advice on paintwork please

i've just taken my 156 for a quote to have my rear bumper resprayed and i nearly choked when the guy gave me a quote of £500. I had a feeling it wouldnt be cheap as my car is Nuvola ( irrdescent ) blue. He reckons the paint alone is £100 a litre , is he being serious or is he pulling my plonker?
If it is , has anyone got any other suggestions or is it best to just leave it as it is. The paint is damaged in 2 places about the size of a 50p coin with a couple of scuffs also. It doesnt look hideous by any means , but would have been nice to bring it back close to new. Unfortunately the paint is back to bare plastic in those damaged areas. The damage is right next to the left reflector and also on the right corner , you may be able to see them if you zoom in.
DSC00343 resized.jpg

Originally Posted by davieb123

He reckons the paint alone is £100 a litre , is he being serious or is he pulling my plonker?
Attachment 46347

He's being serious!........Think I got some std rosso 130 mixed for around £40 per litre (good brand) and I believe the nuvola is somewhat more......

Chipsaway or someone like that may be able to make it look better, but I think they won't be able to match it 100% due to its pearlescant nature......if they'll touch it at all!

The quote i was given was from one of these mobile body repairers , he said he didnt want to do it really as its a specialist job and he wouldnt gaurantee the finish quality. Reckon its gonna have to stay damaged cos i aint paying that much.
Thanks Neejah.

Can't you get a touch up stick from your dealer- quick rub down with some wet and dry,brush on some lacquer, rub down again with wet and dry,bit of polish and fannies your brothers sister.
I reckon the location of the damage will go unnoticed by almost everyone (obviously not yourself)

not sure if its as straightforward as that , i believe there are loads of special base coats for nuvola blue which i'd need cos itsdown to bare plastic.
If it was just a case of a touch up stick i'd go for it.
might be worh going to an Alfa dealer for advice on that actually

He's pulling your plonker.

Even if the paint is £100 per litre (which I doubt), how much is it foing to take to paint the bumper? he bumpers some off really easily too, so it's not labour inducing.

I was quoted £90 to repaint my rear bumer on a 145 Cloverleaf in Rosso 130b,so judging by that price someone's having a laugh.

neuvola is more than £100 per litre as far as I knew! I also thought it was just one base coat (the blue) and the a pearl coat and a clear top coat - but I could be wrong! Your lucky its just the bumper - most places want to do the whole car when its just one pannel that needs doing due to the fact that its so hard to get the pearl effect the same as last time, it tends to be slightly more or less pear each time.
Lovely colour though - I had a 156 in the same colour

its the pearl coat that costs the money - £100 per litre is a good price

I'd also be doubtful about the colour match and how long the paint will last with these mobile repair people - paint really needs alow bake oven to set it off if it's to last (bodyshop opinion not mine!).

If you do fancy having a go yourself I have a Nuvola blue GTV with some stone chips and ordered a touch-up kit from paints4u. It came with scratch cleaner, white base coat, nuvola blue top coat, laquor, applicator spears, wet and dry paper, some G3 compound and a micro fibre cloth. The colour match was done from the paint code under the bonnet and it looks very good, it's got all the gold iridescent-ness to it as per the original. I haven't touched any chips up yet but I tried it on an inconspicuous area the other day and the match is excellent. It cost me about £30. The kit I got is good for stone chips but I'm sure they have kits for covering larger areas. Just a suggestion. Good luck!

Originally Posted by davieb123

The quote i was given was from one of these mobile body repairers , he said he didnt want to do it really as its a specialist job and he wouldnt gaurantee the finish quality. Reckon its gonna have to stay damaged cos i aint paying that much.
Thanks Neejah.

Sounds like he quoted himself out of the job deliberately then, might be worth taking it to a professional bodyshop for a better quote.

Originally Posted by davieb123

i've just taken my 156 for a quote to have my rear bumper resprayed and i nearly choked when the guy gave me a quote of £500. I had a feeling it wouldnt be cheap as my car is Nuvola ( irrdescent ) blue. He reckons the paint alone is £100 a litre , is he being serious or is he pulling my plonker?
If it is , has anyone got any other suggestions or is it best to just leave it as it is. The paint is damaged in 2 places about the size of a 50p coin with a couple of scuffs also. It doesnt look hideous by any means , but would have been nice to bring it back close to new. Unfortunately the paint is back to bare plastic in those damaged areas. The damage is right next to the left reflector and also on the right corner , you may be able to see them if you zoom in.
Attachment 46347

He is seriously pulling your plonker. I just had both front wings, the front bumper and the bonnet on my 156 GTA resprayed by an Alfa approved bodyshop for just under £800. My car is miro red, which is a limited edition irridescent colour only available on the GTA.

Cheers,

Nigel

If the paint is missing completely ie: bare plastic patches, you may find its pretty impossible to repaint, i'm working on a GTV with the same problem and the guy i use for paint said its just not worth it, the bumper will have to be prepped to such an extent, with a very specific product as a base its cheaper to source a good used bumper and repaint that.

the paint is expensive, but £500 is way off, good used bumper, half litre of base/primer/colour/laquer shuld cost £300 max, job done.

Hope that helps mate.

Originally Posted by Rosso145

He's pulling your plonker.

Even if the paint is £100 per litre (which I doubt), how much is it foing to take to paint the bumper? he bumpers some off really easily too, so it's not labour inducing.

I was quoted £90 to repaint my rear bumer on a 145 Cloverleaf in Rosso 130b,so judging by that price someone's having a laugh.

I work for a printers and we print the PPG car paint price lists, the cheapest colour tinters are £103.24 per litre ranging to £152.56 per litre plus vat!! prices correct as of 1.02.08 and they are just going up again!

How many litres would it take and how many hours?

Not 2 hours and 3 litres.