Morris Minor Owners Club

I have a 1968 Austin Minor pickup.

Not so much had it restored as practicaly rebuilt.

Quoted £1500 for complete respray.

I'm going bankrupt at this rate as I paid £2600 to save it from its previous owner and another £2200 on restoration so far.

Please help.

Steve, the only reccomendation I can make is to learn how to do it yourself! A college course on restoration will tech you everything you need to know, and provide the facillities.

Having seen some of the reports on this board of shoddy work done by "so called professionals"....hrmphhh..

It will be immensely satisfying to DIY and cheaper too! and you'll get the chance to paint the car in its proper paint, i.e. Cellulose...

me

you could try "Joes Garage" in penge

brixtonmorris wrote:me

Great.
How much to respray a traveller?
Fablovely

Thanks for the advice. I lack a workshop, tools and have faith in my ability to cock a doodle diddley it up.

I've been quoted £1750 for a complete respray. Is this over the top for a pickup?

Steve.

Brixton is apparently something of a perfectionist when it comes to painting cars!

£1750 is a lot considering there is not much bodywork to the pick up. London prices, I guess.....

John, can you justify your last statement. I can understand if the paint job is just a masking up ,key prime and paint with a cheap paint.
Assuming that the bodyshop is going to do a proper job, i.e making good any welding or shaping, panel gaps, removing the motor all ancillaries, loom, seals,glass, split the cab back off remove all doors cab back and tail gate into component parts, clean these upetch, prime, flat, top coat and flat and polish, carefully re assemble. I would say that this price was more than reasonable, if not impossible.
At £35 per hour the price suggested would only get the car stripped and possibly the body work done. For example the paint we would use on this project would cost in the region of £600, so really a further £1100 to do the list of work required is not enough.
I'm afraid this topic is a sore point for many specialist bodyshops, who have to contend with this rediculous assumption that we can do a professional job at DIY rates. If you can get the job done for this price and get a pro job done to pro standards then good luck, but I very much doubt it. Just work out the hours you think that you would put into this job if you had the time, facilities and ability and wanted to achieve a pro job.
Sorry for the rant but its time that some folk try and understand the real world.

...and in just what way does a pick up "not have much bodywork"? It has as much as any other Minor, and quite a lot of it's not very well supported sheet steel, in a commercial vehicle, and consequently needs a great deal of straightening and preparation. They may not have that strange sheet of aluminium at the back (the roof?) that a Trav has, but it's a daft thing to say...

Guys, guys, guys..........chill ;)!

first of all, I was not thinking of Jonothan when I posted, I'm sure you do good work, although, what paint do you use that costs £600??? don't take it personally! ;)

Bigginger, I LIKE pickups, its just I can't see anyone spending tons of care on the inside of the load area when its going to have stuff shoved on it, no need to slag Travellers in return, tut tut ;)

Its just that 2K£+ IS a lot to pay for a respray, especially on a car that is going to be worth £3k afterwards. Does not make economic sense. I know thats not the point but...

I've heard recent quotes in East Kent for £1k for a saloon to be painted, £400 if the car comes prepped>.

John, I did not take your comments personally. It just that there is a lot of uninformed opinion on this forum and when this is directed to companies like mine, then I feel the need to comment. there have been many instances on this forum of people unsatisfied with paintwork , I suggest that if you pay the lower end of the scale prices then this trend will continue. It depends exactly on what you want, you will not get a reputable quality bodyshop to prep and paint a car for any less than £2,500, and even then its dependant on the amount of prep. The paint we use is Spies Hecker 2K and is on average £180 per mixed liter add to this primer and etch, and you can easily exceed the £600 mark. We have just painted a concourse mini in clear over base , the materials for this have cost me at trade price £1,400. You can but 'Autopaint ' and spray the car for about £80 in materials, okay if you are not bothered about quality.
You are correct in saying that the cost of refurbishment will outstrip the value of the vehicle, we all know this, but you certainly would'nt entertain this level of work if you are going to sell the car, most people who go for full and major rebuilds are prepared to spend in excess of £15K to achieve the car they want. On this point I'd say that Minors are generally underpriced in both the National magazines and in the club guide.
As for pickups BG does have a point, infact you will spend much more time on these than any other variant, if you do it properly.
As for the £1K and £400 respray, I'll look forward to the complaints surfacing on the forum.

Haven't 'slagged off' travellers, merely made an attempt at humour by pointing out that they have a roof. I stand by what I said about the body work on a pick up being considerably more difficult to prep that a saloon of trav as well. As for DIY spraying, been there, done that. I just don't believe that you stand much chance of getting close to a pro job, unless you have your own booth, the skill so to do and are prepared to spend the cash.

John,

When dealing with paint you are dealing with some very volatile and dangerous substances. Soon it's going to be nigh-on impossible to buy paints that make it easy to do a home-job (so I've heard). While i'm happy to do a bit of paint work 'here and there' on my minors I know I don't have the space, equipment or skill to paint a whole car. Of course, you learn a lot - but if you've spent a lot of money fixing rust patches, rebuilding mechanicals and planning a full resto then I'm willing to pay for a good paint job.

If you want a really top notch finish you need a booth. Last year I saw a traveller which had been 'sprayed' by it's owner after a full restoration two years previously. while the bodywork was solid, the paint had reacted terribly and was blistering, falling off, and generally looked horrible. It was a shame, since the rest of the car was very solid.

Nikki

If you want a really top notch finish you need a booth. Last year I saw a traveller which had been 'sprayed' by it's owner after a full restoration two years previously. while the bodywork was solid, the paint had reacted terribly and was blistering, falling off, and generally looked horrible.

You are quite right Nikki but in the end its all down to the preparation as there are 2 Grand Master cars that were garden / home garage painted so it is possible but...........

Bet they used cellulose too Kevin.

Yes, and I have heard (good sources) that Cellulose paint WILL still be available- for use on cars for which its original- i.e. Moggies included, its two pack that is getting banned- to be replaced by water based.

celly looks much nicer on our cars too!

£1500 may be ok if the pick up bed is sprayed, and it includes materials.
be nice if the wings are removed for this price, and nessary welding done rather then loads of filler in the doors (whatever). you may need to pay for repair panels on top.

pick up has quite a large paint area, if everything is painted.

im actually going to college to learn this at the moment....examines next month..boo hoo! But it is true, prep is the worst bit, and god do i hate it lol!! the spraying bits easy!

Blimey, its CAM! the place didn't seem the same without you. I think my
car looks pretty good and it was sprayed on my front garden nearly
eleven years ago. Yes, with cellulose. It seems that limited supplies of
cellulose WILL be available in the future specifically for the classic car
brigade.

prep is the worst bit

All the paint does is to make whatever is underneath to look good. Prep as you say is the hard part.