What’s thought reasonable - quote to paint a van?

[meaningreen]

I’m interested to get a large Sprinter painted. I bought it new in a non-standard colour which has faded over ten years. A polish does bring it back to life ok but along with some previous repairs it’s looking a bit “Fifty Shades”.

There’s no panel damage, just classic Sprinter rust scabs that I’ve carried out temporary fixes on over the years in order to stop deterioration. I’ve got a replacement sliding door and bonnet to go on (originals going a bit crusty, not worth repairing).

I’ve spoken with a couple of painters who have big enough booths - I’m left thinking I’m out of touch on paint pricing...! I’ll post up the two quotes I’ve had shortly but in the meantime a few questions:

1. What’s felt a reasonable rate to do it? I’m happy to pay, just after some RR opinion please. Outside only, but including the roof. Fitting the new door and bonnet, a very good quality job, no time pressure.

2. Any recommendations in the Midlands (I’m in Leicester).

[welshpug]

a ten your old sprinter you say, have you taken the side mouldings off and had a decent prod? looked under the rear wheelarch tubs as well?

ive seen quite a few 2007-8 and 9 sprinters scrapped due to rust.

[xbl]

Full paint job in the original colour or the same colour again? Either way, with decent prep I'd be estimating at least £3k for a good job.

[meaningreen]

Should’ve said - repaint in original (existing) colour.

It’s been Dinitrol’d from new, including under the side plastics. The only reason the side door needs changing is because water has been getting in where an additional deadlock was fitted and the resulting corrosion has blown the trailing edge and bottom seam. The bonnet looks fine outside and would probably be ok, but underneath there’s some corrosion to the openings around internal pressings - they’re not expensive to replace.

[Dez]

Even 3k is bargain basement.

Ask how much you’d pay to paint two cars, cos that’s about the surface area involved.

[MkX]

If you did a fair bit of the prep yourself I'd have thought you'd get a competent blowover for under a grand?

[Darkspeed]

My guess with no information to go on £6-7K - £8.5K if they thought that dealing with you would be a nightmare.

[sausage]

Christ, I'm clearly put of touch as well!

That is absolutely dead money. How much is it worth currently? How much is it worth painted? The maths should dictate the sum available tbh.

[accord83]

Go Old School.







Plus an afternoon, sorted.

[stealthstylz]

There's a guy near me who has a never ending queue of vans in for 2 grand resprays and they're considered bargain basement - big dents/crash repair sorted but the rest left wobbly. They're a pretty specialised thing really, plus it's not just having a booth big enough it's actually getting paint on the roof that's not easy, he has scaffold towers with planking between so he can lay over the top any paint without risking getting the air lines in the paint etc

[Deleted]

Sept 20, 2019 19:33:50 GMT MkX said:

If you did a fair bit of the prep yourself I'd have thought you'd get a competent blowover for under a grand?

£1k to paint a large van - minimal paint & materials alone are going be £600 + and that's skimping at that - and just how long is that is £1k blowover going to last - well that's an easy answer - it wont - you would be very, very lucky to find a competent bodyshop that will let something this size in their yard for £1k let alone put in a booth and paint it - add to this most bodyshops will not touch client prepped motors for just paint alone has they have a reputation to maintain and painting over the top of somebody else's poor prep is not going to do the bodyshops reputation any good what so ever. You are readily into the £3 - £5k region to turn out a good quality job dependant upon the amount of work required

[MkX]

Sept 21, 2019 17:53:32 GMT @grumpynorthener said:

Sept 20, 2019 19:33:50 GMT MkX said:

If you did a fair bit of the prep yourself I'd have thought you'd get a competent blowover for under a grand?

£1k to paint a large van - minimal paint & materials alone are going be £600 + and that's skimping at that - and just how long is that is £1k blowover going to last - well that's an easy answer - it wont - you would be very, very lucky to find a competent bodyshop that will let something this size in their yard for £1k let alone put in a booth and paint it - add to this most bodyshops will not touch client prepped motors for just paint alone has they have a reputation to maintain and painting over the top of somebody else's poor prep is not going to do the bodyshops reputation any good what so ever. You are readily into the £3 - £5k region to turn out a good quality job dependant upon the amount of work required

We live in different parts of the UK where people put a different price on their skills as they can live a lot more cheaply. I knew people who would have happily worked over my prep, albeit on a 'cash-in-hand' basis. It depends what standard of finish he's happy with. If he wants a high standard of finish and intends to keep the vehicle in the long term then a cheap re-spray would undoubtedly not be for him.

