Painting the 99: The Process

It's an exciting time for the 99! It's in the process of being painted, with the plan to be refinished in its original shade of Anthracite Grey (SK-2B). The paint work has been completed by Colin Coderre of Coderre Automotive in Johnston, RI. I strongly recommend contacting him for a quote if you're local to the RI (or tri-state area). 

Part I: Rust Never Sleeps

The car is stripped down to bare metal. If you've ever seen my car up close, you would've noticed it had some really strange clear coat failure, resulting in tiny specs of primer pealing through. Colin theorized the car received a poor clear coat finish, unsure if it was factory or aftermarket clear coat. 

I suspected this was always the case. I had never seen paint failure like this, and knew it must've been something more than just poor clear coat and the southern heat. Sure enough, I looked back at the car's Bring a Trailer listing from 2019, in which it clearly stated (as of 2019) the car had received a repaint 20 years prior. This confirmed both of our theories of why the paint was so... strange.

Further revelations from stripping the paint revealed the car had been in another accident. At one point, it was rear ended in its rear left quarter panel area. Bondo had started cracking through around the wheel arch, and the left bumper mount was a different color (blue). This may have prompted the first repainting of the car, however there is no record of when this accident or repaint occurred. At least I don't feel that bad about damaging my car anymore!

Note the rear bumper mounts on each side of the car. The left one is blue!

Part II: Grey Consistency

For the first time in many years, my car is now one complete shade of grey! While it's not the final shade of grey it will be, it's nice to see some consistency in the paint finish... 

Front view of the car.

Rear view

Part III: In the Light...

And finally, the 99 is now in its original finish of SK-2 Anthracite Grey. The color had even been matched to the correct shade. While it looks amazing, I know it will look all the more better when the car is put back together. Now all that's left are the finishing touches!