Where can I get a GOOD paint job?

A question with so many variables. I live in central Florida and I am having a very difficult time finding a �good� place for a paint job. Anyone from this area? Now the real question, my 79B, racing green, no rust and of course completely striped of chrome, windshield, lights and everything else too. Needs �a lot� of prep as far as sanding and minor touchup of my handy bondo work in 2 areas :). How much should I expect to pay to get a good paint job? Not necessarily show car quality, but a decent job. I know there are so many variables here I am just wanting to know how much others are paying and where? I would consider hauling it 500 or 600 miles.

Thanks in advance
Larry R.

Good question, Larry. I paid an excellent body man $1500 to paint my faded 79 vermillion a couple years ago. The guy does great work on American classics, but I wouldn't let him touch my 71 gt for any price. The only area of rust on my 79 was(and is) the boot lid, of all places. This guy has redone my bootlid twice, and there's still rust bubbling up, and the bootlid is half bondo, from what I've seen the guy do. Tom B told me that such a paintjob as was on my 79 would cost $3,000 in Memphis, but Tom saw it just a week after it came out of the shop. Whoever painted Tom's 71 bgt is where you want to go, but that's probably out of your range. I've checked with British car clubs from Louisville, to east Tennessee, and still haven't found anyone to do my 71 bgt the way I want it. Check with every British car club in Florida. There's gotta be a place to get a decent paint job in the Sunshine State. Just guesing, I would say you're looking at 3 to 5 k.

talk to Tony Barnhill. He has a good guy in Huntsville if you are not in a hurry

Boy, I may make someone mad here, and if I do, I want to apoligize in advance. That said, in my opinion, there are only two ways to paint a B. One, as a rolling tub, sans engine, interior and everything else that is bolted on. This means paint everything, inside and out, trunk, interior and engine compartment. The other way is a $200 Earl Schieb or Fact-o-bake special. The first way you are likely to get the kind of job that you are looking for. The second, you will be kicking yourself in the rear six months from now and wondering why you wasted your time and money. To make things worse, it will cost you much more to correct things when you have to go back and redo it. Now with that out of my system, it sounds to me like you are going in the right direction by taking everything off. You doing bondo work may not be such a good idea. No paint man I know wants to paint on top of body work that he has not done and stand behind his work. Some will even flat out refuse to paint it without grinding it out and redoing it to his satisfaction. Around here, Baton Rouge, La, I got qoutes in the neighborhood of 2K to do a first class, not show qaulity, paintjob on my B. This was with me bringing the shop a rolling tub with the shop doing a few minor rust repairs where the side trim had held water and rusted through the steel. We are talking about 1/8" holes here, and only about 10 tops. These are the kind of repairs that he would grind to clean metal and MIG the holes up. Even then, they did not want to stand by their work unless they stripped it to bare metal, for another 2K or so. Most of the shops I went to would not even give me a estimate because they did not want the job-too busy doing insurance jobs where qaulity comes second or flat last. These shops did work that the average SUV driving housewife would think was great but anyone with a decent eye would not be happy with. Bottom line here is to expect to pay a bundle for good work. If you find someone who will shoot it for a hundred or two, run away as fast as you can. Give him the job and you will end up with rockers unpainted, painted wheels and tires, valances unpainted and paint in all the places that you don't want it to be. Once again, sorry if I have offended anyone, but I have learned this the hard way.

Where in Central FL? I can suggest a shop in Port St Lucie and some one else in Cocoa Beach area. Both do restorations on MG's.

It is the way it is!! I believe in doing things the right way, (I know!! it didn't show on my engine, but I paid to get things the right way!! I just got ripped off!!!!) If you want a 'splash and run' and a a great 5 to 10 foot paint jop, get a cheapie!! If you want a job that you can be proud of, just pay the price!! I would assume that by Larry's question, that he wants to do it right!! Therefore, I think Chuck had a great answer! My guestimate for the price would be around $3000.00, but every area is different!! I have found both PPG and DuPont very 'brittle'!! If it was me, I would probably find a shop that sprays Siekens or (is it )Seca??? Anyway, I do believe that they are both European!! In my humble opinion, pay once and get what you want!! Most of the cheapies that I have seen, are not worth anything to me!! BUT everybody is different!! Sorry if I said the wrong thing, but the local guy that I have used quite a bit, and has a great reputation and does great work agrees with me!! He uses the Seca one!!

