'78 westy resto...paint..seals...more.

[jmiller]

Ok, so I'm about to bite the bullet and get my '78 champagne edition repainted. Well, not just paint, but minor bodywork done, minor rust repair, and new rubber seals throughout. Probably gonna stay with the original 2 tone, white/brown color scheme. A little furthur down the road to a full restoration.

So my question...Does anybody in the Portland, OR area have somebody that they would recommend to do the body work and paint. I want it done right, and by a person that cares about my bus nearly as much as I do. No Scheib/Maaco job here.
I seem to remember a couple of years ago there was somebody on here that did paint work at home in a paint booth? Ring any bells out there?
thanks.

[Amskeptic]

Ok, so I'm about to bite the bullet and get my '78 champagne edition repainted. Well, not just paint, but minor bodywork done, minor rust repair, and new rubber seals throughout. Probably gonna stay with the original 2 tone, white/brown color scheme. A little furthur down the road to a full restoration.

So my question...Does anybody in the Portland, OR area have somebody that they would recommend to do the body work and paint. I want it done right, and by a person that cares about my bus nearly as much as I do. No Scheib/Maaco job here.
I seem to remember a couple of years ago there was somebody on here that did paint work at home in a paint booth? Ring any bells out there?
thanks.

Willie (Willy?) did several members' cars.
I recommend that you:
A) interview them
B) interview Willy
C) track down several leads and have more than one estimate to work with
D) be prepared to pay for excellence or get a deal that will have compromises
E) think about doing some prep work yourself, not only to save money, but to get some high quality undercarriage work done that most shops just don't have the time for.
Colin

[chachi]

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[sped372]

What is the consensus as far as pricing goes, ballpark-wise, for a decent paint job with some minor bodywork? Both of our VW's are still in good shape but will need attention if we end up keeping them as long as we currently intend to. I'm not averse to doing the majority of the disassembly but have no bodywork skills so I'd want to leave that to a pro.

I'd want to go all the way on a nice job, functional longevity being the primary concern and cosmetics the second. My gut tells me $5-$10k for a job worth doing, but I really have no experience. Until then, I'll keep touching up spots with my little paintbrush.

[hambone]

I've always had Maaco style paint jobs because I'm kind of hard on my cars, and don't have a lot of cabbage to begin with. No sense getting all deluxe and not be able to use the thing. Although my bus is all chipped and scratched from camping, the Maaco paint from 10 years ago is still shiny due to yearly wash n waxing. Of course the color isn't quite right, and it's flaking off in spots due to poor surface prep, but it does what it's supposed to.
Paint is really nothing more than a steel-protector. Sunday driven cars are another matter.

[sped372]

No sense getting all deluxe and not be able to use the thing ... Paint is really nothing more than a steel-protector.

This is primarily what I'm after.

...it's flaking off in spots due to poor surface prep...

But not this.

I wouldn't be going for the show car look, but I don't see the point in a cheap job that won't last or perform the intended metal-protection for any length of time. Worse yet would be a repaint that ends up being worse than the current state of affairs.

[chachi]

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[RussellK]

This is sort of timely. I was just looking at my receipts yesterday. I have a friend that owns a body shop so I just followed his guidance. My bus was fairly straight with a few dents and a spot in the rear quarter panel that was rusted through. Also the sill under the front window was rusted with some pin holes completely through. His opinion was in order to get the best paint job the bus should be stripped, windows, trim etc, as close to the shell as possible then media blasted and primered with an epoxy seal. The cost to media blast and seal the bus was in the neighborhood of $4000. This was in addition to the cost of repairing the body and finish paint.

[hambone]

That is insane-expensive. Geez give me a roller and a quart o' beer.

[chachi]

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[RussellK]

yeah, wow that does seem expensive. do they pull all the components for that price? i've media blasted my own bus when i had access to a booth and while the cost of media is high, i can't see it getting that crazy

No I delivered it to them stripped. The place that did it was a hot rod shop and the only place in the area that had any knowledge of how to blast the panels without warping them. They gave me an estimate that ran from $1500 - $4000 depending on how much time it took. Naturally it wound up being $4000. I should have seen that coming but it was my first foray into this type of venture. Lesson learned. It was the last time I ever had work done without a firm number and more importantly nearly the last time someone did the work for me.

[DjEep]

We have a shop here in Eugene that has done over a dozen of our customer's buses, bugs or vans in the last two years. They ain't quick, but they'll do whatever you pay for, nice or cheap, and the owner is a really straight forward guy. I'd say a decent job with a little metal work would be in the $3-6k range, all-the-way would be $8-10k.

Look up "All-Pro Body & Paint" on 1st Ave & Bertelsen Rd, Eugene.

[chachi]

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[DjEep]

Decent being healing any not-too-terrible cancers, doing a little smoothing, and spraying the outside. All-the-way being grind-it-down, weld in replacement panels/nose/rockers/whatever, smooth it all out with as little fill as possible, then spray the whole thing. I won't try and say it would be done fast though. They are fairly swamped most of the time. But I doubt a little extra buffer on the final price wouldn't grease the wheels, so to speak.

[jmiller]

Ok, so I've visited one shop, out in Aloha, recommended by a local, reputable VW shop. I've seen their work, both work in progress in their shop, and the finished product, at a friends place (his was completely stripped inside and out and completely repainted...that's a little more than I want to do).

The work was top notch, as far as I can tell. All windows, and trim removed (including the pop-top), completely stripped the old paint, minor bodywork done, repainted, and clear-coated (including painting and clear-coating the pop-top), and then reassembling, (except for the pop-top canvas).
The price I was quoted for the above work...$6,000 - $6,500. Once I add in the new window and door seals, another $1,000-$1,500, and new pop-top canvas..$300-400. plus a little here and there, for extras, or the unexpected...
Total, probably $8,000-$8,500 - OUCH!!

I was really hoping to be able to get it done for around $5,000-$6,000.

I guess I gotta keep looking!


Thanks for the PM's too...I'll follow up with those when I get the chance...maybe soon, over a Monday night brew!