So my 68 GTO was repainted in its original Solar Red sometime in the past ten years (with base/clearcoat). A good job overall but there are some flaws in the passenger rear quarter panel (?) near the trunk lid. They are confined to the area in my photo (first picture), with the exception of a few similar flaws about 6 inches away on the same panel towards the right. Wanting to fix this, I've asked around and this is what I've been told:

1. Two body shops that specialize in classic cars have told me that attempting to repaint just that area and blend it in won't result in a satisfactory job. Instead they say the entire panel needs to be redone, and of course that single panel on a GTO coupe is half the car (see second picture). One of the shops say there will be some improvement with just a good polish and wax.

2. A mobile paint-repair dude who has a good reputation tells me he can do a blend. However I'm a bit skeptical. He's just going to order the paint, come out to my garage for a morning, and wham-blam? I know the car was repainted in the original code but isn't some work to match the paint necessary?

So. At this point I'm leaning away from the mobile dude since if he screws up I'm basically forced into a $4k paint job (for the whole panel, and maybe even the trunk lid too if he blends into that, which I think he has to since it directly abuts the panel with the flaw, no?). This is not a show car so I'm not looking for perfection, but I'm trying to balance the intersection of risk/cost/quality to get some improvement. Advice?

To do it right, blend the color in that area and reclear the entire panel.
It shouldn't cost that much.
But I have blended areas like that with color and clear and not had any returns...yet!
If it were mine I would I would probably just blend it on just that corner.
If done right it will last. It's a judgement call.

A 10 year old red.....better get some referrals and "see" some blends that the guy has done....

DarrelK wrote:A 10 year old red.....better get some referrals and "see" some blends that the guy has done....

Yeah that's the odd part... I've done some swatches with fresh Solar Red paint and it seems close, but I imagine there's always blending with other tones or whatnot to make it more exact. Maybe he has a machine and supplies in his truck to do that. He has to be doing something right to have such spectacular Yelp ratings, so I may just go for it.