'79 Sprint - 10 day/month project

[Mad Mart]

My sprayer doesn't usually take on insurance jobs. He said that the insurance companies will only pay something like £15 an hour to him.

[ponchoj]

I think another problem is that people regularly hear about £3k paint jobs and see it as the going rate. Painters must rub their hands together when the words '£4k solid orange paint job' gets plastered across Fast Ford magazine.
Most people won't understand what sort of work and finish a £4000 paint job should involve and think a £2k job with the odd flaw is still good value.

I was quoted £2500 to respray the trans am last year. I said how long will it take? He said "you can have it back for the weekend mate".....Get fooked.



Maybe I'm just tight.

[James467]

I don't normally comment too much on threads but from the photos your paint job looks really good, I'm impressed. I may have missed this but what did you use, 2K or Cellulose?

Most people won't understand what sort of work and finish a £4000 paint job should involve and think a £2k job with the odd flaw is still good value.

I am not insulting anyone on this forum when I say this, but the above is very true. The majority of people who own classics simply cannot see the difference between a good paint job and a regular or even bad paint job mainly because they dont know what to look for.

I used to be able to charge £2k for respraying an MGB sized car, just a gun finish with no flatting and polishing including the engine bay, and underside. Six years ago this was a competitive price. People see the (in my opinion) pretty poor finish on modern cars and would generally compare it to that, a hand sprayed gun finish will always look better than a machine sprayed modern car when done by someone who's properly trained. Its all about what people are prepaired to pay for.

The guy I sold the company to made a fortune doing insurance jobs, however, he always had time for someone who came in off the street wanting a car or panel sprayed. No offence but I wouldnt go to someone who works out of a shed, no matter how reasonably priced they are! But thats just me.

Maybe I'm just tight.

Theres nothing wrong with that!!

[ponchoj]

It was 2k.

Thanks for the comments. It's the third car I've painted and this is the first time I've used 2k (other than on the bulkhead on the Trans Am) ... It seems so much nicer to spray with than Celly.

[JPB]

The bloke who painted a certain Jowett Jupiter that's been taking concours d'état gongs all over Scotland for a few years now did that in a hut, using old paint from rattle cans which, admittedly, he stood in near-boiling water before use. That car has no ripples, no "orange peel" and a shine so deep you can not only see your face in it, but also whether that fresh plook you spotted on your chin yesterday morning is ripe for squeezing yet.

His work, more than anyone else's, illustrates the importance of the preparation. Time taken to put the paint up to the car - roughly half an Hour per day over two days. Time taken to apply each coat of primer, hand flat it all, guide coat it and mask bits where masking was required - roughly four days of solid work with few breaks.

Then there's the thing that nobody, no matter how good they like to think they are, can learn, buy or otherwise acquire as it's genetic; talent.
Without that, the guys in the Washington Nissan factory paint shop wouldn't be required and they'd simply have that done by machines the way the rest of the build's done. Those select few are the highest paid people in the place and those fancy finishes that you see on Datsuns of a certain age, the ones that appear different colours in different directions; that's all done by hand yet I can't even spray creosote on the structural timbers in my house without getting the stuff everywhere but!

Talent, that's what we've to pay for and it's well worth it, if only to keep the stress down.

[ponchoj]

I would imagine that no matter how much talent, to achieve a 'top flight' concours finish from a shed with only 4 days of preperation is very, very good going and would need an extremely tidy car in the first place.

Some events are more anal than others and some car scenes have higher expectations.

There's a big variation in standards for all car scenes and they are all very distinct, descrete scenes.

[ponchoj]

I forgot to mention earlier. There's a dolomite 1850 in my local scrap yard. Pretty rotten but quite complete.

If anyone needs anything from it I'll be happy to have a look and post it on in exchange for a thank you (and whatever it costs me).

Edit: --- This has now gone.

[ponchoj]

Back underway after an 8 month spell of being under a cover in the corner of the garden.

It's now the 10 month project I suppose.

I got a new (old) compressor. It's now wired/plumbed in so I can get cracking again.
The cover has taken its toll on the paintjob I did on the car last year, so it's going to get all the panels made the same colour for now and I'll take the time to do a proper once-over again when the weather is a bit warmer. Pointless trying to do a decent job in these temps. I think I'll replace the front panel before painting aswell...it's been bodged by a huge wad of fibreglass, presumably by whoever put the primer on before I bought it. This isn't a Reliant.

My priority is to get it MOT'd, sort the interior out then in summer I can give it a tarty paintjob.

I've also decided to strip down the carbs and give them a clean up and get everything working as it should, as well as replace a lot of the hoses. I don't like the look them.

Pics to follow.