Wrap or respray - experiences and costs?

[dg73]

Hello

Thinking about changing colour but not sure whether to go down the wrapping or respraying route.
It seems re-sprays cost about £2.5-3k and involve quite a lot of component removal.

Has anyone had a full wrap done that they are happy with and curious to know what the costs were.
I assume the wrapping option is significantly cheaper but probably requires a similar amount of component removal?
I am based in London if anyone has any recomendations for painting or wrapping in the south-east.

Any advice greatly appreciated

Thanks

Edited by dg73 on Sunday 26th March 13:07

[framerateuk]

I had mine repainted around a year and half ago by Tony at TSK. He's painted thousands of factory built cars, and to be honest I didn't consider anyone else (it was a bit of a trip for me too, I'm in Cardiff).

Mine ended up costing towards the top end of that bracket, but I had a new side skin, a new bonnet and scuttle since they weren't in the best shape.
The price included the paint protection film too. I was super happy with the finished article.

[Chubbyross]

framerateuk said:

I had mine repainted around a year and half ago by Tony at TSK. He's painted thousands of factory built cars, and to be honest I didn't consider anyone else (it was a bit of a trip for me too, I'm in Cardiff).

Mine ended up costing towards the top end of that bracket, but I had a new side skin, a new bonnet and scuttle since they weren't in the best shape.
The price included the paint protection film too. I was super happy with the finished article.

Did Tony do all the component removal or did you do that beforehand?

[framerateuk]

Chubbyross said:

Did Tony do all the component removal or did you do that beforehand?

Tony did the whole thing. I drove the car there and drove it back when it was done.

[Chubbyross]

That’s an incredibly good price. As you said, I’d only choose him to paint my Seven. There’s no-one else with his experience. Not surprising really as he used to be Caterham’s main sprayer.

[framerateuk]

His feedback was really useful too, as you say, he knows the cars well and when taking it apart he always gave me a call if he spotted something out of place.

I wanted a 3 stage pearl colour originally (Renault's Flame Red), but after having a chat with him, he suggested going for a straight red as if I ever had a knock with the 3 stage, it would be almost impossible to match. Ended up spending an afternoon googling red cars and ended up with Porsche Guards Red.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JCUSjq5rLe6BAkXa9

[dg73]

Tony seems to be the man for respraying, that guards red looks stunning.
Does anyone know if you can get wraps these days that have the same quality finish as paint?
Im after something quite glossy and metallic, not sure if a respray will always look better than a wrap for that sort of finish?
I can guess for flat paint colours the difference between wrap and paint might be less noticeable?

[Chubbyross]

framerateuk said:

His feedback was really useful too, as you say, he knows the cars well and when taking it apart he always gave me a call if he spotted something out of place.

I wanted a 3 stage pearl colour originally (Renault's Flame Red), but after having a chat with him, he suggested going for a straight red as if I ever had a knock with the 3 stage, it would be almost impossible to match. Ended up spending an afternoon googling red cars and ended up with Porsche Guards Red.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JCUSjq5rLe6BAkXa9

That colour looks fantastic on your car. Funnily enough I’ve never been that keen on Guards Red on Porsches but on a Seven it look spectacular- especially with the black stripes. Great choice!

[framerateuk]

Ah thank you! It's the only Guards Red Caterham as far as we're aware (it's certainly the only one that Tony has done).

It was black originally, I added red stripes to try and make it stand out on the road, but it still didn't stand out very much. This has definitely sorted that!

[Chubbyross]

If you’re going to be doing the fish and chip run I’ll keep an eye out for your car.

[framerateuk]

Chubbyross said:

If you’re going to be doing the fish and chip run I’ll keep an eye out for your car.

Never done it actually! I'm not an L7C member and tend to prefer driving on my own. Have fun though!

[Steve Campbell]

framerateuk said:

Tony did the whole thing. I drove the car there and drove it back when it was done.

Exactly what I did with mine. Tony is the guy. Final result is excellent and he kept me informed with pictures along the way. Very happy with result and would recommend without any caveats.

[Mince]

Mine is a wrap, Oracal Fir Tree Green Metallic. You only need 10m or so to wrap a full Caterham and it’s about £30pm - then labour ontop which I can’t recall how much it cost but less than £3k! Also due to seams in the wrap you do still need to remove the front suspension assembly and rear arches etc. but there’s no other masking for example.

I’m looking at going back to paint maybe as stone chips can reveal the colour below (yellow fibreglass for me) but you may be able to get ppf over the wrap… I went with wrap as at the time was cheaper than paint. Almost every race Caterham you see is wrapped so the finish these days is impressive.