drnick

mike, my experience with a shop was similar to yours right down to buying a second chark while it was being done! big job, especialy if you are changing the colour.. i bought my third shark on its exterior colour and condition alone.

blown 87

That is so true.

Sometimes you have no choice in it if you want your car to look nice.
Mine looks ok from 20 feet, but up close, it is showing it's 20 years, so it is off to paint as soon as I can get a few more things off of it.

John V

Mike-

I shudder when I think about some of the issues that I ran into. I'll share the one that stands out in my mind as one of the worst ... the bumpers. I pulled the little rubber lip seals that go between the bumpers and body to make sure the paint went under them and to renew them. Those seals are just stapled onto the bumpers. Imagine all the prep in those flexible bumpers, the flexible primer, flexible paint, flexible clear, wet sand and polish without cutting through anything... lilterally days of work into each one. Then you get the new rubber lip, the monel staples (can't use regular because of rust) and as you struggle to get that lip on there perfect, one of the staples shoots THROUGH the bumper face destroying all your work.

Now you'd think- how could you be so careless? Next time you look at your bumper, look how the outer faces of each bumper slope inward- toward the strips - if you run the staples in perpendicular to the strips mounting face, IT WILL SHOOT OUT THE BUMPER FACE. You have to angle the staple so that it travels parralel to the pumper face- not perpendicular to the strip mounting face. OK- figured that out- pull the strip back off, refinish the bumper (easier to write it than to do it). And start again with the seals. 3/4 of the way through- no staple pops but I start to detect an occasional bump near some staples. WTF!!! come to find out, standard monel staples have a chisel edge thats designed to twist each leg in opposite directions as they go in. The leg that had the chisel cut that deflected towards the bumper face, was in some cases, bulging the bumper and paint. You come this far and you can't let that go so off everything comes and you start again!

This crap happened in so many aspects of painting this car that it's not a fond memory for me.

Chris

When I had mine done I did the dis-assembly and re-assembly except for the lower plastic mouldings and the black trim around the door windows. I hate to think what the labor would have cost at the body shop for all of that.

Per John's comment a crap load of money was spent on the prep of the bumpers, removing the old paint (there were evidently ~3 coats on the rear-bumper), filling, priming, repairing hairline cracks ... I have heard there are places you can get them dipped in a chemical solution but that type of facility is not available here.

I would go and drop by every other week to check on progress and for the amount of work they had to put in the price was pretty good.

For the record my old paint job was shot, beyond the point of no return.

Chris

BC

Thanks for that info John. I have not put the beading back on the 78's bumpers because the stapling method was puzzling.

Mrmerlin

when you get the stapes you need 1/4 in. with flat edges on the ends, as stated above if you use the chisel ends the staples will twist into the PU cover and cause other damage.
Note once you install the staples take a small hammer with a 3/8 drive extension and tap the staples home, if they are sticking out then it can cause fitment issues.
Also get some 3M paint protectant film and put a strip onto the metal painted portion where the PU cover seats, this will prevent the staples from wearing through the paint and causing corrosion.
Ref Stanley PN TRA204T these fit a Arrow JT21 stapler

Nicole

Whether you paint it yourself or have someone do it - you need about $2k in rubber and trim pieces.

slate blue

The staples I use are stainless steel, or rust resistant steel, I have steel shops that use mild steel. On a another note, why do we never hear back from these people who paint there cars? It sounded like a disaster about to happen reading about it. The OP sounded a bit inexperienced and this is possibly the biggest painting job out there, not to be under estimated. It is very hard to match the factory finish.

Greg

Nicole

Ooops - I had not noticed that this thread is 2 years old.

BC

My car is painted and has been since.... 2005. The bumpers are not on yet. But they will be soon, and I dread that staple issue. I don't think John V even has his 928 any more.

milwaukeeshark

Isn't there an automotive adhesive that will attach the bead without the use of staples?

Mrmerlin

since the beads are kind of a press fit, once the bumper covers get hot from sitting in the sun, if they are not mechanically held there is a chance that a glue might not hold .

Where to find the stainless staples Greg??

slate blue

I have plenty of them, you pay the postage I will send you some to do a couple of cars.

Greg

Mrmerlin

Greg, thanks,how much is postage???
I am in USA Colorado 80013

slate blue

It wont be much, around, here's a link.

http://www1.auspost.com.au/pac/int_parcel_select.asp

I put the weight at under 250 grams, again I will have to weigh the parcel, registration costs about $10 if you want it,(Otherwise no garrantees) otherwise my guess it will be at least $10 for postage but shouldn't be more than $15.

I leave the country on Monday before the post office opens,(Saturday arvo here now) back on the 5th of November. I might be able to get someone else to post it but can't garrantee it. I will have dig out the staples from the garage in the parents house, won't be a problem I know where they are.

As to the supplier I bought them many years ago (Can't remember) when I repainted both my 928s, the problem was that I had to buy so many of them, over a $100 worth, I gave half to my trimmer and ever since giving them to people painting there cars.

Greg