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Hi Simon,
I got a quote for my Sportster from a recomended local bodyshop but have no personal experience of them.
To prepare and paint all the removable body parts was £1800+vat and if I wanted the visable parts of the chassis prepared and painted in balck it was an additional £600+vat.
But I haven't gone ahead, so can't provide any feedback.
Mine was around 2.5k quoted (with VAT), I've not got the final price yet as the parts are still in the shop. This was for sand down, primer, colour and clear.
I had an option to go more expensive where the sand down / primer is repeated several times to get rid of the dips / warping you get in all fibreglass panels. However as it's not a show car I left that step out.
They will flatten the clear but not completely, all the examples they had were very good.
I took the car to bits and will be rebuilding it as well, they would have done that step too but that would have pushed the costs up a lot.
The time has come to start thinking about getting some quotes for having the Cabrio sprayed...
Does anyone know what kind of cost I should expect? I'm not looking for a concourse finish but don't want a bodge job either
To keep the price reasonable I'll obviously try and do most of the prep work myself
Also, can anyone recommend a good body shop? (preferably somewhere in the Midlands)
Thanks
Simon
Hi Simon
I tried a local one man band thinking he would be cheap, but he quoted £2,500, which I feel is expensive. I then tried a local VW body shop, which I thought would be expensive, but had a word with the manager about having it done on a "homer" basis for cash. He is quite willing to do a deal and let me do the prep work, such as rubbing down and flatting which takes significant labour time.
Have you considered doing it yourself? - your handywork looks very good on your car, so you could consider this. The guy who won best Marlin at Stoneleigh last year had sprayed his own, using 2 pack, which I thought was a complete no-no due to the iso-cyanide. he used proper breathing mask, which you can hire, and will be lot cheaper than having a professional do it. The cost of the paint, and all the materials is less than £500, so 60-80% of the final cost is down to labour.
I think it's perfectly possible to paint it yourself if you have the time and space. The fact that you can take all the panels off the Marlin and do them individually is a bonus.
I sprayed a car years ago (when I was a student) and it came out fine. The main problem now is that the DIY favorite, cellulose, is becoming hard to get. (Some European legislation is responsible I believe) With cellulose you don't need all the breathing gear (although you need some protection) that you need with two pack and if you mess it up it's relatively easy to flatten and do again.
I intend to spray my Sportster myself (assuming it gets finished before the cellulose stocks run out that is)
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think I'll get a few quotes over the next week or so to confirm some prices.
If they come out too expensive I'll certainly seriously consider doing it myself. It sounds as though the majority of the cost is for the labour, so I think I should easily be able to buy all the materials (and possibly a new compressor) for less than half the cost of a professional spray job.
Does anyone know how cellulose and two pack paint finishes compare? Is the cellulose paint as durable and what kind of breathing equipment is necessary ? (ie is it sufficient to just keep the garage door open!!)
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think I'll get a few quotes over the next week or so to confirm some prices.
If they come out too expensive I'll certainly seriously consider doing it myself. It sounds as though the majority of the cost is for the labour, so I think I should easily be able to buy all the materials (and possibly a new compressor) for less than half the cost of a professional spray job.
Does anyone know how cellulose and two pack paint finishes compare? Is the cellulose paint as durable and what kind of breathing equipment is necessary ? (ie is it sufficient to just keep the garage door open!!)
Thanks
Simon
Simon
I sprayed my own Mini years ago with cellulose, and eventually got a very good finish. As Rob says you can easily rub it down if you end up with runs in it! Yes you can work with it with the garage door open - you might get a bit high though, and you have to pick the right day - teperature and humidity have to be right - and no flies!!!!
The durability of cellulose is not great - you can spend hours working up a great finish , but it will slowly go off. The good thing about 2 pack is it is very much more durable.
Modern paint shops have now gone over to water based paints, but I have no idea whether you can work with these yorself, or what equipment you require.
As I understand it water based paints take a long time to dry and so you need an air filter and recirculation system to assist the drying process and keep the dust out. From what I have read it may be possible as a DIY job but pretty tricky to get the right conditions.
I have painted a lot of cars over the years with good results. You will need a good compressor and gun as a starter, if the gun is devilbis or other such high quality the compressor will need to delivrer 10 - 12 cfm to handle it.
All that said things have changed, sadly spirit based cellulose is all but gone and water based cellulose is virtually impossible to use unless you are in a water filtered heated spray booth. Two pack is a no no, all are iso-cyanate based and need full air fed masks to stop it killing you or the kids etc.., you also need a licence from the environment agency/LAPC for the release to air so all in all you can forget two pack at home.
If you can find some spirit based cellulose home spraying is a goer but remember if you are in your garage with the door open you will get a lot of overspray which ends up on most of the cars in street if you are not careful. Always a way to win friends and influence people.
I would have a word with Dave Kitson, he may have a contact, also Bob Martin over in Hull just had his Cabrio painted at a local shop to him for around £1200, it looked pretty good for the money.
Sadly time has beaten me on the Cabrio, I have the SVA test booked for 28th April but I don't think I am going to make it, but I read the IVA test is down to £450 and more importantly the re-test is down to £90 so it looks like it will be IVA, what joy!
Look forward to seeing your car, will it be at Stoneleigh?
I got some quotes on Friday and have decided to get the car sprayed professionally. I did seriously consider spraying it myself but think that by the time I'd finished that summer would also be over...!
So this weekend I started to strip the car down with the aim of getting the car to the spray shop after Easter.
Unfortunately the car won't be ready in time for Stoneleigh this year which is just as well as it also clashes with my 20th wedding anniversary (which I'm reliably informed is more important...)
John - I'm pleased to hear that work continues on your car and that the IVA hasn't put you off.
I'll have to remember that company when it comes to getting mine painted, as Daventry isn't that far from me - and it's always better to go somewhere that people have used before and are happy with the results.
I've managed to get the car back together without any major incidents to the bodywork! I've put some more photos on my Flickr site for those that are interested:
