factory paint or re-spray?

[lesabre400]

Hello all,

Been lurking for ages but hope to actually become an owner come spring time.

I found a listing for an R33 sedan in navy blue but the engine bay is black. My gut reaction was that the blue is a re-spray and the car was originally black or who knows what. Or is this the way some came from the factory? Was navy blue (or whatever the proper name is) even a factory colour? I can't seem to dig up an image of another blue R33 (other than Bayside blue).

If the car wasn't 5 hours away, I'd just go look instead of bothering you guys.

Thanks.

[nelsonmxmarc]

I believe the engine bays were painted the same color as the exterior of the car.
The person could have pulled the engine, and like m_melen, painted their entire engine bay black.
Otherwise, the car may have originally been black and been resprayed. Ask for a picture of the door jam or door sils, usually if they do a half-as$ed job, they'll skimp out on these.

What does it matter if it was repainted? If anything, that's more beneficial in the long run - you save 4500$!
If you're worried about it having been accidented in the past, dont. Typically they'll pull the car off the road if the damage was substantial enough to tweak the body, usually its just minor dings and dents that drive owners to get a respray though.

[lesabre400]

Thanks very much for your help, Nelsonmxmarc.

I'm not too worried about the respray, assuming it was just to fix up little dings and scratches. In fact I quite like how the colour looks and I'd be happy to save the money! I just like to know what I'm dealing with before going in.

Accident repair is what I'm worried about but I gather from your response that the Japanese don't allow a car to be rebuilt and put back on the road after a big hit like they do here?

Thanks again.

[nelsonmxmarc]

I don't think they would allow it here either. The thing with monocoque bodies is that, once they've been tweaked, they're generally no longer fit to return to normal driving conditions. The reason for this is that since the body is all one (mono) "shell" (Coque), the impact tends to affect the entire car rather than the single point of impact. Car's on frame rails, typically domestic vehicles like chevy, ford, etc. can have frame rails straightened on a puller. This is possible because the shell is a completely different entity from the rest of the car; encompassing the floor, trunk, engine bay and etc. Typical body damage then, does not affect the performance of the car, rather the frame rails are what create the rigidity, structure and support for it.

Monocoque bodies are lighter, much more rigid, lower CFG as their bracing is centered in the car rather than on rails, however if they're involved in even the slightest of accidents, could compromise the vehicle in entirety.

So if they've put the vehicle back on the road after a small collision, this shell would have to be inspected to make sure it was to oem spec before being road worthy.

[DrMango]

Typically R32 engine bays were all painted black and the body was its own colour. Im sure R33 are the same way. Every skyline i have ever seen under the hood was painted black in the engine bay. I know that there is atleast 2 blues on R33s. Only one in R32s. I wouldnt worry much about it. this is a very easy thing to figure out

BCNR33
AN0 - Super Clear Red
BN6 - Deep Marine Blue
KH3 - Black
KL0 - Spark Silver
KN6 - Dark Grey Pearl
LP2 - Midnight Purple
QM1 - White
BT2 - Champion Blue
KP4 - Sonic Silver
AR1 - Super Clear Red II

So there is BN6 and BT2 codes that are both blues in R33. Check the VIN on the firewall(drivers side) and on there it will show the original paint code. If its one of those then i doubt it was repainted

Kyle

[nelsonmxmarc]

Hmm odd.. Ive seen at least a dozen R32's here; GTR or gtst, and all engine bays were painted to match the color of the car..

[DrMango]

Hmm seems like you speak the truth from what I see in the project car threads.. I never ever look at project threads. I know that mine has a black engine bay and its 100% not a respray, but its as early of a production 1989 as it gets. I know my friends gunmetal R32 is definitly a black engine bay. Now that im thinking about it Paradis' wine red has a matched engine bay and all the rest of the R32s ive seen were black, so a black engine bay makes sense lol.
So therefore im a little off base in above post. I would still check the VIN and that will tell you everything.

Kyle

[RHDskyline]

I have a black engine bay and car was originally gunmetal grey

[lesabre400]

This is all excellent info, thanks guys.

And thanks for the paint codes, DrMango. I guess if I had been using my head last night and searched for "paint codes" like I did just now, I would've come across this thread:

http://www.gtrcanada.com/v3/showthread.php?t=42291

My flame suit is on.

Thanks again.

[DrMango]

its not a problem man. you are right for being cautious about a car being previously repaired

Kyle