The wheels have now returned and look amazing - you cannot beat acid dipping and powder coating wheels as old as these: with new inner tubes and cleaned tyres you would think they were brand new and not 28 years old!

With the tyres back, the car was moving again and ready to go into the booth for the first time, where a long primer application was about to begin.

As the car had been bare metalled we firstly needed to apply an etch primer, followed by four coats of high build primer, but because the amount of repairs this car had undertaken, we knew that a standard four coat primer system wouldn’t be enough, so we decided to use a refacing primer. This primer is essential, as it provides a barrier between the body repairs and high build primer.

Once fully primed and cured the car was moved back into the workshop where the panels were re-hung (this is done so all panels can be checked for fitment and quality of repairs) and the body shell and panels were then rubbed down and prepared using very coarse materials and rubber blocks.

Blocking the primer this way shows up any repairs that need more work. Any additional work is then carried out and the body shell is moved back into the spray booth for the four coat high build primer application. All panels and body shell were primed separately.

This is a key stage in any full respray, as we are now half way through. The next stage in this mammouth project was to remove all panels, rub down the primer, then paint the shut areas and inside of panels, followed by re-hanging the panels and masking ready for final paint.

The Maserati started its life as a mid grey metallic colour but at some stage in the mid 80’s the car was given a colour change and resprayed to red and not properly to say the least, which is strange for a car of its value and history, the owner has asked us to respray the car in a grey metallic as close to the original as possible.