Cost of restoring

[grannysmith]

Ha! Didn't know you were posting at the same time.

[911hillclimber]

Yes, the 'Care to the Next-doors' issue is ever present and this has prompted me thinking about getting the job done by a pro.
My DIY in a single garage paint job is coming to the end of its life along with patina that has festered a bit too long.

That was in 1989 so 26 years its lasted, cost £90, labour cost was £0K

Just hurts to see a bill of £10K looming if I do this.

Saw some great paint jobs today at the Porsche circus at Bicester Heritage and many has old anodised frames etc and didn't look too bad.
If I had the remote space I know I can paint the car ok and that's what grates on me.

Can't make my mind up.

[stretch]

The cost of taking off previous factory fitted items, flattening back the existing paint and then painting is not in the same league as dry fitting lights,indicators etc to a shell that has had new wings, door skins and is a bare metal paint that require several coats of various paints. Chalk and cheese.

[coomo]

A 964 owner today told me he paid £3500 to repaint his car, metallic and a Targa 5 years ago. It looked great. (glass-out etc, all stripped/re-assembled by the shop)

Can £3.5K have escalated to £10K in 5 years?

I get quoted this quite regularly today.

If it's just a repaint in the same colour then it's perfectly normal to pay £3.5k now.

The £10k people are just taking the pi$$....it's just a 'ooh it's a Porsche i can charge anything' pricing policy....easy to try and charge it now as everyone who is a 'specialist' rolls the same figure out...

Take them a 10 year old audi and say it needs a full repaint and see if they try and charge you £10k...

Leave all lights, rubbers etc in place.Scotchbrite car, mask and paint.Yup, easy,on a car that has had modern paint systems used.Not quite the same as on a 30 year old car, that may be wobbly, have had various paint over the years, in all different varieties, celly, two pack, acrylic etc.Too many variables involved.I do agree that a porsche tax exists though!

[Graham]

I've recently just done a 73RS shell, there's a difference in a 3.5k job and 10k job, especially if the shell is stripped, laying the paint on and flatting it back is the relativly easy bit, it's the stages up to that point that takes the time, keying everything up, priming it all, sealing every seam, stonechipping, gapping, pre fitting, on and on, if you do it right you know every last square centimeter of the shell.
I used to do an awful lot of paintwork on these cars but have stepped back from it, the RS I have done is one of the best but 5-6 weeks on it nearly broke me! If I do another full paint itll be on one of my own cars, I have yet to paint somthing for myself after 23 years of doing this!

[dogbower]

Thanks for the replies, I think its going to be a DIY job, fine with me, once I have time.
So for now, sort out the windscreen, and then look at the sills and get back to driving it.

Scary figures mentioned on here though, and surely can't be realistic, wouldn't get a 15K paint job on an MGB.

Stuart

[inaglasshouse]

Scary figures mentioned on here though, and surely can't be realistic,

I'm going to gently push back on that.

Almost every poster in this thread speaks from personal experience of paying those sort of sums.
We may all be being ripped off (personally I don't think so, having seen the work involved in a proper job - check out some of Darren's work on paint in the resto threads for example).
But the figures are definitely real world.

With that said, nothing wrong with DIY - it's only metal and paint, only time and skill (not rocket science). And nothing wrong with just doing the sills and enjoying the car for n more years.

Have fun, let us know how it's going.

Cheers, Richard.

[johnM]

It may be painful but these figures are in the ball park. What you see above is my shell and to get it to that stage was in the region of £30k to £35k.

It looks nice tho

[hot66]

Thanks for the replies, I think its going to be a DIY job, fine with me, once I have time.
So for now, sort out the windscreen, and then look at the sills and get back to driving it.

Scary figures mentioned on here though, and surely can't be realistic, wouldn't get a 15K paint job on an MGB.

Stuart

Best way Stuart for me the pleasure comes from the driving .

A rolling resto that keeps the car on the road is imho the way to go. Good metal work repairs with local paint work means you can enjoy it for years to come and then if you do find yourself with time on your hands in the future that's when the bigger resto work can happen if you think it needs it. You can the 'enjoy ' the diy repair and paint

Re the prices of jobs ... Sometimes I thing people have different ideas on what a resto is . To some it's quick repair and a blow over so it looks nice and shiney and 'restored'

To others it's a Full strip back the shell and its running gear etc to its core and restore / rebuild from the ground up ....the resulting cars are amazing better than new . Wether done professionally or diy , the costs still add up. Painting a virgin bare metal shell will always cost more than top coating an existing painted car which has had localised repairs.

