Advice on painting a Corrado..

[Jim 2]

I'm trying to desperately save for a house deposit but I can't avoid the fact my Corrado not only cosmetically needs a little help (stonechips, etc) but has more serious issues in the form of rust on each arch. I think I need to spend some money on getting it sorted now that I'm using it as my daily driver as I think a year or two more of bad winters might see things getting irreparably bad. My friend has even offered to loan me his car whilst mine is in the bodyshop which is kind of him.

 

So... looking at what needs doing... realistically front and rear bumper, bonnet, wings, doors and rear arches / quarters. The rear panel looks OK as does the boot and the roof.. I'm not trying to skimp on doing the job properly but simply don't have the money to do a full respray. Is it feasible to leave out those panels or am I going to run into problems missing them out? I ask this as someone who's never had bodywork done on a car - so am a bit clueless about these sorts of things!

 

Would £1500 be a realistic budget for that lot? I've got a few bodyshops I want to go and see in the next week or two.

[g0ldf1ng3r 15]

Hi Jim

 

Price all depends on the level of quality finish you are looking for. preparation of the panels & a thoroughly clean spray booth are essential!!!

 

I say the latter as i trusted the last body shop i used but 18 months after having them take my bonnet back to metal & respray i have lots of 'bumps' which have risen to the surface which means either their booth cant have been spotless or they didnt wipe the panel properly clean before spraying. Plus they didnt wet & dry the lacquer after spraying to the finish i wanted as in some lights you can see the orange peel effect

 

It is worth asking to look at their booth & bodyshop etc & also previous work.

 

in terms of what you want doing, yes it is possible but it all depends on the skill & paint matching of the staff. in essence i think you want a respray with exception of the roof - similar to myself.......i had both sides (up to the roof rail), bonnet & tail gate under the spoiler done. Thus what you have mentioned should be feasible :)

 

i hope this helps

[Jim 2]

Cheers - that's much appreciated and some good info. I've got two possible places in mind and do plan to visit them both, talk through what I want to do and achieve.

[g0ldf1ng3r 15]

always glad to help :)

[seanl82 23]

I'd suggest doing the lot Jim. For a full windows out respray, if you get to their parking area and remove bumpers and doors etc for them, I think 2k will get you a very thorough job including sorting your rust issues. It takes time and effort to blend new paint, so what little you dont need doing will cost almost as much as the whole car mate. Obviously speak to a few different places first, but be prepared to travel on recommendations as a good bodyshop is worth the initial ballache. You'll get a feel for the place and staff when you visit. If it looks very professional and they take the time to talk you through the process, and throw book fulls of photos at you of previous work, it can only be a good thing.

[VR-Sixy 0]

Hello Jim, i had almost idential work done to my Corrado back in April/May. Although i had the tail-gate resprayed and well. There was a lot of rust on the arches and the bottom of the wings and the guy who did mine, did all this for GBP1200 which is about what i was expecting. If you look at my Major Tart-Up thread, you can see everything how it was, and how it is now.......

 

Happy to pass this guys details on to you, but he's very local to me, and i notice you're in Warwickshire.

[Jim 2]

I do have the option of a few places up and down the country but ideally wanted to stay local purely for logistics. Doing the whole car would be preferred (including windows out, etc) but it's just a question of priority - I love my car but it's been a financial priority for years and I need to start thinking about other priorities I think.. so not going crazy.

 

I mean if I could find a place that would do the whole car, well, windows out for 2k then I would seriously consider it I guess as another £500 wouldn't break the bank.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

It's all about colour matching mate. The roof and rear panel rarely ever rot on these cars, it's mostly bottoms of the doors, under the front screen, wings and behind petrol flap. You can opt out of having the roof and rear done but when you walk round the car, the colour differences might be more apparent than you'd like.

 

Why not just treat the rust to stop it spreading, then (and this will make you baulk), plasti dip the whole car a different colour? :D

 

I know what you're thinking, but think of it as just a temporary measure. It's easily removable, easy to apply and inexpensive.

 

Youtube it mate.

 

It started out as garish colour changing for attention seekers, but there's loads of colours available now and in even gloss finish.

[Jim 2]

I did ponder this Kev - treat the rust and cover it up but.. to be honest now is probably the time to do as much as I can afford before finally making the push to getting a house sorted. If I patch the car up, the cost of a full respray is only going to be waiting for me later on down the line. So I think I should do as much as I can afford to now.

