Paint Questions

[dldubois]

I put my car in the paint shop 10 months ago.   Of course the painter promised me it in two months.    Initially he quoted me $3200 to strip and paint the car as well as $36 an hour for any needed body work.

He's finally going to get painted next week.   In talking to him he states my body work is at approximately $4100 and that the Glasurit paint runs $2000.

  100+ hours of body work seems excessive on a car that only had door dings, etc.  No rust.  He did have to patch the hole for the antenna and fill.   thanks for any input

Does $2000 seem high for Glasurit paint??

thanks.

Dana DuBois
1969 280sl
Corinth, TX

[ja17]

Hello Dana,

Automotive paints are extremely expensive these days. But $2,000.00 seems high even for Glasurit. This is a small car.  Ask for an itemized bill for the paint and supplies.

It's hard for an outsider to judge the rate and quality of someone else's work from a distance.

100 hours is reasonable for paintwork, bodywork complete chrome removal and re-assembly even on a solid car like  yours. I am sure many body restorations run into many more hours depending on body condition.  Many owner's spend big bucks on this part of the cosmetics. But they usually are informed more accurately of costs beforehand.
Since this shop is so far off on time and cost, I would be more concerned that they may not be knowledgeable with the W113.



Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

[dldubois]

Thanks Joe.

I just met with him.  Got a firm total.   I'll have ended up paying $7200 for it to be stripped and painted.  He had invoiced 115 hrs on body work at $36 and initially was charging me $3200 for the strip and paint.   I'd given him $2k.  Just gave him another $2k and we agreed on a firm balance of $3200.

I took all the chrome off though he will be replacing the chrome on the hardtop, door handles, air scoop, windshield pillars.   Anything I might scratch.   He's repainting the dash as well as the trunk and the hardtop.

I went to him as he's got a couple of 280sls in his shop (torn apart)and was familiar with the cars and recommended.  He new to replace the notch that was filed down on one fender, etc.

PS.  He just painted another Mercedes sedan and had an invoice from the paint supply for close to $1800 for the paint and supplies.

I guess I just needed to see it and get the final price agreed upon.

PSS.  He's probably not started the car in the 9 months he's had it.  Anything I might want to do beforehand?

thanks and I'll post pics shortly when I get it back.

Dana DuBois
1969 280sl
Corinth, TX

[mdsalemi]

Dana,

Having done this before, I can easily see the Glasurit paint bill being that high.  Some years ago-1999-2000 I want to say that the reducer alone was several hundred dollars a gallon.  Add the primer, paint, reducer and supplies--not to mention his markup, and you get the idea.

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[Bob G ✝︎]

Dana:
It sounds like your getting a deal by the standards you discribed. I had a 1982 ford Mustang GT Medium Red single stage the I drove into aa sandstorm exiting Palm springs. I had at the time a good body shop do the talking with my insurance carrier and ened up doing a show paint job with Glasurit 21 single stage. totaly took the car apart bumpers, new molding , headlight trim door handles & locks color sanding between coates, when finished I paid $6000 for a paint job and assembly that ford would of never done . It was flawless not a mark or swirl in the paint the paint looked deep as a pool of water.
I expect with the 280SL thework will cost twice to three times more because of the body work. So my my standards you got aa great deal and I hope you wil post some picture forr  us to see your finished car on the forum.

Happy Motoring
Bob Geco

[Cees Klumper]

I know I am probably boring some of you with this story, but my car received some body work (closing up the 4 holes in the fenders for the side marker lights, rust repairs around the windshield and the headlights + replacement of a rear fender wheel lip, several door dings) and new paint (plain but very nice white) all over, all for under $1,000.
A few months ago, a friend of mine went to the same place to have rust repairs & repaint done to the lower side of his BMW in a dark metallic-grey, for about $700; it looks great. I am going to the same place again in a month or so to have the rear valance replaced & painted (and another rust spot around the headlight done); I will report the cost later.
I guess I better be very grateful I found this place and hope they don't read this forum ...

Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic

[waqas]

Cees, can I send you my car???

Looks like I'll end up ahead even after including the return trip shipping cost... I can think of my car simply going in to a spa across the pond...

There's got to be a reasonably priced shop around here somewhere!

WAQAS in Austin, Texas

[merrill]

waqas,
have you looked into automotive painters in the austin area?
I had talked to my indi mb mechanic and he recommend Berlies up off which I think is up off harris branch parkway.

of course the quality comes with a high price.

matt

Matt
66 230 sl - "white"
78 300 D - Blue
98 C230

[Mike]

I can easily see the costs being this high.  Some colors, red for example, are more expensive than others for reasons that I do not understand.  I spent well over $2000 for paint and materials.  Paint work is such a personal thing.  In order to do the labor part correctly such as removal of just about everything on the car that is removable and stripping of all old paint down to bare metal, and then finishing with good materials and quality finish I cannot imagine such work costing less than $5K in the U.S. Further, prices for top drawer paint jobs by the best painters in your area in the $15K-$20K would not shock my conscience (even though they might cause a shock to my bank account).  Some folks are perfectly happy with a paint job that would cause others to despair.  If you are picky about paint work, avoid the bargain paint jobs.

Mike

[waqas]

quote:Originally posted by merrill

waqas,
have you looked into automotive painters in the austin area?

Matt, I haven't looked around much, as I don't plan on starting the process until early next summer. Still, I poke around whenever the topic comes up...

Alright, now that we know how much the paint supplies typicaly cost, here's a question for everyone: if I remove all trim/dash/chrome pieces beforehand, how many hours of labour should it take to strip, sand and paint a pagoda? Can this vary all that much? (2x, 3x??). This won't be a show-car, but neither should it look like I did it myself  :oops:

WAQAS in Austin, Texas

[dldubois]

Thanks for all the responses.  

I'm looking forward to getting the car back shortly (and trying to remember where all the parts in my garage go).  

I'll post pics asap.


Dana DuBois
1969 280sl
Corinth, TX

[harleydan]

Cees,

I might be accepting a job to go back to Germany.  If your body shop is indeed that good and that responsible, then I would very well consider having my car shipped from the States (hopefully at the company's expense).  In addition, it would be fun to drive the car in its homeland and around Europe.  Did your body shop use Glasurit paint on your car?  If this position does materialize, then Cees I'll be calling on you for more information.

Cheers,
Danny
1970 280SL silver Euro manual

[Cees Klumper]

Hello Danny - if you will be coming back to Europe for a longer period of time then having the Pagoda shipped over could be interesting, although all of the administrative ins and outs could prove to be a challenge.

Here is a photo of my car after the inexpensive paint job:

Download Attachment: outside the garage.jpg
44.5 KB

Sure, drop me a line if it comes of it, and I will steer you to 'my place'.

How I came to this shop is, first I went to a top-notch, classic-car specialized outfit, showed them the car and they quoted me about $10,000. Then I went to a place where I knew people come who can barely afford to drive any car (not the best part of town here) where a thousand dollars is viewed as being a lot of money and they quoted (and ended up charging) me the $1,000. Don't know the make of paint the use, probably not Glasurit, but I am confident whatever they used is just fine (90% of the quality for 10% of the cost is how I would summarize it. My lesson learned here is "it pays to shop around")

I did remove and refit all the chrome trim, lights and so on myself, so that helped keep the costs down somewhat.

Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic