The 'E' Type Forum

Just watched 'Wheeler Dealers' refurbish a Mustang during which they resprayed a it for £2000. My question, what should I expect to pay for decent external, same colour, respray, assuming doors, boot lid and bonnet off, but wheels & engine etc stay on. Very little rust and hardly any filling or welding. What would be an approximate ball-park figure?

If you want external only why take bits off

Depends what you want. Decent materials will be 1K+. If you want a proper job, remove the glass, chrome, rubber seals, trim around the A and B posts and sill chromes and trim. If its a roadster, the hood. Just depends on what standard you are looking for.

Not seen that particular wheeler dealers but they have said often that if you can find a paint shop happy just to do final prep and paint then if you do a lot of the initial preparation work removing the old paint and rubbing back etc...dechroming and the like then you can save money. The actual paint application does not take that long....it is the preparation beforehand that takes time and costs money if you are paying others to do it.....obviously you still have to pay the cost of the primer, paint and the like....

Not an e-type but about a year ago I spent £6k on having my Porsche 924 Carrera GT painted. That was a bare shell with all removable panels removed, I had the exterior, shut panels, engine bay and rear load area painted but not the underbody or cabin, and I had done as much prep work as I could, so there was no actual repair work or rust to deal with. My paint guy insisted on doing final prep and primer himself. Top job.

Had my Series 2 OTS repainted last year. Externally stripped to bare metal, no rust.
Engine area and boot floor left as original paint was still good and wanted to preserve originality. Bonnet underside painted.
Had three quotes but all were in the region of £10000
Eventually went with Brookfield Classics and very pleased with result.

I have a 66 2+2.
I got some paint quotes from several paint shops, all starting at 5.000€ and that was once they had seen the car and with the understanding that I would do all the work up to painting it in primer before I would bring them the car.

So after calculating the cost of doing it myself (=400€ (paint, primer, filler, sanding paper, spray gun...), I decided to repaint it myself the first time. Not perfect, but pleasing result. Even if I say so myself.

Would have left it like that but unfortunately some damage occurred before I could finish the car, so it needed a repaint .
Since I did not want to wait for the temperatures to rise (difficult to paint at 3 degrees Celsius), I got lucky and found a paint shop owner (retired) who charged me 15€ per hour for his work, with me assisting (he worked on the car when I worked on the car).
Managed to get everything done again (windows put back in, doors fitted etc...) for 720€ (including paint + hardener and materials).

A friend of mine in Belgium, got a quote of 1000€ if he would bring his Porsche 911 prepped (small parts dismantled, car completely sanded and not to be painted parts covered) to the paint shop.
As mentioned by cactusman, the actual painting will take only 2,5 hours, so on the agreement that you will do as much a you can yourself, find a shop that will quote only for say 1 day work?

Good luck

My S2 is currently in the paintshop (see my thread - S2 FHC in the paintshop). Cost of prep (filling/ blocking) work so far is 14K and not a drop of paint in sight. The paintshop wants 6K to put 'cover' on it.

Currently work is stalled over who responsible for cost of wasted work on bonnet. So that will be GBP 20K for respray in original colour!

If you are using a UK paintshop my advice is this: whatever the paintshop quote, multiply by 2.5. Whatever timeframe they give you, multiply by factor of 4..

My only input would be that, following a side impact from joe public, mine had to be resprayed. They were going to do the body plus one door that was damaged. The cost for that was £3k strip and rebuild and £3k painting (only a cover, not a strip back to bare metal. I added over £2k to do the bonnet, boot and other door to get a full match.

That adds up to a lot of money, but doesn't seem untypical from other comments

John

I hate ( and hesitate ) to say this , but in my view the figures you have just put out are beyond ridiculous, and, frankly, it sounds as though you are being taken for a ride. Leaving aside any repairs , which plainly cost money , I would expect perhaps £ 1500 for materials , and perhaps £ 7000 for actual preparation and painting, which, plus 20% vat comes to £ 10,200 .

Hi Christopher,

No don't hesitate to say it. I am being ripped off. I am paying MechSpray by the hour and so far it is 300+ hours plus materials for prep work on the bodywork. And this does not cover the work on my bonnet - another 4K+ spent at IDL in Hastings which went pear shaped (see my thread - S2 FHC in the paintshop). I am still trying to get compensation from IDL who won't admit their failings. They took the bonnet back for respray but it came back with fresh damage and they won't compensate me for that either.

If I spend the extra 6K with MechSpray to put cover on the car that will be 25K including the bonnet work.

