any idea how much a few rust repairs & half respray would cost

Hi all,

I have been offered a bus which is structurally sound but has rust bubbling up in a couple of places and the lower half has been painted a VW colour.

I am seriously considering buying the bus but could do with an idea of a likley cost to get these bits sorted so I can factor this into the purchase costs.

It is actually a splitscreen but I wouldn;t have thought that would make much difference to the repair costs (yes, I know this is the late bay forum!).

So, underside and sills, doors, etc are fine.

Only rust areas are (1) along the bottom of the front panel most of the way across and looks like the lip between the front clip and the lower front valance is made up of filler, (2) the small behind the frontwheel aruch (i.e. under the rear of the door - believe it is a separate panel on the split and not part of the whole wheel arch) and (3) there is a dent on the rear quarter panel with a little bit of surface rust where the paint has come away.

then a lower half respray - the inside of the front wheel arches and inside the engine bay are white, same colour as the top half so won;t be an engine or interior out job, should be able to mask off quite easily.

Any ideas as to a ball park figure?

thanks.

 

This is really a "How long is a piece of string?" question. It will generally cost more than you originally estimate.

 

Until you start you have no idea what u might find, my repairs doubled from the original estimate as paint can hide a multitude of sins, old dodgy repairs or stuff that is just best to do while the work is ongoing, don't get me wrong u may b lucky but I would always think worst case scenario that way anything less is a welcome surprise

 

If there's filler in the lower front then it will almost certainly need a lower front panel repair an inner and out valance, arches are arches, maybe 2 of those, lower paint, approx 4-5k

Got any pictures , splittys are always much worse than bays , hidden or not

 

Rust bubbling up and signs of filler before a bottom half only respray
Id be of the opinion its going to cost a lot more than any initial quote

 

I get a steady stream of people who's vans just have a few rust bubbles and need a painting. 9/10 turn out to need major resto before investing in expensive painting.

 

mmmm..that's what I thought - it's an australian bus, so solid underneath and generally looks good, sills fine, outriggers, jacking points all look solid - resprayed in 2008.

I would be walking away ordinarily, but it's a 1956 RHD with 1776, straight axled, dropped spindles, discs all round, so all expensive mechanicals sorted - I was thinking around £500 welding £500 paint - am I being a bit optimistic?

 

optomistic on the paint front

 

Double or tripple for the paint if it's all prepped ready to go. And that depends on the quality of the prep for the paint it already had. If it was bad it might have to all come off.

The welding is anyone's guess, if it was fillered up in one place for it's respray...

 

I'm no splittie expert, but I've done a couple of lower front/ inner valance repairs/replacements and it's more involved than an prototype bay. £500 on that at least I reckon without panels.

 

Exactly, £1000 for front valance including panels if it's not to bad, maybe a pillars too, then £500 for fill and paint for that, then the rest , I'm probably on the money at £4-5k , I have done a few splits and this sounds like a good one

 

I'd chase you with a big stick if you offered me £500 to respray a splitty!!

 

"just" the bottom half.

 

Where all the rust usually is??

 

That's the half yes.

 

Like I said the rest is solid, inner and outer sills, cargo door bottoms in and out, rear valance, both battery trays, cab doors in and out, cab steps, all good, not the usual rhd rot box, I know what to look for, had a few buses before. The 500 paint estimate was based on a job I was quoted just for a self prep lower half colour chanhe on a late
bay a year ago, thoight that was about
the going rate based on other self prep work i've had done.