My hood is a travesty and needs repainting. Anyone recommend a good shop local to NoVA? Any idea how much it might cost? Thanks!

 

Mr. Spoiler in Manassass does great work... I've heard this many times. I think he's kinda expensive and gets backed up with with work sometimes though.

 

Mr. Spoiler all the way. He is expensive, but then again, I wouldn't trust any Joe Schmoe w/ an aluminum hood It ain't the easiest thing to work on. Tell him Ramy sent you, and he'll take care of you www.mrspoiler.com

~Ramy

 

Thanks guys I'll check it out!

 

Your going to get different answers to anyone you ask. I personally know nothing of Mr. Spoiler but there are some really good guys working at Color Crafters in Clinton Md.
There is nothing out of the ordinary about painting an alluminum hood Ramy. I painted mine and did not run into any problems. What exactly are you talking about?

 

So...does anyone know what a "typical" complete repaint costs, assuming it's the same color (or close to) as original? Not a Maaco job, but not a flawless show quality job either.

 

I just got a quote to paint a front and rear bumper, drivers fender and fix a scrach on the rear hatch. The price was 1600 and this was a hookup from.

 

Of course you'll get different answers, but in my book, what it really comes down to is two things: experience painting, and experience with the car. Dan Rose of Mr. Spoiler has BOTH. He was a factory certified body repair specialist (not just the guy who replaces panels, but can actually REPAIR panels, such as mangled 1/4 panels etc. That's a dying breed. Most guys can replace like no other...but repairing is an art. It takes a lot of skill.

Secondly, Dan's repaired and worked on more FD's than anyone in the Mid-Atlantic region, hands down. That's an uncontestable fact. I don't get paid to refer people to him lol, but I value other ppl's FD's like my own. I've personally seen half-*** repair jobs not from bad work ethic, but lack of familiarity w/ the car. That, and Dan's work is simply top notch. I'm talking show quality.

Oh really Dan? Always tryin to bust my chops hehe Is that why Acura only contracts with shops that are authorized and factory trained/certified to work on aluminum cars such as the NSX (ditto w/ the Audi A8, etc)? Elite Autohaus in Jessup, MD is one of those shops. And yes, it's FACTORY authorization that they receive.

Plus, you can't just sand down paint on a hood like you would on a body panel. It'll dent it. You have to strip the paint, and know how to properly prep the aluminum. I've seen the process, and know a fair amount about body work myself Dave. Just cuz I don't do it myself doesn't mean I don't know.

A typical GOOD paint job should run you about five grand. A top notch job will press into the $7K+ range. Maaco will do it for $220 If you wanna see a Maaco job, come check out my FB. I bought it like that. You can see where the paint wasn't stripped, and it was resprayed on top of the existing old paint. There are crack marks underneath, although the surface paint is 100% intact. ONLY way to get that out is to strip/sand down the panel to the metal, and start new.

Front bumper: $300. Rear bumper: $300. Fender: $300. Paint match door and rear quarter panel on both sides: $600. Throw in hatch scratch (buff or small spot repair w/ paint match) for $100. Total: $1600. How far off am I, Pat?

Keep in mind that good body shops NEVER repaint removable parts on the car. Why? If you paint a fender on the car, you won't get paint all around the edge, where the bumper and fender meets. That part will weather and eventually crack/flake. And there goes your paintjob. So a good bit of cost goes into labor for pulling off panels and body parts.

Dan's got a contract w/ Lexus...they send him their harder jobs. I remember watching him work on a Lexus SUV that was keyed all across one side. He was showing me how he's gotta take off the bumper to paint it, gotta take off ALL the trim, weathering, door handles, etc on both doors, gotta take off the rear bumper, and of course all of the lights, reflectors etc, b/c you want the paint to go around those edges as well (no you don't just tape them off). You were looking at hundreds of dollars in labor alone. Then comes paint costs...so it adds up really quickly when you do the job RIGHT.

~Ramy

 

You know, if you pull the parts yourself and do all the prep work yourself it cost signifigantly less

Hey, Ramy, is that your car featured as the first on the picture page, with a Mr Spoiler licence plate?