[MkX]

Try this fellah for an idea on price:
www.westonpaintworx.com/contact

[Deleted]

Sept 21, 2019 18:53:09 GMT MkX said:

Sept 21, 2019 17:53:32 GMT @grumpynorthener said:

£1k to paint a large van - minimal paint & materials alone are going be £600 + and that's skimping at that - and just how long is that is £1k blowover going to last - well that's an easy answer - it wont - you would be very, very lucky to find a competent bodyshop that will let something this size in their yard for £1k let alone put in a booth and paint it - add to this most bodyshops will not touch client prepped motors for just paint alone has they have a reputation to maintain and painting over the top of somebody else's poor prep is not going to do the bodyshops reputation any good what so ever. You are readily into the £3 - £5k region to turn out a good quality job dependant upon the amount of work required

We live in different parts of the UK where people put a different price on their skills as they can live a lot more cheaply. I knew people who would have happily worked over my prep, albeit on a 'cash-in-hand' basis. It depends what standard of finish he's happy with. If he wants a high standard of finish and intends to keep the vehicle in the long term then a cheap re-spray would undoubtedly not be for him.

Regardless of where your location is in the country or how cheap you can live - a £1k paint job on a large van will be the absolute pants and not even worth considering doing - materials @ £600 - the remaining £400 wont even you buy you days labour in the vast majority of bodyshops and where it does - its not worth having - my overheads are peanuts compared to 95% of commercial bodyshops out there and believe me I know exactly what it takes to paint a van of this size - but hey what do I know - I've only been doing it for 40 years

[kevins]

Around 2 grand for a rough blow over with just top coat would be the lowest I would estimate, given the age of the van I would go for a roller and synthetic (you can get it mixed to any colour).

[ChasR]

Sorry MkX, even in different parts of the country, materials don't magically become cheaper. Even when I was painting cars, the material costs would go into £300 easily, and it showed when the paint went on. If you can get me materials for sub £100 and still be able to do the job to a good standard, I'm all ears.

I've had cars with cheap blowovers (Spitfire was one of them) and you could tell where it had been rushed on the prep; sanding marks showing despite having thick paint on is an obvious example. Paint is the easy part, it's the bits before and after that are a pain and very time consuming. A Sprinter will be like painting two cars, if not worse.

I used to know cheap painters, but they were either:

-Rubbish ; I soon found that one out.
-Retired and simply fancied doing something they enjoyed. The latter I've only ever come across twice. He probably had lower overheads than most (he owned the building, which drops alot of the cost).

I'm with @grumpynortherner on that one, and surely he's aware of cheapness being a Northerner .

For that reason, even me feeling cheap, I'd say £3k+ depending on the standard you want. Obviously, that will go up dramatically dependng on more for the reasons stated above.

[sarkie83]

How about getting it wrapped?

[VW]

Sept 21, 2019 17:53:32 GMT @grumpynorthener said:

Sept 20, 2019 19:33:50 GMT MkX said:

If you did a fair bit of the prep yourself I'd have thought you'd get a competent blowover for under a grand?

£1k to paint a large van - minimal paint & materials alone are going be £600 + and that's skimping at that - and just how long is that is £1k blowover going to last - well that's an easy answer - it wont - you would be very, very lucky to find a competent bodyshop that will let something this size in their yard for £1k let alone put in a booth and paint it - add to this most bodyshops will not touch client prepped motors for just paint alone has they have a reputation to maintain and painting over the top of somebody else's poor prep is not going to do the bodyshops reputation any good what so ever. You are readily into the £3 - £5k region to turn out a good quality job dependant upon the amount of work required

Can i ask, what is a basic breakdown of the £600 materials?
I only ask as i painted my bedford cf (badly, and as cheaply as possible).
I think i put 3 liters of celly on it (obviously that got thinned down alot and it has side windows).
It was a cheap, in the car park, paint layer is too thin style blow over to get it in one colour after alot of welding. It looked ok for maybe 2 years and now looks what can only be described as 'poor' 😂
I think it cost me maybe £150 in materials to do what was in all honesty, a 'low quality job' 😉
I bought all the stuff from a local automotive paint suppliers though.
It needs doing again. It will have to wait until i move or in some other way manage to magic up somewhere to do it and next time ill try and do it a bit more properly.
I havent even looked at pricing up materials for next time as ive no idea when it may happen, but just wondered how much of that was abrasives, how much is paint, how much is for all the sundries etc etc.


