TVR paint quality
Discussion
I''m in the market for a Chimeara and had a look at a couple at the weekend. I was struck by the poor quality of the paintwork on cars of only 3 ot 4 years old. Serious stone chip damage and lots of scratches from washing.
Is the paint finish fragile or have these cars been poorly looked after ?
Fibreglass is a nightmare at the best of times. Stone chips are always a problem as the primer they use is white. If you have a white or light coloured car then it is OK, but if for example you have a dark blue one, then it can get rather machine gun like.
The good thing about fibreglass is that you can have it resprayed without it noticing anywhere near as much as it would on a steel car. I was told by my dealer when I first bought a tvr to expect to respray the front end once a year, and I would agree. Front end pearl spray job for chim cost me around 800 pounds.
The paint is very soft too which doesnt help. Its all part of having a fibreglass car really.
Also, the factory's biggest warranty claim is on duff paint work.
Hope the above helps.
Douglas.
Our Chim fits the age bracket you're looking at. We look after it as well as we know how and....the stone chips are frankly horrendous....not that the car doesn't look great but when you get up close you can see chips on the front, scratches from washing/getting the roof in and out etc.
This is NOT necessarily a sign of a badly treated car!
I'm not worrying about it - I'll get it re-sprayed every couple of years whilst we have it - and I expect the dealer will re-spray it prior to selling it on when we come to trade it in - its part of the reason TVRs cost more when you buy from a dealer - they KNOW they'll have to respray it...or you'll knock the price down when negotiating..so...
Its not anything to worry about. You just accept a bill of some hundreds of pounds every couple of years to tidy it up.
Just had my 1998 Pacific Blue Chimp totally resprayed at a cost of £3k with 34.000 miles on the clock.
If you want a good job done you have to pay for it and Adrian Venn (Exactly-TVR)stripped the car down and rebuilt it within the above price.The car is now mint.
Had it painted at XL Motors by a fibreglass specialist - Sam, well worth the money.
Yes fibreglas is a nightmare for chips, it is not normaly indicative of a poor paint job.
I had a special tool for removing chips with a little wet and dry then polish out. Works well but you have to have patiance and time. kept my Chimp looking good for 6 mths. With time you will need a respray though.
I had my Tuscan RR Armourfended from new. The coating works: after 12500 miles there are no chips on the Armourfend. However, the areas adjacent have suffered chipping, exactly as might be expected. The only problem I see with Armourfend is that they skimp on the coverage (thus, for example, they do only the leading 6-8 inches of the bonnet instead of the whole panel). If I had it done again, I would get them to quote for much more extensive coverage than they seem to think is adequate.
Gassing Station | General TVR Stuff & Gossip | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff