Hi,
Just wondering if anyone knows what it might cost, on average, to repaint a W126 completely??
Also, did W126 era cars suffer from peeling clearcoat if left in Florida type sun?
Thanks
farrukh

if it's the smoke silver paint, try a little amour all on the paint. It is not a fix but it can improve the look of your car by 100 %

Please don't put armour all on the paint if you are going to get it repainted, the body shop will have to get it off and it will probably work down into the paint. Paint cost varie a lot depending on your car and the quality you seek. Figure from 1700.00 to 2500.00 + for quality material and work.

Armour All is made from silicone, which doesn't allow paint to stick to metal.

That is why the polishes, etc. that body shops use never contain silicone, like 3M's like of products, and Meguair's line of professional products (tan bottles).

However, whenever a car is painted, believe me, they will use a stripper to get all of the silicone-based waxes, polishes, etc. off of the paint.

A good polish will hide a lot of imperfections. Try this first.

Otherwise, $2,000 is a good starting point for a good paint job. The cheap shops, like Maaco, may charge around $500, but the results are horrible.

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

I had one done about six months ago, the place that did it charged me $2600. I had three other bids that ranged from $3600 to $4900.
There wasn't any real damage, just a few very minor door dings. I called Maaco and they absolutely would not give me any idea of a price till they saw the car, then when I got there the guy said there was was no way that they would do the car because it was a Mercedes and I wouldn't be happy with the outcome.
I'm happy with the job, there are a couple of imperfections, but not in areas that you would readily notice them.
Only problem was, I assumed that the bumpers were going to get painted also, and they needed it, that was another $130 along with the trouble of taking them off and the round trip (80 miles), they did put them back on.
Bottom line...you get what you pay for. I know the high bid would have been next to perfection, that place did my 300CD years back, and it was a great job.
Just make sure that you spell out everything that you expect before they write the estimate.
Take a look around the shop, there will be jobs in various stages of progress, see what they are doing, look at a few of the finished products.
Good luck, let us hear what you decide on.
Ernie

If you had smoke silver paint with the cracked clear coat you would know the value of applying a silicone based product to the paint. Is it a radical, unorthadox use for this product? ....yes Is it effective?.... absoluitly.

BTW when the paints is as damaged as mine is everything has to be stripped before a respray anyway.

I don't know where you are located but I found an amazing body shop in Los Angeles. He did collision repairs on my 2000 Range Rover and quoted me $2200 to repaint the 420.