[V6-12v] Respray

[James Whitehouse]

Hi Marc,
   
  Yes, that's well worth bearing in mind. If I'm ever planning on doing such a major job as that, I'll make sure that I have at least a little runaround car so I can keep the Quattro garaged for a few months.
   
  I doubt any of the shops around here will take it to bits and re-zinc it. I think the best compromise would likely be to take it back to the original base coat, or primer and make that surface good as a base for the new paintwork, rather than taking it back to the base metal.
   
  I guess I'm going to have to consult with a few shops on this to see what the score is. It's a long-term plan in any case, I have a few things that need doing to make the car mechanically good first (suspension and some replacement of bushes/ mounts, etc), plus the interior and engine swap. Those should keep me going for a while and in the meantime I'll price up some options for resprays with a couple of good shops to see where I stand!
   
  By the way, does anyone know whether the difference between the Audi 'regular' and 'sports' suspension is just in the shocks and springs? Anyone have any experience of the difference in ride height/quality with Audi sports suspension fitted? It's my suspicion that the car needs new shocks/springs all round, in which case, I may as well have the choice of fitting the sports suspension instead...
   
  Cheers,
  James

The CyberPoet <thecyberpoet at cyberpoet.net> wrote:
  I know that the pearlescent paints used on both of my last two Audi's 
is extremely expensive in terms of both paint supplies and labor 
compared to most automotive paints (even compared to most top-of-the- 
line paints). Last time I priced the OEM paint kit, it was somewhere 
well north of $1400 USD, which would be something in the £700 - £1k 
range for the paint alone (compared to about $800 for a typical top- 
of-the-line 5 coat paint system that uses a base, two color coats and 
two clear coats). As with all paint jobs, the quality of the paint 
job is directly related to the quality of the prep work, and that 
translates literally into hours of manpower.

The most idealized paint job would be an off-body bead-blast, rezinc 
coat, fill as necessary, primer, plus whatever top-coat system is OEM 
or better in quality, then replace all the trim. I've only run across 
one shop that doesn't normally work on historic restorations that 
would go to the detail level of removing the body parts and 
rezinc'ing them; the best you could normally hope for would be bead/ 
sand blast followed by the fill/primer/paint.

KNOW THIS:
A typical paint job needs to off-gas for 3+ months to attain full 
hardness and durability even if it was baked on for a day or two at 
the outset of the painting. Waxing or otherwise sealing the paint 
from the outside before it finishes curing will curse the paint to 
remaining soft and thus easily damaged.

Good luck!!
=-= Marc Glasgow

On Dec 25, 2006, at 5:06 AM, James Whitehouse wrote:

> In any case, I wondered if anyone had any experience of getting a 
> good,
> complete respray done on these cars. A friend of mine who's an Audi 
> mechanic
> reckoned about £2500 for a proper job with the windows out and trim 
> removed
> by a reputable shop where the job will last properly. I'm more 
> concerned
> that they'll have problems getting rid of the last semi-crappy job 
> though.
>
> Any thoughts, or anyone know of any 'master resprayers' in the UK?
>
> Cheers,
> James



 		
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