 

I did think the orange plastidipped Corrado in the spotted thread looked good the other day though I have to say ;)

Edited July 5, 2013 by Jim

[Supercharged 2]

Interesting thread this...

 

I do wonder how long they will continue to paint cars for in the conventional way as it does seem quite old fashioned and in some ways not so durable - especially with the thin water-based stuff used nowadays...

 

I think the main reason the MK2 and Corrado lasted so well was the factory dip in the filler primer, the hard enable like thick coat of paint and the amount of wax they pumped into the body. Annoyingly, as with the MK2's, you found some cars were better than others - I've seen several Corrado's that have not been fully painted underneath...

[Hatton VR6 0]

Hi Jim,

 

Some good advice here. I can understand where you are coming from financially. If you find a good body shop they should be able to match the paint, but even with the best paint match you will probably be able to see which areas have been painted under certain light conditions. Try and see a sample of the body shops work about 12 months after painting. Back in about 1990 I had to fit a new wing to my golf. I found what I thought was a good body shop looking at their work, all perfect paint matches. My wing had a perfect match however 9 months later the wing had loads of stone chips, with about 2 -3 on the rest of the car, with the wing needing repainting again.

 

I would be interested to know which body shops you have looked at. I went to see Westgate Classics the other week with a view to sorting the A pillars seemed a good body shop. I just need to find the time to start stripping the car!

[clumpy1 11]

Got to go for the full hit mate for an extra grand ie for £2.5k you should get a bloody good job shop around and DO NOT pay anything up front apart from maybe a small deposit £300 max as a trust/goodwill gesture pay the rest when job is done and to your satisfaction make this clear at the start and you will have no hassle.

[diarmaid16 1]

Agree with Sean. For the amount of effort put into blending and matching paint, you'd be better off getting a full respray. As has been said, call into a few places. In my own experience from going to garages, I can tell straight away whether I'd let them near my car. If you can afford it, do it. You'll be much happier not having to worry about the car and can put all your effort into the house then. £2000 should be plenty imo.

[Jim 2]

I think it's worth pointing out that my car has had paint in the past - so there may already be matched paint that I haven't already noticed! I'm not particularly eagle eyed when it comes to bad resprays :)

 

I appreciate the advice all - will arrange to see some folks soon - it needs doing. The place I want to speak to is Manhattan Motors in Earlsdon, Coventry - where I believe rsngtx (if I'm remembering his username) got the 5th Gear Corrado repainted. My sister is good friends with the owner so hoping.. HOPING.. it helps me get a decent rate or something.

Edited July 5, 2013 by Jim

[bristolbaron 11]

Simple answer: You're looking at painting 9 out of 12 panels. Do the lot.

 

Reasoning:

The back panel is relatively small and simple. Paint it.

Leaving the roof will leave you with lines at the ends of the roof strips. Paint it.

The tailgate will then be the only part left. Paint it. :lol:

 

Sorry bud, but I couldn't recommend at all you go ahead with a 75% respray, you'll kick yourself further down the line.

[clumpy1 11]

Agree with Sean. For the amount of effort put into blending and matching paint, you'd be better off getting a full respray. As has been said, call into a few places. In my own experience from going to garages, I can tell straight away whether I'd let them near my car. If you can afford it, do it. You'll be much happier not having to worry about the car and can put all your effort into the house then. £2000 should be plenty imo.

This ^^ £2k-£2.5k top job pity you are down south I will try and get some pic's of a guy i know up here with a mk2 golf who got it painted and price's for you Jim.

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

i don't know your situation but a respray changes everything!, it can turn your daily driver fun car into a garage only weekend toy, im glad i got into body n paint as a hobby but its expensive even for diy, sundries and materials can easily cost over £300 for a part respray, so if a bodyshop wants a quarter of the price up front then that's fair enough imo, rent, labour for staff ,materials etc doesn't pay itself,

if it was me i would focus on the house as that's a permanent thing that we all need, but i would also stop the rust from developing any further, grind/sand it back to clean metal, buy some automotive 2k epoxy primer and mix it up and brush it on, you could do that diy at minimal cost and then use colour coded rattle cans to finish it off to hide primer colour in them areas , wouldn't look great but you would have slowed the rust right down and would allow you to focus on the house with knowing your car isn't rotting away, you also need to think about the car after a respray , you wont want to see your shiney paint out side not to mention is it kept on the street? can it get vandalised? its not good spending 2-3k on a paint job only to be worrying most of the time with where its parked and potentially getting keyed, as much as i like shiney paint it is over rated! the way the car starts, drives and stops is by far the most important things, not to mention if you do splash out for a respray then you don't have much of a choice but to keep the car and carry on feeding money into it, as if you did sell it then you wouldn't see a penny back from the respray which in turn means why did you bother in the first place,

