Peter,
I have recently gone through this process over the last 8 months.
Unfortunately, it was not that I decided it was time to repaint my car, I had
an altercaton with a Volvo wagon. Being a glass is half-full guy (I know that
is hard to believe for someone who owns an LBC), I decided I would make the
best of it and get myself a good paint job while the insurance company was
picking up part of the tab.
Since my car was going to require replacement of the right inner fender, front
valance and right wheel arch, I decided that I wanted a body shop to do that
work and the final paint. Then it happened. I came down with a serious case of
Shipwright's disease. I decided that it I was going to do it right, that meant
stripping the paint to the metal and also painting the trunk and engine
compartment. So then it made perfect sense to pull the engine and transmission.
I found someone locally who had painted British cars and got a price. It was
$1,850 for base coat, clear coat. This price included $250 to make sure the
frame was straight and about $70 for a 4 wheel alignment.
The doors, fenders, hood, trunk and windshield were removed and I used aircraft
quality paint stripper to remove the exterior paint. I primed with a good
quality self-etching primer. I sanded the trunk and engine compartment and
painted both when the car returned last week. I am just starting to put it back
together and have a few things to do to the engine (thrust washers, rear seal)
and transmission (front seal, new front gaskets and rear OD seal) before I drop
in the engine.
I am very pleased with the result and even though I did not do a body-off paint
job, I still got a quality job that looks like a body-off. Plus I contributed
by doing the trunk and engine compartment that I can always point to with pride
and yet I got a first class two stage paint job on the rest of the car. I went
back with the same color (Pimento) but I will have to say that the new paint
color has more red in it than the old color appeared to have. Actually I am
more pleased with it than the original.
Good luck.
John Shewmake
'74 TR6
Chattanooga, TN
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