TR6 Paint Job Needed

Hello All

I have a '74 TR6 which I bought 3 years ago. 88K miles. I had about $15K of work done on the transmission, engine, front end, etc. She runs great. Now I need to get her re-painted...probably will need some new panels but it's not a "from the ground up" job. I am not interested in "show car" quality (i.e. no need to remove the engine and paint the engine compartment). I just want her to look nice. I am in the Boston area and cannot find anyone reputable in this area who can do this. I have found some restoration shops (mainly in the midwest) but they want to take the whole car apart and re-do the whole thing. Photo attached.

Any ideas?

Any thoughts or possibilities of just getting it wet sanded, buffed and detailed?

Cheers
Tush

Of course I don't live in Boston area, but one service I've used to help me find other services (e.g., good landscapers) is Yelp. Boston is a huge area and perhaps a BCF member who lives near there can offer some advice, but in lieu of that, you might take a look at this yelp search for paint and body chops in Boston: https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=paint+and+body&find_loc=Boston,+MA&ns=1

You can read all the reviews and maybe get an idea of a few possibilities. Then, if you get 2 or 3 possibilities, have them give you an estimate in writing.

Good luck! Let us know who you ultimately good with and your impressions of their work. Just remember - if a price seems to good to be true, that's probably a place to stay away from.

WT

Hello! I think the paint is too far gone. there are apparently several layers...the previous owner just put paint over the top of bad paint. there is also a lot of putty on the car. But a good suggestion!!

Hi WT Thanks, i have tried that. From my research, everyone seems to say that if a place doesn't have other british cars that they're working on, then don't use them. There are 1-2 of those places locally but they don't seem interested in the work. If you can think of anything else i'd be grateful!!

Beneteau63 said:

Hi WT Thanks, i have tried that. From my research, everyone seems to say that if a place doesn't have other british cars that they're working on, then don't use them. There are 1-2 of those places locally but they don't seem interested in the work. If you can think of anything else i'd be grateful!!

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Just to jump in here - in my experience, a good paint and body shop is all that matters. There is nothing special about a British car - they have body panels and they have paint. Unless there is extensive body work needed (which is doesn't sound like), personally I would not worry about whether they have extensive experience in British cars. However, you might want to find out at least if they have much experience with classic cars (i.e., cars with metal panels as opposed to the plastic of today). Most competent paint and body shops can do just fine on a British car. When I had my Jaguar E-Type painted, I didn't worry whether they had extensive experience on Jags, just that they knew how to do bodywork on metal panels -- beyond just remove and replace. But if your car doesn't need major body work, I'd just find some good shops with good reviews and get a few estimates.

This place has a good reputation amongst those building Factory Five Cobras, although I've never done business with them: https://www.carlscollision.com/landing.php . Greater Boston prices won't be cheap. Call some of the local vocational schools and speak to the instructor and see if they have any former students that do side work. Start looking down towards New Bedford, Fall River, Middleboro, Wareham and ask around to find out who is good. Read this thread, lots of good suggestions there although not Massachusetts related: https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?108360-Paint-Job-Costs&highlight=paint

I'm in Green Bay, WI , so probably not much help, but the shop that did mine @17 years ago did a great job. They do collision work, but mostly street rods. Very thorough. Also, on the Mustang forum, they even suggested Earl Nscheib or Maaco type shops. Some are very good. Look at some examples of what they've done. If you're able to do some prep, you can save as well.

Perry

My recent experience trying to have some light collision and paint work on my 6, I was turned down by most "modern collision" shops. They don't want to touch the old stuff, one shop owner actually told me he sent his own 69 camaro out to a resto shop as he did not want to tie his own guys up.

Most shops can make soooo much more money sticking to insurance work they have no interest in folks like us. I could find no one to paint my Cobra replica so I did it myself. Likewise last year I repainted my '62 Vet. Not perfect but good enough for a cruise night driver. Neither car cost more than $300 in materials, a far cry from the 5 to 7 K pro shops would want to charge even if you could talk them into actually doing the work.