Painting dilema

[TonyS9]

Need some devil avocates / opinion etc.

So my Green 940 driver door has been destroyed by a lady driver not paying attention and all amicable so far, she is very sorry etc, no question of fault. She was driving a 17yo pug 2xx

The paint and body is in bad shape overall, but recoverable and I had been promising myself a passenger side wing (from spares car with a small rust repair by me), a bonnet respray (wing and bonnet are grey but mostly mint), rear qty repair and paint (previous owner 17yr ago damage + mates wife danage) and to fix a dent in the front right wing.

I have a perfect door thanks to Andy that needs painted.

With this in mind I got a quote of £600 for the door painting including blending, with a total quote of £1800 for about half the car painted well. Its a good shop and well renowned locally. Splitting the accident damage and my improvements painter reckons £500 to her is fair. Still seems alot to me, not blending is probably <£300, which still seems like alot.

I'm not looking to stick the arm in, but also worried about if she has to go through insurance. Do I ask her for £500 and see what happens, or do I look for green door on the mainland and pay shipping instead of painting and forget the whole painting thing with it costing more than the car is worth and all that.

[Forrest]

Personally, I wouldn’t go for the blending especially if the adjacent panels are sound. The new paint will never be as good or hard wearing as the original.

For the DIY wing replacement that I described here I had a new Volvo wing painted at mates rates by a friend in the trade. He does have a scanner that enables him to match the finish very closely though.

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=305218

He told me years ago that trade price was £100 per panel so even allowing for inflation there’s quite a bit of profit in the prices you’ve been quoted.

[volvo always]

On my 1996 Volvo 940 I could do with getting the rear quarter and bonnet repainted but seriously would never be worth it with 200,000 miles. Can't ever see it being worth 1k due to miles.

If I won the lottery then possibly, but being sensible, not worth it financially.

your quote seems high. My Toyota Auris paint isn't a patch on the 940.

I would as you say find a door in the right colour.

James.

[TonyS9]

Originally Posted by volvo always

On my 1996 Volvo 940 I could do with getting the rear quarter and bonnet repainted but seriously would never be worth it with 200,000 miles. Can't ever see it being worth 1k due to miles.

If I won the lottery then possibly, but being sensible, not worth it financially.

your quote seems high. My Toyota Auris paint isn't a patch on the 940.

I would as you say find a door in the right colour.

James.

Mine is also 95 and 200K.

I don't ever expect to make money on the 940, but I did do a full restoration on the 360, it cost less that that for the paint, in and out, but it wasn't a great job. I'll also be doing all the dissassembly/reassembly.

It does seem pricey. Another place quote £1300 for more or less the same but no blending on the other side, but they have a bad reputation.

[volvo always]

Originally Posted by TonyS9

Mine is also 95 and 200K.

I don't ever expect to make money on the 940, but I did do a full restoration on the 360, it cost less that that for the paint, in and out, but it wasn't a great job. I'll also be doing all the dissassembly/reassembly.

It does seem pricey. Another place quote £1300 for more or less the same but no blending on the other side, but they have a bad reputation.

I'm going to keep mine as long as possible, so if like me resale value has no input. The choice is yours.

Any other body shops a bit further afield? Surely if panels good, not as much prep needed.

James.

[Laird Scooby]

At the risk of stating the obvious Tony, it all depends whether she wants to go through insurance or not. The £500 "quote" is probably about the same as her excess (she'll forget that claiming bumps subsequent years premiums up) so she'll probably choose to go through insurance.

Then comes the problem with the insurers and how they view the value of your car. Uner the old system they'd be likely to write it off, Class D or C and similar on the new system but i can't remember the new classifications.

In other words, they'd pay you out, possibly with the option for you to keep the car but you may not end up any better off than you were and you'd then have a write off (technically) to drive round in which would be worth considerably less.

I get that you're unlikely to sell the car so the value is a bit irrelevant but the bottom line is you don't want to end up worse off overall and possibly subsequently paying more on your own insurance.

