Ford Focus

Refreshing the paintwork of a first-generation Ford Focus to bring it back to its best

What Needed Fixing

This car was bought to us with the bodywork still strong, but the paintwork and finish revealing that time had taken its toll. 

The clearcoat was starting to fail, particularly around the doors, which meant the paintwork didn’t just look dull – it was starting to lift away. This is a common problem in cars of this age, and while lacquer failure is generally cosmetic, when it leads to lifting, the metalwork of the car can be exposed and left at risk of rust.

The bumper and spoiler also had cosmetic damage, including a stone chip and some deep scratches and dents.

How We Prepared

As this was only a partial repaint, the most important prep step was tightly masking the areas on the doortops and edges that needed to be painted.

Even with our carefully matched paint colours, splashing new paint over unprepared old paint will leave a noticeably uneven finish, so it was important to create a deliberate blend with no unintentional overspill.

We also removed the bumper to make sure the repair process didn’t cause additional damage to it or surrounding paintwork.

How We Made The Repairs

We started by flatting back to the primer along the full length of the door tops and the roof edge. This gave the new paint a better surface to grip to, ensuring a smoother and more long lasting finish

We then took the same approach to the wing mirrors, first flatting them back to create a rougher surface, then spraying on a couple of thin layers of paint to make a sleek, smooth finish..

With the bumper, we flatted back the entire piece and filled in the dents and unevenness in the surface before applying paint and refitting.

The hardest part of most paintwork repairs is the colour match and blending it into adjacent panels – and that was even harder with this car as it had a metallic finish. However, partial paint jobs are usually quicker and cheaper than a full respray, and if the rest of the car is still in great condition, they will still leave the car looking as good as new.