Full exterior respray cost?

[XVar]

My clear coat seems to have self-destructed over the winter, resulting in hundreds of blisters on the bonnet and boot lid. I took it to a local body shop for a quick quote and they said that it's had a bad respray in the past, and he pointed out that the doors have micro-blistering too, which I hadn't noticed myself (you can definitely see it when you look really closely). They gave a rough quote of £1500-£2200, no idea what the average price for such a job is though. Could anyone who's had their Z3 resprayed, or who knows the industry offer any insight into what I should be looking to pay?

[Daz3]

If you have micro blister the paint work will need to be sanded right back to get rid of the moisture under the paint. If they give it a quick rub down and paint over it'll come back next freeze so make sure there doing a proper job.

[huntert]

Ive ended up paying over 3k for my full respray, considered having a wrap but really glad i went for a spray job...full colour change, and its a one of a kind...pick it up today with a bit of luck!!!

[XVar]

If you have micro blister the paint work will need to be sanded right back to get rid of the moisture under the paint. If they give it a quick rub down and paint over it'll come back next freeze so make sure there doing a proper job.

Yeah I figured as much, by sanding right down, do you mean a bare metal respray? Also just to clarify, the doors have micro-blistering in the paint, but the boot and bonnet have full blown blisters which when you pop them with a pin completely expose the paint underneath. Luckily I've just moved to a house with a garage so the car's protected from the elements while I sort out what needs doing.

Ive ended up paying over 3k for my full respray, considered having a wrap but really glad i went for a spray job...full colour change, and its a one of a kind...pick it up today with a bit of luck!!!

Is that including the engine bay, door shuts, etc? £3k for an exterior respray is a bit more than I'm hoping to pay if I'm honest.

[Badman gee]

Respray cost more than car value,

Unless you keep it long term it's not worth it.

[Del]

Never ceases to amaze me the extortionate prices these body shops charge for what, in my own experience, has often been rushed and sub-standard work regardless of the cost. I believe that many large firms have grown fat and complacent whilst they’ve gorged on insurance company business. I would shop around with smaller operators who do not necessarily get involved in insurance company repairs.

[Gazza]

Never ceases to amaze me the extortionate prices these body shops charge for what, in my own experience, has often been rushed and sub-standard work regardless of the cost. I believe that many large firms have grown fat and complacent whilst they’ve gorged on insurance company business. I would shop around with smaller operators who do not necessarily get involved in insurance company repairs.

+1 to that.

I had mine done for mates rates inc hardtop for £1000, in all honesty it could have been done better, insufficient clearcoat for me.

[Badman gee]

Still have to question if its worth it, compared to car value.

And also you get what you pay for with re-sprays.

A lot of man hours goes into a proper full respray.

You get what you pay for to an extent.

[Z3cade]

Get it wrapped.. Much cheaper.. Company near me quoted £1k to do whole Z3 in a plain gloss colour, ie black, white, red

The trouble with painting a few panels, especially red is you'll see the difference in colour.. Unless you have the whole car done..

[markbsac]

are wraps sturdy enough like car paint will scratch is there anything on top of the wrap to protect say a gouge or indeed a scratch...does the wrap have any form of outer coat on it

[BladeRunner919]

are wraps sturdy enough like car paint will scratch is there anything on top of the wrap to protect say a gouge or indeed a scratch...does the wrap have any form of outer coat on it

All the matt-finish cars you see are vinyl wrap, so I guess it's pretty resilient.

[Pierrick]

I think a wrap is a good solution... cause as some have said a respray will cost more than the price of the car. But 1000£ for a total wrap semms a little expensive (as says Z3cade!), I think you can found cheaper and have a good job done!

An other solution is to break the car... Z3 worth more in bits than the whole car! And then you buy another one!

[Southernboy]

I think it's worthwhile having a look at all the Youtube etc articles on doing repairs on panels. The magic part about Z3's is you can do it over six months or more by removing, repainting, and re-fitting each panel yourself. Even if you don't do the actual painting yourself, you can prep the panel and then re-fit it after you have a professional paint it for you. It'll save you the cost they charge for stripping and reassembly.

[si-forks]

When i got my Z all the panels were scratch and dented over time i have replaced both doors both rear wings both front wings rear bumper and the boot lid all in Atlanta blue from 5 different cars and BMW being BMW the paint match has been spot on ! All this has cost me under £500 maybe worth thinking about

Si-forks on tapatalk

[XVar]

Hmm, I'm going to have to have a think about it, I'm not to keen on wrapping it as covering up the messed up paint doesn't seem right to me - I'd much rather get the paint sorted. The guy I took it to did say that he wouldn't recommend just getting the bonnet and boot sprayed as they wouldn't be able to match the paint exactly, but I had my wing mirror resprayed a while ago and the paint match was absolutely perfect, you can't tell at all. This makes me think that he was just trying to get more work so I might look into the possibility of not getting the entire car resprayed, not all at the same time at least.

On the subject of doing the prep work myself, I've read that most decent body shops won't paint anything they haven't prepped themselves as they can't guarantee that you've done it right, and therefore can't guarantee the quality of the finished job.

Thanks for all the advice so far, any if anyone's got any recommendations for body shops around the Burton-upon-Trent area let me know - I definitely need to get some more quotes before deciding anything.

[pingu]

I think it's worthwhile having a look at all the Youtube etc articles on doing repairs on panels. The magic part about Z3's is you can do it over six months or more by removing, repainting, and re-fitting each panel yourself. Even if you don't do the actual painting yourself, you can prep the panel and then re-fit it after you have a professional paint it for you. It'll save you the cost they charge for stripping and reassembly.

Unfortunately, you will probably end up with a Joseph, as different paint shades will be used each time. Unless, that is, you get the paint mixed at the start and store it yourself under optimum conditions. Even then it will probably age in storage.

[Phil]

I notice you are the Midlands.
I use a BMW approved bodyshop in Warwick - P L Carbodies.
Had my car resprayed about 4 years ago for about £2500 - took the car apart and took about 10 days.
Recently used them for a bodywork repair to our Alpina and both were super jobs but at a price.
As previously stated - you get what you pay for.

[Daz3]

Basically I know because I've done my car myself paint isn't cheap your talking £50ish a litre for basecoat and then depending how much lacquer you want on there I think I paid £50 for 5 litres of u-pol although ended up buying 10 in the end! Put on top of this the prep work priming and blocking followed by more primer then wet flatted to give a smooth enough finish for base (if done correctly) obviously some people will cut corners to make a job cheaper and that's when you start to get problems. I'm no expert but just what I've learnt along the way.