H1 Body Advice

[duncanpa]

[quote name='dwaxman1' date='15 July 2010 - 03:12 PM' timestamp='1279224763' post='19226']

I have a few blisters.. popping the blister and the trying to match the paint is not that easy of a task...

[/quote]

Lou Dennis here in town will match any automotive paint for free and put it into various sizes of aerosol cans...a bit pricy, but well worth it to have the colour match...

[Kurt]

I had a friend with a 06 soft top Alpha which had rear end paint issues and had it repainted under warranty.



I don't see a wagon repair running 10+ G's for paint if you shop around. Not for a spot fix at least.



I had a body and paint shop in LA redo my whole soft top for a few grand. Quotes for the whole truck including corrosion spots here and there ranging from $2000-7500 with most falling in the middle of that. That's prep, body work [pull dents out of doors, patch 2 aluminum cracks, rivet repair] new aluminum etching primer and new paint and clear coat + life time warranty on paint and body.



The only way the job will go to 10K+ is if the shop has you painted as a chump and slaps you with the "Hummer tax" OR, if you decide to go all out to pull the roof off and redo all the seals and redo all the mating surfaces which is a lot of mechanical labor. That I can see running 10 grand in theory.



I can see certain fancy candy paints with insane prep running over that, ie. spending weeks to hand sand everything but most shops don't do that.



The paint jobs from the factory are pretty poor, bubbles in the paint, odd orange peel, overspray, etc. It's all hand sprayed by a guy in a suit and that's it. It's not like the H2 or H3 lines where the paint uses a more modern dip with some sort of electro static application.



I'd make sure the shop has good attention to detail [ie. works on other exotics] and you should be fine. If I were to do a big money paint job I'd send it to Phil's Autobody in South Bend, IN, next to AM General, hes the H1 body and paint specialist.



There's an exotic car paint/detail shop near me that quoted me $5,000 for the work [this was a shop that didn't do insurance jobs, only high end cars and they had a few nice cars in getting custom painted]. I went with a shop my friend uses for local dealer work and had previous H1 experience.



Here's a few pictures of my soft top, it was a lot of work, I did the interior removal and most of the strip down myself [took a day, I did it in a public storage parking lot while I was storing the parts <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... rgreen.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mrgreen:' /> ]. Picked it up with just two seats in the truck and reassembled it at home.



The worse thing about painting H1's, I've seen people pay 10 grand for a 2 grand paint job, where one shop actually send it to a cheaper shop down the street and pocketed the difference ...



Here's the pictures, since I wanted a tan 1998 and couldn't find one I repainted the whole tub factory gloss tan, it came out grate but the iphone picture of it painted is a poor photo.



Also replaced all the lights with LED, new light buckets, new seals everywhere, new logos, etc. Actually that reminds me, I have to finish weather stripping the interior door jabs tomorrow...

[duncanpa]

Hey Kurt.....nice job on the paint...could you share where you got it done in case others wnat to have there BABY repainted...

[dwaxman1]

Looks great Kurt...I do have some bubbles in my paint.. not sure what to do, pop them and clean it up, well then I ave to try and match the paint in that one spot...I am more looking at how to sound proof my wagon a bit..love the TAN colour!!

[Kurt]

[quote name='dwaxman1' date='18 July 2010 - 07:16 AM' timestamp='1279462606' post='19413']

Looks great Kurt...I do have some bubbles in my paint.. not sure what to do, pop them and clean it up, well then I ave to try and match the paint in that one spot...I am more looking at how to sound proof my wagon a bit..love the TAN colour!!

[/quote]



A&J Autobody in Santa Ana, CA [in Orange County] if anyone is wandering that way. A bit far to drive for a paint job, I think they do an H1 every other month, either insurance or repaint.



Don't forget AM General has a 10-12 year warranty on corrosion, it has to be a certain type, like hole through the body/chassis type deal, not surface rust due to paint scratches and abuse, that's not covered.

[dwaxman1]

[quote name='Kurt' date='19 July 2010 - 12:12 AM' timestamp='1279512766' post='19445']

A&J Autobody in Santa Ana, CA [in Orange County] if anyone is wandering that way. A bit far to drive for a paint job, I think they do an H1 every other month, either insurance or repaint.



Don't forget AM General has a 10-12 year warranty on corrosion, it has to be a certain type, like hole through the body/chassis type deal, not surface rust due to paint scratches and abuse, that's not covered.

[/quote]



mine is a 96 so i believe if there was a warranty.. it would be long gone by now... would love to know how you would check something like that??!!

[abot]

[quote name='dwaxman1' date='18 July 2010 - 10:16 AM' timestamp='1279462606' post='19413']

Looks great Kurt...I do have some bubbles in my paint.. not sure what to do, pop them and clean it up, well then I ave to try and match the paint in that one spot...I am more looking at how to sound proof my wagon a bit..love the TAN colour!!

[/quote]



I would scrape them off: paint bubbles are usually a sign of rust forming on the body (they usually form when some moisture has gotten behind the paint). It is best to isolate it. It can get really bad if you leave it.

[dwaxman1]

[quote name='Alan' date='24 July 2010 - 05:01 PM' timestamp='1280005296' post='19657']

I would scrape them off: paint bubbles are usually a sign of rust forming on the body (they usually form when some moisture has gotten behind the paint). It is best to isolate it. It can get really bad if you leave it.

[/quote]



how do you try and match paint after you scrape it off??

[abot]

[quote name='dwaxman1' date='24 July 2010 - 10:01 PM' timestamp='1280023307' post='19674']

how do you try and match paint after you scrape it off??

[/quote]



You can find the factory paint code for the truck online. AMGHummer.com (flashoffroad.com) may have it.



Alan

[Kurt]

[quote name='Alan' date='24 July 2010 - 08:09 PM' timestamp='1280027387' post='19677']

You can find the factory paint code for the truck online. AMGHummer.com (flashoffroad.com) may have it.



Alan

[/quote]



Yup, when I had my truck redone, I gave the paint shop the AM General paint code [which had a PPG paint code which is what the paint shop used].



The normal colors are easy to touch up, you start getting into problems spot fixing anything with metallic flakes in the paint, I wanted to go with the 04/06 color metallic sand but was talked out of it and went with factory gloss tan instead. So metallic green/silver my have issues since it's difficult to match the "texture" of the metal flakes in the plaint application, the painter will have to be very skilled at painting that whole section and then "fade" it into the rest of the paint. Same goes with spot fixes, blending it into the local paint.



Most really good paint shops have a tool that laser samples the paint for a more accurate application. This is important with trucks with faded paint is that spot repair will become really obvious if someone just sprays on brand new paint on top of 10 year old paint. They may adjust the paint to look "faded" to match whats on the truck.