Shocked at paint cost!

[ricky s]

Last week took my obsidian black W211 car to local MB approved paint shop to look at some scratches on my boot lid, and whilst there also asked how much to respray my bonnet, due to a few stone chips. They E mailed me the cost this week, and I was shocked. To attempt to polish out the boot lid scratches (no guarantee), and respray the bonnet, £960. Now I am very fussy and want a first class finish, and quite frankly expected prehaps £500 which I would have happily paid, but £960. Could anyone advise to weather these are the type of costs that first class respraying costs these days, Their qoute, involves, removing front bumper, removing and replacing side wing V8 badges, which I assumme is so that the paint is rolled over the wings to blend in?, I thought a black bonnet would be resprayed black with no mis matching, but obviously wrong, seems I may be a little out of touch on these matters.

 

[Mr Teddy Bear]

That seems excessive. I paid 1100 two years ago for bonnet/four wheel arches.
Both r/w/a 's subsequently needed redoing, so make sure they understand that you intend keeping the car. I think I would shop around for an independent bodyshop to be honest.

 

[Bolide]

£960 is £817 + VAT. Allow about £120 for materials and you get £700 labour. Stripping & refitting will account for most of this cost

What's their labour rate? If you go somewhere with a much lower labour rate your bill will go down a lot. But I suspect finding a good paint shop with a much lower labour rate will prove impossible in Sussex

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[jibcl500]

Expensive, ive just paid £300 for front and rear bumper on a CL500 and the front bumper had plenty of stone chips.
jib

 

[Xtractorfan]

Expensive yes.. but plently of people will pay it ...There is no need with todays waterbased paints to flash in other panels ..Odsidian black is a colour that works extremely well if there is a slight difference in the colour match....
I would be wary of anyone who told me that to repaint a bonnet that the front end of the car needed repainting..

 

[television]

As Xtractorfan,, that black is an easy match and that price is way over the top,,

 

[teabag]

Last week took my obsidian black W211 car to local MB approved paint shop to look at some scratches on my boot lid, and whilst there also asked how much to respray my bonnet, due to a few stone chips. They E mailed me the cost this week, and I was shocked. To attempt to polish out the boot lid scratches (no guarantee), and respray the bonnet, £960. Now I am very fussy and want a first class finish, and quite frankly expected prehaps £500 which I would have happily paid, but £960. Could anyone advise to weather these are the type of costs that first class respraying costs these days, Their qoute, involves, removing front bumper, removing and replacing side wing V8 badges, which I assumme is so that the paint is rolled over the wings to blend in?, I thought a black bonnet would be resprayed black with no mis matching, but obviously wrong, seems I may be a little out of touch on these matters.

Exactly 1 year ago I asked MB Stockton to repaint the bonnet of my S350 at my cost before I took delivery of the car as it had a few stonechips which would have really annoyed me as the rest of the car was in pristine conditon.

The colour was Obsidian Black and the 3-4 millimetre panel gap meant that any half shade colour difference between adjacent panels would not be noticed.

They quoted me £320 to paint and refit the bonnet which I accepted, so I would expect to pay around £300 to have the boot lid repainted at the same time as there are a few more bits to remove and replace to complete this job.

Forget about the polish to the boot lid (without guarantee) and have it repainted at the same time.

My bonnet looks no different to the rest of the car 12 months down the line so I consider it money well spent.

However, at £960, I certainly would be looking elswhere to have the work done.

 

[SimonRaf]

Absolute rip off. Definately look for a good bodyshop. Have you asked for a quote from any other Mercedes bodyshop. I have heard there can be a big variance in cost between Dealerships ?

 

[ricky s]

Thankyou all for the advice, basically reconfirming that this costs appears over the top, someone has PM me, (thankyou Chris), with a well thoiught off indie, who is not far from me, so will pop in and see him. As per the advice will also get the boot lid done as well, those seagull scratches are driving me mad. Intresting that it is felt that the wings do not need to be blended in, from your own previous experience, I recall another paint shop telling me a couple of years back when respraying the bonnet of the wifes silver coloured C class, that if the car had been black their would be no need to blend in the wings, as they did with the silver colour. Confusion! thanks for all the advice again.

