cars. One member g-koneti got lucky and found an abused one for 1L, when he quoted the price - I told him to jump at it, after all 1L + another 1L for a new engine and other repairs means he is still getting it for 2!

Cheers,

[beejay]

I am pretty sure the final outcome is going to be mind blowing. With respect to your thoughts in the color. The existing color that you have on your GTX, T. Mist is simply awesome. Do you really need to change it? However, if you think you can churn out something more better, just simply do it.

Any tyre upgrades? FFE? Wish you luck. Detailed job.

[JVH]

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

I finally narrowed down on a yellow but with a twist. Keep coming back for more.

As in S10 - Canary yellow?. Me thinks a formula red colour will be a killer with those Linea alloys

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

To this day I long for a GTX even though I have Palio 1.2. I might think of getting rid of mine if I can find a good used example, but its very very difficult.

I second Ravveendrra on the GTX/S10. If you find a great piece, perfect. But even if its an abused one, negotiate hard on the price. And then keep aside about 1L for all the work. I think fellow member RedMM540 did the same thing and to an extent me too. Till date I've spent just over 1L (which also included a major shunt, Michelin XM1+ tyres, Radiator fan repair, new front suspension, sump guard, door stoppers and some other minor work after spending 1 lakh and a half for the purchase 2 years ago. So for apprx just under 3 lakhs, one can get this gem in tip top condition.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by JVH

I second Ravveendrra on the GTX/S10. If you find a great piece, perfect. But even if its an abused one, negotiate hard on the price. And then keep aside about 1L for all the work. I think fellow member RedMM540 did the same thing and to an extent me too. Till date I've spent just over 1L (which also included a major shunt, Michelin XM1+ tyres, Radiator fan repair, new front suspension, sump guard, door stoppers and some other minor work after spending 1 lakh and a half for the purchase 2 years ago. So for apprx just under 3 lakhs, one can get this gem in tip top condition.

Makes perfect sense but I dont want one with an abused or a high mileage engine. I can compromise on the cosmetics but not the mechanicals.

[lohithrao]

Nice, lookforward for the picture whn the pain job is done...

btw i would suggest the rust treatment to be done before getting the car repainted....

[bottle]

Great worklog, thanks a lot for posting all those pics! any chance of stuff going into the air intake in the wheelwell during spraying process ?

[EARTHed]

Ravveendrra: was the body brought to bare metal?

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by beejay

I am pretty sure the final outcome is going to be mind blowing. With respect to your thoughts in the color. The existing color that you have on your GTX, T. Mist is simply awesome. Do you really need to change it? However, if you think you can churn out something more better, just simply do it.

Any tyre upgrades? FFE? Wish you luck. Detailed job.

Thanks. The T.Mist was quite nice but did no justice to the subtle lines. Personally, I never did like the T.Mist. My fav colour on the Palio was the dark green - was it Forest Green?

I am already running 15" alloys with 195/55 Pirelli P7s, cannot really upgrade any further. FFE sounds tempting and I hope I get a good one that increases high end power.

Originally Posted by JVH

As in S10 - Canary yellow?. Me thinks a formula red colour will be a killer with those Linea alloys

Not really Canary Yellow. As I said, there is a twist. I am using what the painters call a 'dirty' shade i.e. they muddle the colour by adding a tiny amount of colour from the opposite side of the colour chart. F.Red looks awesome on the Palio but then it is just not me.

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Makes perfect sense but I dont want one with an abused or a high mileage engine. I can compromise on the cosmetics but not the mechanicals.

The point we have been trying to make is - if you have no choice, buy one cheap and spend a packet on getting the mechanicals up to scratch.

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Nice, lookforward for the picture whn the pain job is done...

btw i would suggest the rust treatment to be done before getting the car repainted....

The paint job should be done sometime this week, perhaps even on Sunday. Right now, we are waiting for the special clear coat I ordered to be delivered. New Mars is also waiting for the new filters in the paint booth to set in before they put my car in for painting. The clear coat I want is a fussy one and demands a totally dust free environment.

The anti-corrosion treatment is over. It was done before the primer was put on the car.

Originally Posted by bottle

Great worklog, thanks a lot for posting all those pics! any chance of stuff going into the air intake in the wheelwell during spraying process ?

All pipes, intakes, electrical connectors etc. are taped shut / masked. Even if a little 'overspray' goes into the air intake pipe no harm will be done as it is before the filter and the filter will trap any stray paint particles.

Originally Posted by EARTHed

Ravveendrra: was the body brought to bare metal?

No. There was no need. Excess paint was scrapped and areas with filler were cleared of the filler. It is only such areas and areas which needed to have dents removed that were scraped down to bare metal.

Here are pics of the next stage. These were taken on Thursday 7 Oct.



White paint - to show up all defects in the surface.




White looks good!




Now I'm getting second thoughts about the yellow and might stick with the white!




Love the way the bulky back is broken down by the horizontal lines.




The roof looks okay to me (but the painters had a different opinion).


A few pictures of the interiors in white:










Once the body is well under way, the bumpers get some attention:











Spoiler gets hung in the paint booth


The paint mixing guys mixed a small batch of the colour I want (it took some 3 attempts) and painted a small sample. I like it so we have frozen on the formula for the body. There are a few other colours we have to finalise like the ones to be used on the interiors (brown), trims (black), highlights, etc. Even 'white' needs to be decided on as there is nothing like a simple white in this paint-shop. I never knew that there could be a few thousand shades of white (or black for that matter).

Cheers,