total car respray

[androo007]

Hi there guys,

So with the old girl getting the TLC to the underside, cavities and engine servicing etc now complete and I'm happy with how she runs, I'm looking to refresh the paint on the car.

Its a red rev 3, and had the front bumper and wings blown in at some point, but a shade darker than the rest of the car. Merged in nicely but heck, I'm an OCD freak.

I've been trying to get quotes for a respray, thinking the MR2 was a relatively small car to paint. Down south it seems £2k is a cheap price for a quick blow over, of which I think the prep work would be minimal to nil.

I'm looking for a good, long lasting and quality finish not a quick and nasty job that'll only look good for a year.

I know costs vary so so much from place to place so I'm willing to travel for a good job at the right price.

Can you guys recommend someone and a rough price? If changing colour isn't that much more I'd be interested too.

[thomp1983]

You need to define what you consider a good job. 2.5-3k is around the going rate. If your happy with them masking off the glass and surrounds and difficult to remove bits then you'll probably get near the 2k mark especially if you remove all the bodywork and trim etc for them and do the reassembly yourself. Fully stripped with everything removed is probably 4-5k with them doing all the labour.

Expect those prices to rise if any repair work is needed once it's stripped. Personally id diy it, the painting is the easy part and very good results can be achieved in a plastic lined garage if yoir prepared to make the effort. At a minimum id be stripping everything myself and rubbing back the known weak spots to make sure there's no nasty surprises waiting. If you've never done it you'll be suprised at the amount of labour involved in just stripping the exterior ready for paint, it can take a good weekend without anything breaking on the way.

And finally expect to be without the car for at least twice as long as quoted things rarely go as planned (not always the bodyshops fault). If your offered a cheap job then it's likely to take months as there normally fitted in around full price jobs and normally don't get remedial finishing done for minor runs and full final sanding etc.

[craig]

For a professional job, you're looking at £2500-£3000.

[rev3turbo]

also consider the type of paint they will be using, 2k paint gives the best finish and hardest wearing against stone chips etc.. most places however use water based paint

[Tsia]

I think the prep work would be minimal to nil.

A good spray job is all in the prep work. There is no such thing as minimal to nil prep work on a car being re-sprayed, it'll all need rubbing down and smoothing still!

[l1ca]

For a professional job, you're looking at £2500-£3000.

This.

To see whats involved in the process take a good look and a read through both Craigs and my build threads.

Also consider if its something that you truly want to undertake, a properly stripped down and well prepped and painted job can take in excess of a month, with a major amount of planning before hand, and cost a decent amount of money in the process. Majority of which you will never see back.

If price is a major factor, and to be honest for a job that's costing this much it absolutely should be. You may be able to get away with doing sections of preparation yourself. (unsure of your skill level in this field) but its worth considering.

Good luck.

[alan_uk]

at work we usually charge between £2000 for a full respray in the same color and only use 2k paint as water based paints are rubbish

to change the color we usually charge between £2500-£4000 depending on the finish weather it be a special paint or a pearl, candy and so on

all cars require prep and you would be suprised how much prep creeps up on a car that looks like it needs little to nill lol once things start getting removed

[C35Rob]

there's a few body guys on here that know more than me.. but its very much a a "how long is a piece of string" affair

£500 will get you a scotch down, blow over and an indeterminate amount of free runs, flies, dust etc in the paint - this is your typical rally car/taxi/shady car dealer job

£1000 will get a presentable tidy up if you shop around.. expect minimal dent repairs, glass/lights etc will be masked off not removed

for a proper show quality paint job, glass out, all panels off, properly wet sanded etc you'll easily pay £2500-3000


would I pay £3000 for a respray on my MR2? most definitely not - I'd rather spend the money on more important things, however as with all things in life you get what you pay for

[androo007]

Hmm yeah thanks chaps. Went to my bodyshop today who quoted 5k ..... But they only really do exotic cars etc. They said the condition of the car didnt warrant a respray and he said I'd be better off spending my money on hookers instead lol.

I think it was the lure of sheppy getting g his respray done for £800 that set me off thinking...... Is it really possible to get a good finish for that? Not down here anyway.

