Hi All

I'm getting close to the point where I need to start thinking about getting the body of my special painted. Wondering if anyone else has done this recently and can provide me with a rough guide to the cost? I've got a Rod Yates Ulster body that can obviously be removed from the chassis and supplied to the paint shop in a way that requires no masking and minimal prep (IE no repairs to panels etc.).

Does anyone have any idea to what it should cost to get the car painted? I'm looking for a decent finish whilst remembering that it's a special and not a priceless piece of motoring history...

Any guidance gratefully received.
cheers
R

Location: Horsham

A friend recently had a quote of £600 to repaint an Opal tourer which of course has a full set of wings.
Best thing to do would be to get a price from a few body shops?
I hand painted mine for about £50! No masking was required and it was done on the chassis. In my view it looks better than one done professionally in shiny two-pack.

Malcolm,did you use craftmaster paints ?

Location: 51.9000*N ,0.4333*W (LUTON)

Location: Horsham

I used Tekaloid coach paint, and as my body was old and dented I went for an eggshell finish which is much more forgiving.
I am pleased with the finish, although a replica my Ulster looks more original than most. Some of the very shiny modern paint finishes do not look right on our type of vehicles.

Location: HUNCOTE on the pig

I suspect you are correct, Tony regarding the £600 quote. £6000, on the other hand, is a crazy price. Is this why we are seeing Ulster Reps for sale at £30,000 plus?
A bare aluminium bodied Ulster does seem to be just as saleable as a pretty painted one!

Yep Tony, certainly a south east price... And not one I would give a moments consideration to! I was budgeting for about £2k so the 1.5k you mention sounds good to me... And if I can find a cash in hand supplier mores the better... Am also finding that upholstery is a tad pricey down in this part of the world too lol

Location: Horsham

Robbie, you can save a shed load of money doing the upholstery yourself. Tony sells a kit comprising the seat back cover and two cushion covers, in leathercloth with the correct fluting to the back and plain cushions. So many expensively trimmed Ulsters have the incorrect seats. The important thing is to make a wood surround for the seat back and this is detailed in Chris Goulds excellent 'Guide to building reproduction Ulsters'. If you havn't got this book beg, borrow or steal one, or perhaps even buy it!
The seat back was originally supported on canvas webbing. It is better to fit a solid bulkhead, either aluminium or plywood, as this really adds strength to the rear of the cockpit. Once the bulkhead and plywood surround are made it is a very simple job to fit the seat covers as supplied by Tony. I used a layer of rubberised horsehair glued to the bulkhead, over which is thin wadding, then the cover is tacked in place. The fiddly bit is fitting the Hidem banding around the edge of the seat back.
Steve and myself did his in a couple of hours and the result is very pleasing as well as most comfortable. The cushions are a doddle, simply a piece of plywood with a layer of foam, layer of rubberised horsehair, wadding and the cover which is either stapled or tacked to the underside of the plywood.

I imagine in your neck of the woods a trimmer will quote about £3000 to do the same job?

Location: HUNCOTE on the pig

Thanks David, have emailed you..

Location: Horsham

First photo is of Malcolm's Ulster seat, second is of mine. Both fitted using the excellent seat kit available from Tony. I can't remember how much they cost and that indicates they weren't expensive.





Like Malcolm, I painted my car using Tekaloid coach paint. In fact I painted it twice as it need doing again after rolling the car at Loton Park in 2013. Even then, the total cost was around £50 as I had enough paint and materials left over from the first time to do it a second. For me, the semi-matt/silk finish is a lot more appropriate than the shiny two pack versions - although my good friend Charles will, probably, make some comment about the colour of my car

Steve

Location: North Yorkshire

Thanks Malcolm

Was totally unaware that Tony supplied the seat kits.. Have already emailed him :-)

You're right, trimmers down here seem to think everyone works for a bank in the city and has money to burn! Sounds like the kit from Tony is the way to go!!

Thanks to everyone on here for the info and support. This is what makes the forum such a useful thing!

cheers
R

Location: Horsham

Good looking interiors there Steve!! Thanks for the photos and info!

Location: Horsham

I've also emailed Tony,
Steve V.

Location: Polegate, East Sussex, United Kingdom

I asked David Nightingale? who had a stall at 750mc beaulieu,2014,He quoted £6k to retrim an RK.

hi dave,

nightingale is by far the best in the buisiness. and ive yet to see anyone do better.

but in saying that, thats fine for a rolls royce.

£6k on an austin 7?

i can also see a professional charging more for taking the complete car in and doing all the fitting for you.

we done an RK about 6 years ago. but we cant take cars in for fitting. so the job was to strip and fit front and rear seats. make and fit seats. make up all other parts that need stitching. wheel arches etc. plus supply material for the rest of the panels.

the customer done the fitting into the car.

we charged £1,000

prices have gone up since.

we are currently doing the same job on a ruby, in full leather so the colour matches 100%. price £1,400

im sure other ruby owners on here could post some pictures of there cars we have done seats for.

tony

I had my RK saloon trimmed by a company in King's Lynn.

