Paint Blog 1: Pregame

Sharka as of May 2015.

Sharka as of May 2015.

This sad little car is what Sharka has been reduced to. No rare wheels. No stripe. Parts dangling off. There’s no door panels inside and some of the paint has actually been damaged by stripe removal.

Sad.

But let’s back up.

Look at that blue hood!

Look at that blue hood!

Fresh paint nom nom nom.

Fresh paint nom nom nom.

This is what drove me down the dark road of a boring, bland Sharka. This hood. Garage Vary made it in 1988. I got it painted a couple weeks ago (middle of May, 2015). The fresh paint made me hungry for more.

See, Sharka’s paint has never been great. It’s okay for 22 year old paint, but not great. The bumper has a lot of rock chips. The fenders could be less mangled. The hard top matched my 97, but is too green for the 95. And a half dozen other small things.

And I always wanted painted stripes.

So bland.

So bland.

I chatted about a full respray with Ken, the owner at Carmer’s Auto Body. He was up for it and excited to do it. He’s done quite a few Miatas around town and is a friend of Soren, a long time friend and owner of the local Miata repair shop. Carmer’s is a small business that caters primarily to individuals getting their cars prettied up. Seems like just the place to get Sharka painted.

I asked about things I could do to make the respray easier. Ken said that stripping off as many parts as possible would be good. Removing much of the stripe would also take a few hours off the job. He asked to have the windshield stripe and the one right in front of the trunk lid to be left as references. They’ll obviously be removed before painting, but a reference is always nice.

So, I stripped.

Sharka, hard times edition.

Sharka, hard times edition.

After I got the stripe off, I couldn’t resist driving out to take some photos. I’d not seen the car without stripes for years. And thanks to the upcoming paint, I’ll never see Sharka without stripes again.

It looks WAY better in these pix than in real life. Sharka looks sad without his wheels and other parts. Abused and unloved. It hurts me to see the car like that.

Alley-cat

Alley-cat

No loitering at all...

No loitering at all…

Poor little car.

Poor little car.

Driving around made me remember why I put the stripe on. I went through maybe 10 intersections with lights for these photos. Of those 10, there were THREE incidents of people trying to run into me. The car is just invisible without the stripes. Fortunately, I was driving slowly and have a very loud horn.

Poor little car.

Ready for some love.

Ready for some love.

And that’s how Sharka sits today. Ready for some attention and pampering. Off on an adventure away from my garage.

I’m not a nervous parent at all. I’m not writing letters to Sharka at camp. Nope. Not me.

What I am planning to do is blogging in as close to real time as possible. When I go by the shop and take photos, I’ll post them ASAP. I’m excited to see and show the progress. And at the end? Glorious new paint.

I hope.

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  • Stoly says:

    ZOMG, soo excited to see this chapter unfold!

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  • Colin Kao says:

    I have a black NA8, and although I’d love to put classic striped on it, for now I have white circles (meatballs). I also feel your pain, my car has been in the garage since September with mystery problems.

  • doubleoh9 says:

    Sharka looks like a complete racecar without stripes and with the blackbird rollbar through the window in the rear shot. that looks fantastic

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