Doug there was a Toronto Vanagon Listee who had his vwhite
westy repainted at a good price. Do you remeber his name and
the shop (Salim's?)?

Thanks,
Chris

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 12:33:51 -0500
>From: Doug Alcock <doug.alcock@HEWITT.COM>
>Subject: Re: [vanagon] Paint Job
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>
>>Has anyone had a repaint job done just from the rain
gutters down?  and
>if so what was your experience like?  I >figure I could save
a bunch of
>money by having it done this way.
>
>I had this done a couple of years ago --- no problem at all.
The paint
>above the rain gutters was in excellent shape and IMHO it
would have been
>a big PITA for minimal gain to paint this area.
>
>>Speaking of which, anybody have a ballpark price for a GOOD
paint job?
>
>Automotive paint jobs are a "you get what you pay for" kind
of thing.
>You mention:
>>There is a tiny bit of seem rust along the vertical seem
next to one of
>the doors that needs to be taken care of as >well (It's just
enough to
>blister the paint, but not enough to see actual rust).
>
>Good example --- your body shop can handle this in two ways.
1) by hitting
>the seam with a wire brush in an angle grinder for two
seconds, spraying
>on some primer --- and then on to finish coat. 2) cutting
out the seam
>sealer, sandblasting down to bare metal, applying a rust-
converting primer
>(POR-15 like stuff), applying and sanding high-build primer
on top of
>this, applying finish coat(s), and finally applying fresh
seam sealer.
>
>For every dint, scrape, rust spot there is an equivalent
difference of
>approaches in each repair. Quick and dirty versus
meticulous "do it
>right". When you get the van out of the shop with its new
paint job there
>is very little difference between the two schools --- but
down the road
>when that seam rust comes back (in six months) or the rust
spots
>re-appear, you'll know which paint job you paid for. Body
work is all by
>the hour --- the guy who takes the most hours is going to do
the better
>job. When you're getting quotes --- let them explain exactly
how they're
>gong to fix stuff -- not just give you a total price, you'll
probably
>learn something and you'll be letting the guy know that you
really do
>care.
>
>You can probably guess how I (now) know this.........
>
>Cheers,
>Doug