# Thoughts on a respray



## pjgraham86 (Sep 12, 2006)

My SLK has just gone into the bodyshop for insurance repairs (other guy paying as he whacked me from behind when I was stationary).

I am thinking that I should maybe ask the bodyshop for a quote to respray the bonnet while they have it for repair. Its accumulated a fair number of stone chips and scratches over the years and will probably look a bit tired when the rear, side panels and doors are being either replaced and/or painted as part of the repair. 

Anyone got a rough idea what I might be expected to pay ? The bodyshop is in Glasgow and is Merc approved.

Thanks

Peter


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## adamck (Dec 2, 2010)

You would hope that they would just do it as they already have the paint and half the bits off the car lol and with what they will be getting from the insurance company...

You never know til you ask though, they might rob you blind or they might understand and just do it lol


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## pjgraham86 (Sep 12, 2006)

Fair comment Adam - the thought did occur to me that they might be able to lose a bonnet respray somewhere in that fat profit they will make out of the £6K (!) bill......still good to have an idea from you guys of what they will say if they go by the book.


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## Porkypig (Jun 20, 2012)

Wishful thinking if you expect them to do it for nowt me thinks.. 

Ring or call in and speak to the manager of the site, explain the situ and see what he quotes taking into account the paint is loaded and the car already in the shop. I imagine it will be cheaper than doing it as a one off but it will still need prepping and baking and time so cost is involved. I'd ask to do the wings and front bumper too... :thumb:


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## adamck (Dec 2, 2010)

To be fair, in an insurance claim, you can usually pick where you want the car to be repaired can you not?

Speak to your claims handler and find out if you can pick a garage to do the repairs and try calling a few local places and see if they will chuck in the bonnet respray :thumb:

Might give you an edge to haggle with lol


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## squiggs (Oct 19, 2009)

What colour is the car? Depending on what colour it is it may not be as simple as a bonnet respray .... the wings may need to be blown in as well.


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## 3R PROJECT (Jul 14, 2012)

Stripping the whole car , doors , trunk , hood painted sepperate from the frame and a full color change that includes two coats of dupont cromax pro and three layers of spies hecker permasolid 8650 ceramic clear and then color sanding and three stage polish is 2K euro in Greece and that is supposed to be expensive ! Did you say 6k for the bonnet ?


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## moosh (May 8, 2011)

adamck said:


> To be fair, in an insurance claim, you can usually pick where you want the car to be repaired can you not?
> 
> Speak to your claims handler and find out if you can pick a garage to do the repairs and try calling a few local places and see if they will chuck in the bonnet respray :thumb:
> 
> Might give you an edge to haggle with lol


So your expecting the bodyshop to cover a £150-£250 job? if they were to do it and throw it in on the fly with the insurance that would be fraud. I would want to stick with the merc approved bodyshop as your anti corrosion warrenty will still be intact and they will use genuine parts to repair it.

Garages get absolutley raped by insurance firms so they will be lucky to make money on repairing and painting the rear without throwing in the front. They rely on volume of work to keep the money rolling in.

It would likely require a lot of work to repair the stonechipped paint on your bonnet and then prime colour and clear it as well. They would usually want to blow in the wings to match the colour.


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

Can't believe people will think that they would do the bonnet for nothing. Jut because the job is costing £6k, it's going to cost that much as its a merc approved bodyshop where the rates are higher, i know because i work for one. But to expect them to do a fraudulent claim and run the risk of loosing there merc approval is just plain stupid.If you want extra work done then you will have to pay for it. If its stone chipped that bad then it will probably need taking back to baremetal to do it properly, and yes the wings will need to be blended. 

And of course if he phones around other bodyshops for a quote it will inevitably be cheaper as they are not merc approved. And Wont be using products paints which are mercedes approved. Which will be better quality, as there are only two mercedes approved paints which are Glasurit or Spies hecker.


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## 3R PROJECT (Jul 14, 2012)

Ok ! Let me get this straight . Did you say 6k? Is that really how much you guys charge in the UK for something like repainting the bonnet and blending ?


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## streaky (Dec 2, 2006)

3R PROJECT said:


> Ok ! Let me get this straight . Did you say 6k? Is that really how much you guys charge in the UK for something like repainting the bonnet and blending ?


Read the first post again.


