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I need both the passenger side doors on my X300 resprayed and I am wondering if I can avoid the nerve-racking hit and miss experience of trying to find a decent spray painter, by just asking my fellow Victorians if they can offer some recommendations.
I know it may be wishful thinking but I'm hoping there are painters out there that know our cars, have an eye for detail, and will not require me to take out a 2nd mortgage to utilize their services.
[QUOTE=Hawken;2435034]Good luck mate.
Bring it around when lockdown ends and I can give you a hand to Flat black it.
Thanks for the offer ken, Flat Black it is then if the overwhelming response is any indication of my chances. Anyone would think I was looking for a Unicorn or an honest mechanic !!
Hi Mike, I have 4 wheeled (non-Jag) resident in my stable at the moment in need of a roof respray. Scary just handing it over to an unknown, a rattle can might be preferable. There must be a unicorn out there somewhere, so I'm looking for similar recommendations. Buggered by the lockdown of course, but one day....plus we might even get to do this again!
My recommendation is B&A motors in Clayton, Victoria. They are BMW accredited, Tesla and Lexus approved. They used to paint the body kits for HSV. Pricing is reasonable but if it's quality you're after you won't go wrong!
Fantastic, that's perfect. Just so happens they're about 15 min up the road from me. I will give them a look and organise a quote once we are out of lockdown. Thank you for the recommendation. It may be a while but I'll get back with some feedback once it's done.
I went and had a chat with Dominic at B&A motors yesterday, I was impressed with the conversation and his honesty. He basically gave me a few options which come down to, How much do you want to spend? and how good, would you like the job? The consideration is where do you stop painting to blend the base coat and clear coat into the existing paintwork? He was suggesting that at one end of the scale to be perfect you could include the roof and rear guards (then possibly Boot/Trunk as well) as there isn't a clear line to stop painting on the rear pillar and blend without possibly causing an eye-watering point of noticeable colour difference. The other end of the scale he offered but said he was reluctant to do for the same reason was just mask the doors off and spray them exclusively.
The conversation then turned to making a distinction between my 95 X300 being a Classic worthy of an almost restoration or a daily drive not worth spending the money on
To murky the waters, there appears to be some bog on the rear driver's side door starting to come loose (From the previous owner ) that would require the same attention. On leaving Dom advised, I put some thought into it and suggested I could wait and leave it until the car needed more work to do it all at once. (more of a complete respray)
I'd like to hear if others have any experience or opinion on this advice. I'd also love to get any other recommendations for comparison.
Last edited by MikeyB10; Sep 6, 2021 at 08:59 PM.
Reason: more detail
Dominic is one of the owner's sons, a great bloke who will tell it to you straight. Unfortunately with new paint, no matter how well it's colour matched it will look different due to being fresh paint hence the need to blend.
Personally I don' think it looks too bad. (Well not bad enough to spend the $$$ for a decent job). I'd wait till it needed more work and get a complete respray and wouldn't recommend getting just the doors done. But it's your call.
Mike, Long time ago I had some associations with that industry, painters used to say red and silver were the hardest colours to address. Something to do with how the metal flakes lie in silver, and red being the colour most prone to fade. What you've been told is pretty standard re. panel blending i.e. where do you draw the line to avoid a line? I have known purists do a full body respray to fix one panel, thus avoiding colour differences. A really good painter can mix paint to match by eye but it's a rare skill, most use a computer code matching system which doesn't account for fade in the existing paint. The surest way to see colour difference really stand out is by painting only the offending panel without blending to adjacent panels. Another thing I remember being told (whether rightly or wrongly) is that vertical panels cast a different light to horizontal panels (and v.v.) so when refinishing a vertical panel it's best to at least do all adjacent vertical panels i.e. doors/wings/C pillar (blend to roof). Even new pin striping on one panel can stand out, so probably best to re-stripe the whole side. Anyhow, please don't go and act on that as the right 'advice', I'm only relaying the views of some painters I knew years ago! As for whether the car is worth the expense or not is entirely subjective in my view, only you can decide that based on your future intentions for the car.
I wish the people I knew in those days were still around or still on the job, which is why I'm now on the search too.
Thank you for your feedback and advice Tony and Dopey, I liked the Comment "where to draw the line to avoid the line" and Dopey's feedback, that he doesn't think it looks bad enough to warrant the $$$ at the moment.
With that said, I've decided that 1/ my X300 is worthy of a decent paint job and maintaining (hoping that the market value may catch up with that idea at some point) and 2/ as advised by Dominic and supported by Dopey, I can let the job ride for a while and will be happy to get a decent job done at later date. Thanks, Guys.
spray painter recommendations
) that would require the same attention. On leaving Dom advised, I put some thought into it and suggested I could wait and leave it until the car needed more work to do it all at once. (more of a complete respray) 
