Gradually transforming Dolly, The Nissan Figaro

Part 1: an external respray and body work

For the first few weeks of owning Dolly, I was as excited as when we get a new puppy (Olive always looks both ways when driving off).  Maybe not that excited but still very excited indeed. So, that meant a lot of photographs and joining all of the Facebook groups to show off my new baby and finding tips on absolutely everything that I might need to know.

Up went the first photograph taken outside the house – ‘Look at my beautiful present from the mister’. 

The responses were varied from the ‘How lucky are you!’ to ‘Welcome to Figgy ownership’ and ‘Here’s to an expensive new hobby’, with one comment that stuck in my head and wouldn’t go away. ‘The panels are different shades.  It’s had work.  Not a good look that’. 

Why do the negatives always stay longer in your head than the positives?  Yes, there was rust on Dolly.  Yes, there were a few cracks where filler had been used and yes, the paintwork wasn’t pristine.  The car was first made in 1991 so not a young lady anymore so surely a little wear and tear was to be expected.

So, the negative comment stayed in my head whilst I drove Dolly to work and back.  I even drove as far as Chester and when I returned to the car park, there was a couple from Denmark taking photographs of the car and peering inside.  ‘Hello’ I said. ‘Is this yours?’  the man asked.  He was very excited and went on to tell me the history of the car, where it was imported from and all the ins and outs of Figaros.  He obviously wasn’t aware that any Figaro owner has a huge need to tell anyone who will listen (and lots of those who don’t want to listen) all about their little Figgy babies.  I smiled, felt chuffed to be driving such a little eye-catching car and drove home.  Fifteen miles later, the negative comment was back in my head.

I got in touch with a few different companies that I found online who did body work on classic cars.  One was too busy.  One didn’t get back to me and one asked for a video of the car’s bodywork.  A few days later, they sent a quote of £10,000 or round about depending on what they found once they stripped it back.

Cor blimey, that was a non-starter.  

Meanwhile, our other car needed a service so down to visit our friendly mechanic, Deano, where we told him about the body work quote for Dolly. Very knowledgeable as he is, Deano put his hands into his pockets and said ‘Polish bloke, end of Dock Road.  Heard he’s good.  Tell him Deano sent ya’.

We went to see Polish bloke end of Dock Road that same day.  He was very helpful, reassuring, nothing was too much. He and his mates looked at the car, inside and out, knuckle tapped all around the car, announcing ‘filler’, ‘rust’, ‘tut, tut’ and then turned to us and said ‘Respray, welding, take out filler, do rust, two thousand’.   We booked Dolly in for a date four weeks ahead and he told us to think about colours and get back to him.  Just a note here, these quotes were all for the bottom half of the car and not the cream white of the top part of the car.

Purist or Alternative?

Colours - The Figaro was produced in four main body colours originally, to represent the four seasons or four different gem stones.

Lapis Grey represented the Winter season,

Topaz mist represented the Autumn season,

Pale Aqua Blue represented the Summer season,

Emerald Green represented the Spring season.

(Yes, I'm aware that thee photograph I've takrn from the internet has a mistake and Topaz should say Autumn).

The cars are two toned with the top half in a creamy white.  The original body colour can be found stamped on the bulkhead so no matter the colour of the Figaro you have, you can find the original colour easily. 

Body Colour	Nissan Composite Code	Actual Paint Colour
Emerald Green	8K8	JK2
Pale Aqua Blue	6K9	DH5
Lapis Grey	7K0	WK4
Topaz Mist	7K1	EH0
White (roof, mirror backs, wheel polos)	N/A	WK3

Thanks to the Figaro Owners Club website for that information.

The least favourite original colour was apparently Topaz Mist but this is now the most sought-after original colour, surprisingly as I think it’s the most yuck. 

Dolly, as you can see from the photographs, started out Lapis Grey.  This particular original colour is said to be the one that fades the most over the years and can appear different shades. 

When I asked the online forums for views around original colours or custom resprays, the comments were unanimous. Stick to the original colours!  The original colours have history!  You’ll devalue the car with a custom colour! The original colours are what makes them unique! 

When I searched online for pictures of different coloured Figaros, I found loads.  It was then I realised that Figaro owners can largely be placed into two camps, ‘Purists’ and ‘Alternatives’. Some will argue that this isn’t the case and I can only make that comment based on my own research.  However, even Facebook has its own ‘Alternative Figaro’ group I’ve found.

These are just a few examples of customised Figaros I found when searching online.

After a lot of thought around the subject, I decided that I was never going to be able to have a car the exact colour I wanted. Even buying brand new you are restricted. So off to B&Q we went to look at every different shade of paint colour under the sun. 

Between the mister and myself, we brought back about 30 different shade cards and stood outside at different times of the day holding the cards up to the car.  We narrowed it down to 20 different shades of purple and spent the rest of the week asking everyone we knew what they thought. 

Luckily, we don’t know many people or at least don’t value the opinions of a lot of people (joke).  We also spent a lot of time looking online at different Figaros and came to the conclusion that lighter colours suited the car more (in our opinion) and also went better with the cream white top half (again in our opinion).  That’s not to say that a lot of other Figaros don’t look great with darker colours, they do, but this is our blog and our opinion right here. 

So, a decision was made off we went to see Polish bloke end of Dock Road.  His name is Daniel, by the way.  Daniel took our purple paint swatch, asked us if we wanted sparkle or no sparkle and said he’d see what he could do.

On the day that Dolly was due for her stay with Daniel, he opened the tin of paint he was going to use and I actually squeaked.  It was purple and sparkly! Was it the shade we’d spent ages making a decision on?  Who knows.  Daniel had lost the paint card by then and I couldn’t remember specifics.  It was purple and sparkly!  We left Dolly in the hands of Daniel and his team.  Poor Dolly only had the driver’s seat inside by this point (which is a whole other story).

Dolly took a lot longer to be pampered on the outside that we anticipated. Poor Daniel found more rust than he expected and he had a little trouble with some of the trim.  Dolly also originally came to us with tiny spot lights on the front grill which were not original.  These were broken accidently when removed and we decided after looking for a long time for small ones, not to replace them.

At some point, Dolly had been bumped at the back and some of the chrome trim was dented on each side of the bottom boot.  We decided to just trim this above the flattened areas rather than try to replace it.  We visited Dolly for updates whilst sourcing a new bonnet badge and repainting the wheel polos ourselves – or rather myself as the mister had bought himself his own project by then.  A 1942 Mahindra Willys Jeep and Dolly’s best friend. 

The day we picked Dolly up from Daniel was so exciting, I can’t begin to describe it.  There she was, all purple and sparkly and clean.  Purple and sparkly!  ‘I have to use this. Car no start’ said Daniel, as he used some jump leads to start the car.  No surprise as the car had been moved from one side of the garages to the other and a flat battery was to be expected. 

‘I clean, water in car,’ said Daniel.  Ok, so the leak we thought we’d solved wasn’t actually solved after all but no problem, the car was going to sit in Mum’s carport for a little while anyway, out of the elements.

The first stop was petrol, remembering the E5 not the usual stuff, before taking Dolly back to Mum’s carport, somewhere she knew well.  Luckily the mister was driving behind Dolly as once we got to the garage and filled up, the flat battery was flatter than flat and he had to nip home for some jump leads.  Dolly was parked happily in mum’s carport, all purple and sparkly.  Have I mentioned Dolly is now all purple and sparkly?

Outside to inside; the work continues…