Sprinter paint job

[vipra]

My Sprinter has a lot of paint chips that are rusting. Just for curiosity I went to a body shop at a Dodge dealer and asked what could be done. He said $4000 for a paint job. That's 4 times what I would have expected. Is that a reasonable price?

I've tried touch-up paint, but rust still forms under it.

 

[fastrod]

No it is not reasonable but here is the problem. Shops are doing insurance work and the money they make on that is so high that in order to spent the time required to paint your sprinter they need to charge $4000.
Try this on the chips, lighty sand the chip area, use a q-tip to apply a rust treatment ( check with a autobody supply store for a good rust treatment) allow it to dry and then touch it up with paint.

 

[hondaking38]

my 05 has a couple of rust spots the size of a quarter, must be shabby qaulity to have rust spots after only 2 years...will touch them up when it warms up

 

[RLENT]

IMHO, it's not a horrible price for a job done right - considering the size of the vehicle and the amount of prep work that might be required. (Anyone priced automotive paint lately ?)

Hard to say how outta line it might be without seeing the vehicle and it's condition.

A few years ago I needed to have a vehicle repainted and contacted a good body shop that we had had do some work for us previously - since it was not insurance work we were told that they wouldn't even consider doing it.

 

[davekc]

Well....you got Earl Sheib for $150 and Maaco for $500 for a standard van.
Gotta be careful, you get what you pay for.
Might be more economical to buy a new hood and just have that painted.

 

[FIS53]

For those doing body work of any type on the Sprinter. When preping an area for paint make sure it is clean as well as the area around the fixed, preped part for paint. make sure you remove all the crap from sanding the metal etc and if doing any cutting remove all chips of metal. These all seem to start new rust spots. THe Sprinter body is very very prone to rusting for any mar in the paint job so do exceptional work and cleanup of damaged areas. Even if having a windshield replaced, be very careful to not cut the paint on the metal surface under the sealant. If cut the paint has to be sanded, fixed properly prior to resealing a new windshield in place or after a few months you'll see rust leaking out from those cut spots around the window.

The guys on the Sprinter forum have seen these problems. Thought you might want to know.
Rob

 

[greg334]

If I am not mistaken, the underlying primer and etcher used for painting is what gets damaged and it seals the surface against corrosion. It has been a few years since I messed with paint but I remember some things, like don't paint in the rain.

The thing is if you sand it, you got to feather it and apply a 'like' sealer or even a chromate primer, the idea is to minimize the area where the repair is being made and to prevent moisture from getting between the paint and the metal. If it does, no matter what you do to seal it, you will have rust forming on those spots.

I no longer trust dealers for paint work (READ especially Dodge), they have a different attitude since a majority of their work is on lease vehicles and most of the time they will never see the vehicle again, so they don't care to do the job right. I would actually look for a shop that does Mercedes cars, sounds stupid but they understand the painting process and I don't think that they would screw up a high end mercedes product like a Sprinter.