Club 80-90 Forums

My Caravelle used to be blue. I sold it and the new owners painted it by hand using matt green nato paint. It wasn't a great job!
Now one year on I have the van back, a different colour and texture - its' looking pretty ropey..there are streak marks from the rain..it just all looks a bit odd. What are my options?

Either have a crack at this method https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Bo ... r_painting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; which realistically will cost you about £100 and a couple of weekends graft, or get a few quotes from local garages with good Google reviews and expect to pay £1.5-3k.

Thanks

With respect to Ralph (Covkid) this isn't for everyone and if it all goes Pete Tong (and some have) they a) look a fright and b) all the paint has to be removed before anyone will touch it again. Just saying.

Ian

Id think long and hard before rollering, I know a lot of people are happy with the results. I once bought a van that had been rollered, I had a commercial hot power washer on it for over 1 hour a lot came off a lot didn't, paint shop moaned and charged me accordingly as it clogged boxes of discs up.

I've done the roller job on my van, twice and now staring down the barrel of needing to do it a third time. I recommended it as an impartial option, but now that opinion has been given thought I'd add my 2 pence. Don't do it!

If your van is as tired as it sounds, then I'd reckon on paying at least 5k plus. Don't be fooled by some shops that they can do it for a grand, that's silly. For a half decent job, all glass, lamps, trim etc would have to come off. Then the entire van would need flatting down properly, 2-pack etch and filler coats applied, then the necessary x amounts of 2k topcoat. Done properly, and assuming the metal underneath is sound, it should last for many more years. And of course, it should command a good resale value too.

Here's a few examples of what I mean. I did this last last summer on my own van.

Front door flatted down, in readiness for etch and primer-filler coats, in 2k paint


One of the o/'s. This had a new tall arch panel and fridge/sill panel fitted



And one of the n/s/r. This had just the arch itself fitted, plus the lower D post repair panels.




I'm not saying you should do,this yourself, but an average bodyshop, should be at least as good and hopefully better, as all this was done without the use of decent low-bake oven and the like.

I hope that helps

Appreciate everyones input on this. I definitely can't afford 5k on a respray so I think that options probably out. I am hesitant about the roller method too though. Hmmmm.

A respray without having all rust sorted is a complete waste of your hard earned, it's taken me 4 years to save up the money and my van got dropped off yesterday for the work to start. In that 4 years I've had to have a new engine lots of mechanical stuff sorted some by me and some by my neighbor. Andrew at campershack fitted a blos LPG system. These machines are money pits, but worth every penny

I shold have added that my suggested 5k price would be a South east London type price, inclusive of paint and materials, vat etc. I can say that figure with some degree of accuracy as I used to work in that trade. And, I took all the doors off my van as I needed to paint all the door shuts and inner screen pillars as I wasn't using a v.w colour; you may wish to keep the colour the same on your van so wouldn't be paying so much.

And you could reduce costs by doing some of the stripping and refitting work as that adds a fair bit of labour too.

So, maybe not 5k!

Doug.

Nearer 2.5 - 3K in real world prices but it's a jungle out there.

Ian

beware of cheap deals at partime painters..... mine was away 7 months and it took less than that for the paint to start falling off...... has it been sorted , as was promised...NO, "He dont do them anymore"

however there are good folk out there, but never believe the timescale.....

Im thinking that perhaps I need to embrace the paint job that the last people did! I could add to it by jazzing it up a bit with some of my own splashes of colour! Ill post a photo perhaps and you can all give me some ideas!

pickies yes yes
mm

However its painted, 95% of the job is prep. If its rough, whether spray or roller, it'll still look rough.