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Paint shop recommendation(s) or tips? Surrey/M25 area

L

Lifeboatboy

Member
Hi all,

Ref: 1994 348 Spider, Rosso Corsa / Crema.

I've read a few threads on full resprays (in particular regarding a 308 back in 2006), but wondered if anyone had any more recent experience, or indeed tips on what to do and what not to do. I noted some advice regarding the decision to go with a fully invoiced job for example, versus a cash purchase. Likewise, I learned a lot about the snags encountered by unexpected parts replacement, where things either got broken on the job, or which needed replacing to retain the same level of finish as the paintwork itself.

FWIW, I was anticipating getting the front splitter, bonnet and 2 wings done. For reasons I won't bore you with, 2 years ago I got a £2K quote from near Fairoaks airport (for anyone who knows the area), but circumstances meant I had to put it off. I'm now considering doing it at the end of this Autumn, and last week I got referred to another very nearby alternative (by Foxhills golf club), and they're adamant it needs a complete respray all over. Naturally that whacks up the cost, but despite being a thoroughly reputable supercar paint shop, because they've never done a 348, they're being very broad on their projected quote i.e. "...bottom end £5K, absolute top end £10K".

I'd be grateful for any advice, so my thanks in advance.

PS - I'm a rookie at these things, so if you can restrain from beating me up too much, I'd appreciate it.
 

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I'm sorry I can't help but at the risk of this sounding like an odd question, has your garage got Ferrari signage of some type on the exterior of the doors?
 
Lifeboatboy said:
PS - I'm a rookie at these things, so if you can restrain from beating me up too much, I'd appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Are we that scarey ? I'm not aware of threads falling apart here unlike many other sites

Last time I was there Autoficcina had their own spray booth so could be worth a call or visit

I think quite a few places may not have their own booth but use a friendly local sprayer which has its upside in that they have the disassembly/reassembly knowledge plus an extra layer of quality control
 
Kyodo said:
I'm sorry I can't help but at the risk of this sounding like an odd question, has your garage got Ferrari signage of some type on the exterior of the doors?
Click to expand...

Hi Mark - yes mate :thumbsup: One of the many results of: 'what shall I do today?' recuperation and Lockdown. So next time you're out walking, say hi (assuming that's how you knew ;-) )
 
jos said:
Are we that scarey ? I'm not aware of threads falling apart here unlike many other sites

Last time I was there Autoficcina had their own spray booth so could be worth a call or visit

I think quite a few places may not have their own booth but use a friendly local sprayer which has its upside in that they have the disassembly/reassembly knowledge plus an extra layer of quality control
Click to expand...

Jos, fair one. You're absolutely right: this community's only ever been helpful and inclusive so thanks for keeping me honest. :thumbsup:

I wasn't going to go via a Ferrari shop for the very point you mention (why introduce a 3rd party if they're only going to sub it out anyway?). It's just such a minefield trying to determine whether or not I'll ever recoup £10K on a (currently) 27-year old car, or whether I'm better off simply getting the front 1/2 done for considerably less (they won't have to take the car apart), where only purists would probably ever know? I think I've just answered my own opinion, but to your earlier point, I value the opinions on here too.

Thanks again.
 
My two cents worth...

I've had the front bumper done on my 348, due to following people too closely in Wales :laugh: Quotes ranged from £600-£2k. Place I ended up going to was Ok ish, but didn't do a few things I asked them to do, tried to overcharge me, left marks on the seats, and left the car out in the rain overnight in a gravel yard; I was not impressed! They were under no illusion that I wont be going back nor recommending them.

Unfortunately one of the buttresses has started to go this year, and as there are a few good stone chips on the bonnet I'm looking at a full respray and will be visiting few shops, one of which will be Autofficiana who I've been talking to; just need to find the time to get up there.

I think there is a) a huge variation in quality of work and b) price with the usual "its a Ferrari so lets double/triple the price" attitude.

The "we need to respray the entire car" I think is BS, but standing by to be corrected. Whilst there is a huge variation in colours, its not metallic of layered so I would have through they could colour match?

What I would say is, once you have the work done, get it PPFed before you drive it. Have this on my other Ferrari and very impressed.
 
A348W said:
My two cents worth...

I've had the front bumper done on my 348, due to following people too closely in Wales :laugh: Quotes ranged from £600-£2k. Place I ended up going to was Ok ish, but didn't do a few things I asked them to do, tried to overcharge me, left marks on the seats, and left the car out in the rain overnight in a gravel yard; I was not impressed! They were under no illusion that I wont be going back nor recommending them.

Unfortunately one of the buttresses has started to go this year, and as there are a few good stone chips on the bonnet I'm looking at a full respray and will be visiting few shops, one of which will be Autofficiana who I've been talking to; just need to find the time to get up there.

I think there is a) a huge variation in quality of work and b) price with the usual "its a Ferrari so lets double/triple the price" attitude.