The car had no trim after 35 years in a barn.
I made the door cards, which are complicated and the other ply sections for the rear. I also made a rear seat back and the base for the rear seat.

The car went in on a Thursday morning and it was completed by Tuesday. Would have been Monday had I not been slow with the seat back.

The seats, door trims etc were done in brown Vinyl, cloth headlining, black carpets. ie everything.

Total cost £1300 and I'm very pleased with the quality of the work.

Location: Melrose, Scottish Borders

Steve,
Thanks for the pictures of the interiors.
Are these leather?
Thanks

The covers supplied by Tony are leathercloth. People who have seen my Ulster admire the leather seats which says it all! Good leathercloth is probably better than most leather available nowadays and is more practical for cleaning.
When I did my seats I left some slack in the material which I think makes them look a bit more original and worn. Professional upholsterers always seem to want the finished product to look tight with no slack. If you look at the original road test reports for the Ulster you will see that the seats, especially the cushions, were very slack. As most people have convex backsides it seems logical that the seat cushions should be concave.

Location: North Yorkshire

Thanks for the kind words.

Tracy apreciates it.

We can do both leatherette or full leather.

Personally I use full leather, as I like the way it ages over the years.

Not a fan of the con ally hides, they are rather thin.

The company we use for the leather also supply jaguar. Top quality, a good thickness. But not to thick to fold.

Thanks Tony.

Location: HUNCOTE on the pig

Hi Tony

You don't by any chance do seat kits for GE Cup Models do you??

Location: North of South West France

We have done one for one of our competitors, I don't like to name drop. Just in case people don't want the names made public.

I take it you want similar to the Ulster, bench back and two basses.

All I need are measurements.

Thanks Tony.

Location: HUNCOTE on the pig

Thanks to Tony (and wife) for the fantastic seat kit now fitted to the special.. Really pleased with how it turned out. I left some slack in the seat back rather than pulling the leather really tight which should put a little less strain on the stitching (thanks Malcolm for the tip!!). The bases are secured to the floor via a little aluminium angle frame. Just need to fit the little bracket at the bottom of the seat back onto the top of the tunnel..





Really pleased with the quality of the kit from Tony. top quality leather and the stitching etc is first class!!

Location: Horsham

Looking good, Robbie. You need to be comfortable on your Mille Miglia trip next year!

Robbie

In my experience you can save a small fortune if you prepare the carbody yourself and prime it.

I think £1200-1500 should be what you will pay for a decent sprayed finish.

Cheers,

Matt

Location: South Derbyshire

Location: horsham

Hello Steve,

I have a special based on a Rod Yates body with an aluminium bulkhead behind the seat area.
Do you have any photos of the wood frame before you did the upholstery?
I do have chris Gould's book but pictures do help.

You can email the pics if it is easier.

Thanks
Paul.

Location: Windlesham

Paul,

I am building a similar car with Rod Yates' body and stiffening bulkhead. i have taken some pictures of my interpretation of Chris's guide and will post them once I've negotiated Photobucket.

Alan

Sorry Paul but I've failed to transfer images from Photobucket.

I'll try and email you off group.

Alan

I have just about finished painting my special, all I can say I, prep work and more prep work and when you think you have finished go over it again. It was so much work to get it how I wanted it.

https://www.facebook.com/LotusSportster7/photos/pcb.1289355387848634/1289355224515317/?type=3&theater

Location: West Sussex

As the Grassything replica approaches a state where paint is going to be required I have been experimenting (slightly more than anticipated as it turns out!)

Based on a proper BS colour chart I bought 5L of cellulose and 5L of anti bloom thinners on line for £70. On opening the can it was an alarming shade of "cheap Plastic" green, not what we expected at all. So I tinted some with black, as that's what we had to hand, result a better colour, but rather more suited to a military car than a sports car! More experiments in tinting will be needed using blue.

The main thing I wanted to try was a gloss roller, having seen a professional interior decorator produce a perfect finish on a house door using one. I did the underside of the floor. Trying the paint with varying amounts of thinners. The best result was gained using almost straight paint, about 10% thinners, a nice flat gloss finish was easily achieved! the main trick was to put the paint on in one stroke, a fairly thick and leave it alone. This might prove difficult on a large panel. the nest experiment, is to try "wet on wet" where you let the first coat go touch dry, then apply a second coat with a little more thinners in to pull it down flat.

Ill let you know how it goes. I may well end up getting the spray gun out to do the bits that show!

Location: Teignmouth

A colleague I used to work with in 1982 was a Wartburg fan. He bought them very cheaply and then painted them using Dulux and a paint roller. The finish was surprisingly good so I painted my 2CV wings the same way as was very surprised how well it worked. Very quick and easy. Not concours but better than the rest of the 2CV.

I tend to use 2k acrylic. It's tough as nails. If you are not a pro with a spray gun it can be rubbed back and buffed up

Location: Ireland

Location: Polegate, East Sussex, United Kingdom

I sprayed my car outside on a calm sunny day.

Location: Ireland