Full respray

[Hammond]

What's the average cost of a full respray for those who've had it done? I guess if I remove all the trim it'll be cheaper.
And is it easier enough to have it resprayed a completely different colour or would that increase the cost?
My 214 SEi is getting worse with paint chipping off and will probably need one within 18 months but I fancy a different colour.
Going to start saving now but some sort of target what I need would be helpful. Cheers.

[1234dist]

Average prices i've paid for brilliant job is between £1500-2300 full car same colour.

Double that for a colour change as there is a lot more prep required.

You can get a blow over for around £1000-1800

[Hammond]

Better save longer then.

Anyone got any tips to stop further paint chipping ?

[1234dist]

Stop banging it against the wall

[Hammond]

£3000 for a colour change, cheaper to buy an immaculate one with low mileage

I love my little SEi though

[Liverpoolman1]

Just had my 216 Cabriolet resprayed. Original red matched beautifully. Cost? - £1000. It looks fantastic and has drawn many favourable comments. The cost is more than the car is worth but who is counting the cost when it's a Rover? Certainly not me.

[celica1600gt]

who did it for that price and where are they

[1234dist]

Its a common price for a blow over with little or no rust repair.

[Numptey]

Wrap it yourself, looks easy on the you tube videos

[Johnny 216GSi]

There's a place I know that will do a single-colour re-spray for £500.

Just a once-over with 500-grit wet and dry and they get going...

If you want any of the trim to stay it's original colour, it's advisable to take it off the car before you hand over the keys.

They do a roaring trade with some of the pocket-rocket cars - Renault 5 GT Turbos and the like - for people who just want a quick don't-care improvement so they can show their mates their sub-£1000 minter.

In all seriousness though, these prices do start to highlight the cost breakdowns of a decent re-spray. £500 would be for almost zero masking and assumes the panels are rust-free so they paint and look okay.

A £1500 price is, in my opinion, good value if the garage are going to remove all the trim they can, flatten with 500-800 grit, spray and polish their results and rebuild the car.

I wouldn't bat an eyelid at £2000 if the car needed rusty areas like wheel arches chopping out and replacing with new metal too. At the other end of the scale, I know places that will do full body-off restorations of old classics - but the bill can be £3000+, although I'd still consider that cheap because of the amount of labour involved.

Stopping paint chipping? Do you mean stone chips on the bonnet/wings or the beginnings of lacquer peel on the tops of the doors / roof for example?

There's no real cure. I found the original Rover base + clear to not be that resilient to stone chips - my bonnet was shocking before it was re-sprayed. That's why I went for 2K - chemical reaction over air-drying says tougher paint to me. I haven't picked up a single chip yet.

Lacquer peel - there's not much that can stop it. If you think you can spray fresh lacquer over it, think again - your original layer has discoloured over 20+ years and fresh stuff will show up the base coat in its original colour (i.e. a very noticeable mismatch) and it'll "edge-fringe" like crazy with the existing layer on the car.

If you have what looks like lacquer scratches (which will evolve into peel) you can reduce the visibility of them slightly with coloured car polish like "colour magic", or the T-cut version of the same (colour magic I found slightly better). To seal lacquer scratches you can use a "mantis pen" by JML (polyurethane clear liquid) - they look worse whilst the product is drying but look the same once dried. Just remember to put plenty on and wipe all the excess off.

To stop the paint getting any worse - garage it, or cover it with a car cover as often as possible to protect from sunlight as much as anything else. Of course in the UK's new rainy season this isn't advisable as you don't want a car covered up that's soaking wet.

Very difficult to fix without going for full or partial re-spray IMHO.

To keep the cost down, you could go for a partial re-spray and have the work done over 12 months. Just buy enough paint for the whole car up front, to avoid mismatch problems. 2 to 3 litres of 2K, because it's mixed 2:1 with hardener, will be enough. Find a paint supplier that has a spectrophotometer and can also match by eye. Get a paint that's a good match to what's on the car already and you can have the best of both worlds - a good "invisible to the untrained eye" partial re-spray to cure the worst of the problems, and finish up over 12 months having the rest done for that "new car" look.

I'd say £100-£150 for a large panel like the bonnet or roof if it doesn't need anything but a rub-down. If it needs filling or rust-repairing, then £200-£250 is closer to the mark. At the other end of the scale, £100 if you do the prep work yourself (flattening with 500-800 grit) and hand over a ready-to be-sprayed car. This requires that you find a body shop willing to have you meet them half way with the prep work. Most prefer it if you pay them to do the lot, as they're looking to sell labour and make lots of money.