When I was a little kid, I had this fantastic Armitron digital watch. I think it was my first watch? It was a Sun/Moon watch, and it had a little sun in the day that turned into crescent moon at night, and the eyes looked back and forth with the seconds. I really liked it, but mine had a little flaw in the screen, a little black dot, and it drove me nuts. Eventually, I convinced my dad to take me to the store, where an apathetic clerk swapped it out for a pristine one. I tell you this because it shows that, once, I was a bit of a perfectionist about details. And now, I realize I am very much not, and I submit by beloved little Nissan Pao as proof.
I am someone who appreciates details. A lot. I get absolutely obsessed with details, especially car-related details. But I do not need those details to be perfect. At all. In fact, the more I live with myself, the more I realize the opposite is true. For example, I finally got my Pao back after the second deer-smacking incident and all the drama and ass-pains associated with that. The body shop fixed the strange discoloration on the fender, and it looks great again!
The bodyshop, run by a fantastic man named Brother Peacemaker – a man who routinely refers to everyone he interacts with as “baby” – did a great job re-shaping the fiberglass hood and fender. He matched the paint quite well, though you may notice it doesn’t quite match the left fender:
Before you criticize, let’s be clear about what is going on here: I didn’t ask him to paint the whole car, and matching would be near-impossible, since, now that I look at the car, I’m not sure any of the panels matches the ones next to it. All over the car! Look!
The hood, fender, windshield surround, and cowl panel are all slightly different shades of blue.
The passenger door is yet another shade of aqua! This one has a bit more green in it!
And, of course, that door is a different shade than the rear quarter panel, which has less green and a bit less saturation.
Around back, we have a whole glorious patchwork of colors! I just replaced that hinge, which sports its own shade of blue, and the tailgate and panel behind the bumper and fender all proudly display their own slightly different shades of mint, aquamarine, azure, cerulean, sea foam, or whatever.
The color variance isn’t even just limited to individual panels! Look at the C-pillar here: there’s a sort of ombré effect happening where the middle of it is a greener sort of hue and then fades to a more blue hue in the upper and lower parts.
I show you all of these imperfections because I realized I have zero urge to paint the car to be one, uniform hue. I don’t care about these color variations at all! Well, maybe that’s not true, because I think I actually like them? They add to the character of the car, I think. The old kid me that would be bothered by a fleck of something in an LCD display is long gone, I think.
That kid seems to have grown into someone who has perhaps taken things too far, since, objectively, this car is a mess. But I can’t help it. I like imperfect things, flaws delight me, and a little wear and tear just makes things endearing to me. I’m not really sure exactly what this means, except perhaps as a warning to anyone expecting perfection from me.
I don’t want to push my poisoned worldview onto anyone, but I might go so far as to suggest that it’s nice to take a moment and appreciate the flawed things around you? What could it hurt?
Don’t know how trustworthy the site is, but looks like you can get that sun/moon design as a face for a smartwatch
https://watchfaces.be/armitron-digital-sun-and-moon-v1/
Just tell yourself you’ve scored an ultra rare Pao Harlequin.
I’ve always thought of these small kinds of flaws as the story of the object.
I like to have one small fault on my car as it keeps the big ones away.
Get that windshield gasket fixed! and whatever other decaying rubber on that car.
Is there a way to sample the color profile on the paint? It would be nice to have a representative of the original color in case you need to respray it in the future.
Years ago I heard someone discussing architecture lay out the following concept: If you have a house with a single cracked window, you have a broken window. If all of the windows are cracked, you have a uniquely patterned structural element.
If this was just one panel, it would be annoying. But all panels being somewhat mismatched? That’s just extra conversation potential on a cool, unique machine.
Thanks Jason, this makes me feel a lot better about the huge dumpster-shaped dent I put in the back of my car. It’s just character!
I (fortunately) can’t imagine the level of reevaluation of priorities you’ve gone through recently, but knowing because you wrote it that “weekend canoe trip with Otto” won out over “rebuild the Beetle’s carburetor” every time even before, I can only see them shifting further in that direction and we should all be glad writing about weird car details is how you make your living so that pretty much means you’ll keep doing it since any other job could only be more of a…well, job.
With the recent history of this Pao, I’m not surprised you have a few ticks.
My 94 Miata new had dimples on the trunk lid where the right support was attached. It had an identical twin next to it, but I could tell which one was mine. Got it repainted for $$$ and it was gone, a bit sad.