Perth paint shops

[halz]

I wll soon have need of a bodyshop in Perth to attend to a few repairs and perform a repaint of my new Z. Can any Perthites out there recommend a bodyshop that is 'tame' and sympathetic to older cars? If you have a favourite you can recommend I would be interested to hear who they are...

Thanks

[Mr Camouflage]

I recommend you do it yourself at home in your garage.

I've been stripping pannels from my 240 and 260 and finding what i consider bad workmanship. Heaps of bog, straight onto bare metal, when the dent could have been knocked out in the first place.

What needs doing Hayden?

[halz]

The car is very straight - no evience of a major (or minor) whack in its life. I was repainted once in its life about 15 years ago in the original colour. There is an area of bad rust in the lower rear of the driver's door and smaller bubbles in the sills and the top of one guard.. but these look minor, especially when you consider that they have taken 15 years to develop. There is no rust in the floor, chassis, hatch or under the battery box.

I firmly believe in getting a professional to attend to bodywork - I can handle most mechanical issues but bodywork is too important to be left to a backyard effort (IMO). When you look at your car, 90% of what you see is paint. It therefore has to be as close to perfect as possible or else you will always be apologising for imperfections on your car.

Now, most panel shops love to focus on new cars - easy to repair, panels and parts readily available, not much thought or craftnvolved. Older cars demand a little patience, xperience an skill. Are you sure that the dodgy repairsyouare finding were not done by a previous owner in his garage? It is for this reason that I'm asking if anyone knows of a reputable panel shop in Perth. One happy to work carefully on an older car...

[Gav240z]

Originally posted by halz

The car is very straight - no evience of a major (or minor) whack in its life.

Are you sure Halz did you read my post when I looked at the bonnet on your car I saw an all too familiar site, It looked as if the bonnet had been knocked at some stage?

I firmly believe in getting a professional to attend to bodywork - I can handle most mechanical issues but bodywork is too important to be left to a backyard effort (IMO). When you look at your car, 90% of what you see is paint. It therefore has to be as close to perfect as possible or else you will always be apologising for imperfections on your car.

So true I always thought this way but my new bonnet is not up to scratch after taking it to a professional , and I've decided to try out doing it myself.

I think about it this way, if you take your car to a body shop they will do what needs to be done. It's all about time the sooner it's out the sooner they get money and get another car in. It's after all a business, now if you have a go at it you can take your time and redo any areas your unhappy about. Now I know body work is definately not easy infact i'm scared to try myself but like anything practice makes perfect so that's why I'd like to give it a shot.

It's a difficult decision I know I'm still trying to decide, I haven't found a body shop I've been overly comftable with just yet I think the best thing is to have a friend in the game who can help you out with it.

The final thing to consider is finding the time and money which is one reason I guess I'd go to a body shop.

Oh and if your going with 2 pack paint then you'll need to go professional I guess, if it's just acrylic might consider doing it yourself.

As for a body shop ask Cyong Nyugen his Z looks pretty sweet.

Good luck!

[halz]

Gav,

I read your post and replied to it too - the bonnet looked fine in real life.

It's a difficult decision

...

Its not a difficult decision for me. I know those guys are running a business and time is money. A bit more money therefore will buy you a bit more time..and hopefully a quality job. The hard part is finding who to use.

Sureley there is someone out there in Perth who has used a panel shop they can recommend???

[Gav240z]

I see your point of view as I said I'd like to give body work a go myself and if I'm unhappy with it then I guess I'll leave it to the pros but everything is worth a shot once.

[Alfadog]

But you see Gavin, you're young and naive! (like me)

It just depends on your budget I guess, of money and of time. If you get a good bodyshop the results will show. Both on your car and your wallet. Just depends on your priorities

Yeah Hayden like Gav said why not give Cuong a dingle? :classic:

[Z Kid]

If you guys think you can go out with no skills and get a good paintjob, you are fooling yourselves, I have painted three cars, all with the help/advice of a friend who is a boat spray painter at various stages, and sure it looks easy but its not. Halz in regards to your problem, I would email Cuong, as he is/was a panel beater and should be able to put you onto the guys who did the work on his car (which is the best paintjob I have ever seen on a Z).

