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MG MGA - Time for a Re-Spray?

Hi there,

Just a general question which obviously is more of a personal preference choice.
Now that I have the car working pretty good, I was looking to get some quotes for re-spraying it as the paint is in pretty bad condition.
It would be a frame-on job but would with the fenders and all chrome off to ensure a good finish, including the piping finish.
I found a guy who is willing to do the job quite cheap (around $1000) for the full job.
He was talking about a 2 part paint with primer. I.e. Primer, color, clear coat + wetsand & buff.

Any particular paint you recommend or don't recommend?

Are there any particular pitfalls in doing this I should watch out for?
What preparation should I do?

The second question is; what colour?
It is a matter of preference, but I guess at the same time you want a color that was original for the time...
My original thoughts were;

- Dark navy blue with Tan interior (I find the combination fantastic and looks class) - My wife's favorite

- Black with tan or dark red interior (nice also)

- Keep it red and change to tan interior (currently black)

What do you think is the best color combination and which colours don't you recommend?
I was thinking that you guys have probably gone through this thought process before.

Also my trunk and engine bay are painted back, so I don't know if it would be good opportunity to respray at least the trunk. That would mean removing the undercoating that was sprayed in the trunk.

A lot of thinks to think about.

Gonzalo Ramos

Gonzalo,

I dont know about the rest of the audience reading this, but a $1000 paint job sounds awfully inexpensive. Particularly if it is a two step process (base coat and clear coat). I would be vey cautious at that price. The most important part of any worthy paint job is the metal prep work. Does this guy have a professioanl spray booth?

Fran
F Valenzano

I would also be asking to see some of the other cars he has painted. And get some feedback from his past customers. There are a lot of wanna-be painters out there. You can end up with more orange peel than in a Florida citrus grove. Don't be lured by low price alone.

Fran
F Valenzano

Gonzalo.
The materials alone would cost well over $600.00 if done correctly; Then what happens when you remove the wings and find that the tin worm has had a long time picnic.There is at least a good weeks work to prep the car let alone painting and buffing followed by reinstalling everything.
Please check on other cars that he has completed and then be very wary.
Do both the engine bay and the boot. You will never be happy with it partly done.
Seeing that you just purchased it and have not put a lot of miles on it I would suggest that you use it for at least 12 months before major surgery. By then you will have a better feeling about your car.

Sandy
SANDY SANDERS

If I remember correctly, the rockers on your car are shot. They want doing first, and if they are shot, so is a lot of other stuff underneath. It will be much more expensive than you have been quoted for a blow-over
dominic clancy

Beware of shops that give an unrealistic price up front. When the car is all apart, more money is required to fix things and then more things are found, so more money is required, and it can go on and on for a long time and get very expensive. Better to find someone who is "up front" with how much work is involved and what all that work will cost. I would recomend driving it until you are ready to do a major repair on the body, knowing it will take quite a lot of time and money to do it.


Ed Bell

For a thousand bucks it's gonna be a pretty rough blow over!

You can't compare doing an old MGA to a newer car, because of all the bodywork repairs done over the years that are hidden under the paint. Every bump, dent and blister you have today will still be there, but (if you are lucky) probably more obvious due to a better gloss. Added to that is the risk on paint reactions down the road and extra work taking all that paint off if and when you decide to do it properly!

Go into this with wide open eyes!


Neil McGurk

I'm sure a few of us remember the Earl Scheib paint job commercials. "We'll paint any car, any color, for just $29.95" Those cars were painted over trim, with overspray on the windows and chrome everywhere. No extra effort was made to paint the door gaps etc.

Actually, many of the shops today such as Macco, also advertise a lower price for their paint jobs and then add on for the prep work. Oh, you want the engine compartment painted? Ca-ching! The trunk? ca-ching! and so on. If you are not changing colors, you "might" get away without painting these areas.

While I'm not an fan of the addage "You get what you pay for", certainly it's corollary does apply, "If you don't pay for it, you don't get it."

As a reference, I got a good 2-pak base/clear paint job about 9 years ago. They did the complete stripdown of the body-off shell to bare metal, connected the front shell to the rear shell, most all the rust repair, all necessary dent removals etc. And then put the body back on the chassis. That cost me around $6,500 back then.

Yeah $1000 for a 2-pak base/clear paint job is a low price, go carefully!
Chuck Schaefer

I agree it is a low price. The guy is doing me a special price cos it is the husband of someone I know and he needs the money.
He quoted it will take him at least 1week to disassemble, paint and rebuild. As I said it would be frame on job.

My idea was to just to do a 'blow-over' as you said, as I am not willing to spend $6500 at this stage.
I don't have the adequate facilities at the moment in order to do the rocket panels and rust work at the moment, that is why my idea was to freshen it up a bit and then just drive it. It will be at least 3-5years until I am ready to do the bodywork myself and having it done would be prohibitively expensive.
And probably when I do this I might aswell do a frame-off restoration...

It is true that I just got it, so maybe I should just drive it 'as-is'. In fact I am using it to come to work now and it works quite nicely!

I guess I will have to tinker on this one for a bit...
Gonzalo Ramos

This thread was discussed between 03/05/2010 and 04/05/2010

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