Bodywork plan

I have a plan. The B is suffering a little from a lot of small blemishes in the form of rust spots and paint chips caused by years of happy driving. The plan is to sort these out and make the B a little more presentable in the process - and ensure they don't become larger problems.

I've gone over the bodywork and taken photos and marked the location of any areas where there is a spot of rust starting. Some of these, like the headlight bowl where it meets the chrome strip I have looked at before, but I have better knowledge now, and some better anti-rust products.

I do have a couple of areas which I'm more concerned about - mainly the seams on the front wings where they meet the scuttle. For this reason I also spoke to the classic restoration shop which I have used previously for metalwork. They do some very impressive work and if I was to go for any paintwork this is the place I will go.

I got a quote to remove both front wings, repair any issues found and then replace the seam beading, then to do a full respray. I'm still not sure whether to go for a glass out respray or leave it in and have the benefit of a known weatherseal. The shop said that a full respray would be best as the amount of small blemishes would mean blending in touch-ups would not be financially wise.

My thinking is that if I can do some touch-ups it gives me a chance to put off the full respray and just get the beading done, but alternatively it means I can fall-back to the respray if the touch-ups don't work so well.

Whilst the respray is expensive, in the terms of the car ownership and the fact that this is a car I will keep forever the cost is not something which overly concerns me. What makes me pause more is the loss of the original paint and the worry that when it comes back from the respray it won't feel like the same car. Having said that there is always a point where patina becomes scruffy. I just need to make sure I know when that line is crossed.