If you can find a UK paintshop that will spend one day to put cover on a car that you have preped yourself, as per Jan's suggestion above, then this is the best way. If anyone knows of such a paintshop in the UK, PLEASE let me know their contact details.

To finish the car my other options are: i) trailer the car to E Europe, ii) buy the spray paint kit and teach myself to spray paint.

I am seriously considering both the above. After more than 2 years, 3 paintshops and 25K already spent (the first paintshop charged upfront 6k and then went folded because the owner went to jail) I am very reluctant to trust another UK paintshop. Is this just me or is my experience indicative of the way things are with UK paintshops at the moment?

Kris

I thought I'd chime in with my thoughts from a restoration company point of view.

Much has been said about the cost of painting a car and our default stance is around £15k. I personally wouldn't paint a car for less than £100k (that gives you the opportunity to repaint it if and when the paint fails). We don't paint cars in house as I prefer to manage the paintshop at every stage.

A few weeks ago, we were in court when we were in dispute with a bodyshop. They painted a car for us (back to bare metal - we have photos to prove) and the paint peeled off near the bonnet louvres). I really felt for the guys but they were adamant it wasn't their fault and weren't prepared to rectify the paint. We had to remove the chrome and transport the bonnet to another paintshop where the entire middle section was stripped back to bare and repainted. We then had to rebuild the bonnet (S2, rivet on scoops, fit bumpers, headlights, safety catch, chrome beads etc). The paintshop were adamant that they had followed the manufacturers processes to the letter.

All of this was at zero cost and no arguments to the customer.

My advice is not to give the bodyshop any 'get out of jail cards'. IE if you prepare the car yourself and ask them to just put some paint on it you will have a hard time taking it back and asking them to rectify anything if there is a problem.

If they say they only use paint manufacturer A products, go with it - if you provide any materials, you will find it hard(er) to get any compensation in any dispute.

If you don't trust the supplier (why are you working with them?) then draw up a 'contract' that sets out what your expectations are and how you would resolve any dispute.

My own car was painted about 5 years ago and it is a fantastic job. I have had to have rectification work done in some small areas where the paint had lifted (top of the door where it goes from the vertical to the curve).

The other problem is that our expectation is very high. Look at a modern car - the finish is just awful and one that my customers would not accept.

In short, it appears that it is becoming more and more difficult to achieve a long lasting and durable paintjob and even if you pay top dollar, there are no guarantees.

1954Etype wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 30, 2018 10:12 am

Much has been said about the cost of painting a car and our default stance is around £15k. I personally wouldn't paint a car for less than £100k (that gives you the opportunity to repaint it if and when the paint fails).

I guess that meant to be £10k Angus? Not coming to you otherwise!

Malcom, you've got to give him a bit of profit margin!!

The cost of a re spray is a dilemma for me also.
There is no way I could afford or justify spending 10k plus on painting my ‘hobby’, as my wife calls it.
Angus has just shot down my current approach, which is to prepare it myself and supply the paint; clearly not an ideal approach for most spray shops and a great get-out-of-jail card for them.

I HAVE already prepared and primed it, sprayed the inside, underside, frames and inside of the bonnet and was simply looking at someone spraying the outside.
I do have spraying equipment including air line breathing equipment, but no spray booth, so dust is a problem. When the weather gets warmer, I might just go for it.

What’s the worst that can happen; I will have to rub it down again and have it professionally painted.

Paul

Paul, I am really sorry if I have shot you down (that wasn't my intention!). Providing you are prepared to accept that in the event of an issue with the final finish you *might* have some or no recourse then stick to your original plan. I'm sure there are plenty of paintshops that will work with you.

Let us know how you get on.

Paul, if you are happy with the quality of the painting you've done so far (especially the bonnet) then consider doing it yourself.
I painted my aeroplane after a complete overhaul. It was my first attempt at spray painting with two pack paint and the proper air fed spray mask etc.
Though not perfect I'm not ashamed and it didn't cause any concerns when I sold the aeroplane last year some dozen years after the I did the work.

You're paying for man hours and if you got somewhere you can set up to do the work then think it through.
Maybe someone on here who's already done a similar job would be willing, for a few beer tokens, to help to get you started?

Geoff

Yes go for it and cover the car yourself. You will save a packet and have the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself. As you say the worst that can happen is you have to rub it down to primer again.

My car is currently in primer. I am rapidly coming around to this way of thinking.

Kris

Sorry Angus, it was just a light hearted comment meant in fun.
I always value your posts.

Paul