respray prices

[hauser]

How much does it cost to do a high quality respray in the original color? 

[GGR]

The quality of the end result is mostly in the preparation work and the latter depends widely of the car's condition. If the car has rust and dents, it will cost much more to do it right than starting with a body in good condition. The other issue is that most Pagodas have already been resprayed by now. So a body may be showing well, when in fact it may be full of filler. And this is sometimes even more costly to fix, as one needs to undo previous work before doing it again the right way. So, there is no straight answer, cost will depend widely on the current condition of your car.

[KevinC]

Last year I had this work done:

Most paint stripped (two coats in some areas)
Minor body work (filled dings and a small dent). No rust or any major bodywork
Hood, doors, trunk removed and painted separately along with hubcaps
Prime & block sand
Paint all exterior surfaces, door jambs and underside of hood in PPG Glasurit
Clear coat
Wet sand and buff
Prep and paint interior of trunk in tief dunkelgrau

My dad and I had removed most of the chrome but the shop re-applied most.

$7,500


 

[hauser]

Kevin thanks!

I should have been more specific GGR.  Decent body some dings nothing major and no rust to deal with.

[66andBlue]

Hauser,
are you planning to remove the trim and other items and put them back on again as Kevin did?
If you just want to drop of your car and pick it up again with fresh paint and everything installed again CORRECTLY then be prepared to pay at least $15K but most likely much more.

[hauser]

My car is in Maine awaiting a Metric rebuild along with interior work to revive my tired seats.  With the engine out along with the interior just seems like the right time for a respray?

This so call hobby is getting ridiculously expensive!  Certain items have doubled in price since I purchased my car 12 years ago.  What I paid for a pair of euro lights then is the cost of a single unit today. 

[Garry]

Just had the hard top resprayed today at a cost of $1200 Aust or about US $1100.

Nothings cheap!

[andyburns]

Gary, did you strip the hardtop of all chrome and glass to paint it just out of interest.

[KevinC]

The shop that painted my 280SL is located in Springfield, MA (on the way from Arundel to Gainesville?). Two guys passionate about their work operate the place with not even a sign on the building. When InterCity picked up the car to bring to Scottsdale, the driver said "I've been moving cars for Intercity for 13 years and this paint job has to be in the top 5% I have seen in terms of quality". How's THAT for an unsolicited testimonial?

[Jkalplus1]

Whoa. What a beauty! Look at the depth... Clearcoated?

[KevinC]

Whoa. What a beauty! Look at the depth... Clearcoated?

Yes. We wanted to do single stage but the shop claims that BSF/Glasurit doesn't offer it any longer.

[Jkalplus1]

I hear you. Mine is single stage from another company but I could never, ever get that kind of depth... No amount of block sanding + compounding + polishing with boutique small batch organic products and grass-fed carnuba wax could ever rival that... Especially in white! This is spectacular work.

[Shvegel]

Hauser,
Best investment I made circa 2008 was a set of Euro headlights. Car isn't done but those babies have gone from $900 to $2400.

[DickLewis]

My 250SL is currently in the process of being re-painted. (Actually I am doing a total restoration).  I am going for a high quality restoration.   My main restorer took all the chrome off, the interior out, the windshield and windows out, in other words everything but the engine.  I had some floor pan rust and some rust on the bottom of the rear fenders.  It is a bare metal re-spray.  I paid for the new floor pans and a couple of other metal body parts from Buds Benz.  While it is still in the process the current cost estimate for painting is about $16,000 and I am doing it all original in Horizon Blue (304).   If I paid him to take all the items I described off and put them back on the cost would be much higher.  Of course I still have to pay my man to do that but his rate is much lower since I am paying him in cash.

The beauty of this is that I can have other things done while this takes time since I am in no hurray.  I have parts all over the country being restored or replaced.  A total new interior is underfoot, a steering wheel has been refinished, new calibration of all gauges with new bezels,  the Becker radio was sent out to them, restored and added  a hiddend iPod jack, new speakers, a second set of hubcaps has been acquired so that I have 2 sets in 2 colors, one for the hardtop color (ivory) and one that matches the exterior.  AND I personally (an amazing task for me) restored all the wood. 

[Garry]

Dick,

About 15 years ago a friend said that if I did not take the engine out of my 280SL when I did a respray, then I would live to regret it.  I didnt take it out and I did regret it right up until I sold it.  The next owner did take it out and respray the engine bay.  The second time round with my 230SL, lesson learnt, engine came out and the outcome was fantastic.

If you are doing a high end respray, and at that price you are getting there, you will regret it


Garry

[DickLewis]

Garry,

I am sure you are correct.  We had a little battle about that.  I may start the battle again.  Thanks.

Dick

[66andBlue]

Yes. We wanted to do single stage but the shop claims that BSF/Glasurit doesn't offer it any longer.

Kevin,
that paint looks really stunning!
Since I am contemplating a paint job I looked at the Glasurit web site and it appears that they still offer 22-Line single-stage acrylic urethane.
http://www.refinish.basf.us/glasurit_paintsystems
Do you remember whether they used the 55-Line or 90-Line Waterborne?
Also did you ask them to leave a little bit of 'orange peel" like the original had or was it absolutely smooth?

[KevinC]

Alfred,

Unfortunately I don't know if they used 55-line or 90-line. The guys at the shop claimed that they could not get 576 G in single stage so I went with that. They did fairly good job of mimicking the factory orange peel. They were also glad that I showed them the alignment notches on the fenders and the paint runs on the underside of the hood and said "those probably would have been gone if you hadn't told us". They said that they know now for the "next one".

The Scottsdale buyer now has the car up on his site saying "he's not in a hurry to sell it". Must not be at this asking price....

 http://www.sportscarinternational.com/detail-1968-mercedes~benz-sl280-280sl-used-11886751.html

Kevin