(26-06-2012 06:08pm)BFGEvoqueMan Wrote:  I took the bits off the car, went to my local body shop, agreed a gloss black colour and they were all sprayed to perfection for me to collect the next day. Am finally getting the tailgate strip done next Monday. Again I will take off the part and he reckons its about €30 as it is only a 10 minute job to spray. I am not sure which colour code he used (not Santorini/Sumatra/Narvik) but it was an official colour code on his computer paint mixing machine. His business is a professional sprayer and most of the bodyshops who do the physical car repair where I live send the cars to him to be sprayed (he will do anything from a kitchen fridge through to trucks). I am not getting any "mates rates" and all work is officially invoiced (ie nothing dodgy).

LR would have cost €100's as you are paying LR rates not the bodyshop direct rates; guess you just need to find a good local spray/body shop.

By way of cost comparison, he repaired a cracked front bumper on an ML I had, by filling and local respray and it cost me only €175. Merc said new bumper as it was impossible to repair plus the cost of swapping over all the fog lights, parking sensors etc, minimum €1200. He also completely resprayed the rear bumper of my FL2 (Santorini) when I scrapped it along a post for €150, and again I took it off myself as I was removing the towbar to sell the car).

Now I wonder why our insurance premiums are so high????