Respray - Questions?

[Abbos]

Going to be saving for a respray as the paintwork is bad on my car.

I am going to get a completly different colour done.

I know of a friend on the south coast who has said roughly about £1000 + paint.

Is this right? Can anyone recommend anywhere nearer to me?

Are there any other things I need to consider?

I only really want the outside done and around the inside or the doors, so not under the bonnet or engine bay (yet).

Can I prepare some of the car myself or is it best left for the experts?

Any advice appriciated.

[Rich]

For a good job you are looking at £2500 at the very least. I just got told standard labour only (no paint, parts or prepping) for a respray is £1750 + VAT!

And believe me, you get what you pay for (hence my current project!)

[DaMonsta]

Hi:

For a nice repaint these days in the UK you are looking at about £2,000. You are surely not going to get a colour-change that would include the boot, bonnet and door shuts, plus engine bay, for just £1,000. It 'aint possible.

Regards,
Jim

[Vindezal]

Wont be 2k for all. there are places cheaper and do good jobs.Ask around your area.

[DaMonsta]

Hi:

Well I did say "about" £2000. So for the cheaper areas we are talking around £1700 and the dearer areas around £2300. And other areas inbetween, of course.

My point is, you simply cannot get a decent repaint in the UK that involves a change of colour, i.e. boot, bonnet, engine-bay and door shuts for just £1000. It simply 'aint possible.

Regards,
Jim

[TomThumb]

my mate said he can get a respray on the exterior for 400 quid, nothing else.
does this sound about right?>

[michael]

my mate said he can get a respray on the exterior for 400 quid, nothing else.
does this sound about right?>

Sounds spot on if you don't need to see out of the windows and want coloured tyres and trim

Hard to say really if it's "mates rates" but I wouldn't expect a top notch job for anything under £2000+

[Rich]

Wont be 2k for all. there are places cheaper and do good jobs.Ask around your area.

I was told that, 1 year after im getting ti redone because the paint is falling off! (literally!)

You get what you pay for, thats my advice, pay out 2 or 3k for it, pay the extra and get a good job not a cheap job otherwise you will regret it later. I lost out on £1100 because I went cheap, its cost me more now because I have to correct their mistakes too.

Personally I would advise against anywhere who charge less than £2k labour for a colour change, so with paint, parts etc its gonna be £2500-£3500. And thats from personal experience. But your call, risk it if you want, you might find a decent cheap one but I seriously doubt it

[EarL]

my mate said he can get a respray on the exterior for 400 quid, nothing else.
does this sound about right?>

Sounds spot on if you don't need to see out of the windows and want coloured tyres and trim

Hard to say really if it's "mates rates" but I wouldn't expect a top notch job for anything under £2000+

I can vouch for a company called Auto Body Perfections in Cardiff. They're work is second to none, and have done several show cars. I was quoted £1700 for a full respray, and that included totally stripping the car to virtually a bare shell!

I hasten to add, this was a respray back to original Crimson Red, not a change of colour.

[Rich]

Was that £1700 inc VAT? Thats a good price, and about right I would say, well £300 less than £2k which seems to be the average price.

Hopefully Ill be finding someone to spray just the outside for £1000-£1500, but I will have prepped it all myself and it will be all stripped ready to go so hopefully it will be done for that. Mind you the paint I want isnt going to be cheap lol.

[Muffleman]

I have an early MR2 Turbo, in fact registered manufactured 1989 ! I went to a bodyshop I KNOW does a damn good job. We basically decided it needed a full respray, no real damage or rust but just imperfections on every panel due to its age.

I collected my (now lairy green ) MR2 last night, and I'm chuffed to bits

It was a full colour change, windows out, lights out, door handles out, sills and doorshuts painted the lot. £2,500 cash.

It takes a LOT of labour to do a GOOD respray, especially a colour change.

All the best


Matt

[Rich]

Yup, I had that done for £1100... and Im paying for it big time now really. Which is why IM stripping it down and IM spraying the bits they missed, IM prepping it. Then a different bodyshop can paint it for £1500-£2000 (Ill have done half the work)

Pay cheap prices if you want but I seriously dont recomend it!

[Muffleman]

Yup, I had that done for £1100... and Im paying for it big time now really. Which is why IM stripping it down and IM spraying the bits they missed, IM prepping it. Then a different bodyshop can paint it for £1500-£2000 (Ill have done half the work)

Pay cheap prices if you want but I seriously dont recomend it!