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## 3R PROJECT (Jul 14, 2012)

I need to read posts more carefully . Disregard the the question . No you can not ask for a free respray . Ask how much original new merc parts cost and what the insurance company keeps first and then you will see how little you are actually giving to the shop


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## pjgraham86 (Sep 12, 2006)

Thanks chaps for all the information and informed comment. If you look at my original post, I was looking for a suggested price not a freebie - that was thrown in to the mix and we went a bit off topic after that.

Anyway, the engineer is going to call me with a price. We shall see. I fully expect that they'll suggest at least blending in the wings and painting the front bumper too. I've been through the process with Merc approved shops before in connection with a rust claim recently (two within a year in fact).

I really just see this as an opportunity to get the car back to more or less showroom condition for considerably less than I would otherwise pay because the lion's share of the work is being done at someone else's insurance company's cost. I'll let you know how it ends up. BTW, the car is silver (iridium in Merc speak).


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

Yes with 775 iridium silver, they will need to blend the wings.
Another thing a would also check is where your colour code does it have a C in front of it ie C775 as this will mean, the laquer that you have on it will ceramic/anti-scratch laquer. And as part of the merc approval they should have appropriate laquers.
I your unsure where your colour code is, it should be in the drivers side door shut on a black sticker.

C775 will denote it is ceramic laquer.

775 will denote that it is just normal laquer.


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## pjgraham86 (Sep 12, 2006)

Thanks for the heads up Andy - I will check that.


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## pjgraham86 (Sep 12, 2006)

Bodyshop phoned today - a respray of the bonnet (to include any necessary blending of the wings) will be £280 plus VAT so £336. They advised that the paint code will be checked before they order so if it's ceramic, that's what they'll order. Not rocket science I guess....


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## bunyarra (Aug 26, 2006)

Good price that. I've done this before and managed to get a fair chunk off the normal price - everyone wins. They probably make more profit from your extra than the insurance job. I do feel for garages as Insurance companies are taking the p*ss often.


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

pjgraham86 said:


> Bodyshop phoned today - a respray of the bonnet (to include any necessary blending of the wings) will be £280 plus VAT so £336. They advised that the paint code will be checked before they order so if it's ceramic, that's what they'll order. Not rocket science I guess....


Does that price include front bumper as well, or just the bonnet and blends.

Only part I don't understand, is they say they will need to order ceramic laquer in. If they are merc approved they should be using it already as part of there Mercedes approval. Any merc they paint should be done with the laquer required. If they are merc approved then there paint system should be either Glasurit or spies hecker, these are the only two mercedes use, and the paint mixing computer will store all ammounts of primer, waterbase, laquer, used. Mercedes will be able to check this as it will have job history, so if they type in a job number it will bring up who painted it and Ammounts, volumes, of paints used. Gone are they days of mixing sticks it's all done on mixing scales and computer now, so Mercedes will check you are using rights products on the right cars. If you can find out what paint there using I can soon find out if it's merc approved, but I'm only aware of the two ive mentioned above.


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## pjgraham86 (Sep 12, 2006)

Thanks Andy.

Now that you mention it, I didn't think about the front bumper ! I'd better go back and ask if that's included, although I suspect not.

Incidentally, I dug out the original datacard for the car and it says the paint code is 775U......?

Cheers

P


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

pjgraham86 said:


> Thanks Andy.
> 
> Now that you mention it, I didn't think about the front bumper ! I'd better go back and ask if that's included, although I suspect not.
> 
> ...


If its 775u then it's not got ceramic clear on it. Any joy with a price for front bumper.


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## pjgraham86 (Sep 12, 2006)

Cheers Andy.
Been busy last week or so and not been looking on DW. I completely forgot to phone and ask for a price for the front bumper, I have to confess and the car is due back this Friday so I don't want to delay it any longer. Guess I'll just see how it looks and take it from there.

Next up (slight thread hijack - sorry) is how to tackle the winter prep on a car that has some new panels and other newly painted original panels. I have AB tar and glue remover, clay, IPA, Megs cleaner wax and various other polishes and LSP's that I ought to use up as I've had them a while - AG SRP and EGP, Collinite 915, Chemical Guys M Seal to name the main ones. I also have newly purchased Fk1000p which was really intended for the family Land Rover. 

Any views ?

Cheers

Peter


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