 

[lozcb]

Here in Milton Keynes (land of the MB head office) i went through similar with one of the mercs when the missus had a slight 5mph hiccup bumper to bumper on the Mway , resulted in It being repaired by Wayside Audi main repairers who then farmed it out next door to Al Shaws a local excellent body shop who do a lot of high end stuff , no problem for me as i know him well and he does work on my Maserati's aswell , but shows you how much they are making if two people can take a slice of the top of the cake , definately shop about


regards loz

 

[as400]

My bonnet needs doing as well so I will be playing the 'hunt for a decent quote game'.

What is the process here?...do they do a bare metal respray? or is the paint blown over?..is any polish applied after? will it be shiny or need a waxing?

 

[Xtractorfan]

They only do bare metal repaints if the original paint is in bad condition or the panel has been painted a few times before.. The finish should be good when you get the car back..most bodyshops flat and polish the paint...some dont.. generally they dont apply wax as fresh paint can still contain solvents which need to evaporate before waxing.. so always leave fresh or new paintwork a few weeks before waxing..

 

[Top Cat]

As above - i had a few quotes here in Milton Keynes for my bonnet to be resprayed on my 190E and it varied from £225 from a chips away type place (although they would do the work in their premises over a few days) to close on £400 from a top class insurance approved bodyshop (all prices inc VAT), so stay well away from the likes of the £900 quotes that you might hear. Oh and thats for a pale blue metallic which was 19 years old and very likely faded from the factory original shade, and in all cases also included blending into the tops of the wings as well.

 

[Bolide]

As above - i had a few quotes here in Milton Keynes for my bonnet to be resprayed on my 190E and it varied from £225 from a chips away type place (although they would do the work in their premises over a few days) to close on £400 from a top class insurance approved bodyshop (all prices inc VAT)

You're not comparing like with like. The OP stated it involved removing & refitting the front bumper & other work

Without knowing the number of hours involved in each job, and the hourly rate, you can't make a comparison

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[Xtractorfan]

I have never known a case where the front bumper had to be removed to repaint a bonnet... This would appear to be a case of lets see how we can justify charging 900quid.. I wonder what they remove to change a wheel..The wing??

 

[lozcb]

You're not comparing like with like. The OP stated it involved removing & refitting the front bumper & other work

Without knowing the number of hours involved in each job, and the hourly rate, you can't make a comparison

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

I use high end body shops all the time, Why would anyone want to remove a perfectly good wing and bumper for blending in purposes when the primary job is painting the bonnet , the wing and bumper can be left in situ and the rest masked up it happens all the time in the best of body shops , some one is pulling the wool over your eyes and trying to justify the £900 , oh and keep well clear of chips away if you value your pride and joy , the standard required is often rarely there ,

regards loz

 

[Bolide]

I use high end body shops all the time, Why would anyone want to remove a perfectly good wing and bumper for blending in purposes

Unfortunately the OP hasn't given us much to go on

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[Dosco]

, oh and keep well clear of chips away if you value your pride and joy , the standard required is often rarely there ,

regards loz

I think you are being a tad unfair in saying that. As long as you use them just for the chips and scratch repair they do a fair to good job - but I would agree that they are not for full panel respraying.

 

[octanejunkie]

Some samrt repair companies are quite poor. Word of mouth is the best way to find a good one. Some are fantastic and worth their weight in gold.

A bodyshop should repaint the item you want done, refit it, and cut it back and polish it to match the rest of the car.
In my eyes, a decent bonnet paintjob should come in at around the £300 mark, and slightly less for the boot. I'd be looking at paying £500 for both.
Prep work shouldn't be too involved, as its not like you're changing the colour or the type of paint. You might pay a bit more for damage repair or a complete colour change, but not for this kind of thing.

 

[lozcb]

I think you are being a tad unfair in saying that. As long as you use them just for the chips and scratch repair they do a fair to good job - but I would agree that they are not for full panel respraying.

Using chips away for the higher end stuff , i'd compare to buying tools at B and Q you dont even get what you pay for ,

It might look okay for a month or two but when its all weathered and the paint has sunk you'll regret not paying that little bit more and going to a proper tool shop , mark my words

Smart repairs and paintless dent removal are in a different class on their own , try to get the number of one from a good local body shop, they use them all the time for small dents , If your near MK give me a pm i can give you a couple guys who are well cheap and do extremely good work for the trade only


regards loz