Went to my local Mercedes dealer's body shop the other day, for a quote, on repainting a 560 with barely a mark on the thing. I want it perfect, like the day Mercedes built it. It has a mark or two here, and there, and some spots with some sort dried area in the paint. The car was kept indoors, for the last 19 years, in a museum like environment, yet it has these strange blemishes in it. I just want it perfect again. I wanted them to do a complete tear down on the car, and repaint everything. $25K is reasonable, and acceptable for that much work. $25k is un-realistic however, if they are just simply going to scuff and shoot the car.. Guess they didn't want to tell me no, or whatever. Stealership is some sort of joke..

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I'll do it for 20K.

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

I'll do it for $19,999 and toss in a '68 chevy Nova 4 door as a loaner.

I know, I can get the car "Scuffed, and painted" to showroom condition, for less than $5k. I was asking the guy for a price to re-do the car the correct way though, and strip it completely, before new prep, and paint work is done. The guy is out of his mind, and can stick his $25k Maaco style, Amataur hour, scuff, and shoot, where the sun don't shine while I go to a real body shop for the job. I hate stealerships who pull this sort of crap...

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All right, all right,,,, $19,998, and you can have the left over paint.

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

well how many hours does the book say for an entire strip, prep, paint, bake, and clear? and by entire I think it covers, door jambs, engine compartment, trunk, doors(interior mating surface)... as well as the undercoat to be re-done

then factory original paint, which is not cheap.

Well it's definately atleast $25k worth of work to get all of that done correctly. I have no idea exactly how many man hours etc. go into a job like that, but it's a whole hell of a lot. The car should be perfect after that kind of job, and I have no problem with spending that kind of money ($25k), for a job like that.

To scuff it however, may take 5 hours, and can be done in an afternoon. When they scuff it, all they do is take off the finish on the existing paint, by wet sanding, or other fine sand paper etc. remove a few outside trim items. Fix a few little imperfections they may run into, and paint it. It can be scuffed, and shot, and wet sanded,buffed, reassembled, and delivered within 24 hours. He wants $25k to scuff it, and paint it..

So, I went to Mercedes dealer, and got a quote for a Mercedes body/paintjob, but Earl Scheibb is going to do the work...He must be working at this Mercedes dealer now.. Maybe I'll drop it off at the dealer, and as soon as I pull away, someone will bring it up the street to Maaco, for paint work, and then pick it back up, and call me telling me it's ready....They probably use the local Maaco, for a lot of their paint work, and charge people top dollar for it. What a bunch of dirty con artists.

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local dealer quoted me at 5 grand to strip, fix rust, fix the dings here and there and put down a fresh layer of anthacrite grey with a detailing after.

they would remove the rear glass and front glass and the whole shebang

That sounds pretty good to me. I'd do that, if you still need that work done on your car, and haven't found anyone else by now to do it. I know these guys could do a hell of a job on the car, but there are better places here in my area, with more reasonable prices for more thorough work. I mean, this guy just plane didn't want the job. He shot me the numbers, before ever even getting out to the car, to inspect anything. I was not very happy with him.

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I will in the future.. I have a place that can do it locally anytime... they do work with custom cars etc...

I was thinking you could get a pretty fine paint job for $5,000.00. I'm sure you can pay more, but you have to ask yourself whether the car you're painting is worth all of that. I believe that you could get a great paint job for less if you remove trim, etc. yourself first. There are many ways to skin a cat.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

The shop manager may have thought you wanted a full restoration.

Roughly 2000 hours for total vehicle strip, dip, primer, paint, undercoat, and re-assembly.

Done correctly = total vehicle disassembly = remove all glass, drive-train, steering/suspension, interior, wiring/vacuum, and body panels.

The variation can be + 400 - 600 hours.

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Thats a steal coming from a Dealership.