With all that in mind, i'd get what you can from her and get a door in the correct colour - the obvious advantages of this have already been explained in the thread plus of course you can fit it yourself and if you're lucky, it won't notice even from a distance.

[360beast]

What colour code is your 940?

[john.wigley]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

At the risk of stating the obvious Tony, it all depends whether she wants to go through insurance or not. The £500 "quote" is probably about the same as her excess (she'll forget that claiming bumps subsequent years premiums up) so she'll probably choose to go through insurance.

Then comes the problem with the insurers and how they view the value of your car. Uner the old system they'd be likely to write it off, Class D or C and similar on the new system but i can't remember the new classifications.

In other words, they'd pay you out, possibly with the option for you to keep the car but you may not end up any better off than you were and you'd then have a write off (technically) to drive round in which would be worth considerably less.

I get that you're unlikely to sell the car so the value is a bit irrelevant but the bottom line is you don't want to end up worse off overall and possibly subsequently paying more on your own insurance.

With all that in mind, i'd get what you can from her and get a door in the correct colour - the obvious advantages of this have already been explained in the thread plus of course you can fit it yourself and if you're lucky, it won't notice even from a distance.

Sound advice, as always, 'L.S.'. And for many sensible, law-abiding motorists, this might appear to be a mutually acceptable solution.

Except that: is it not written into all motor policies that any incident (whether blameworthy or not) that may result in a claim being made, be reported to the insurers for information purposes. Failure to do so may cause them to invalidate the policy and repudiate any claim.

A 'gentleman's agreement' may seem attractive, but if the other driver does, and 'TonyS9', who appears to be a thoroughly decent chap, does not, he may find himself in a difficult position with his insurers.

Insurance can be a mine-field at the best of times. We all are required to have it by law (although it's true that some ignore that) for precisely such times as this. I have always found that it pays to play things like this by the rules.

I'm not saying that you are wrong, just that there may be more to consider than first meets the eye.

Regards, John.

[NI_Volvo_Nut]

I know those guys a sent you too are a little pricier that others but their work is top notch and done right. That said that is what I wanted for my 740 and I wanted someone who would look after the car when its there, not try diffing it etc!

There are other guys in Balloo near the scrap year, Terry Griffith I think is his name. I've seen his work on 2 different cars, one car I could see rub marks in the filler (BMW) other car had a rear bumper repair, looked ok but it was a Corsa D

With regard to recouping the cost, it really is what you will be happy with, £500 does sound a bit excessive but then maybe there is more work in an older car, can't comment. I know with the 740 the paint match is amazing, but its white. The red 940 I had got the drivers door sprayed 3 times and it still wasn't the right shade.

Never looked closely at your car but it is a daily driver and gets used, its never going to be a show car (not offence but you know what I mean) so really, could you live with a drivers door that looks out of place - I couldn't.... and regardless of how nice the little old lady is, she has put you into a position where you have had to run around the country looking for a replacement door, you'll be without your car while its being repaired etc etc

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

Sound advice, as always, 'L.S.'. And for many sensible, law-abiding motorists, this might appear to be a mutually acceptable solution.

Except that: is it not written into all motor policies that any incident (whether blameworthy or not) that may result in a claim being made, be reported to the insurers for information purposes. Failure to do so may cause them to invalidate the policy and repudiate any claim.

A 'gentleman's agreement' may seem attractive, but if the other driver does, and 'TonyS9', who appears to be a thoroughly decent chap, does not, he may find himself in a difficult position with his insurers.

Insurance can be a mine-field at the best of times. We all are required to have it by law (although it's true that some ignore that) for precisely such times as this. I have always found that it pays to play things like this by the rules.

I'm not saying that you are wrong, just that there may be more to consider than first meets the eye.

Regards, John.

I totally understand what you're referring to John but for the sake of simplicity, omitted that - it also saved me a lot of typing!

Whichever way you look at it, i think Tony is better off sourcing a secondhand door in the right colour paint and fitting it himself, even if he has to fund it personally.