Melbourne dwellers: Know a good bodyshop?

DTMracer

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Oct 6, 2007
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Car(s)
1988 Mini Cooper, 1998 MB E55 AMG
My friend's son recently purchased a 2nd hand Toyota Echo(Yaris) from his friend, and whilst mechanically it is excellent the bodywork has quiet a few scratches over it because it got keyed by low-lifes one night when it was parked on the streets whilst it was still owned by the previous owner (Apparently all the cars on that street had got scratched. What kind of morons are they do damage other people's property?).

So, I had a look at the car last night, and whilst the scratches aren't too bad and are only down one side of the car, there are quiet a few around and they're visible. There's also a scrape at the front bumper.

Would something like this require a full respray? How much would a full respray be? I've had the good fortune to never have any bodywork done on my own cars, so I really don't know of any reputable bodyshops around melbourne......The kid bought the car for pretty cheap, but a full respray isn't cheap, and not to mention time consuming.

Any help that I can relay back to him would be greatly appreciated! :D
 
The car is located somewhere near Syndal I think.

I wonder how much it'd be to fix it all up though.
 
My friend's son recently purchased a 2nd hand Toyota Echo(Yaris) from his friend, and whilst mechanically it is excellent the bodywork has quiet a few scratches over it because it got keyed by low-lifes one night when it was parked on the streets whilst it was still owned by the previous owner (Apparently all the cars on that street had got scratched. What kind of morons are they do damage other people's property?).

So, I had a look at the car last night, and whilst the scratches aren't too bad and are only down one side of the car, there are quiet a few around and they're visible. There's also a scrape at the front bumper.

Would something like this require a full respray? How much would a full respray be? I've had the good fortune to never have any bodywork done on my own cars, so I really don't know of any reputable bodyshops around melbourne......The kid bought the car for pretty cheap, but a full respray isn't cheap, and not to mention time consuming.

Any help that I can relay back to him would be greatly appreciated! :D

Let me try and answer this as best as possible. I haven't needed the services first hand but I've tagged along each time a friend has.

The scratches, depending how deep, can either be patched up (with $30 factory colour 'touch-up' paint - go to Toyota Dealership) or you can fork out for a respray. Resprays are done in panels, not sections of the car, to avoid colour mismatching. So say if 3 panels are damaged (Bonnet, Front R Quarter, Front L Quarter) It would cost, usually, around 400-1000 a panel to respray. A full car respray really depends on the quality of the work you want done. You can get 'proffessional' jobs done for around $2000 but if you have ever seen one of these jobs, you're better staying with the damaged factory paint. A good clean respray of a small car should cost about $6,000. Thats FULL respray. Pull car apart, rub down, new coat, oven baked etc. However, I've received quotes of ... get this .... $30,000 on a respray on a car, Granted, its 30ft of car (70s Lincoln Continental)... but for Black Enamel Paint, that's how it is on older cars as they usually need body work done as well.

I don't know where Syndal is and it's not coming up in Google maps but if it's in the Melbourne outer east I can reccomend a few places first hand.
 
Hmm, hopefully his car isn't so bad that some touch-up paint should fix most of the scratches :)

Any recommendations would be good.
 
The three I've had best experiences with so far are:

1. Phil Munday's Panel Works (Mt Dandenong Rd, Kilsyth)
*** - Highly Recommended, 10 year guarantee on work, comes at a price - ***
2. Hollywood Panels (Maroondah Hwy, Ringwood)
** - Usually much cheaper than most Panel shops but they do a very good job - **
3. Oven Baked Enamel (Molan St, Ringwood)
* - A good example of good work at a fair price - *

Also, there's a franchise called 'Sheens' running around, they're pretty big so I'd expect their work to be good with good backings. http://www.sheengroup.com.au/locations.html
 
I have heard Flagstaff on King st in North Melbourne are very good but they're a bit more big business specialists. MiColour in Cheltenham has a very good reputation within the Victorian Skyline Club
 
Hmm, I'll tell him about the suggestions, and maybe he can go get some quotes.
 
Since this thread was awhile back, I just wanted to ask if you had any luck with the body shops you went to mate?

I've gone to Brighton Panel Works when I was having some issues with my Toyota and I have to say... their service was just superb.

The free courtesy car was definitely a bonus!
 
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