I was collecting some paint from my local trade supplier back in March for some spraying on the Golf and asked “If you had a car you wanted a really good respray, where would you go ?”
Instantly, the both replied together “Motobüro !. They are absolutely superb”
As it turned out Motoburo had an open day the week after so I called in and spoke to Matt the owner. I explained I was looking to buy an R8 and if it was the ‘wrong’ colour, ie there wasn’t one available in the colour I wanted, would they be interested in a full colour change respray.
We had a good conversation about the process and costs involved. Matt was aware of my Golf from seeing it online on social media. Normally, this isn’t something they’d do but he said I was welcome to use part of their workshop to strip the car, they’d respray it and then I’d reassemble it. Not only would it keep the cost down for me, it would allow them to do other work and only the painter needed to break off to work on the R8 rather than the guys break off other projects.
They don`t do insurance jobs, thats not what they are about at all, it`s usually classic and retro vehicle full restorations, taking many months with a lot of custom fabrication.
Fast forward to April and whilst searching for a suitable car, they were white or black. Nothing else was available at the time.
When I bought the R8, it was wrapped in a Matte black PPF. It’s certainly not my thing at all.
The next day Lou and I removed the ppf with a steamer. It takes a while but it’s actually very satisfying.
A full cars worth of ppf.
This is where I have to say thank you to the previous owner. Ollie told me that the bonnet and front bumper had been poorly resprayed and that’s why he had it wrapped. He could have said nothing and I’d only have found it when I removed the wrap. There are sanding marks under the basecoat, the laquer was full of pinholes and quite honestly, it was shocking.
The front bumper was the same, to the passenger side of the number plate and underneath it, the paint just flaked off showing poor prep before spraying.
I don’t mind a black car, I’ve had several but I just didn’t like the R8 in that colour. It didn’t show the lines of the car off to me.
The Blades are a dark grey, wrapped in PPF.
I drove into their workshop, lifted it onto axle stands and started the process of dissasembly.
A few hours later and panels were starting to be removed.
By the end of Day 1 stripping the car, just 3 days after driving it home, things were progressing well.
Lou was able to help the next day and on the drive there, she expressed concern about what we were doing. We’ve never spent this sort of money on a car, I’ve been planning buying it for years and within 2 days of actually achieving this dream of owning an R8, I was taking it apart. What on Earth were we doing. ??
To be honest, I do understand where she was coming from and I had the same thoughts myself yesterday.
I was pleased Lou was there, removing the door mirrors is fiddly ! Without Youtube I’d have struggled to understand where some of the clips were.
This had been quite a difficult decision for us, initially I was looking at a vibrant Red. However Yellows, greenz and other similar colours were discounted, I’d seen an R8 in red and really liked it. The Sepang blue isn’t vibrant enough for me, it’s too dark. Then I remembered seeing a Kingfisher Blue R8 at Spa a couple of years ago. It’s a genuine Audi R8 colour, but was only on limited numbers.
Lou and I trawled the internet for R8’s in that colour and both agreed it was the one for us.
Jon the painter had collected the paint and showed me the colour. It looked lighted than I expected. Hmmm, have I made the wrong decision !?
I removed the rear deck cover and found several bolts holding the deck lid to be loose. I don’t believe this has been touched before, it all looks original. I picked up a spare tailgate a few weeks later and upon stripping, several were loose on that one too !
By the end of the day it was mostly stripped.
I spoke to a friend who works at REP, asked what on Earth had happened to the rear of the gearbox ! Apparently, they are all like that. Audi’s noted rattling at idle on all models and the ‘fix’ was to throw a load of epoxy metal on the end case
On the drive home, Lou said she actually felt a lot better about stripping the car now. She had seen how everything just bolted together and the inital fear had gone as the day progressed.
I think it was one of the best things I could have done. When you buy a second hand car, there is always that niggly feeling that perhaps it’s been in an accident, is it bent underneath? By stripping it back to the shell, it was immediately obvious everything was original. The only signs of previous work we could find were the front bumper and wires to the windscreen washers. Both of those tie in with the resprayed bumper and bonnet.
Everything else was untouched and original.
Whilst having a bump is never something you want or plan to do, I feel a little bit better that if the worst were to happen, I could unbolt the damaged panel and simply replace them. Obviously a major off is a different matter. I dunno, it’s hard to explain but it stopped me being ‘scared’ of the car. I still respect the performance but I was very apprehensive driving it at first, it was so far above anything I’ve ever owned.
Then I went on Holiday.
Jon was prepping and spraying the parts, Matt kept sending me photos of the process and the fnished panels. This is still in the paint booth after baking.
Seeing this confirmed to Lou and I we’d picked the right colour.
The bonnet and wings are one huge panel. I can spray, but I’ve never had a finish like this straight out of the spraygun.
The windscreen had been removed and the shell was pushed into the booth. The roof skin is the only panel that doesn’t unbolt.
What I really like is the detail they go to. I’ll point it out in a later photo, but painting the chassis that’s hidden makes a difference.
We returned from Holiday and the next day set about refitting everything. I asked Matt if they could rehang the doors, they are heavy and bulky, I didn’t want to struggle with Lou and risk marking them
By the end of the day it was looking like a car again.
The next morning the exhaust was fitted then the rear bumper atached
Aligning the panels take time. There is sufficient movement in all the mounts to get everything spot on
Lunchtime on Day 3 and it was finished
I’m not a fan of Chrome, I think the aftermarket black badges are much more subtle. The difference they make compared to the bare car was much more than I expected.
We spent quite some time deciding if we were refitting the V10 badge. Lou still isn`t a fan.
Finished ! Completely rebuilt and ready to drive outside.
The whole reassembly took us 5 days. If I was doing it again it would be much quicker, like many jobs the first time you spend ages working out how to do it. Even thought we’d taken it apart, reassembly is a little different.
Considering this hasn`t been buffed or detailed yet, I`m very very pleased with the result
Oh I mentioned it earlier. Look at the very top of the engine bay, you can just see the Blue next to the tailgate hinge. That’s the detail that would be easy to simply ignore. As it was a Black car, nobody would ever notice, but now it’s body coloured, it just looks ‘right’.
Fitted the Black wheels, I’m still trying to decide if I like Silver or Black. I’m leaning towards the Black.
The plan was to get it wet sanded, detailed and then PPF’d after spending all this time and effort getting it looking so good. However we setoff on the Pyrenees trip 6 days after picking up the car and there simply wasn`t time to get it done before we setoff.
Sadly we returned with quite a lot of stone chips.
A lot of people asked during the process if I was mad. I’d just bought a car and then immediately stripped it and had it painted a different colour. Why didn`t I wait for one in the colour I wanted ? Well quite simply, there weren`t any in the colour I liked available and I wanted to drive the car through the summer. I could have waited 12 months and still not find the car I wanted in the right colour.
I’ve paid less for the R8 and respray than I could have bought a Kingfisher Blue car anyway, so I class that as a result !
A huge thanks to Matt and the team at Motoburo. They made Lou and I feel very welcome which isn`t always the case when you visit a group of people working together. The quality of Jon`s spraying is top notch and I unreservedly recommend them to anyone wanting a high quality restoration or paintwork. 