Paint shop in Mexico

[rasper]

I have a 1980 300D here in Southern Mexico. It has the original paint. I have been thinking about painting it, but most re-paint jobs look . . . well let's just say I'd rather have the original worn out paint than the re-paint jobs I usually see. Unless of course you want to pay seven or eight thousand dollars for a first class job. That's about four times what my car is worth.

I have a friend here who has a Dodge pickup that he sent up to the city of Oaxaca to be re-painted in what he said is a high end body shop. I thought, "Yeah, sure."

But then he says that the shop that did it only has paint for Audi's and BMW's and Benz's. That caught my attention. And then I saw the paint job. WOW! They removed all of the rubber and plastic and the tires and sanded it down to the primer. Then they baked it three times. (That's what he said—three times.) It is absolutely gorgeous. And the entire job cost him 18,000 Pesos, which equals $1097.00 US Dollars at today's exchange rate.

Needless to say, I can't wait to get my Benz up there.

Richard

[Mike D]

Hmmm, from Tucson to Oaxaca 1600 miles times 2 = 3200 miles divided by 15MPG (better to err on the side of caution) = 214 gallons of petrol X $2.45 (avg. guesstimate) = $525. Figure in 4 days travel time expenses at $100 a day plus 2, possibly 3 days for the painting comes out to $700.

So we're looking at:
Paint job $1100.00
Fuel costs $ 525.00
Travel cost $ 700.00
---------------
Total $2325.00

Pretty tempting way to spend a week's vacation. Of course, I'd have to see examples of the paint job, know the quality of the paint and oversee the work but could be a very viable road trip.

[rasper]

Up the fuel estimate. Fuel down here never came down from when crude oil was expensive. Maybe four dollars US per gallon. (The government owns the oil company. Ain't socialism grand?)

Richard

[Mike D]

The extra $400 puts it into the "iffy" range of $2725.00. No longer viable on its own.

Oh well, still could be a fun way to make a road trip.

Showing my age but they used to have the "car trains" to transport your car. Do they still run them? I could see shipping the car, taking a flight to oversee the work (and partake of the local scene of course) and either shipping the car back or driving back to Tucson.

Food for thought.

[OtisMagotis]

Woah this sounds like an interesting option and at the very least an adventure. Do you have information on the shop?

[jmk]

From my days in the Auto Industry: many folks in Southern California who I used to work with did take their cars to Mexico for repaint.

The good ones are extremely good. Usually better than most guys up here.

No VOC regs: You can use the old fashioned low solids finishes that give incredible appearances.

[h3ffe]

Rec's on shops down there? I'm in LA with a car to repaint!

Originally Posted by jmk

From my days in the Auto Industry: many folks in Southern California who I used to work with did take their cars to Mexico for repaint.

The good ones are extremely good. Usually better than most guys up here.

No VOC regs: You can use the old fashioned low solids finishes that give incredible appearances.

[jmk]

Unfortunately I can't. My days in the industry ended in 1996, so I am now 20 years out of date when it comes to what is available down there.

I would check into some local auto clubs. I'm sure some of them know some good shops down there.

[oldsinner111]

be careful,as some cars came back with hidden dope.

[TX76513]

Reynosa has some very high end work. I have seen a lot of salvage car rebuilds come out of the shops their - very impressive work. Also the Peso at a very low 20.5 to $1 now.