I'm a real ocd freak with that sort of things so a poor finish would do my head in.

[Ryan S]

Have a drive up to Scotland, much cheaper up here, the finish on my car is outstanding and a few members on here have now seen it up close and were fairly impressed with it, it was just a mask up job but that's all i thought my 21 year old Toyota deserved, i was another £200 for meterials, I'm not into spending 3-4 times the cars value on a paint job, for a nut and bolt restoration then yeah but for a car I drive daily and take to the strip and park outside? A masked up £1000 job was more than adequate

Oh, and just to be absolutely clear here, the finish of the paint is easily on par with a £5k paint job (it's a 3 stage pearl paint).My only issue are small bits with masking etc and that's me being massively picky, it's also what I paid for.

[gazza2012]

That's the problem with resprays on MR2s. I've got MK5 turbo that is mechanically very strong, but the paintwork is looking quite ropey after being mopped a couple of years ago.
I'd love to get it resprayed, but I think it's going to cost more than the car is worth and, tbh, I'd rather throw the money into getting something newer.

[C35Rob]

Have a drive up to Scotland, much cheaper up here, the finish on my car is outstanding and a few members on here have now seen it up close and were fairly impressed with it, it was just a mask up job but that's all i thought my 21 year old Toyota deserved, i was another £200 for meterials, I'm not into spending 3-4 times the cars value on a paint job, for a nut and bolt restoration then yeah but for a car I drive daily and take to the strip and park outside? A masked up £1000 job was more than adequate

Oh, and just to be absolutely clear here, the finish of the paint is easily on par with a £5k paint job (it's a 3 stage pearl paint).My only issue are small bits with masking etc and that's me being massively picky, it's also what I paid for.

but then you had loads of hassle, it took ages and the bloke lied to you constantly, only rushing to finish the job when you threatened to come and get the car.

you can get that kind of "spare time" cheap job anywhere, not just north of the border.. in fact, there's a back street bodyshop 500m from my house that'll paint the whole side of a mondeo for £150, and it looks good from 10m away.

[Ryan S]

Yeah but in fairness to the guy if i wasn't getting the arches cut and the abflug kit fitted it would have only taken a week or two, I found out from a mutual friend that he spent most of his time smoothing out the bodykit which was really rough. Either way he did p1$$ me about quite a lot

the difference being though, my car looks good close up as well, I don't know why you guys keep getting confused with this.

[craig]

Personally if some guy said he'd spray my car for £800 quid, I would not even give it a second thought and go somewhere else. I'm a firm believer in "you get what you pay for"

Each to their own though.

[Ryan S]

Personally if some guy said he'd spray my car for £800 quid, I would not even give it a second thought and go somewhere else. I'm a firm believer in "you get what you pay for"

Each to their own though.

Depends how anal you are about painting a 20 year old car, I'd already seen a lot of the guys work before even asking about a price, I wanted him to do it because he's agood painter, not because he was cheap, being cheap was just a bonus, He owns his place and has no overheads to cover (it's a workshop attached to his house). hence the price.
I'd actually painted my old rev2 myself and made an OK job of it, it's not that difficult but I wanted pearl paint on the mr2 so gave it to somebody with more experience.

[Ryan S]

[androo007]

see - to me that looks fecking outstanding.

Enough i'd actually seriously think about driving up and flying home.

[Ryan S]

see - to me that looks fecking outstanding.

Enough i'd actually seriously think about driving up and flying home.

it is, the pics seriously don't do it any justice, there's not a single run or flat spot or blemish anywhere on the entire car, my only small issues (as I said) were a wee bit of masking around the t-bar and windscreen and I am being extremely picky oh, and some overspray in the mesh in the bumper, but I told him that was coming out anyway as a pre-rad is going in there.

[craig]

This was my £2500 respray back in may last year:




All panels removed, all rubber strips, all glass and windcreen removed. The bonnet was refitted at the paintshop following paintwork.

Complete bare shell respray, zero laquer lines.

[2mad]

Wow thats hardcore Red .. no messing about respray you had done there