to paint or not to paint
 

I have a 98, that has a bad case of road rash,a lot of pitting particularly on the hood.The first info I got on repair was to touch in spots leaving the paint a little proud which then could be sanded and buffed. Since then I have been to several shops, body and detail and have received conflicting information. The body shops all say repaint,some detail shops say sanding and buffing could take care of the problem,others say it will take care of minor blemishes but not take care of the retouch spots. Okay the situation is that about 85% of the car is pretty good and I would like to keep as much of the original paint job as possible,so could the car be sanded and buffed,if the hood needs to be repaintd could the different services be matched.When they repaint do they sand until all blemishes and pits are surfaced then spray as it does not seem practical that they would strip the paint?.This has been driving me crazy so any imput would be valuable for me to make a decision

I don't like the sound of this

Am I to assume that to get a good looking car againI would need a repaint job?

What color is your car? Metallics are harder to color-match. Depending on where you take it, they may be able to color-match your hood to the rest of the car instead of painting the entire thing. Maybe they can do new paint and color-match on the hood, front fenders, nose clip, and bumper.

It is black so I was surprised when I was told the best bet was to paint the whole car.What I am considering of doing is get the whole car lightly sanded and then buffed.I will then check to see if the places that I touched up stand out,then make a decision,hopefully it just needs the hood painted.
The hood was a surprise,it was pitted all over,the sides weren't nearly as bad,and the car only had 52k,it had been neglected some but not thrashed.

How about getting a new hood (Maybe carbon fiber) :D

My 2¢ is that for a nearly 10-year old car that's been neglected, although not trashed, with an extensively pitted hood, the exercise of going through a light sanding and buffing just isn't going to be worth it. A good, professional paint job (I don't think those MAACO teasers are the way to go) may cost some semi-serious money (quality paint, guy who's good with the spray brush), but anything else is just a poor second in my book.

Thanks for all the imput,at the moment I am leaning towards a complete paint job, I considered a new hood but it doesn, take care of the rest of the car. One more question when they re-paint,I imagine they fill the pits then give it a thorough sanding then re-paint finishing with a clear coat,is this correct ? This seems like the logical way,rather than to remove or destroy completely the original paint job.

That I don't know, so you'll have to talk to a good paint shop to see what the options are. The most thorough approach, where they can control all the variables and take care of any underlying defects, is to strip the car down to bare metal, reprime, paint x 3 (or more), then clear coat, you get the idea. Then again, all that may not be necessary, or maybe just for the hood. Best to talk to a few good shops, get some prices, and decide from there.