Budgeting a restoration and paint advice

[Bezdonian]

Good Evening Everyone,
I'm about to embark on a restoration project with my Series 2a 109 station wagon.
This will involve getting a new chassis, bulkhead, 2.6L rover 100 engine, and some non standard modifications to the vehicle as it will be a Swiss army 109 station wagon used by the swiss fortress troops in the 60s-90s.

The main hurdle is the total project cost.
The bulk of the money will be going to a workshop which I've told was going to repaint and repair the body work components in pieces over the next 5-6 months.
They quoted me £10k which seems quite high considering I'm supplying the paint, which is a matte swiss olive green 2k+hardener :https://www.militaerlacke.de/fahrzeuglacke/2k-eimergebinde/schweizer-armee/344/2k-kta-13754-gelbolive?c=44 .

I'll be doing most of the prep as well, including assembling and painting the chassis, pipes, engine, gearbox, transfer box, axles and installing a new loom with a modern fuse conversion and alternator.
So far the project is looking around £18-19k in total (which I don't have) and just wondering if its worth perhaps doing all the paint myself with the paint I'm looking to get.

So I have a couple of questions:
Has anyone done military 2k paint with hardener before and does it require a Matte clear coat afterwards (See paint link)?
What would you all recommend as a paint application?
How much did it cost in all?


Just to be clear, its not going to be a show car its a military vehicle so the paint should be treated as if it came from the workshops which the swiss are quite proficient at. But it will still be a Matte finish regardless.
I have access to a workshop with a compressor so would require a gun for paint.

Here are some examples of the paint work they did.

[haveyoubooked]

Its a tricky one. I'm at a similar stage except doing all work except for reboring, crank grinding and deck/head skim should they need it.

I'm looking to spend £10k ish in parts including my initial LR purchase. So far Chassis from Richards, delivered, for a 109 6 cyl was £3318 inc VAT. O/D was £500, LR was £1200. So im already 1/2 way into that.

The "to get" list:
Doortops (rocky mountain)
Axle seal kits and bearings
G/box seal kits and bearings
All braking consumables
Clutch
Wiring loom
Dynamator
Front seat kit
All body seals
Fuel tanks
Pump rebuild kit
Engine rebuild
Steering and swivel rebuild kits
Spring overhaul/parabolics
Paint
Tyres

I think that will take care of another £5k (according to the spreadsheet). That said I'm doing my own media blasting, plating, fabrication and repair to bulkhead and door frames and painting.

I restore classic Jags, Healeys, Triumphs and MG's as part of our business and the cheapest body to bare metal, suspension, braking and rear drivetrain rebuild (not touching the engine, interior or wiring except minor stuff) was £17.5k for an MGC. E type over £70k for literal nut and bolt rebuild.

Its amazing how much time fabrication and fettling can swallow on body repairs and where originality is key or decent fitting replacements aren't available. With £1k only covering a couple of shifts, the £ soon add up.


Painting isn't too hard if you have a good eye for detail, do your prep well and be prepared to practice plenty and do things twice a here and there. Especially not to a Matt Landy level. A cheap little gun such as a Devilbiss FlG-5 for colour and clearcoats, a cheap generic primer gun, a inline water trap a few strainers and paint cups and 3hp 100l compressor will be all you need to give it a go.

Our outsourced resprays were £4-6k generally.

I'm sure there will be plenty on here with much more accurate summaries of cost too.

[Bezdonian]

Its a tricky one. I'm at a similar stage except doing all work except for reboring, crank grinding and deck/head skim should they need it.

I'm looking to spend £10k ish in parts including my initial LR purchase. So far Chassis from Richards, delivered, for a 109 6 cyl was £3318 inc VAT. O/D was £500, LR was £1200. So im already 1/2 way into that.

The "to get" list:
Doortops (rocky mountain)
Axle seal kits and bearings
G/box seal kits and bearings
All braking consumables
Clutch
Wiring loom
Dynamator
Front seat kit
All body seals
Fuel tanks
Pump rebuild kit
Engine rebuild
Steering and swivel rebuild kits
Spring overhaul/parabolics
Paint
Tyres

I think that will take care of another £5k (according to the spreadsheet). That said I'm doing my own media blasting, plating, fabrication and repair to bulkhead and door frames and painting.

I restore classic Jags, Healeys, Triumphs and MG's as part of our business and the cheapest body to bare metal, suspension, braking and rear drivetrain rebuild (not touching the engine, interior or wiring except minor stuff) was £17.5k for an MGC. E type over £70k for literal nut and bolt rebuild.

Its amazing how much time fabrication and fettling can swallow on body repairs and where originality is key or decent fitting replacements aren't available. With £1k only covering a couple of shifts, the £ soon add up.


Painting isn't too hard if you have a good eye for detail, do your prep well and be prepared to practice plenty and do things twice a here and there. Especially not to a Matt Landy level. A cheap little gun such as a Devilbiss FlG-5 for colour and clearcoats, a cheap generic primer gun, a inline water trap a few strainers and paint cups and 3hp 100l compressor will be all you need to give it a go.

Our outsourced resprays were £4-6k generally.

I'm sure there will be plenty on here with much more accurate summaries of cost too.

