Full repaint - cost?

aprotogerellis · Mar 1, 2008

Hi there... I recently bought a lovely white 944 turbo. It is in great condition but I suspect it will - sooner or later - need repainting.

Tiny chips are quite common and a lot of them develop rust. The colour has also got dirty in a lot of places (got knows how, and it doesn't clean no matter what).

So, in the spirit of preserving the car and wanting to keep it for a long while longer, is a full respray worth it? Any idea of the cost? Also, is it worth waiting until it is absolutelly necessary or do it earlier (i.e. what's better, the original paint or a repsray), or are there some "in between" solutions (heard of something that melts the original paint a bit etc.)

Basically, any advise on this welcome!

Thanks
Alex

Diver944 · Mar 1, 2008

Well I'm currently having about an 80% respray, but with a lot of panel fitting and repair beforehand and your'e looking at about £3k. It depends how much preparation they have to do and if you want all the glass out at the same time. If they just key the entire bodywork and prep the stone chipped areas then it will obviously cost less. If they find panels that need repairing or rust removing then it will be more.

If your paint is still original it should be a solid colour with no clearcoat on top. The 'dity' areas could respond to a simple machine polish, but if it is a bit worse then you may need to wet flat the area with an extremely fine abrasive (2000 grit) to remove the top layer and then machine polish to bring back the gloss. There is only a finite amount you can remove though, if you go through the colour [

] then it will have to be painted.

Are there any very good valeters in your area that are competant enough with a machine polisher? That could be your first point of call

stevespic · Mar 1, 2008

I have to agree with all of the above... at the end of the day it depends what job you want and where you take it... i had my BM painted at a bmw approved paint shop and it cost just under 3 and a half k....then had the same size job done on another car 6 months later at a back street garage and paid 800 notes, both jobs were good but obviously the 3k plus job was top notch....at the end of the day i think the more money you pay the more you have the right to be fussy ...

aprotogerellis · Mar 2, 2008

Thanks... it sounds like a full repaint is something that will need to wait for now

I'm thinking of doing the mirrors and front of the car as they are pretty chipped... any idea of price (for a properly proper job) and any recomendations anywhere around london?

Thanks!