Painting a westy roof - respray in 2 pack

Hi, My front hinging westy roof in a white gel coat finish has areas where the gel coat is flaking and shows the fibre glass in small hand size area in various area. Most of it is good considering it’s age.
The rear roof rack section also could do with a tidy up.
I was told a rub down and prime and then a two part paint would be the way to go.
Anybody had this work done and what was the cost ?
I have had two quotes which are poles apart, one very low which concerned me and the other 6 times the amount!
ROM cost anyone

 

I would have thought it's easy enough to do yourself.

Unless time and space are a problem...

 

I did mine in 2k upol
Filler primer
Then pastel white no extra additives for flexibility.

1000ml of each is plentiful
Total supply cost was about 200 ( I did buy a new primer gun and I needed a few fibre repairs)
It's very flexible when not on the van be careful

 

You can use fine car body ordinary filler in the place of gelcoat to hide the fibreglass texture .. degrease with acetone as that softens the cured resin slightly too for adhesiion.

Then paint with decent paint .. (I used Dulux Exterior gloss white on primer on my Devon poptop because that was what I had during lockdown when paint shops had been closed) .it has stuck for a year so far....

 

I dont have the space or time, hence a body shop is where I wanted to go

 

I did a rear hinged recently but it was part of a bigger job so headliner out, roof rack off, paint the metal roof with the main pop top and canvas masked then remask to paint the fibreglass bits and new seals all round.
I reckon just to do the fibreglass bits which I would still remove the roof rack bit because it’ll be full of dirt underneath would be 3 days ish and paint& materials £800 approx!

 

It's quite possible the 6X quoter really, really doesn't want the job but would do it if you insisted on paying way over the odds. Who knows? You haven't given is any £numbers so could be opposite and cheap one is a cowboy.

 

Cheap end of the scale, minimal repairs, painted in-situ I reckon £300, put some pics up.

 

The problem if you have flaking gel coat is how much is loose that hasnt come off yet.

I would go for picking at it, filler or even gelcoat filler (is available), sand. Then roller on Rustoleum.
Its cheaper and when more patches appear you wont be so out of pocket.

About 2/3 days up a stepladder plus consumables.
Or about £1000 for a cheap person..
Its the prep not the paint..

 

Hi Guys, many thanks for your replies on this subject, especially Sundial camper providing some photos and a ROM cost.

FYI , i have been to two local body shops so far, one quoted £350 !!! the other £2100 ???
I understand the prep work is key and time consuming with gel coated pop tops but the quotations so far are extreme.
I dont understand either quote.

Both said they would prep and re-pray in place.
Sand gel coat, clean, epoxy prime, sand, clean, and paint in 2k ( hopefully in LD90)

The gel coat flaking is something that's only going to get worse, so i'm going to get it sorted, when i find a body shop who i'm confident in and are not
going to charge the £2000 .

BTW a new rear hinge roof is £3000 with roof rack included and canvas. Fitted.
Some restoration shop seem just to put new ones on as i found out recently when searching for answers.

 

Photos attached of flaking gel coat.

 

Can you get the rubber seal off and back on again on the roof rack without removing it from the van?

 

There shouldn't be a seal, just a trim and I could get mine on/off?

 

Yes

 

That looks like it’s got a few layers of paint on it £350 is cheap , £2100 may not be expensive depending what service they’re offering

 

I was thinking that, the dark patches are not original, they must be primer. In that case as it's flaking off a good painter would not want to add another layer to previously poorly prepped paint, it's asking for trouble.

 

Loads on my van was like that
Either poor prep or no prep at all
It makes painting a lot lot harder as you have to remove the previous paint and when some has stuck and other parts just peel off the surface level is all over the show.

Some parts appear stuck and won’t come off with a razor scraper but once you get so far down sanding it will peel off in strips

Absolute nightmare and I fully understand how a body shop would put a substantial extra cost on top of the quote.

 

So 80 /90 % of the roof is in good condition and is not flaking, theres 5 bad area typically hand size areas where the gel coat / repainted roof is poor. The grey is the surface fibre glass
I have had a body shop quote £1200. The roof is coming off and it’s all in the prep , prime and they are going to finish with a clear top coat after the 2k paint.
I happy ish . The luggage rack can wait until next yr . I will post in September when completed as a compare against tbe current condition

 

It'll come out great and you'll be happy for sure. Wouldn't it be cheaper to get the rack done at the same time? If I was quoting it would be substantially cheaper that way as it's like the same job but a bit bigger as opposed to two complete jobs from start to end.

Time flies - for £1,000 I had my second bus painted. For that I got
A small amount of welding.
All the dismantling of catches, doors off, windows out etc to paint
Prep and paint 2-pac two colour inside, outside, Westy poptop & rack, bumpers and wheels. The engine bay didn't get painted but the dash top did!
I supplied window seals but they put the windows back in and reassembled and adjusted the doors.
It was a top job too!
Apart from the window seals the £1,000 got all of that!
The bus was £1,500
Amazing looking back. That was mid to late 90's

10 years later I did restore the lower half and repaint, but the top half and poptop were still as good as the day it was painted, same seals still in the windows etc.