CONTINUOUSWAVE

I am in Michigan. I need a small crack [in the engine cowling from a] 1988 Johnson 90 VRO fixed, the cowling repainted, and the decals (which I already have] applied. So far I have only found one shop willing to do the job. They quoted $350 to $400 to do the work, and that cost seemed a little high.

An option is to buy another cowling in excellent condition, but I have not been able to find one that is in better condition than the one I have.

My 1988 Montauk boat and Johnson 90 engine are all original and in great condition. I am trying to bring [the boat and engine] back to excellent condition as much as possible.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

The price quoted does not seem excessive for a high quality job. To do a professional repair and repaint could require several hours of hand work, mostly in the preparation for painting. The surface to be painted must be flawless for a proper finishing job. Applying decals to a rounded surface is not something I would even attempt to accomplish.

Your options seem to be limited. You can have the work done at the quoted price, do the work yourself, or look for a specialist in another locale. Seeking a qualified specialist outside your area is a fraught with risk.

Matching the color of your undoubtedly faded engine may also present an unwelcome challenge. The painter can't just buy a can of paint based on an old Evinrude paint color.

If the quoted price is more than you want to pay and you have some skills and patience perhaps you could do the repair and painting prep work and have the remainder of the work done locally,or perhaps finish the whole job yourself over the Winter season.

Shops rates keep going up and paint prices have increased significantly over the past five 5 years, and the prices you mentioned seem inline with what I would charge someone. Probably looking at three to fours hours in total prep-time and then add materials and profit on top of that. If they have to mix or buy a specific color to match, rather than left-overs from another job,that also takes time and money.

The painting an outboard engine--preparation and paint--runs about $1,200 to $1,500--and that's without having to fix any damage.

D-

For a comparison of the cost from an OEM to paint a new and unused outboard cowling to a different color than the standard color during production of the engine, one could compare the cost for Mercury to paint their latest VERADO engines in white rather than in the standard black color. The cost to the customer for electing the white cowling paint option is just $2,090. That is not for a re-paint, just the cost to change from the standard black cowling color to an optional white cowling color. If the OEM charges over $2,000 just for an optional paint color, i don't think a few hundred bucks for a cowling repair, preparation, and complete repainting sounds excessive.

The cost for me to paint a motor white or black is the same. Materials cost (paint supplies) run nearly the same cost per unit of paint. For outboard companies charging $2K for white, that's either an "upcharge" for the privledge of having a white motor or they aren't set up to paint white in normal production and it's an upset to their assembly line flow. It's possible the motor goes through the assmebly line and get's painted black and then there's an additional process of prep and paint to make it white.

D-

jimh wrote:For a comparison of the cost from an OEM to paint a new and unused outboard cowling to a different color than the standard color during production of the engine, one could compare the cost for Mercury to paint their latest VERADO engines in white rather than in the standard black color. The cost to the customer for electing the white cowling paint option is just $2,090. That is not for a re-paint, just the cost to change from the standard black cowling color to an optional white cowling color. If the OEM charges over $2,000 just for an optional paint color, i don't think a few hundred bucks for a cowling repair, preparation, and complete repainting sounds excessive.

Cost and price arenot the same thing and can be very different. I'm sure we will never know the "cost" to Mercuty to paint a motor and we only see the color option reflected in the MSRP price for the priviledge of having a white motor. For cars the cost of a black or white cars is usually the same. The paint options that usually add $750ish are when you get into specific colors (usually metallics) that are a 2 step process - base coat followed by clear coat. 2 stage top coat is always more expensive in time and materials.

D-

dtmackey wrote:Cost and price are not the same thing

All my uses of "cost" were the cost to the customer. The "price" might be the list price or the MSRP price, but whatever the customer pays is the cost to the customer. Since the VERADO engines already cost about $40,000, I am guessing that if the customer wants them to be white then adding $2,000-per-engine is not a deal breaker.

In the manufacturing process if the paint assembly line has to be changed to a different color, the manufacturer experiences additional costs or expenses because the paint lines have to be cleared of the old paint, the new paint loaded into the system, and then the process repeated to get back to a standard color. As you mention, white is usually a standard automobile color for which no extra charge is required, but in some instances (FORD in particular) the standard white is no-charge but a fancier and purer white is a $500 uncharge. Also, getting a perfect finish with some colors is probably more difficult than others, and perhaps the painters that do the fancier colors are more skilled and are paid more for the work; and the paint probably costs more, too. And as DT mentions, there are often multiple coats applied.

Back to engine cowlings: in order to get a really beautiful lustre on an old engine cowling, one often has to resort to some extraordinary measures. I was remarking about the nice finish on some old Mercury engines, when the guy who does the work to keep them looking that way (LHG's son Larry Jr.) explained the very complicated, labor-intensive, many step process he uses to get the outcome. The method was similar to what is used to produce fabulous finishes on restored automobiles. It takes many steps, a lot of special compounds, polishes, rubs, waxes, and skill to produce a flawless finish. You are not going to get that sort of work done for $50. Also, when the boat was in use and on the water, every time the boat came off plane Larry Jr. would jump up and dry off the engine cowlings with a perfectly clean chamois towel to prevent water spots from being dried into the finish by the sun.