How Long Does a Respray or Paint Repair Take?

Preparation takes the longest

Good paint sits on a good surface, so preparation is where the hours go. The damaged area is cleaned, sanded back and any rust, flaking paint or old poor repairs are dealt with. Trim, handles, lamps and badges may need to come off or be masked off carefully.

If the surface has dents or deep scratches, filler is applied, left to set and then shaped by hand until it is smooth and level. Rushing this stage is what causes shadows and ripples to show through the finished paint months later.

Priming, painting and curing

Primer goes on next, then is sanded again to give a flat base. After that comes the colour, built up in thin coats, followed by lacquer for gloss and protection. Each stage needs time between coats to flash off, so the process cannot be hurried by simply adding more hands.

Curing is the final wait. Paint and lacquer need to harden properly before they can be polished, refitted and handled. Heat in a spray booth speeds this up, but the paint still needs its time. A repair that is collected too soon is a repair that marks easily.

• Prepare and sand the surface
• Fill and shape any dents or deep marks
• Prime and sand again
• Apply colour in thin coats
• Apply lacquer and let it cure
• Refit trim and polish

Matching and blending the colour

A colour is only right if it matches the rest of the car, which has faded and weathered since it left the factory. Paint matching is done against your actual vehicle, and test panels are sometimes sprayed first to check.

On many colours, especially metallics and pearls, the new paint is blended into the neighbouring panel so there is no visible line. That means a repair to one door can involve part of the next panel too, and the time rises with it.

Why quick repairs differ from full resprays

A stone-chip repair or a small SMART repair is a contained job on a limited area, with fewer stages and little or no disassembly. Their scope is smaller, so they are generally a different order of work from repainting whole panels. Whether a particular mark qualifies depends on inspection.

A partial respray covers one or more panels and relies heavily on matching and blending. A full respray involves the whole vehicle: removing trim, preparing every panel, painting door shuts and edges if included, and refitting everything. It is the most time-consuming option by a wide margin, and the condition of the existing paint affects it a great deal.

What can add time unexpectedly

The common surprises are rust found under old paint, previous repairs that need redoing, parts that must be ordered, and extra panels that need blending once the first one is painted. Weather and workload can matter too, as can how well the car was cleaned and prepared before it arrives.

None of these are reasons to distrust a garage. They are reasons to treat any promised date as an estimate until the surface has been properly inspected.

How to get a realistic estimate

Bring the car in if you can. Photos help, but a surface needs to be seen in good light and often touched. Tell us whether you want the car back by a particular date, whether the paint is a standard or special colour, and whether the damage is from an accident or just wear.

At Banks of the Tyne in Hebburn we handle full and partial resprays, paint matching, paint correction, SMART repairs and stone-chip repairs. We will explain what the job involves and give you a timescale at the estimate, once we have seen the car, and we will tell you if that changes along the way.

Frequently asked questions