Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Burton
For my pennies worth regarding paint, the benchmark for refinishing a car year ago was 40 hours and this included for removal of handles, glass, locks and trims. This would typically be a car that had been lightly coined. Materials would vary from £450 to £600 depending on whether it was direct gloss or clear over base.
Labour then was £21 per hour, based on a shop having a quality low bake spray booth. I owned a manufacturer approved bodyshop for nearly twenty years, repairing 500 - 600 vehicles a year.
The difference between Warranty approved coatings to the budget hobbyist range are massive by way of cost and quality. What may look OK from a DIY job in a home garage is no where near what comes out of a professional shop where the finish will also carry a 3 year guarantee.
I've tried the budget primers, basecoats, clear coats and you pretty much get what you pay for. Just depends how particular or picky you want to be.
I reckon you need to be around £2k upwards for prep and finish on these cars, but it's about managing expectations regarding quality and the finish standing up to the rigours of use, or lack of as it may be.
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Couldn't agree more with all of the above. Two to two and a half grand sounds pretty reasonable to me these days for a professional paint job. I was quoted £400 to prep and spray an MG Midget back in 1980, which is about two grand in today's money. If you desire a professional paint finish £2.5k's not a bad ceiling to keep to.
If you want to show your Tribute BMW Z3 Ferrari body conversion at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, by all means spend double that on the paint. But you still won't win any prizes because the big guys in black suits who keep touching their earpieces won't let you in.
I've never used professional paint products myself but of course they're going to be better quality than those aimed at the DIY market. If you are going to spray a car yourself though I can recommend Jawel paint as I found it to be great value for money with excellent customer support. It was easy to use, gave a surprisingly good finish and has been very durable with no paint issues at all over 3 years/14,000 miles of devil-may-care use.
Oh, and don't forget these cars are all fibreglass bolt/bond on panel kits. Depending on how well they fitted/were fitted/were modified when fitted, the panels will be under varying amounts of stress and you are very likely to get the odd crack/bubble in the surface. You really can't 'blame' the manufacturer, builder or sprayer if that happens, it's the nature of the beast, I'm afraid. If you've spent thousands on the paint you'll be pulling your hair out when it happens. If you've done it yourself with Cellulose you can just shrug and repair it in a weekend.