Bodyshop quotation - opinions please

[eyedee]

My REX is in for some minor front bumper repairs and the guy doing the work keeps finding reasons to bump up the price.  Its a mate of a mate so I thought I could trust him but now Im not so sure.

The work involves:

Repair 4" crack to bottom of fibreglass RE-Amemeya bumper
Mix pearl white paint and repaint up to lower line (so as not to paint over graphics).
Re-Align front bumper on re-fit.
Spray front indicators and side repeaters tinted black.
Touch up paint chip on rear spoiler.
Full Mop over (Polish)

He origionaly quoted £200 - £280 but we\'re now looking at £350 - £400

Is this a con or all good?

Many thanks  

[Gman]

I was quoted £380 for more or less exactly the same thing and that was from a pucker repair centre (known to be expensive) seems a bit steep for mates rates.

[petemillis]

I\'ve had a front Nismo bumper/spoiler for a Skyline removed, repaired (several BAD cracks and scrapes), repainted, refitted and a full mop for £200.
I\'ve had, by the same bodyshop, an RX7 toof completely resprayed, along with the Supra style rear spoiler (scrapes to fill and coimplete respray) and the front splitter(remove, stip, respray and refit) for £250.
Why are you being charged for mixing the paint? My bodyshop fella gets paint mixed by a local autopaints place -- the mica blue I had mixed for one of the RXs was only like £16! Did two compleate rear wings and front arch.
For what you\'re having done I\'d be happy with £300 but, £400 too steep.
AND adding on "re-align front bumper on refit" - what a pisstake! What\'s he adding on for that eh? £30 to make sure he refits it straight?

[Gerry M]

I paid 250 to have my ad facer repaired, this included a hole in the bottom lip & worn thru on a cornet, taking right back to fibreglass, a aluminium strengthing bar put in behind said hole full width of bumper, painted & primed, well painted twice cos there was silicone or something on it that reacted with the paint, then he came round & helped me fit it. took a while as he mostly restores minis but a pretty good job.

I would of thought the pearl paint wasnt cheap might be whats pushing up the cost

[eyedee]

He recons the paint costs him upto £100 to mix as he mixes it inhouse and its a real unique colour (that he\'s never seen anythin like before apparantly) so is very costly.  I thought charging for a re-alignment was a piss take too.  I\'d be happy (as suggested) to pay £300 but I also think he\'s kept my car in for longer than origionaly stated so he can take a copy of my RE-Amemeya wide arch bodykit, which REALLY takes the piss!  What a mate, eh?!?  :reallymad

[Gerry M]

bumper realignment you can do yourself its only about 10- 15 bolts I did mine with no probs but mine is all one colour & no vinyls.

[Sean]

I payed £58 for a complete respray on a VW campervanokay I know it\'s not the same thing Royal blue lower half, white top half and wheels.

The price included;

White paint £6
Blue paint £6
Turps £6
Booth hire £40

If he is a mate, I\'d stay away from him, as he doesn\'t seem to like you very much:eek:

P.S. My advise on friendship is not to be taken seriously, but my prices are correct!

[gsb876]

I think sometimes its best to keep friends and buisness seperate:)

[petemillis]

Even the paint mixing is a pisstake. When I needed work done on a Mica Blue FD I was told by a bodyshop that it\'ll be expensive as the Mica paints cost a fortune. They were talking like about £500 for rear wings and one front arch. I phoned up Autopaints International, gave them the pain code and they mixed it within half an hour and gave me 500ml for £16. When I went to collect it I asked if they could mix without a paint code and they reckoned they could get a spot on match for any type and colour for the same price.
I reckon it would only be expensive for someone who can\'t work out what tints to use to get the perfect match. An experienced mixer would have no problem with any colour.

[Trevrx]

I would\'nt have thought he\'ll take the bumper off to repair it, unless you asked him to because it\'s out of flush with the wings?

A full polish could take an hour in some places, maybe he does it properly?  I\'d expect a first class job for that price, dont know how he can up the estimate halfway through though, tell him you\'ll keep the paint for touch-ups!

[petemillis]

\'tis best to have the bumper off to repaired so it can be repaired properly from behind. I\'ve seen efforts before where a repair has been done by trying to smudge a bit of filler over a crack - doesn\'t look too good!

[Trevrx]

I know what you\'re saying Pete, but I assumed the guy would have a lift.  I recently had my bumper repaired , it was split all to hell and the guy just raised tha car on a two-poster lift to fibre glass the splits from behind and add extra braces to stop it wobbling so much. He did an excellent job too,  charged me £130! , but he is 76 years old so charges yesterdays rates!

[Col]

My mate has his skyline bumper off, really bad cracks and pearl paint. All pluged and reinforced for £300, does seem a little on the top end from a mate?

[eyedee]

Well, I went and collected today.  I was thrown shpeel about \'custom one off colour... impossible to mix properly... difficulty due to graphics\' etc.  Some of what he said had some truth in it, but a lot was wildly exagerated.  The job was pretty good though, I must admit.  As Pete said, the bumper had to come off to perform a \'proper\' fix which involved fibre meshing backing up the mend.  They didnt have a lift, but my aerotray meets the under sill of the front bumper anyway, so it\'d have to be removed I guess?  We ended up agreeing on £335 which included repair of the crack and chipping, mixture of the custom paint (which he gave me a egg cup full for touch ups), respray of the lower half of the bumper, re-aligning the bumper, black tinting of the front indicators,  touch up of a previously bodged touch up on the rear spoiler and a full mop over.  I was just glad to get outta there and have it back to be completely honest. :rolleyes:

cheers for all your thoughts and advice guys!  

[Col]

Nice one mate, any pics?