MGB: Paint Question

Well, I've had my car for a year now....the PO started wet-sanding on the hood and right front fender, so when I got it, I tried to buff it back. Not getting the job done, time to paint. One quote is for $3K, plus $500 minimum for body work (one small rust spot in each dogleg and a door ding or two...minor stuff). He will do complete trim, bumpers and door removal, take it to bare metal. Another quote, from Classic Recreations (the Eleanor Mustang folks) was for not-to-exceed $10K. And the third quote was for $6,500. Any comments?

3K, including removing all trim, sounds quite reasonable.

Others may well chime in but is there any such thing as 'one small spot of rust' on a dogleg?
Good Luck
Paul

For 6,500 or 10,000 I would just go out and buy a B with no rust and just painted more them likely the engine could of just been rebuilt and a possible OD included(^_^)


Dwight

Yeah, I'd worry about that dogleg rust. They call it cancer for a reason...

$3000.00 would be a deal. As others say, be sceptical of the sills. I've seen em where you could get by with just patching the ends under the doglegs & fender bottoms. But, you want to inspect the center sections very carefully. You certainly don't want to have to go back in and replace sills after a couple of years.

3K plus 500 for rust sounds too good to be true. I think you'd get what you pay for. If you're looking for a "final" don't have to do this again job, I'd go with the folks who understand the concept of a good/classic paint job. Not necessarily the expensive folks, but I would make sure you're dealing with a shop with good metal people. Paint is one thing, metal work is quite another. If you miss the metal work, the paint job is doomed.

If you can strip all the trim and do the necessary body work first, the painters will be much happier. They will often quote high to cover potential unknown surrprises, and even then, their estimates are often just starting points. Once they get into a project, there will be previous accident damage, dents and dings, and even some rust that hasn't shown its backside yet. When you try to get a paint estimate on a car that isn't even disassembled yet, you'll be asking for a "restoration" quote. Try to get the car to where the painter is just quoting a paint job. We're getting ready to do that with our 72 MGBGT.
Terry

my car was 8500 and that did not include the sheetmetal! There was a lot of metal work done, floorboards, inner and outer sills, tailight panel lower quarters fender patches I did all of the disassembly and reassembly. You can save a ton of $$$$ by doing that. Key there is pictures, pictures, pictures and various size zip-loc bags and sharpie markers. Oh and did I mention PICTURES????

This is the reason I got out of show cars (Mustangs) and started racing. I taught myself to weld with the Mig, bought a good compressor, learned some bodywork tricks, and spray my own cars in my garage. I know a top dollar paint job really makes a car 'pop', but how many of these top dollar paint jobs do you see on the road? The first ding or scratch flushes all that work and money down the toilet. My car isn't show quality (although I took it to the local LBC show on request) but after I stuffed it into a tire wall 6 months after painting it, I just took it apart again, straightened the fender, replaced the hood and valence and sprayed those parts again. Good as new! The main point of these cars is to have fun with them, a $10,000 paint job would ruin that for me. Just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions...

John You are right on I worry about my car so much I hate to even drive it. if I go to the store
I stand or site by the car and the wife goes into the store.

Dwight

Our car's a driver. Within six months of finishing our paintjob we took it on an endurance rally over gravel roads, creek beds, farm lanes, etc.

If it gets dented/scratched, we'll fix it and go again. I'll put the car in shows, but only to show people what DRIVEN CARS look like. Daily drivers - not just weekend pleasure cruisers.

I'm not a trailer queen afficionado, and I won't vote for ANY car that's driven less than 5,000 miles/year. But that's just me. Others prefer the sterility of a non-driver, always-garaged, trailer queen. I got tickled at MG2008 when it started raining during the show. You could SEE the panic in some of the owners' eyes... LOL

1962MGB Wrote:

yup it's a toy to drive. i'm gonna be painting mine myself $125 Restoration world, stock color. I have had the car for 2+ yrs and just getting round to putting back together. for that kind of money, like John H. says, bought compressor, welder etc. and do what if you mess up = time & work resanding.

thanks, guys....I do hear what all of you are saying, and I appreciate all the input. I do want to drive it without worrying about it, which is why I opted out on the $10K job. I've seen the $3K painter's work...he's good. Does a lot of Mustang and Corvette work. He quoted $3K on just the paint job, including removal of bumpers, trim, doors and stripping the car to bare metal so he could see what he's dealing with. I've been through the dogleg, rocker panel, and floor pan issue before on a '63 model, and I'll be really surprised if this one has a serious rust problem...the little car is just too clean. I had the complete underside steam-cleaned by my GM dealer (a friend), so I can already see that it's just pretty darn solid. I've also had the carpets out, no problems. If I find out otherwise, I'll be the first to admit I was mistaken. I've got the front bumper and valance off right now.....just checking things out.....still no surprises. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again. Frank (the cock-eyed optimist)