How much is a paint job?

I use to spray in a car factory, no robots don't do it all. Robots are crap at spraying compared to us humans. I'm about to commit a lot of money I don't have, to my spray job. The money is for the prep time, and on the size panels we have, prep will be everything. I have seen my guys work before on other buses, and I still asked for a price with a block finish. That is a £4000 job. Or I can pay £2000, and have to revisit the paint job again within the next 3 to 5 years. I think it is one of those jobs that you get what you pay for. If you trust the paint shop. But I also respect that you can only get what you can afford.

 

modern cars paint jobs are Marmitee... base coat over un-flatted primer, means the jaffa peel is in it at the base layer...


And I agree with Chris, colour sanding is where it's at

 

There's a thread on vzi about paint jobs on modern cars, even prestige cars like bmw's and mercs have orange peel.
Personally i hate painting and prep and masking and flatting and remasking etc,etc. i used to do my own,now i pay someone else to do it. He earns every penny of the 2-2.5k he charges.
It's like anything, you get what you pay for, if you think of 1k per week being roughly what your average fred in a shed aims for, once a sprayers bought materials and paid overheads, 2k doesn't buy much time if you think that it can take a day to mask a van up properly, and it might need to be done twice. Will he take the time to strip all the paint off from a previous spray that hasn't been keyed up properly and is flaking off, or will he sort the rust he finds hidden or just fill it and spray over it?
It's worth spending the extra for someone who's conciencious and does a thorough job.

 

This'll probably come across in the wrong way to some people, but every now and then I like to try and put some things in perspective as bodyshops/painters are always painted as being the dust masked highway robbers of working on campers,

Average price for a satisfactory-good bus repaint in my opinion should be towards the 3k mark, but its a bit like a piece of string though and depends what you are a starting with, you cant polish a turd, but you can paint one and cover it in glitter. For a 1k job, to look good you'd need to be starting with a good base - a straight bus, without 4 layers of paint edges at rubbers and cracking/flaking in the panel seams etc, as 1k is blowover money. I've seen a repaint costing a few hundred looking better than a 4k job (the 4k job made me angry as I could not believe the garage (who I know of) got away with it - but the owner seemed happy enough)

Theres a massive difference to who's good, who customers think are good, and those who convince customers they're good.

Those who've worked properly on these vans know, they're rarely an easy way to a quick buck, and explaining to some customers that they're will be some potential additional expenses is always the bad news a customer does not want to hear, and therefore can sound negative/undecisive when quoting for work.

I dont understand the fascination for people saying they need a bare metal respray - if its good why remove it- just prep and paint over, likewise 5 ocats of base and 3 of laquer - have to agree, that sounds like BS.

Prepping, if you've never done bodywork before, leave the filler work to the guy who'll paint it, being blunt 99% of people will not learn filler in weekend working on 1 camper (it might be passable - but usually a bit more work is required), as most people with experience can look at a filler repair and see its wrong before going near it. It looks easy, but car paintwork is held up to scrutiny far more than how well your hallway and stairs are painted at home, so a painter will rather prep/paint his work, or of someone he knows.

To moan that 3k is expensive, factor in, in order of cost labour/materials/VAT :/rent/rates/T bags/and profit.
Alternatively think of getting a builder/decorator/plumber/electrician to come and prep/paint the bus at your house for the best part of 2 weeks, and I think you'd be spending more ;D

Told you so hat now removed

 

So how does it work then, when doing a home paint job:

Prep
Prime
Paint
Wet sand it
Mop it

?????

How many coats of each is best? Do you flat the primer and clean before paint?

Cheers

 

Our van is going away next month for paint. It's not going to be bare metal, but it's going to cost £2,500 to top end £3000 depending if any horrors are uncovered during the prep.

 

you only really need to use clear over base coats/metallics

solid colours have their own shine... I'll do some pics

you can use clear over colours, it gives it a "wet look"/more glossy shine... but to do that would be quite a bit extra on a van!!

 

Ok, so this is a base coat metallic


When it drys, it has a soft satin finish to it... the clear coat gives it depth, and allows the metallic in the paint to sparkle!!

Clear on


close up... this is unfinished... so needs a wet sand and a mop

 

Cor yeah, what a huge difference. Looks good that

 

Well that fine fella , bay owner that he is who, (me having got my bus back with lots of new panels fitted) saved me a wedge cos he gave me for no cash at all, 5 tins of blue, nearly out of date paint! "voila" ! i did cry ! nipped round 2 very cheap paintbrush shop and got myself 5 brushes 4 £1>nipped up to a very big lay by on A4 , adjacent to LHR, one solid hour of sweaty work , job done!so, brushes £1 , petrol to drive to layby from shop, £3 total =£4>its a done deal,

 

I'm planning to roller mine at some point next year.

Anything has to be better than the household gloss that is currently plastered over the poor thing.

I know it will take time and won't look nearly as good as a pro job but £200 (and lots of time!) vs £3,000 makes it a no brainer for me at the current time.

Hopefully in the future a pro respray would be on the cards.