RESPRAYING OLDER VEHICLES

One of the biggest problems faced by any vehicle resprayer is to respray an old vehicle. The older it is, the worse its going to be IF the price and expectations are not agreed before commencing the job.

The main problem starts with the car owner's

1. KNOWLEDGE on such work on old cars (does he know how much back-breaking work is involved?)

2. KNOWLEDGE on CURRENT 2014 market prices in a specific geographical area to respray such an old vehicle. 

2 examples to illustrate that the car owner's assumptions might be totally wrong: 

Ask your friend "How much does it cost to PROPERLY respray a Toyota Camry's rear bumper (with no shortcuts) in KL and PJ"? 

Their answer/assumption will mostly be based on their LAST transaction with a resprayer...could be months ago, years ago or even more than a decade ago. That's why most people in 2014 will still expect nothing more than RM450 and some might even expect RM250 at the most. In 2014, a reputable resprayer will charge no less than RM450 to respray an entire bumper assuming the bumper is not badly damaged. My sprayer charges RM600 because each step is adhered to with no shortcuts. Oh yes....you'll be surprised that most car owners think that a proper bumper respray can be done within 1 day. Actually, it's roughly 2.5days minimum if you follow the process with no shortcuts. If you're the boss, would you like your staff to do short-cut work?  

Ask your friend "Generally, is it more expensive to properly respray a Proton Wira or a 2007 BMW E90 BMW 325i ?" 

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So, we must be updated on the current market prices before sending our vehicles for any respray or bodywork repairs. Cost of materials and labour have gone up throughout the years....just look at your very old Nokia phone in the 90s....you can't buy a nice smartphone now for RM350. Times have changed.

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Back to the old car...

An example of an "old car" sent to us for respraying. 

Look at the mess. Rusted areas on floorpan were concealed by carpet. When everything is stripped, you start seeing the crap. Issue must be addressed and it must be done in such a way that the problem will not recur. 

An example of an "old car" sent to us for respraying. Look at the mess. Rusted areas on floorpan were concealed by carpet. When everything is stripped, you start seeing the crap. Issue must be addressed and it must be done in such a way that the problem will not recur. 

We're merely ensuring all rust removed, metalwork looks respectable, and most importantly, will not re-rust. Entire floorpan coated with a custom-mixed, marine-use sealer....not the usual black underspray stuff. This is not perfection.....it's merely doing it the right way as though it was my father's old car

1. Previous problems to be solved. 

In the past, the car could have been shoddily resprayed (whole car or specific panels). Metalwork repair could have been poorly done and there could be rust HIDDEN under the paint that's not visible to the eye. For a proper job, all old paint must be stripped (not necessarily down to bare metal) (oh....and who knows the current mkt price for stripping paint down to bare metal...like what you learned from American reality cable TV series?)

All the above work is necessary to ensure the metal work is flat, problem free etc so that when paint is sprayed, results will look good, and you won't have problems re-surfacing later. 

2. Exterior trims. 

For a good job, many external trims must be removed so that proper masking can be done. This takes time and $$$.  No matter how fantastic the new paint looks like, the car will NOT look like a new car because the exterior trims, glass, emblems, rims etc are still old. 

When certain exterior trims on certain cars are removed, they must be replaced with new ones. Ask any experienced resprayer and they'll tell you. Are the new trims available? Do you know how much they cost? 

3. Water leak. 

On old cars, its common to experience water leaks or previous water leakage. The owner might not even be aware. If there's currently a leak, I'm sure you want to solve the leak. Where is the source of leak? Takes time to investigate and rectify. 

4. Ruptured metal panels. 

Hidden by old paint, it might not be easy to instantly spot any ruptured/cracked body panels. 

Takes time and $$$ to rectify. Most of the time, any crap is only revealed once the paintwork is sanded down. 

So, before sending in your old car for a respray job, kindly show the vehicle to a few reputable sprayers, discuss in detail, get a quotation, and start comparing prices.  But very broadly speaking, and using a Wira as an example, anything less than RM3000 will probably be a shortcut job, so please be careful. .