heh guys

Just wondering if I find the right XJS but the color blows, is it expensive to get a complete respray/colour change?

Have any of you guys had a simliar experience?

I personally love the racing green myself

 

It all depends on the shop.

You can go to Maaco and get a respray for dirt cheap.

You can go to a busy independent and pay an arm and a leg.

If you can find a good shop at a slow time (now?) you can probably get a better price.

I needed my hood resprayed a couple of years ago to resolve a crazing issue I bought the car with. I settled on a shop that did it for $1,500. Sent me pictures with progress and I got to see the hood down to bare metal...cool.

At the time he had offered to do the whole car at $3,500. I should have taken him up on it, but I had just spent a ton on an addition, blah blah blah

I'm sure he would have done a good job based on how the hood came out.

Others here want absolute perfection. Nothing less than a $10,000 job would be satisfactory. Those places exist and can also be worth it.

Just not to me.

The question is what are you willing to live with?

Ask around. check Yelp. Bring the car to a few places and ask them for a number. You'll probably get a large range. It'll be up to you on who you think will do the best job for the money.

 

Owning a bodyshop I can agree with Vee's comments. We normally send customers to the local Maaco if they want a complete repaint and only have $500-1500.00. We shoot everything using Diamont and our pricing starts at 7K and goes up to as much at 12K. The biggest thing is are they going to remove all the trim to do the repaint. Anyone (Maaco) can just mask and paint. We and any other more reputable shop, will de trim the whole vehicle prior to any priming or painting.


Your other option is to have the vehicle wrapped in vinyl. Vinyl wraps are becoming more and more popular as the cost is much less than a standard repaint. While the $1200-3000.00 is most likely less than a repaint it is something that only covers the exterior panels, isn't a complete (door, hood and trunk jam) change. Also, they have limited availability of gloss colors. Most are satin finish like you see on later model modified cars.


Hope this help at least a little.

 

Maaco does a reasonable jog for $1,000-$1,500. Just the exterior body with little or no body damage to fix. If you just want a car that looks fairly good and are going to drive it frequently, that is the better way to go. A show car is a different matter.
RafJag

 

Be aware that all MAACO's are independent franchises and the quality of their work varies greatly. Some do good work others, not so much. The best way to find a painter in your area is to network with other car guys. Go to a car show, swap meet, or just ask around. Sometimes you can find someone doing great paint jobs working out of his home. Just some thoughts.

 

I manage a body shop so I deal with this every day. As the previous poster said who owns a body shop a higher level job is in the $ 7K to $12K range. I would caution anyone to really look into taking a car like a Jaguar XJS to a shop like Maaco. Maaco has it's place in the market but as the saying goes you get what you pay for. Maaco is really geared to handle quick inexpensive resprays for say a car you want to sell quickly or used car lots etc. That being said Maaco has put a real push on trying to get a bigger share of the insurance work but it is hard for a shop that does a certain level of work to switch gears and do a different level of work. Kind of like going to Burger King and asking them to cook your hamburger longer than the 1,000 they just made that day-they are geared to do things a certain way and that is why you can get a whopper for three dollars over a burger at a local diner for nine bucks.

Most people who are not working on cars for a living really understand how expensive it is to get quality work done like repainting a car or upholstery work etc. That is why I have said time and time again to never under estimate what it will cost to bring a car like the Jaguar XJS up to the condition that most of us would be satisfied with. I do not think most of us on this forum would be satisfied with a ratty, beat up Jaguar but many of us are lured into buying a low priced car to get started. I see this happen over and over because if say the average price of a 1989 XJS convertible in excellent condition with lower miles is say around $10K or so in North America, well some will think what a great buy an average to below condition one is with high miles for say $3K. Well, when a good complete paint job alone costs $7K to $12k you can easily see why you would have been much better to just spend the $10K to begin with.

The general rule of thumb is buy the best you can afford and I would add that if what you really want is a bit over what you have to spend right now, be patient and save more to get what you really want. In the end you will be able to get so much more for the money then if you try to save by buying a car that is not what you want just to save money. We are at a spot right now in the values of XJS' in North America where the price of a nice XJS with lower miles is equal to the price of a complete repaint on one. This will not continue forever but be very careful buying a poor condition Jaguar as in most cases it just does not make dollars and sense.