You're spot on mate, you get what you pay for I'm afraid. And if the paint starts to peel\fade etc, it's a lot of work to repair. I got mine for £2,500 providing it was cash but would've been more. A respray in the same colour would've been cheaper though.

All the best with the prep work Rich, that should keep you busy !

[bidtowin]

My mate Sprays and he can do a complete respray for under the £1500 mark, and yes it wil be 100% Mint

Thanks

Ross

[DaMonsta]

Hi:

The thing is with a repaint is it's very labour intensive. The actual painting takes hardly any time at all. It's the surface prep and refinishing that takes all the time. We all know that wages tend to be different in different parts of the country. Wages are higher in London but everything else costs more as well. So a car painter in the South will naturally be charging more than somewhere in the country where the cost of living is less.

Now, it's the same basic task with anyone who wants a repaint simply because it's the same basic car. So taking the glass out of mine, removing the exterior trim, and so on, will take about the same time no matter who does it. Provided they are reasonably skilled, of course. But it's the same number of bolts that have to be undone, the same number of lights, same number of windows, etc., etc.

Provided there is no accident damage, rust, that kind of thing, a quality surface prep will take approximately the same time, the painting will be the same and so too will be the refinishing together with the final rebuilding.

So what's the difference?

Quality of the workmanship.

It is precisely because surface prep and refinishing is so darned labour intensive that, to do it right, does take a fair degree of skill and a LOT of attention paid to detail.

Simply put, the cheaper the job the less attention will be paid to the myriad of tiny details that go to creating a great paint job.

The other thing is, people's expectations are very different.

In truth, there is no such thing as a 100% mint paint job. There will be imperfections in *any* paint job. Such is the very nature of the application process. A job that looks good from a little distance away, when looked at closely will have the odd run here and there, little dust-nibs perhaps, slight overspray in places, orange peel in parts, edges that have been ill-prepared. These are typical examples of the myriad of tiny details that collectively take quite a lot of preparation and refinishing time.

In fact, you could say that the actual painting was the easy part.

What these cheaper places do is give your outer paint a rub down with wet & dry, mask off, paint, and that's it, you get the car basically as it "comes off the gun". That'll cost you what? About fifteen hundred quid.

It may well look good for a while, and a person may think, "So what if it has the odd run here and there, or a bit of overspray and the like, to me it looks great." In which case the person has accepted a lower quality of workmanship in respect of the lower price. That's personal choice.

The paint will begin peeling off from the masking lines before not too long. The gloss will start to fade as well as they will have no doubt used cheaper paint and thinners. High quality paints, thinners and hardners are rather expensive. But these kinds of problems down the line are to be expected with the cheaper job.

I can tell you for a fact that if I were to have my car repainted to the high specification I would demand, I would pay about £3,500 in the UK. I have a friend in Surrey who just had his F348 repainted to a very high specification (that I advised him on and wrote out the basic repainting spec) and the final bill was £4,200, which I thought was very good value given the amount of work done and the quality is superb.

Not only that, given reasonable care and protection from the sun, the paint will still look as good in ten years time as the day it rolled out of the bodyshop.

People pays their money and they takes their choice. That's essentially what this repainting lark boils down to. There is no such thing as a cheap, high-quality paint job. Unless, of course, you have a highly skilled car-painter friend who is willing to do it for you as a favour or something.

Regards,
Jim

[pecky]

i paid £850 for my paint job which was all the outside and delocking it should hav cost £1200 but got discount for logo in rear window. top job as well

[mr2daz]

How much will it cost to get the other half done though??

[DaMonsta]

Ha ha ha, that's the first thing that came to my mind as well. Was it a blue car or a black car, lol.

Regards,
Jim

[pecky]

it was black, had rear painted blue and then had the black resprayed as well 2 get rid of stone chips etc

[Rich]

What these cheaper places do is give your outer paint a rub down with wet & dry, mask off, paint, and that's it, you get the car basically as it "comes off the gun". That'll cost you what? About fifteen hundred quid.

They didnt even do that on mine!! I got the wings off at the mo to straighten one, and treat the rust etc, the pain pulls off by the rust, doing this I found the old red paint still shiney! no wonder its peeling off!

But yep, prepping is the most important thing, which is why IM prepping it myself, I have a better eye for detail on my car than anyone ever will, they might want to give it a rub down and prime it themselves after Ive already done that, that will be up to them, if they recomend it Ill say ok.

Once bitten twice shy as the saying goes.

And cheers whoever said good luck for prepping, Im gonna need it, but I got 6 months to strip, spray the hidden/inaccessable bits, refit (square), fill, prime etc etc so should be all looking sweet as feck when done