a great answer? I gotta get a bigger hat. and they don't make them

I agree with Gerry and Gary. Avoid shops that make their living doing insurance jobs. That's what happened to me. Gary is correct, based on what I've seen, on avoiding Dupont and PPG. My 79 still looks great from twenty feet, but the Dupont paint is cracking in several places. As Gerry says, to get a proper job you've got to strip it to the tub. Based on what I've figured out from owning my 71 bgt for six years, somebody in California, stripped it to the tub several years ago and painted it a color similar to a Porsche Guards Red. A very close inspection reveals the original Blaze in some obscure areas. I'm guessing that my 71 bgt was last painted 10-12 years ago. The doors, wings, bonnet, still hold a shine like new. The top is cracking with multiple spiderwebs, and there are some small areas on the hatch and a couple of seams that are showing some spots of corrosion. I've no idea what kind of paint, primer, etc, was used.

Take Bob Ritter's recommendations about the Florida shops. I've seen his 74 bgt, which he drives to Kentucky, every so often.

Nah!!You're not a 'fathead'!!! :o)

Looks like I am not alone in losing patience. You�re too late in warning me about the cheapies; I learned that this time last year. That one cost me $600.00, I never even bothered putting the stuff back on. So I replaced the whole suspension and totally rebuilt the engine while I cooled off over the lousy paint job. That stuff I can do, I can�t do paint. At least that 600.00 took care of the little bit of rust. The B has not been a driver for over a year now, and I sure want it as a driver this winter. Robert, I live in Palm Bay that would be closer to Cocoa Beach area, although I worked very close to PSL. I am hearing around here it would start at about 3K, but I still have not found anyone at all. As you guys said, they all are looking for the insurance jobs.

Thanks..
Larry R.

Sam,

If your looking for a quality paint job on your '71 BGT you should check out www.cobrarefinishing.com. He did the paintjob on my B using Dupont Centauri and it looks great. He also uses a certain high quality polyurethane, but don't remember the brand. He was the paint judge for the Memphis British Car Club shows a few years back. He knows his way around British cars. You really need to check him out!

sorry, <www.cobrarefinishing.com>

<http://cobrarefinishing.com/>

Do the prep work yourself, sand out the rust spots and touch them up with Bondo, spray these areas with Krylon Sandable Primer. Take off the chrome, headlights valances and all the other crap that gets in the way. Take it to your local Macco dealer and have them spray it for about $400 bucks, you will be happy with it. NO! it's not a freakin showcar, but it is very acceptable!

I reiterate, NO it's not a freakin Concourse de Elegance paint job , but it will be VERY acceptable.

This thread's so far from where I'm at it's not even funny. I've currently sprayed about 1/4 the GT with Rustoluem out of a rattle can. I know it's sick and wrong, but it's way better than the rust spots I'm taking care of, and from 10 feet away no one knows. At any rate, it'll protect it until I get a proper paint job, which won't be until after the rockers are done, which'll be awhile.

FWIW, the one time I actually got a B painted, it was 1,000, special rate, and I got a smoking deal. Fabulous paint job, but only because I called in some favors. Mere mortals would never get that deal. And it took almost two months.

Good for you Bax!! I sure do know that life changes, amd you do what you hafta' do!! You will be back on top soon!! GOOD LUCK!!
Oh, by the way!! Red is terribly expensive to paint!! I can't evn tell you what I paid for material on mine!! You don't want to know and neither does my wife!! :o)

I'm lucky. White's cheap, and a relatively easy match.

larry i agree with marty find a maco who willwork with you give them a liitle extra(cash) tell them dont skimp on the paint take as much off the car as possible as long as the body work is good you will be happy you might have to get the car wet sanded but it will look ok,my friend works for a custom body shop the shop turns out show cars when i asked about my car getting painted ,he told me dont even bother getting a price take it to maco get it done steve

I found a small body shop through word of mouth. I learned that a local MG collector used a small body shop in the area and through some investigative work found the guy. However, he is a small shop and does this type of work as a side business to his insurance business. My car has been in the shop since the first of the year and I'm still a few weeks from getting it back. Be prepared when dealing with these small shops. Many of them are pretty talented, but they are one man operations and have more business than they can handle. I guess my point here is short of taking your car to professional restorers, just ask questions to the people in your local club or local british car mechanics. Someone will know a shop who is familiar with MGs. My car will be painted for $2,500 and that will be taking the car to bare metal first. He has painted the engine bay and will spray the interior and trunk. I'm not expecting a show car (not what I asked for), but my car should be a nice driver. I could have paid quite a bit more and received a better and faster paint job. Right now I'm patiently waiting. It's killing me with this great weather and my car's out of commission!

