at the end of the day, what you, i, or anyone else thinks is of no importance. if the OP wants to paint his car, whats the big deal?? its not as if its something that cant be put back to standard now is it?? hes already said his mate will be doing the respray so wouldnt cost all that much, to spray lime green or whatever colour he so chooses, therefore it wont cost that much to respray it back. its not like hes bonding a vee lookylike kit on, or fabricating roof vents or even making it into a convertible is it??
the car can quite easily be put back to standard, the pink trophy's will be in need of a respray in a couple years anyway, the paint isnt reknowned for keeping its colour is it.
where im coming from is that its his choice. it may be that it would be cheaper for him to buy a trophy and paint it the colour he wants, rather than buy a clio the colour he wants and retrofitting the seats/susp/ etc out of a trophy into it. a std 182 will NEVER be a trophy no matter how many bits you put on it.