Morris Minor Owners Club

Following on from my recent topic of the same i.e. do I fit a new door skin or a repair panel, I have bowed to the forums recommendations' and just the other day had a quote for the said door repair panel to be carried out with a local panel beater / sprayer whom has only recently restored a locally owned VW camper van of similar vintage to my tourer to which was replaced approx. twelve patterned repair panels so he seems to know what he's doing.
So what do the folks on here think of the quote that I've been given of £450 with a guarantee of a "perfect match / blended in finish",does this sound like a quote to be followed up on ?

Is the quote inclusive of fitting a new skin?

For one door ???????????

It's for one door and it's just the repair panel to be fitted ,painted etc although to be fair he did quote £250 but could not guarantee a perfect match but for the extra £200 he would guarantee a match / blend in the finish, not sure what the difference of £200 would make to that though.

I'd be wary, £250 for half a job Will he use different paint?

I have got my tin hat on here in anticipation of the replys But to be fair to the garage I don't think he is far off the mark with his price.....
If you work it out on a hourly rate of £20 he has costed it at 22.5 hours work. Take into consideration the poor quality repair panels and the extra work to make them fit, plus he is willing to garrentee the finish and colour match, the guy has to make a living and has overheads to pay.

Not disputing the price, it's what you would expect from a good body shop, but why give two prices - one for a proper job and one half done. The place that repaired Ted when I had a bump were excellent, very professional and did a superb job. All done under the insurance of course but they didn't charge the earth either.

To be honest I thought the price of £450 wasn't too bad considering but I just wondered what the difference would be from the £250 - £450 as in what would be the justification be to charge only £250 for a bog standard repair to £450 for a pucker first class job ?

I think I'd ask him, he must be using the same paint so it's only how carefully he applies it that's different.

The mmoc spares chap, sometimes has Nos doors for sale, expensive but not that price! Well unless his prices have gone up! I think for a 2 door though. ---again if you think 450 is not too bad ! If the difference is in the paint application, how can you do that differently? Maybe deliberately put a run here and there, or miss a bit for the hell of it. ---or maybe it's in the welding, he may think of misaligning the panel a little bit for the lower price. It's crazy, if a guy is capable of doing a decent job, how can he do other?

Just ask him for a price in primer - and then paint it yourself to your own satisfaction. There's never a 'perfect' paint match - a panel sprayed at a different time from the rest of the car will always show slight variation in certain light conditions...especially under Sodium street lighting!

bmcecosse wrote:Just ask him for a price in primer - and then paint it yourself to your own satisfaction. There's never a 'perfect' paint match - a panel sprayed at a different time from the rest of the car will always show slight variation in certain light conditions...especially under Sodium street lighting!

Sodium street lighting, does it still exist in your neck of the woods?

Of course!!

bmcecosse wrote:Of course!!

Can you post a photo as I've forgot what its like

Thanks for the input so far , as far as I can recall I think that for the £250 he was only going to spray the door from the pin strip down but for the extra he will "blend it in" by blowing in the bottom rear panel and the bottom of the front wing assuming that this will have an end result being better than the latter? Does this make sense to anyone?

I can only speak for the repairers that did Ted, a new front wing was fitted and there was also damage to the door. They obviously painted the wing but the door repair was blown in not a full re-paint of the whole door, you cant see the difference. If the paint match is perfect then the other panels shouldn't need touching.

Budgie wrote:Thanks for the input so far , as far as I can recall I think that for the £250 he was only going to spray the door from the pin strip down but for the extra he will "blend it in" by blowing in the bottom rear panel and the bottom of the front wing assuming that this will have an end result being better than the latter? Does this make sense to anyone?

Yes,its an old and accepted way to hide a new panels respray,rather than have a bright and shiney new door against a dullish rear panel or wing,you fan out the paint across the adjacent panels,about 1 foot all round without masking,to avoid a hard line. Then cut it all back and the edges of the old and new blend in,so that the repair is not so noticable. BUT the extra work involved is MINIMAL,simply a light flatting of the surrounding panels,(With a DA sander..........10mins tops) hardly any more paint or time to spray,theres no primering involved and 30 mins with a polisher to cut back .So almost twice the price to do, Hmmmmmm But if done properly you shouldn't see the join,so to speak. Your choice.

Primer -and spray yourself. The rattle cans from Bully and others are excellent and will do a great job. Just take your time - on a nice warm day..... and preheat the cans in a bucket of HOT water.

The aerosols will virtually guarantee a colour mismatch.They're just the stock paint code that are vaguely somewhere near a match.The pro will be able to get that code mixed and alter that mix with tints to match the fading,ageing,sun bleach on your car.Thats why he can "guarantee" a perfect match.

Maybe he will.....maybe he won't. I depends on the colour I guess - some fade out more than others. Depends also on the primer colour used - white to lighten the final and perhaps a coat of matt black to darken it. I would say worth a try - but depends on how much the OP wants to save £250.