The "we need to respray the entire car" I think is BS, but standing by to be corrected. Whilst there is a huge variation in colours, its not metallic of layered so I would have through they could colour match?

What I would say is, once you have the work done, get it PPFed before you drive it. Have this on my other Ferrari and very impressed.
Click to expand...



Thanks. I think the complete respray is OTT, too. At least for my purposes i.e. really want to fix a growing rust bulge by the indicator, and the consequences of my puppy taking the freshly waxed bonnet route, to catch a squirrel on the roof :cry3: :cry3: Think: Scooby Doo running away from the caretaker, over the floor where Shaggy spilled a paint can on his way out :laugh:
 
As a restoration workshop/bodyshop owner and Ferrari owner, my advise/observations to put in, having a view from both sides of the fence as it were, would be thus.....

A paint match, possibly to include blending if required should be possible. How easily/effectively depends on each bodyshop's individual set up and/or relationships with suppliers. Some will have their own mixing schemes, some will buy their paint in ready-mixed from a local paint supplier. If it's for a full repaint, most will buy the paint in regardless as there's no advantage to mixing it from their own scheme in-house. Additionally, some bodyshops will have their own spectrophotometer. Others will rely on their local paint shop for this. Even then, a spectro will only work from a light reading taken from 3 or 4 points and give an indication of colour match accuracy and blendability, which is fine in most instances. Certain paint manufacturers in the UK will have their own in-house laboratories, with a paint scanner that typically reads a panel from 64 different points, so solutions are available for even the most difficult matches if your mixer can't get it bang on with their own equipment and by eye to fine tune. With a solid red, it is highly unlikely that you should have to go to such extremes and it should be able to be "tweaked" in-house, but a solid red generally does take some work to get spot on as there is a high level of variation.

There should never be a necessity to fully respray a vehicle is if there is only a couple of panels that really need work and refinishing. Granted, sometimes it can be quicker and easier to swipe through a complete panel or two rather than an intricate blend when you're doing a series of panels. The reason why certain people may want to fully respray a car when they're only doing a few panels is usually for colour-matching reasons. This is especially the case when they're doing bumpers as there will always be a slight difference between metal and plastic panels. That's just a fact of them being different materials. It should only be noticeable in certain lights at certain angles, but you can always find it, it shouldn't be too obvious. It can be obvious on certain vehicles as bumpers can be painted in a different factory to the rest of the panels, but that's not going to be the case with a Ferrari.

A full repaint on a 348 Spider shouldn't amount to a huge figure if no major repairs are required. If you are just looking for an exterior repaint and you have mentioned or shown them what repairs are required, a £5000 difference between best and worst case scenarios is certainly not justified. If you said you wanted the car stripped to a bare shell, blast cleaned and restored back to concours then a £5000 discrepancy is very small. If you have a couple of rust scabs and you just want an exterior repaint then yes, they are quite correct to suggest that you won't know what is required exactly to the repair areas until they've sanded through the paint, but a difference should be in hundreds rather than thousands unless there's a lot of it! It's not as if there's an awful lot of metal on the car. No roof etc. The only thing that boosts the price of a 348 over an average car is there's quite a lot of intricacies due to the styling, which makes prep work a lot more involved than your average car and that's what takes the time. The badge should never come into it, even though I'm sure it does in some cases. Yes, modern supercars with all their composites etc are going to be expensive, but in most cases, a steel-bodied car is a steel-bodied car!

As for any other extras. Yes, it's a 27 year old car and when you start dismantling it, things will break regardless of how careful you are. Clips and fixings will be old and brittle, corroded or perished. Seals will be past their best and other trims would probably look out of place against showroom-fresh paint. No major items should get damaged though.

To me, to repaint the exterior or a 348 Spider, I would be looking at quoting IRO £3000-£4000+VAT assuming no real repair work, to a high standard. I would add on IRO £1000+VAT for taking the whole exterior back to bare metal and lead loading any repair work/areas where the metalwork appears "thin" and an further £1000+VAT to upgrade the material to "Novol for Classic Car" epoxy, primer and aluminium-filing infused filler and OEM Glasurit paint (Still the best IMO).

But I can't see £10,000 in a 348 Spider without serious metalwork needing to be carried out.

Look forward to seeing how this one progresses anyway!
 
mbwoy84 said:
As a restoration workshop/bodyshop owner and Ferrari owner, my advise/observations to put in, having a view from both sides of the fence as it were, would be thus.....

..........

To me, to repaint the exterior or a 348 Spider, I would be looking at quoting IRO £3000-£4000+VAT assuming no real repair work, to a high standard. I would add on IRO £1000+VAT for taking the whole exterior back to bare metal and lead loading any repair work/areas where the metalwork appears "thin" and an further £1000+VAT to upgrade the material to "Novol for Classic Car" epoxy, primer and aluminium-filing infused filler and OEM Glasurit paint (Still the best IMO).
Click to expand...