I think you may be right Marty I can do 100% of the prep. The only problem I really have is applying the finish coat. If I am going to do the prep I will have to wait a month or so for the temperature to drop 15 degrees or more.

Everyone has affirmed that body and paint job problems are not isolated to just one area of the country.

Larry, if you're going to do the prep, you will be doing 95% of the hardest, most critical work! The spraying is easy in comparison. I just did my first paint job, with a base/clear, and the only obvious flaws are in the prep. You can do as good a job as the Maaco guy, if you're willing to try, believe me. In retrospect, I wouldn't do the clear again, just because it would be simple (relatively, of course) to sand out and redo whatever prep spots you missed.

Any body man worth his salt will look at a car a customer's prepped & either:
1) Chuckle & tell you to go away, or
2) Figure in what it will cost to redo everything you've done!
Why? Because a good body man knows blowing paint is the least of what makes a good paint job...any good body man will want to do all his own prep

It would be hard to make an argument against most everyone�s points. Tony you are right about �most� good body men. There are so many variables at this point in car restorations. Some folks here although not professional body men or painter can probably do professional quality work. Like me it just takes longer to do the work not to mention redoing areas several times to get the quality. Eric is right the prep is 95+% of the work. My biggest obstacle is not having a spray booth. So I can just image the pine needles and bugs stuck to the paint (been there before). I am considering my next step by what I read here. Eric I painted my MG�s and AH�s hobby cars in the past, but that was with lacquer and years ago. Was hard to make runs with lacquer and the fast drying took care of no spray booth problem, the new paints scare me I have never shot that material.

Macco will do as little or as much as you want them to. I took them the bare body. They sent it out to be sandblasted to bare metal, encluding removing some old Bondo work I didn't know about, then they welded up some small holes and the CoD and redid the fill work on the dents. then it was sand, prime & dry, sand, reprime & dry, color coat & dry, color coat then clear coat & dry, then clear coat & dry. This was their top-of-the-line painting procedure, and would have been about $2K with no body work ($800 for stripping, $1200 for prime and paint). Their minimum is scuff the paint that's on the car and spray it. That's the one they advertise on tv for a hundred and fifty or so. I did check with one of those restorer shops and was told $4K plus any body work, and they used the same paint stripper company Macco used. Agreed, Macco's best is not Concours (with the right light I can see they didn't sand smooth enough on some spots), but I'm happy.

Larry check out Tony's site <http://www.theautoist.com> under Weimerology for painting 101. JWD does a hell of a paint job on his carport

As John mentioned, there are small shops around that are usually one man operations who paint cars as a second job/hobby. There is such a shop in my area. Excellent work of the highest quality, but you can expect to wait an eternity before he finishes up. A nice option to consider, if you're willing to let him keep your car several months.

BTW, you guys gave me a headache about paint job and stuff!

Maybe, but if you don't listen the headach will be much bigger;o)

There are fewer things than body prep & paint that make a good looking car...upholstery is another...paint jobs are no place to scrimp....my local MAACO is owned by a friend & his son...they've done 3 of my MG's...however, I take them to MAACO totally disassembled & sandblasted....they take their time on body work & paint....last one was about 3 months...price is the same as a regualr body shop
...my TD is going to a guy who only works on 1 car at a time in his free time - he's the painter for the local BMW/Jaguar/Volvo dealer! He won't accept anything that's been worked on by someone else....he's oming over this week to tell me what he wants disassembled/removed...I'll take it to him that way...he'll strip w/chemical stripper, do all body work, spray & call me to come assemble!

MAACO is closed on the weekends here, I am checking with them tomorrow. At some point I want to be driving my B again. The closer it gets to being done the worse I want to be driving it. As I said earlier, been over a year now. Thanks again to you and everyone else that has input on this subject. The headache is not going away till I am driving again :)

that's why I have a beater to drive while I work on my project