Hi all,

I recently bought a 2004 S2000 with 46,950 miles (SSM w/ Red/Black Interior). The car is in fantastic shape, but definitely shy of "perfection". KBB shows that this car is worth $19,537 in excellent condition, and $19,091 in very good condition.

If I am picky (and I am), here are the anal retentive stuff that I noticed about the car:

• One small, but visible ding on door
• Left fender has a small dent (hard to notice) that cracked the paint and exposed a small bit of bare metal
• Wheels have some wheel rash
• One headlamp is oxidized and needs reconditioning

The owner had ALL maintenance records, and he regularly changed the fluids and had it properly maintained. He replaced the vinyl top with a nice canvas top, and it looks great. I had a mechanic look over the car before purchasing, and he found it to be in excellent mechanical condition. He has a lot of experience with the S2000 and said that it was clear that the previous owners had taken good care of it.

Even from a short distance, the car looks impeccable, it looks nearly new! But there are some minor things I found as I went over it with a fine tooth comb.

Now I am faced with some decisions on how much effort I want to spend on "chasing perfection"... Here is what I can do:

• Eliminate a few minor dings via paintless dent repair
• Recondition Headlamp (Do myself or pay someone to do it)
• Recondition all wheels
• Take care of small left front fender paint chip

My current thinking is to do the paintless ding repairs, recondition the headlamp myself, have the left fender touched up and sealed, and wait on the wheel conditioning until I have some time to determine if I am going to keep or place the wheels... Once I commit to keeping the wheels, I would likely have them reconditioned. That would take care of nearly all of the minor blemishes on the car!

 

Congrats on the purchase.

Unless you are PDR certified, take the car to someone who is for this job. Pay the $250 knowing that the dents will be removed by someone who is competent in this tedious body work. Even with the right tools, attempting it yourself could potentially cause micro cracks in the paint.

I just recently had a friend who is PDR certified remove all of the the dings on my car and on my hard top. Received excellent results, and paid just $250

 

If the headlight is oxidized, dont pay someone $200.
Go get yourself a 3M headlight restoration kit (bunch of small sanding disks and a mount for a drill) for $30.
It comes with everything you need and is really easy to do. Maybe a bottle of PlastX for the final polish by hand.
You can have it done in 20 minutes and it'll look great.

 

Headlights are an easy DIY job. Wheel restorations on stock wheels aren't worth it. You can buy a mint set of OEM rims for $600 (while selling your scratched set for $300-400). Touchup paint on the fender is probably more than adequate.

My advice would be to not spend a ton of money making this car perfect if you intend on driving it.

 

the first question is do you want a perfect stock s or do you want to modd it out? if you want the perfect stock then spend the coin to bring it back to perfect. if your going to modd the car, then don't sweat those imperfections cause you will probably be changing things to suit your taste and style. the headlight fog is a easy fix. congrats on your new to you s.

 

Thanks for the replies...

Paintless Ding Removal - Yes, I am absolutely going to get this done by a professional.

Front Fender Touch Up - Going to remove the small bit of surface rust and touch up.

Oxidized Headlight - Yup... I think I'll do this one myself.

Bottom Gravel Shield - Not sure what to call this little piece on the bottom of the front air dam... It's a little black piece that looks like a gravel shield or something. One small piece right in front of each front tire.... One looks loose.

Wheel Reconditioning - I'll wait on this... deepbluejh, where would I find a mint set of OEM rims for $600?

 

you'll laugh at this but toothpaste will clean headlight lenses. how do I know, I've tried it.

 

I haven't quite come to a conclusion on how much I want to modify my newly acquired S2K yet... I am not such a purist that it has to be perfectly stock... At the same time, any modifications that I do will need to be ones that I find tasteful and reasonably subtle.

As an example, my Acura TL Type-S has been lowered, tinted and I have an OEM underbody kit on it... Looks great... I would be open to similar modifications on my S2000...

I am not even sure what all the options are for modifying my S2K yet... I am sure I'll discover a lot of alternatives as I dig deep into this S2KI site!

LOL... I believe it! After all, all that's needed is a little fine abrasive to remove the oxidation, right? Since it's all plastic, I do wonder how easy it is to polish it to a clear finish... With the various abrasives, won't the lens be full of micro scratching? I've never removed oxidation from a plastic lens before, so I am in brand new territory here...

 

Keep an eye out on the for sale forums here. Here is a set of AP2V2 wheels for $500.
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/109...ap2-v2-wheels/

Stock wheels on the used market are pretty cheap to pick up.

 

As stated by others, invest in the paintless ding repair and get the 3M kit for the headlight and do it yourself (the kit is less than $40 and it will take you less than an hour to do, taking your time).

I would wait a little bit on painting the front fender area...if it is close to the front bumper, you will get alot of 'road rash' and will probably want to repaint the whole front anyway. If you are worried about rust, I would go ahead and do it, otherwise, give it some time.

The wheels are probably not worth reconditioning. You would be better off investing in some new rims and some tires to match.

While it may feel that you are spending more than the car is worth by fixing it, you are also raising the value of the vehicle at the same time. Between the PDR and the headlight kit, you would be spending $300 which is still less than the difference between excellent and very good condition, so you are still in the positive. Add in the repaint for the front fender, and you will probably break even taking into account that you bought it for less than the very good condition price.