Sell as is, or get paintwork done first?

I've got a highly modified Liquid Yellow full fat 182 that will be coming to market soon. As it stands it has a very good spec and needs nothing mechanically, but could benefit from some cosmetics (bumper and bonnet chips and scuffs, and some surface rust.)

It's not a collectors item and I'm fairly realistic about what it will fetch, as it's stripped and caged and has lots of miles on the odometer, and has had lots of owners. On the other hand, it's mechanically 100% and has a lot of desirable mods. I've not bothered to get the paintwork done, instead enjoying it without worrying about picking up new imperfections.

I'm wondering if I should get it painted and market it at a higher price, or try selling as is. Would potential buyers see cosmetic imperfections as evidence of sloppy ownership despite the fact I've poured money into it elsewhere (more than £11k spent in the past 4.5 years) ?

As it's highly modified and stripped with a cage, I wouldn't worry to much. The car clearly has a purpose now, that being to be driven and enjoyed.

Personally, I'd sort what I could with some chipex and a polish. Leave it to the next man to paint 👍

I wouldn't. You'll never get your money back, especially with the costs of repainting in LY.

I think it all depends what needs doing as in where is the rust?

Jekyll said:

I think it all depends what needs doing as in where is the rust?

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Some surface rust on top of the OS rear turret (where some water found its way in one time, hasn't got worse in years), and a couple of bubbles on the OS rear arch where a previous owner had rolled the arch (again, hasn't worsened so wasn't a priority for me).

I'll be pulling the side skirts and rear door cards shortly to check for any rust there. If there is, that will decide it in favour of getting everything sorted.

plenty said:

I'll be pulling the side skirts and rear door cards shortly to check for any rust there.

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“Happy trails”

Yeah I wouldn’t be taking the sill covers off if you are selling.
Can’t be rusty if you don’t look for it


Taking the door cards off though is sensible as I wouldn’t have bought mine if I didn’t check - I ended up putting some kurust down there and painting to kill any little bit of rust (I was lucky and it wasn’t bad or had gone through).

I’m in a similar boat with my Ph1. Passes the 10ft test when it’s washed and if you squint, but it has a purpose of being driven and doesn’t bother me (well it does but I’d never use it if it had a full respray)

I fear if you go looking for rust, you'll almost certainly find it and could be a massive can of worms. No matter what you spend on paint, you wont get it back so id market it as is mate.

Agreed as others have said. Leave as is.

Doubt you'll get you money back on getting it done.

Painting LY isn't going to be cheap or likely cost effective. Mine has stone chips on front end and some chips down passenger door edge so I asked one of the better local painters about costs, and bonnet alone was going to be £500, it's not a colour you can blend in so to do the door edge the only solution was to do the full side around £1200. They need to produce 3 or 4 spray outs to match the paint before they even begin on LY and it's so many coats to do right, 2 base coats, anywhere from 2, 3 or 4 coats of colour as it is so thin and yellow doesn't cover well followed by clear coat.

It cost me £500 for both sides of bonnet, was a replacement one that was originally black. He commented about the difficulties of spraying such colours..... However the match is great. Big money spraying fancy colours

Sell as is , definitely not worth it you won't see cost return in sale