Repainting a Caterham. Costs?

[renmure]

At the moment this is purely one of those "hmmmm, I wonder...." type moments, but....

Is there a fairly accurate(ish) ballpark figure for having a Caterham S3 repainted to a different colour? I guess there must be a few who have done it.

I have a silver R300 with carbon cycle wings and thought about getting the nosecone painted black, which then snowballed into wondering how much it would be for a complete colour change.

I do have somewhere in mind to do the work but don't really want to bug them and waste their time for a proper price if it realistically it isn't likely to happen due to cost.

[HustleRussell]

Depends how much strip/prep you're prepared to do yourself. You'll need to remove the poppers and external fixings, rear wings, rear radius arms, front suspension bits etc.
DIY all of this and you're looking at ~£800 for a good job. You could get it vinyl wrapped for less?

[JeffC]

I stripped and prepped my last car myself as I couldnt live with the usual Caterham bonnet looking off shade to the rest of the car it drove me up the wall every time I saw it and to get it all one colour I would have to paint the full car and im not a fan of silver so decided to colour change it, half a day to strip it then It was basically a quick wet flat down as was no dents prob a few hours tops , from memory a local bodyshop charged me £100 for a couple hours labour to put the paint on and bake the car and 2k paint was about £60. then a day to put back together.


so for £160 I went from




to this in Audi Ibis white which I preferred, but could have done it any colour prob an extra £40 for metallic.

Edited by JeffC on Wednesday 25th July 22:10

[thinfourth2]

A slightly odd suggestion

Buy a black nosecone

Then you can have a sunday best silver one and a snotty black one

[davidball]

Has anyone wrapped a Caterham? How difficult is it to do the bonnet louvres? Especially the ones that stick up from the bonnet like they do on my 1987 Super Sprint. Isn't heat a problem too?

[renmure]

thinfourth2 said:

A slightly odd suggestion

Buy a black nosecone

Then you can have a sunday best silver one and a snotty black one

Cunning.
However the idea of a colour change was to move away from a silver car rather than just get a black nosecone.
But if it all looks too costly then that's a plan

[Tango7]

As suggested, its around £800 for somewhere like TSK to spray a car that is already stripped down and ready for the body to be prepared for spraying. Prices tend to go up from there.

I looked at the wrap option too and they looked great but I wasn't as convinced with the fit on the bonnet and the louvres with the amount of underbonnet heat being generated by the engine. I am quite happy to be corrected though as there have been a few wrapped caterhams done as race cars I believe.

[Smollet]

davidball said:

Has anyone wrapped a Caterham? How difficult is it to do the bonnet louvres? Especially the ones that stick up from the bonnet like they do on my 1987 Super Sprint. Isn't heat a problem too?

I have seen one done. The owner used to frequent blatchat but I think has sold the car and left the fold.

[TangoGTR]

davidball said:

Has anyone wrapped a Caterham? How difficult is it to do the bonnet louvres? Especially the ones that stick up from the bonnet like they do on my 1987 Super Sprint. Isn't heat a problem too?

After seeing the results of removal of wraps to a Ferrari 430 and 360Cs which revealed damage caused by fitting of a wrap, I would personally avoid at all costs. Cut paintwork, trapped water causing corrosion, removal of paint etc. 360 respray to correct problems was £6k !!!!!

[thinfourth2]

I suggest you ask nicely to borrow someones big flat trailer

Put the car on it and remove the front suspension, exhaust, windscreen, rear wings, seats and then take it to a paint shop