Great info and enjoyed reading all that. If my 348 ever wants another respray (had one 10 years ago) you may be getting a call :)
 
Lifeboatboy said:
Hi Mark - yes mate :thumbsup: One of the many results of: 'what shall I do today?' recuperation and Lockdown. So next time you're out walking, say hi (assuming that's how you knew ;-) )
Click to expand...
I'll do that! Yes, we were out walking and passed you back in April. I took a picture but didn't want to post that on a public forum :)
 
Mike, is there any saving to be made if someone disassembles a car themselves? Or do body shops not really like that?
 
Last edited:
irarref said:
Mike, is there any saving to be made if someone disassembles a car themselves? Or do body shops not really like that?
Click to expand...

Some places may not like it, but it should be fine with most. I certainly wouldn't have a problem with it. Yes, there are savings to be made that way as obviously time is money, and stripping and refitting can be time consuming. It is something that anyone can do though if they have the time and patience, so I think it's a nice way for the owner to get involved sometimes.

The only thing you would need to mindful of is chipping anything or slipping with a tool and scratching the paint upon reassembly.
 
mbwoy84 said:
As a restoration workshop/bodyshop owner and Ferrari owner, my advise/observations to put in, having a view from both sides of the fence as it were, would be thus.....

A paint match, possibly to include blending if required should be possible. How easily/effectively depends on each bodyshop's individual set up and/or relationships with suppliers. Some will have their own mixing schemes, some will buy their paint in ready-mixed from a local paint supplier. If it's for a full repaint, most will buy the paint in regardless as there's no advantage to mixing it from their own scheme in-house. Additionally, some bodyshops will have their own spectrophotometer. Others will rely on their local paint shop for this. Even then, a spectro will only work from a light reading taken from 3 or 4 points and give an indication of colour match accuracy and blendability, which is fine in most instances. Certain paint manufacturers in the UK will have their own in-house laboratories, with a paint scanner that typically reads a panel from 64 different points, so solutions are available for even the most difficult matches if your mixer can't get it bang on with their own equipment and by eye to fine tune. With a solid red, it is highly unlikely that you should have to go to such extremes and it should be able to be "tweaked" in-house, but a solid red generally does take some work to get spot on as there is a high level of variation.

There should never be a necessity to fully respray a vehicle is if there is only a couple of panels that really need work and refinishing. Granted, sometimes it can be quicker and easier to swipe through a complete panel or two rather than an intricate blend when you're doing a series of panels. The reason why certain people may want to fully respray a car when they're only doing a few panels is usually for colour-matching reasons. This is especially the case when they're doing bumpers as there will always be a slight difference between metal and plastic panels. That's just a fact of them being different materials. It should only be noticeable in certain lights at certain angles, but you can always find it, it shouldn't be too obvious. It can be obvious on certain vehicles as bumpers can be painted in a different factory to the rest of the panels, but that's not going to be the case with a Ferrari.

A full repaint on a 348 Spider shouldn't amount to a huge figure if no major repairs are required. If you are just looking for an exterior repaint and you have mentioned or shown them what repairs are required, a £5000 difference between best and worst case scenarios is certainly not justified. If you said you wanted the car stripped to a bare shell, blast cleaned and restored back to concours then a £5000 discrepancy is very small. If you have a couple of rust scabs and you just want an exterior repaint then yes, they are quite correct to suggest that you won't know what is required exactly to the repair areas until they've sanded through the paint, but a difference should be in hundreds rather than thousands unless there's a lot of it! It's not as if there's an awful lot of metal on the car. No roof etc. The only thing that boosts the price of a 348 over an average car is there's quite a lot of intricacies due to the styling, which makes prep work a lot more involved than your average car and that's what takes the time. The badge should never come into it, even though I'm sure it does in some cases. Yes, modern supercars with all their composites etc are going to be expensive, but in most cases, a steel-bodied car is a steel-bodied car!

As for any other extras. Yes, it's a 27 year old car and when you start dismantling it, things will break regardless of how careful you are. Clips and fixings will be old and brittle, corroded or perished. Seals will be past their best and other trims would probably look out of place against showroom-fresh paint. No major items should get damaged though.

To me, to repaint the exterior or a 348 Spider, I would be looking at quoting IRO £3000-£4000+VAT assuming no real repair work, to a high standard. I would add on IRO £1000+VAT for taking the whole exterior back to bare metal and lead loading any repair work/areas where the metalwork appears "thin" and an further £1000+VAT to upgrade the material to "Novol for Classic Car" epoxy, primer and aluminium-filing infused filler and OEM Glasurit paint (Still the best IMO).

But I can't see £10,000 in a 348 Spider without serious metalwork needing to be carried out.

Look forward to seeing how this one progresses anyway!
Click to expand...

Superbly helpful...just staggeringly so. Thank you for putting so much effort into the reply. I'll digest it after reading it again more carefully, and may take the liberty of coming back to you, if I may. I've been working on another car I've just acquired to do a European tour, so please don't think I wasn't checking back. Thank you again :thumbsup:
 
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