The other thing is that to get a good durable finsih, two pac paint is the way to go, and thats an Isocyanite based job. I'd rather it killed them than killed me. If you want to have a go do, but remember you can screw up your car beyond help doing it yourself.

Good luck, but my money would be on asking Cuong

PS Depending on the type of bog it is, some bog is meant to be applied directly to bare metal, and the damage from just bogging it up is often less than that of a hammer wielding amateur.

[drunkenmaster]

Originally posted by Gav240z

I think about it this way, if you take your car to a body shop they will do what needs to be done. It's all about time the sooner it's out the sooner they get money and get another car in. It's after all a business, now if you have a go at it you can take your time and redo any areas your unhappy about.

I think this is why you need to find a body shop and not an accident repairer. Its hard to do, but some people still take pride in their work and know how to do more than order a new 1/4 panel from the OEM.

[halz]

I've pm'd Cuong

[Cuong Nguyen]

Hello Hayden, Gavin, Lachlan, Chris, James and all...

In my limited experience I WOULD take the car to a good panel shop to do your repairs. From talking to Hayden I think that he would accept nothing but a high quality repair and refinish.

It would be much more costly to try and buy all the correct tools like a MIG welder, panel hammer, dollies, air compressor, gravity fed paint gun, spray booth, masking paper, masking tape, metal file, paint, primer, etc....

It is VERY hard to find a good panel shop - as it is to find a good mechanic or doctor!

I once had a guy that I thought was good on restorations working on my car, gave him a $1,000 deposit to commence work on the 240Z. Once I saw what he did on other customers cars, I called a tilt tray truck and took my car home that day. I never got my money back

After months of asking people in the trade (I did a panel beating apprenticeship) I finally found a place that I was comfortable with leaving them to spray the paint on. I used Dellaporte Smash Repair in Balcatta (ask for Mark Dellaporte and mention my car) because they used Glasurit paint (which I believe is among the best) It took them about 6 months to get the car back to me (even though all the panel work had ALREADY been done by me) because they admitted that they werent prepared to take on the job as insurance rate smash repairs are more profittable, so a project would have to be a time filler.

I would also recommend The Body Shop in O'malley St Osborne Park (see Domenic Di Domenico) but they arent cheap. That is where I did my time. They are a European car specialist (do heaps of work for Alf Barbagallo on Audi, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo etc) and also do LHD to RHD conversions on 911 Porsche. Restored a Ferrari 512 BB whilst there as well

It all comes down to money... and plenty of it!

Good luck and I will see you at the next zed meeting to see your car!

Cuong

[Gee]

I've been checking out places to have my zed done and they're basically not interested. It seems that quite a number are not panel beaters per se anymore, more like "panel replacers". Most gave me a similar answer to Cuong and said that the work would be a time filler between jobs as insurance claims are more profitable. I've had a friend just get his zed back after getting resprayed (here in Melb) after they said it would be done between jobs and it took them 17 weeks to finish.

Another friend of mine ended up taking a panelbeater to the small claims after 18 months with little or no work done (and the deposit paid).

I'm probably going to get my respray done by a guy who now works solely from home on the bodywork and then rents proper spray booths to do the gun work in 2 pac. He used to work for a panelbeater but found he could work from home and make more money. He doesn't advertise and you basically have to book in. Thing is, he said the turnaround would be about 2 weeks.

The general price I was quoted from a panel shop was $4k.

The price he quoted is more like $2k. I'll take plenty of photos of mine before and after and you can judge for yourselves. He was even happy for me to turn up at every stage of the process so I might do that too.

I don't know the guy so you'll all see the results pretty much the same time I do.. if the work's good I'll be happy to refer. He's in Melb so I guess this info is most useful to people like Gav etc...

I wouldn't do the bodywork myself, I've seen too many people stuff it up..