stevoand1

S2KIers,

Would appreciate any thoughts on my current paint issue. The jist of everything I'm about to explain is as follows: What would be the most economical approach to restoring the exterior of my car without compromising quality?

I purchased my '03 Silverstone about a year ago, and in the past couple months I noticed cracks developing on the front bumper paint, adjacent to the headlight (pics below). I had a mechanic help install OEM headlights (previously installed were unattractive aftermarket headlights, that's in another thread), and he explained the car was likely in a fender bender where the previous owner repainted the bumper using cheap paint. He pointed out that the paint color quality/depth was not the same as the rest of the OEM paint on the car. I'm trying to see what my options are to remedy the issue. Is this going to require a complete repaint of the bumper? What might that look like in terms of cost to have a high quality OEM-esque paint job for the bumper? Part of the grill is also in bad shape, so I may consider replacing the bumper altogether...

The rest of the car has a bit of wear to the paint as well, most notably chips on the hood. What should I consider to restore to the rest of the car? I don't really have $6k to get the whole car repainted with OEM paint, but I don't want to compromise the S2000 with a cheap paint job. Is paint-correction an option here? I guess that might be a combination of repainting (or possibly replacing and repainting) the front bumper, then paint correction (if applicable) for the rest of the body? Not sure in which order (although I'd skip the paint correction for the front bumper, obviously, as it would be repainted).

One final thought - could I vehicle my wrap in it's current condition? For example, skip any painting whatsoever but actually wrap the entire car in matte white? Not sure what everyone's take is on that route... I actually like Silverstone but could dig riding matte white for a few years and put off solving the paint situation. I've read a proper wrap job requires the paint to be in a certain condition that I'm not sure my car would qualify at this point.

Any feedback is much appreciated!