 

Seeing it done and actually doing it are two different things. My old man owned and operated a body shop for 12 years and I have been in and around painting most of my life. Ramy even though I do not paint cars for a living I do have a good concept of what is involved. Not to mention I have painted a few parts and a car for myself.
There is no need to strip off alluminum to paint it. So long as the prep work is done properly. I did however strip paint off mine last time I painted it. It's not difficult to brush on air craft remover and wash with denatuerd alcohol or thinner. All that is required then is to spray with self etching primer before the fill primer to prevent rust. It's not that involved and like I said it is optional to strip the paint completely in the first place. You could use a DA to sand the paint of an alluminum part so long as you don't go gorilla on it but that is the hard way to do it. Paint stripped is a hell of a lot faster.





This is not because the paint was not stripped. The scratches or cracks showed through the clear because the prep work was not done properly to the base coat. The base cost will shrink as it dries. You generally will have to do three to four passes with the base coat and sand between coats to get the sand paper scrathes to hide. This is after the body and prime work has been done. So long as that is done the body work will hide just fine and you do not have to strip the paint entirely.


You are right on the money here. A good paint job is not cheap.

-Dave (Fd3BOOST) @ PFSupercars.

 

I know Dave I didn't doubt you.

True.

Yep. I hear the marine remover's pretty darn good too.

And kinda cool to watch as it just bubbles up

Understood & agreed. What I meant was, I don't think my FB even had prep work done to it. I think the guy I bought it from saw it had real bad paint fade from sitting all these years, washed it, took it in to Maaco, had 'em spray on a thin nice new coat, and called it a day. And now I see the effects of that. Sucks.

Esp. clearcoat. That stuff's pretty expensive...

Aru? You just using their computer, or do you now work there??

 

No I am just up here today. Ray is working on my map some.

 

Dan @ Mr. Spoiler is great... I've seen him do some nice work, inclding my RE front bumper. It doesn't match perfectly, but silver is tough.

When I had my car resprayed a few years ago, I used Brown's Mazda in Fairfax, mainly because they were cheaper, and weren't booked for two months at the time. It was significanly cheaper, and I think they did a pretty nice job, and i'm pretty happy with it. However, i've seen a silver car that Dan did, and it was a cut above, no question.

Another option is Wagonworks in Springfield... they are top notch, but E X P E N S I V E. Try $8k for a paint job.

 

Dan is the man. I had my FD painted over a year ago. I have well over 80 some pictures documenting how he did it. But if you want your FD painted properly then this is the guy. He took my car down to the bones, stripped it, fixed some dents that I couldn't even see, wet sanded, wet sanded again and then applied a tri-coat polyeurothane vintage red with two coats of clear. This thing is immaculate. In addition, he replaced all of the gromets and weather stripping. He got me a new windshield. He also painted the interior components black to restore them to original look. Replaced the gauge bezels so they looked new. I am very proud of the paint job that he put on this car. You can see it in the picture. He does have great guys working for him that know how to take apart and put back together an FD. Besides, he is an FD owner himself.

My job took over 4 1/2 months and it cost close to $9000. But I had saved up and wanted the best. He can do some things with in your budget. But if you want a good paint job you are going to pay for it.

 

repairing cars that are made from aluminum and painting parts are completly different, they have been using aluminum hoods for a loooooooooong time now, way before Acura and when honda was not even making cars yet.

Imagine taking your 20 year old car to some hot shot "certified" shop to get a respray!


now repairing cars made of aluminum in the event of a crash are a different story.
all they really require is a dedicated work area to keep any dust from working on metals that rust seperate and the obvious welding requirements.

 

My '70 MGB GT had an aluminum hood, and my buddys '59 Turner 950S has aluminum doors and Austin Healy's had aluminum doors too. The brits used aluminum quite a bit way back when... Just make sure tht no one tries to media blast it (although I've heard that baking soda works well).

My advice is to drive a little further out of the DC area and you will save quite a bit of money. Rent on a comercial building in that area is not cheap and that cost gets passed on to the customer.

B.

 

Any idea what happened to this place? I have been trying to call them since you guys replied originally. At first all I ever got was a machine. Now the number's disconnected.

Thanks!

 

I just talked to Dan yesterday about a paintjob.

Are you calling (703) 257-7387*?

 

Yup, that's the one. It was disconnected when I called a few hours ago. Previously I had left messages on the machine and never got a call back.

edit: as of 4:30 today it's still not going through.

 

I just called and got the answering machine. You're doing something wrong :-)

 

Yea man...I was just over there, and will prob be going back tomarrow...

~Ramy

PS: Inside secret (don't say you heard it from me): when they're working, and Dan's wife has left for the day (past 3 pm or so), they'll NEVER pick up your call unless you call 2 - 3 times back to back (They're busy working).