I have a guy near me that I've used before on non Porsche cars who spends day in day out painting cars to a high standard for little money ... but majority is painting on top of an already painted and prepped surface ( accident repairs, tarting up front ends of cars for dealerships etc)

Saying that , my neighbour just painted his mgb Sebring rep himself in the above guys booth .... didn't cost him much as he's an ex body shop guy who spent hours prepping the shell himself in his garage before taking it to the booth for a topcoat. Stunning paint as he's skilled ... if he'd 'charged ' for the amount of hours he spent prepping it would have been interesting g to see what the 'cost' actually was


Point being ... the cost can lie somewhere between the two . Don t assume paint has to cost £10k + and also don't assume that he £3k paint job some says they have had done is anything like a full baremetal stripped shell repaint either, more than likely it's a few local repairs with the shell then blown over

[911hillclimber]

To re-iterate my recent and past experiences.
1
DIY self paint in a single garage on my 911 in '89 in Cellulose. After all the usual welding, bare metal and self prep (I'd painted 4 cars before this). I painted all the removable panels individually after bare metal fitting/gaps, then the shell and re-fitted. NO big expensive block sanding with all panels on and endless time.
Sense of pride huge when done, cost £90 iirc.
2
Proposed DIY strip to metal, local repairs and to a pro local shop who paint anything interesting. 2K paint all blocked out and fully finished, me doing re-assembly.
196 hours. Materials £600 all + vat. prob a £10,000 bill
Can start the job in April 17.
3
The car actually has a need of re-painting the front wings, bit on one door and the engine lid, rest good.
going to get some rattle cans today in cellulose colour matched to the existing faded Champagne Yellow and see if the colour can be matched good enough on the rear lid.
If this proves acceptable then possibly I get the car 'done' for £200 max.
High risk strategy, could leave the car alone (paint is blistering on the wings) but the car is no show stopper, but my car friend for 26 years, gets polished once a year with an oil change.

Because I've done the car 'my way, my standards' before DIY it sticks in the throat to pay about £10K, BUT the result would be fantastic and might support the inflated value of the car, but £10K.

I could by a vintage Ford Model A for that and have a whole new chapter of motoring madness in front of me.

[DustyM]

Nice reply James ^^

Sums it all up nicely.

[911hillclimber]

Followed up option 3 this morning.
Took the 911 to a good little paint supplier in local Telford who I have used recently for the bike/scooter paints.

They matched the actual colour and I've had 2 x rattle-cans made up, can of primer filler, some demon paint stripper (as Nitromores is now impotent imho) and some other consumables for just over £50.
Plan is to remove/repair and repaint the rear lid using these cans and see how close the finish is in colour match.

If good (will ask lots of women as their colour sight is far better) I will do the two front wings and the other bruises on the car.
If that works out then the car is presentable for some more years to come, drivable next year and I have saved £9500.

That will be the kitchen and bathroom paid for, = MEGA Brownie points and the trip to the IoM hillclimbs in April, in the 911 just like the Good old Days.

[Gary71]

I will do the two front wings and the other bruises on the car.
If that works out then the car is presentable for some more years to come, drivable next year and I have saved £9500.

Not entirely certain that a quick blow in with a rattle can and a full bare metal repaint are comparable though!

That's like me putting some silver smoothrite under my rear bumper corner and pretending the big bit of paint that flaked off isn't there... not that I'd do that obviously!

[911hillclimber]

But more in keeping with the car as it is, bit battered and bit rimpy round the edges.

If the lid works out I will strip the front wings to the metal and build back up from there so try to match the 27 year old paint on the car.
Kills me thinking of £10 for a paint job on a less than 'Barry' shell.

I'm sure the time for a full blocking out of the whole shell is the cost hit, I just flatted the panels individually and bolted them back on having got a 'reasonable' fit in bare metal.

Today's standards are now so high on these pages, but so are the bills paid!

[Gary71]

I'm not saying a touch up is the wrong route for your car, same with mine, but it's not apples to apples comparing the result you'd get with can & cheap v pro & plenty cash. One will look like a decent can job and one will look perfect (you'd hope!)

Mine needs some paint on the bumpers and rear 1/4, and it will get done via local repair as anything more is out of keeping with the rest of the car unless I do the full job, which isn't going to happen for the many reasons posted above!