today afternoon i went to see the progress of the denting work.. i had a long debate with my denter on various issues and eventually couple of things are finalized. the rust affected areas are mostly done, but the problem is with the paint.. as i said in my previous posts, the shade on various parts of the body has started to differ from each other. A naked eye can see a lot more detail than a 1.3 megapixel camera!
Now the main issue is to match the repainted portions with the existing paint, as there are multiple shades of Aqua Green color, the repainted areas would clearly stand out. The denter was of the opinion to get the car repainted.. tough decision though but i don't really want my car to be called as 'original'.. after debating with the denter for quite a while, i eventually decided to go for a full denting & repaint job which in local lingo is called as 'full body shower'..
Now the next issue was the rectification of bumpers. Though in pretty decent shape, the age factor has affected them quite a bit, considering they are 10 year old now. Again the denter suggested to install the VXRi style new bumpers, which i was totally against initially. I wanted to retain the 2000 model appearance of this ride but the core issue was to find better bumpers than mine belonging to the style which was discontinued more than 5 years ago.. So after another session of debate i ultimately had to go in favor of the new bumpers.. 2 reasons: first they would be new, secondly they seem more practical being 1 piece, as compared to the 2 piece bumper configuration. Ultimately the headlamps & radiator grill will have to be upgraded as well since new bumpers with old nose will look odd. Thankfully both of us were agreed that the current look of the Cultus should not be considered, according to my denter it looks "chichori".. we will rather be going for the 2007 VXRi theme.
I already got an offer of 4.45 lac today for my ride but the denter claimed that i can fetch 4.75 after the makeover is done.. not too sure how much of this is true but the car has been kept with utmost care & love. Also i am not getting this work done for the sake of selling this ride.. I have developed some emotional attachment with this ride and i have spent on it more than anything else.. I am getting all this done for my own pleasure as i want to keep this car in top notch condition!
I wont disclose the cost of the added work at this moment as i want some estimate from you guys so as to know whether the job being done is either expensive or not.. the details are given below, let me know how much do you people think this work should cost:
- rectification of rust around various areas including roof edges, wheel arches, etc (flooring is entirely rust-free)
- complete denting- although there is no visible 'dent' on the car, there is however one deep scratch on the left side of the car from front door all the way to the fuel lid, which was deep enough to affect the sheet! not visible in the pix but quite prominent in reflections etc
- complete repaint aka shower!
- front headlamps
- front & rear new VXRi style bumpers
- front radiator VXRi style grill
- 4 genuine mud flappers
- 4 genuine Cultus wheel caps
My car will be handed over to me by coming Thursday, provided that the circumstances of the city remains normal.. I will be updating the progress periodically..
