Dennis Case – Stripped To The Bone

Words & Pictures: Dennis Case.

On 20th December 2014, we bought our Emerald Green Figaro. It came straight from Japan and whilst it was a solid car with just a small dent in the rear right-hand wing the paintwork and the interior were atrocious. The original clearcoat layer had pealed on most of the body panels and a subsequent resprayed was so bad that you could still see where the clearcoat had pealed and a rear wing felt like coarse sandpaper. By keeping it clean and waxed most blemishes weren’t noticeable at a distance but annoyed me greatly.
In the following years, the interior was upgraded with new leather and interior panels painted.

In 2019 the infamous rust bubbles were starting to grow on the rear arches. With everything being cancelled because of Covid in early 2020 we decided now would be the time to get the exterior restored. We did some research and chose to have the work done by Toine and his crew at Figaro Cars in Den Bosch. His work is well renowned and the car finally went into his workshop in November.

I felt like a project manager at times. The whole project took 3 months and involved the Figaro cars body shop, the paint shop, parts from Nissan Netherland, polishing at Torsing Jansen in Hilversum and parts as well as great service from Maz at The Figaro Shop in Didcot.

All chrome and stainless steel strips were removed. Rubber strips replaced, stainless steel polished to a mirror finish, headlight surrounds replaced as were the lower sill covers, mirror stalks, headlight surrounds, hinges, rear lights and door handles. Complete respray.

We wanted a result as close to “factory finish” as possible so the boot and inside of the bonnet were sprayed in a low gloss clear coat giving the same look as when new. Now hoping to be allowed to travel to the UK for the 30th birthday bash.

Please enjoy the photos.

Published on 13th April 2021

Dennis Case – Stripped To The Bone

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