Thanks for your response,
My current budget is around 10-13k overall. But I'm essentially doing a nut and bolt rebuild as the bulkhead is shot the chassis has more patches than original material. So it was the logical thing to do as its also going to be my daily driver driver afterwards (I know I'm Mad). Most of the other costs are parts, tires, doors, 6 cylinder conversion components, swiss specific parts, overhaul kits(servo brake, gearbox, transfer and swivels), pipes(brake and fuel). which so far is around £7-9k on its own. So the rest is re-galvanising parts and painting.
So any saving is a bonus even if that means more time to prep the panels for paint or simply painting it myself.

[Rusty66]

Don't forget about small parts and consumables such as fixings. These will go in the hundreds.
For example I just spent a tenner for five (!) brake pipe clamps.
If you want it to be a daily driver you want to get everything right and reliable so you'll probably renew bearings, shafts, steering column, ... too?
I also spent quite a bit on galvanising and I sherardized every fastener and fixing I could. Not essential, maybe not original, but after having seen the difference of old sherardized bolts coming loose and newer replacement ones (not) coming loose that's what I decided upon.
Not least I spent literally hundreds on postage (though this is especially bad for me being outside of Britain).
So, there are all sorts of little and overlooked costs that add up considerably.

[Gareth]

What about tyres? There's another £1000 if you want 5 decent ones.

This is a really interesting thread. I nut and bolt restored an 88". When I retired I bought it at an auction as a project, with an eye to possibly setting up a restoration business. I am an ex aircraft engineer, with all the tools and skills.

When I finished, I was very happy with the result, but it took me 2 years of part time work. I could have done it in a year if I'd put a 40 hour week in! Waiting for delivery of major parts could have been managed better by pre ordering I suppose.

I did it all for about £14k. However if I factored in the hours, and had done it for a customer, it would have had to be £30k plus to make any business sense. I concluded it was not a viable business.

I can see why they are quoting £10k. Perhaps that is their worst case scenario, with many unpredictable items in the mix?

[Bloke]

Be sure to set aside some budget for fasteners, rivets, brackets, tools and other consumables. These have taken me slightly off-guard during my restoration and have added significant cost.

Another thing to watch out for is to try and check for any missing parts. One recent example; my gearbox was missing the 4WD and high/low range levers AND all of the related bracketry and fixings for them. Replacing all these parts cost another chunk of money that I wasn't expecting to spend.

Tom

[Alchad]

Don't forget if you do decide to spray it yourself that using 2K requires particular precautions (breathing apparatus).

Personally I enjoy doing my own spraying, it's quite satisfying and the Land Rovers have fairly straightforward panels etc which can be done on their own before final assembly.

[S2A V8]

I started my rebuild some 14 years ago, the land rover did belong to my brother and was parked on my drive for years gradually deteriorating, basically it was a scraper when my brother signed it over to me.

To cut a long story short if I had just stripped it and rebuilt it, it would have cost about 20K but me and my nephew decided to put a V8 in on a R380 gearbox mated to the series transfer box, disc brake conversion and front and rear limited slip diffs and a load of other bits to make it a nice every day land rover. We did all the work ourselves apart from some engine parts which we sent out to be machined and balanced. We are now into the 40K bracket and the only big spend left is a set of tyres at about £750. As it has taken 14 years so far it works out at a yearly spend of 3 to 4K.

Hope to get it on the road by the summer time, just the wings to paint and fit and then the doors to paint and fit. Then it's off for a MOT.

[Exile]

All of the above is why you should never be seduced into paying too much for a "barn find".

It was abandoned for a reason.

[Bezdonian]

Don't forget if you do decide to spray it yourself that using 2K requires particular precautions (breathing apparatus).

Personally I enjoy doing my own spraying, it's quite satisfying and the Land Rovers have fairly straightforward panels etc which can be done on their own before final assembly.

What I'm probably going to do is all the paint stripping, rubbing down, etch priming and flatting it down and degreasing. Then letting them just paint the panels. Should that be less than £10k for them just to paint it?

[Gareth]

Don't forget if you do decide to spray it yourself that using 2K requires particular precautions (breathing apparatus).

Personally I enjoy doing my own spraying, it's quite satisfying and the Land Rovers have fairly straightforward panels etc which can be done on their own before final assembly.

What I'm probably going to do is all the paint stripping, rubbing down, etch priming and flatting it down and degreasing. Then letting them just paint the panels. Should that be less than £10k for them just to paint it?

Certainly is a hefty quote!

[Kevlar]

If you're doing all the preparation, that looks like a ridiculously expensive quote. Assuming that you're reasonably competent, I'd strongly suggest painting it yourself.

Even if you need to buy a compressor and spray gun, you could complete the job for about £1000, including paint. That said, as mentioned above, I don't think it's a good idea to use 2k paint without proper safety equipment

[TimV]

Or do it yourself using different paint and a roller?

[AlexB]

My 109 pick up, chassis and bulkhead repair, engine and box rebuild, new steering and brakes, existing diffs, second hand tyres, blasted and painted wheels, no doors or door tops, new door and roof / windscreen seals, new wiring loom and lights, wipers from stock, fuel tank from stock, no paint other than some touch up cans and black for various bits, no labour
£11k and not quite finished yet 

[Bezdonian]

So I'm nearly at the point of getting a new galv chassis soon, so I need to know what primer and paint is recommended by you kind folk.
I'm going to T wash the chassis and either put zinc primer or red oxide primer. Probably going to hand paint it on the flat it back a couple of times. Especially on the rear cross member.
So what black paint do you all recommend?
What brushes and thinners do you also recommend to get a reasonable finish? Nothing show car level though.