 

i know the above kinda sounds like im against the idea of a re spray im not at all, if you can afford it and it wont effect your life then do it, and yea with the amount that you require being done go for a full respray so the colour is 100% on each panel, im sure the bodyshops will advise you on this also, also at the time when they mix up your colour "basecoat" have them mix up a couple of litres more then needed so you can take with you and keep, just incase some thing happens further down the road,

[clumpy1 11]

Totally agree with what your saying but having been done over myself in the past (not by a bodyshop) a well run business can easily get the sundries you are talking about on account so there is really no need to take any money as they have your car if at the end of the process you are refusing to pay for whatever reason you can refuse to release the car if the customer then turn's round saying they will get the police involved ideal as you can then inform them you have done agreed work which is being refuted.The way you look at it is the most common senseical approach but there are people who want not only the running/driving/stopping well but also looking as good as possible if that is how someone want's to spend their money at the end of the day mate car's cost money full stop obviously depending on alot of thing's how much is a personal thing.If Jim feel's a respray is needed then it is totally down to him but he could certainly see better value doing it that way as opposed to buying another car and the associated running cost's of that car compared to the running cost's of a rado for a couple of year's

[mic_VR 3]

This all makes interesting reading, I always thought a respray would be at least £3k even if on the cheap. Good to know people think it can be done for less.

[seanl82 23]

Jims budget is actually quite good for the work he originally said. Lots of people believe it can be done sub 1k, and yes there are places that can accommodate that, but as we all know, you get what you pay for! 2k for a full respray is a realistic figure and will get you a job to a very high standard. 3k would get a concourse job though!

[clumpy1 11]

The spray on mine was £7.5k and it's not concourse.

[seanl82 23]

The spray on mine was £7.5k and it's not concourse.

 

 

Did you get that done? That's utter madness mate, and probably the most expensive respray of any car I've heard of! I think 5k was the most I'd heard previously and that was for a concourse Split Screen Camper, which although still quite small as vans go nowadays is still a lot bigger and more involved than a Corrado!

[Jim 2]

See this is the dilemma - it's just not clear cut. The various factors in my decision making process are as follows:

 

* I do really want to get a house sorted out. I need to keep saving. I've had enough of renting.

 

* I am using my Corrado every day. I've tried two cars / daily driver approach for a few years - found it too expensive overall, and with my current situation of my lock-up being like 6-7 miles away, it was a chore to swap cars all the time so the Corrado just didnt get used.

 

* The Corrado has rust that needs attention on all four arches and I'd also like to cosmetically tart it up a bit - I don't want to take it to shows any more as I'm not proud of how it looks overall.

 

* I just don't think I can justify sinking 2.5k into my car on paintwork. Frankly whilst I love the Corrado, 2.5k + sale value of my Corrado would buy me a very decent car like a BMW 330i and frankly I'd be happy to walk away from the Corrado. I love it but I don't love it THAT much.

 

Thing is if I just got the rust rectified and patched up, I suspect the car would look terrible. Though maybe I'm wrong.. I dunno.. I do need to actually go and speak to a bodyshop and see what my options are I think.

[Supercharged 2]

Did you get that done? That's utter madness mate, and probably the most expensive respray of any car I've heard of! I think 5k was the most I'd heard previously and that was for a concourse Split Screen Camper, which although still quite small as vans go nowadays is still a lot bigger and more involved than a Corrado!

 

It was the original owner but unfortunately I think he was ripped off, the paint was very flat and consistent but when I looked at it it was flaking off around the sills especially - looked very thin and not adhered very well :-(

 

I have to say though, since Baz and Clumpy have had it it's really looking superb - was just too much work for me to take on at the time.

[seanl82 23]

I didn't mean to sound disrespectful, apologies if it came across like that Clumpy.

 

Maybe I'm being naive, but I'd expect change from 7.5k from a Full restoration respray, wet sand, correction detail, and aftercare package from someone like KDS who are known for utter perfection is all. Have a look at their price lists, obviously its just a general guide, but that is achievable for the price I think