complete respray ?

[jackal]

this might sounds a bit dim but what would be the differences between an average or not so good paintjob and a good one... what should one look out for ? (assuming painting the same colour on again so more of a restore rather than a back to bare colour change)

obviously the colour should be the same all over and there shouldn't be any paint where its not supposed to be and there shouldnt be any obvious borders between old and new paint (like in the sills) .. but is there anything else that distinguishes a good job and a bad one ? What about the texture of the surface or smoothness of it ?

[shouldbworking]

The level of prep work that goes into it seems to be the determining factor.

It all depends on how far you want to go really. The furthest I can think of is stripping the panels, repairing to make it mint without the use of filler and having them galvanised. That would probably run to 10 grand id expect

A typical 'very good' respray would be strip the shell back to bare metal, repair any imperfections and then repaint avoiding orange peel and good polishing / wet sanding afterwards.

Good would be that without much care to avoid orange peel and final polishing

Average you wouldnt go to bare metal and may not do all the shut faces

Bad you would barely do any prep work at all

[jackal]

if its the same colour going on top you dont need to go to bare metal surely ?

just prep to make it smoother

[Anatol]

jackal said:

if its the same colour going on top you dont need to go to bare metal surely ?

just prep to make it smoother

Even with a same-colour respray, there's a reason that it needs new paint. That still needs sorting before painting over the top, whatever it is. But you're right, if adhesion is sound, the current coating makes for an acceptable substrate.

The 'back to bare metal is best' feeling tends to come from restoration of classics, where it's probably true, because taking advantage of that opportunity to deal with corrosion is going to be a good idea.

Refinishers sell their time - as skilled labourers. Paint and sundries are a small percentage of the price of refinishing, and many pass them on at cost. What they have to sell is skilled work, usually by the hour. Hence 'conventional wisdom' among the craftspeople is always going to be that spending loads of time (on prep, painting and final finishing) is 'the right way to do it' - but there's a conflict of interest between the refinisher and the customer's wallet there

[alsaautomotive]

Rule of thumb I use is if it's had major paint previously, it needs to be bare metalled as I cannot warranty my work on top of other peoples' work. (But I operate in a very specialist market & warranty for 6 years).
Typically in terms of hours, the quickest a repaint can be done by us is around 50hrs, longest job we've had on timesheet was a 250TdF at over 1000hrs! So if you can guess my labour rate, you can work the cost out

Edited by alsaautomotive on Tuesday 11th November 07:41

[MikeyT]

I presume that most auto spray companies won't guarantee their work if someone else has done the prep? ie me.

Is that right?

[Anatol]

They'd be mad to. If 3rd party prep falls off the car, or 2k products haven't been mixed properly and don't cure, their work is only attached to the top of it. The refinishing depends upon good substrate, and if they can't attest to that, they can't guarantee the durability of their work.

Tol