For the record, if i was expecting to get it done, id expect to pay £4k for the outside only and for that money id expect to get a 'middle of the road' to 'reasonably good' kind of job.

[Deleted]

Sept 22, 2019 20:02:06 GMT VW said:

Sept 21, 2019 17:53:32 GMT @grumpynorthener said:

£1k to paint a large van - minimal paint & materials alone are going be £600 + and that's skimping at that - and just how long is that is £1k blowover going to last - well that's an easy answer - it wont - you would be very, very lucky to find a competent bodyshop that will let something this size in their yard for £1k let alone put in a booth and paint it - add to this most bodyshops will not touch client prepped motors for just paint alone has they have a reputation to maintain and painting over the top of somebody else's poor prep is not going to do the bodyshops reputation any good what so ever. You are readily into the £3 - £5k region to turn out a good quality job dependant upon the amount of work required

Can i ask, what is a basic breakdown of the £600 materials?
I only ask as i painted my bedford cf (badly, and as cheaply as possible).
I think i put 3 liters of celly on it (obviously that got thinned down alot and it has side windows).
It was a cheap, in the car park, paint layer is too thin style blow over to get it in one colour after alot of welding. It looked ok for maybe 2 years and now looks what can only be described as 'poor' 😂
I think it cost me maybe £150 in materials to do what was in all honesty, a 'low quality job' 😉
I bought all the stuff from a local automotive paint suppliers though.
It needs doing again. It will have to wait until i move or in some other way manage to magic up somewhere to do it and next time ill try and do it a bit more properly.
I havent even looked at pricing up materials for next time as ive no idea when it may happen, but just wondered how much of that was abrasives, how much is paint, how much is for all the sundries etc etc.


For the record, if i was expecting to get it done, id expect to pay £4k for the outside only and for that money id expect to get a 'middle of the road' to 'reasonably good' kind of job.

Certainly:

Direct to gloss colour 2 pack inc hardeners / thinners £250
Primers - etch & 2 pack inc hardeners / thinners £120
Abrasives £120
Sundries - To include sealers, fillers, clips, fasteners, anti corrosion protection, masking, preparation & cleaning solvents £110

Totals £600 but this is possibly on the lean side dependant upon the damage repairs required to the van - and this is for a direct to gloss gun finish - not a flatted / colour sanded & polished finish

Your £4k estimate for your CF is a fair assumption - of course clients can always reduce their costs by stripping the vehicle of trims / brightwork etc and refitting it their selves once painted - no reason why they cant do their own anti corrosion protection either

[VW]

Sept 22, 2019 20:28:00 GMT @grumpynorthener said:

Sept 22, 2019 20:02:06 GMT VW said:

Can i ask, what is a basic breakdown of the £600 materials?
I only ask as i painted my bedford cf (badly, and as cheaply as possible).
I think i put 3 liters of celly on it (obviously that got thinned down alot and it has side windows).
It was a cheap, in the car park, paint layer is too thin style blow over to get it in one colour after alot of welding. It looked ok for maybe 2 years and now looks what can only be described as 'poor' 😂
I think it cost me maybe £150 in materials to do what was in all honesty, a 'low quality job' 😉
I bought all the stuff from a local automotive paint suppliers though.
It needs doing again. It will have to wait until i move or in some other way manage to magic up somewhere to do it and next time ill try and do it a bit more properly.
I havent even looked at pricing up materials for next time as ive no idea when it may happen, but just wondered how much of that was abrasives, how much is paint, how much is for all the sundries etc etc.


For the record, if i was expecting to get it done, id expect to pay £4k for the outside only and for that money id expect to get a 'middle of the road' to 'reasonably good' kind of job.

Certainly:

Direct to gloss colour 2 pack inc hardeners / thinners £250
Primers - etch & 2 pack inc hardeners / thinners £120
Abrasives £120
Sundries - To include sealers, fillers, clips, fasteners, anti corrosion protection, masking, preparation & cleaning solvents £110

Totals £600 but this is possibly on the lean side dependant upon the damage repairs required to the van - and this is for a direct to gloss gun finish - not a flatted / colour sanded & polished finish

Your £4k estimate for your CF is a fair assumption - of course clients can always reduce their costs by stripping the vehicle of trims / brightwork etc and refitting it their selves once painted - no reason why they cant do their own anti corrosion protection either

Thanks.

Ive been in and around bodyshops since i was a kid, painted a few cars with varying degrees of success, but never really had to do the 'paying for paint' bit so wasnt sure.