Vauxhall Zafira B (2008) - Confused buying car paint!

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Wed 18 May 2022 15:45
Vauxhall Zafira B (2008) - Confused buying car paint! - cardriver99

Hi all,

Fresh off my success repairing my chipped windscreen, I want to repair a horrible scratch down the side of my car from rubbing against a side-of-road barrier (unfortunately, against every panel on that side...). There are also some dents (which I'm going to separately remove as best I can, I have a paintless dent repair kit that uses a glue gun and a rubber hammer). It's an old car and I doin't want to pay a body shop several hundred pounds (or more!) for a job that's probably not much better than I can do myself hence my decision to go it alone.

Anyway, I have identified the paint code for my car (Z176, Vaxhall silver) and am trying to figure out where's the best (cheapest!) place to get paint from and what style to use?

Halfords claims to sell touch-up kits (but they get mixed reviews) and also spray paint (but I think I want a touch up pen). The Range also has some car paints that look potentially suitable (with grey primer & clear lacquer cans separately available). I'm sure Machine Mart should have something suitable as well, but their website is hard to use so I couldn't identify anything despite a good ten minutes of browsing!

I don't want to sand down the panel and respray so I'm planning to use a touch up pen or similar, and having watched a chrisfix video it looks simple (just time consuming) and I don't mind if it doesn't look perfect.

Any tips on where to get the paint from and what style of paint to use? Thanks!!

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Wed 18 May 2022 16:57
Vauxhall Zafira B (2008) - Confused buying car paint! - elekie&a/c doctor
DIY body and paint repairs are rarely successful, unless you have some experience. They usually end up looking worse . I’d leave it alone or get it done professionally.
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Wed 18 May 2022 17:21
Vauxhall Zafira B (2008) - Confused buying car paint! - bathtub tom

Looking through my library of 'websites I may find useful one day', I found this: www.carpaintrepair.co.uk/acatalog/Car-Touch-Up-Pai...l

Any use?

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Wed 18 May 2022 20:40
Vauxhall Zafira B (2008) - Confused buying car paint! - cardriver99

Looking through my library of 'websites I may find useful one day', I found this: www.carpaintrepair.co.uk/acatalog/Car-Touch-Up-Pai...l

Any use?

Thanks! Will check them out. I had a quick look and it looked like they charged about £10 for 2 x 30ml pots (one of paint and one of laquer). Cheap but those are pretty small pots!

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Wed 18 May 2022 20:12
Vauxhall Zafira B (2008) - Confused buying car paint! - cardriver99
DIY body and paint repairs are rarely successful, unless you have some experience. They usually end up looking worse . I’d leave it alone or get it done professionally.

Ho hum, someone made the very same comment on my previous windscreen repair post that I wouldn't be able to do a good job, and they were wrong. I did a better job than the previous time I had a chip profesionally repaired and now I've done it once I will never hesitate to do it again myself.

I plan to follow the ChrisFix youtube video on repairing deep & minor scratches. It looks pretty simple, provided you have the right kit and take care, and don't mind it taking ages (looks like a full day's job). I have previously repaired rust on a bicycle frame (which is a much more fiddly job) and it looks pretty good even though I wasn't aiming for a cosmetic repair.

The dents are relatively shallow and I don't mind if it looks a bit wobbly.

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Thu 19 May 2022 08:28
Vauxhall Zafira B (2008) - Confused buying car paint! - Bolt

I plan to follow the ChrisFix youtube video on repairing deep & minor scratches. It looks pretty simple

it always does look simple until you do it, don`t forget most of those body repair people do apprenticeship/ training courses to get where they are(the good ones I mean)

It isn`t simple, but you may find that out when you do it, the spraying and finishing is the worst but again you will find out for yourself !

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