Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2004 16:34:25 -0800
Reply-To: "Tom L. Salicos" <TomSalicos@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Tom L. Salicos" <TomSalicos@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Restoration -- Phase 3 -- Exterior
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
----- Original Message -----
From: "lauterba" <lauterba@BELLSOUTH.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 8:31 PM
Subject: Restoration -- Phase 3 -- Exterior
>>I know some of you have had the same type of exterior restoration done to
your vans. I would appreciate knowing: 1) what you had done; 2) what >>went
wrong or you would have done differently; 3) how much did it or should it
cost; and 4) where do I get all the window seals, etc.?
Hi John,
I have a little bit of experience in this, having "restored" my '76 beetle
and just painted my '87 Westy this summer.
First off, I did not want to use the "Any-car-any-color for $199.95" shop
because I wanted to pay for what I thought was a much more thorough job. I
*have* heard that you can work with the Maaco types to pay more and get
decent jobs. Probably worth checking into. On my bug, I wanted the bumpers
and fenders off, windows out, trim off, etc rather than just taping. The
bug had big time rust in the seams under the rain gutters and I was told it
might never go away. I got a few bids well over $4000 to do it like I
wanted. No guarantee on the rust. I couldn't justify paying that much
and have the rust come back. I found a guy that was starting a company and
got a preliminary estimate of about $1300. Then he talked around to the
guys I had talked to and when I came back the price was $1900. I went ahead
since it was still the best deal. He didn't use the best paint, the paint
was not baked, and there are a couple of screw ups. I won't go back to have
him fix the errors. The car *does* look really nice, and is a real head
turner when it's cleaned up.
I learned a bit more when looking into getting the Vanagon painted. Most
importantly, I found that most of the auto body repair shops I called don't
want to do what they call a "complete" paint job. I figured it was because
they wouldn't get to mark up the buy-out parts they use in repair jobs.
They guy who painted the Vanagon leveled with me, that the insurance
companies are paying for rental cars for the claimants and they want those
cars out *fast*. He said he would want the car in the shop for a month.
The van paint job was to include taking all trim, bumpers, etc off. The
front windows and windshield were taken out. I wanted new window seals for
the roll-up and wing windows. The windshield was cracked and getting
replaced anyway. The other windows were "roped" which means they push a
round cord up under the seals to allow paint to get under for a better look.
I think that's better than running the risk of breaking windows on removal.
The van had damage above a rear wheel well and back corner. Also lots of
little dents and scratches. It also had seams that were cracking and needed
to be redone. It turned out to be a $4100 paint job. That included baking
the paint in a drive-in oven (He had me remove the propane tank for some
silly reason).
The "month" was soon to be up and we needed to attend a camping event. The
shop rushed the completion and when we picked it up, it was the wrong color.
Supposed to be "Titian Red" but it was very brown. We were not really
happy. The shop owner offered to paint it over if we could not live with
the color. We took it on our trip, then right back to the shop for repaint.
I got to approve the color mix for the next attempt. He says there were two
paint codes for "Titian Red". He sprayed out two cards and it was really
hard to tell. I made my choice. We didn't get an exact color reproduction,
but I don't know what else I could have done at the time.
Here's the best advice I could ever give anybody on getting paint matched:
The guy who painted my Vanagon had also repaired a fender on the bug and
matched the paint perfectly. He called it "butt matching" where you mix,
spray, dink with colors, spray and so on until it looks right. If I wanted
to have a car repainted to the same color, I would have them mix and match
the paint *first*, before they sand, to guarantee the original color. Hey -
spray some right on the car and see how it looks.
For the bug, I bought all new rubber stuff from a shop that buys from West
Coast Metrics. I think they have for Vanagon also. The rubber replacement
on the bug was $700. I'd expect a van to be more, so you might re-assess
what you really need. The guy who painted the van wanted to buy replacement
rubber from VW, since he doesn't want to take the risk of buying
potentially dubious aftermarket stuff. But if I had bought it and brought
it in, he would have used it.
I tend to keep my cars, so I don't mind paying to have things done right.
Beats the heck out of big car payments.
Take care,
Tom Salicos
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