Full Respray

[Ade B]

Recently quoted £1700 + VAT to blow in OS door and front and back wings and fix boot cill following small touch ups - £2600 + VAT for whole car!

£1k sounds very cheap..

Ade

 

[Will]

Something like 80% of the cost of paintwork is the labour involved.

There's a lot of time involved. That's why it's expensive.

If you can find someone willing to work for less money, then you might get a better price.

To be honest, I've often wondered if for large jobs it's worth travelling to places with lower labour costs - eg a bodyshop in the SW or 'up North'.

Sp!ke had the best idea when he got his 124 painted, he took it somewhere in Eastern Europ IIRC - cracking job and much cheaper!

Will

 

[mattc]

Sp!ke had the best idea when he got his 124 painted, he took it somewhere in Eastern Europ IIRC - cracking job and much cheaper!

Will

That was 4 years ago - ask him what he thinks now

 

[Will]

If it's rusting or whatever then I guess that's what you get!

I reckon most bodyshops here would have been no better.

For what he paid he could probably get it done two or three times over and still be better off!

Will

 

[GrahamC230K]

Sp!ke, what do you think now?

 

[bolide]

my R129 SL was done recently at mates rates - but there was no rust at all on the car
1 replacement door
1 Door skin
I rear panel
n/s rear 1/4 repair

That is effectivley not much more than a 1/4 repair and rear panel more than your car, and no roof to paint!

All repairs, full respray and every blemish attended to = £3300!

That's about what I would expect - stripping & refitting a door will take the best part of a day. At that price you have a right to expect a perfect job as you're budgeting for enough time to do the job properly

£1k sounds very cheap. If materials cost £300 inc VAT (two lots of paint if the car is two-tone) and he's charging £30/hour with no VAT he's allowing 23 hours (3 days) to do the car. If he's £40/hour that's 17 hours (2 days). You couldn't strip & refit the car in 2 days, I wouldn't think

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[bigstuff]

I got quoted this morning £1k for a complete respray on my 97 202. The guy doing the work has won awards all over the country for his work and i've seen first hand how damn good he is. I have no intention of ever getting rid of it (even if I win the lottery) coz it was the very first status symbol (to me anyway) that I ever owned.

A mate of mine reckons i'm insane for getting it done but I absolutely love the car and it still runs like a dream and over the last 10 years has probably cost me less than £1k in repairs in total and is serviced independently by a local mechanic who treats it like a baby. When I eventually get a new motor next year I plan on still taking the 202 out on weekends etc and the odd few trips to work so am I being insane for getting it 'restored'? I know I could sell it and add a couple of k and maybe get a cheapish amg 202 but it won't be the same car.

youre mate is prob right trade it in & keep a photo

 

[jonnylewis]

Hey Chrispy, is this a personal friend giving you that price or is it a standard price for anyone???
I am looking around at the moment for quotes on full resprays and that sounds like the ticket right there.

 

[chrispy]

Let's say he's an aquaintance. I've seen his work before after finishing and 2 - 3 years down the line and the guy is truly amazing. He has a proper oven baked booth and he's normally booked up 6 months in advance. He has this 1970's petrol blue porsche i'd give my two balls for I'm pretty positive he restored that too. Oh. the only thing on my car not being sprayed is the roof, not sure if i've stated that but after a chat yesterday, the handles etc are all coming off.

 

[Sp!ke]

That was 4 years ago - ask him what he thinks now

Good point. Actually it was 5 years ago now.

The paint has held up very well overall. When I do get the polish out it comes up beautifully as I've never let anyone else ever wash the car and hence there are very few swirls or imperfections.

I'm still very happy with the work done. However five years on, I now have rust bubbles on the lip of my front wings in the normal place.

There's no other problem area anywhere else on the car whatsoever so I suspect the wings were starting to go before the car was sprayed. I wish I had known this as I would have got them to replace the front wings at the time as a matter of course and splurged lots of undeseal on the inner wing lip to prevent this happening.

So now I'm looking at trying to source a couple of new OEM wings and get them sprayed. The original wings are expensive though

Overall, my paint job was still an absolute steal and I'd do it again.

 

[glojo]

I am a big fan of replacing metal wherever possible as I believe removing ALL the rust is extremely labour intensive and as the saying goes,

"Time is money"

Far better, and it will last far longer.

Regards
John