Paint Pricing?

[Mitch]

What kind of prices should I expect to get my baby repainted. Say if I were to the bodywork myself, and sanded it all down. I'd be able to paint the thing myself If I had the right equipment and a paint booth, but unless I get a collision repair job this summer (likely) then I'll be doing it myself.

[Harv]

Loaded Question.

1500 to 15000 How much and how good do you want the paint?

If you do the work yourself you can get good results from Maco and the like.

John

[gpetrus]

From talking to a couple of guys who own body/restoration shops, they both try to stay away from what you're talking about at all cost. The reason is, the prep work of sanding and smoothing panels is 90% of how the paint job will turn out. You're standards and theirs are very likely to be different. If the paint job turns out not so good(which it usually will if this is you're first time doing it) they will get the blame. Their point is they are only spraying what you gave them to work with. It puts them in a no win situation.

[Mars]

Agree with previous post.

There are so many variations in paint types & schemes. How many coats of paint, whether or not you sand in between coats, clear coating, welding, bodywork, etc. Even then, prices vary geographically.

Body work can be VERY expensive so if you have the know how get rid of all your dents yourself.

Then, if you don't want a show car and just want a nice driver Maaco is 'ok' but realistically expect to pay anywhere from $1000 - $3000 for a decent paint job. $3000k - ? for high end paints.

I paid $7800 when I restored my 72tii. That was 2 stage base coat/clear coat PPG. Trunk, Engine bay, door jams, etc. were all done while the car was stripped. The price also included welding in 2 rockers, part of a rear quarter and a trunk floor. That was in the SouthEast area of Pa.

[vintage_car]

I got a quote for $700 to sand the car (probably not to bare metal). Fix some cracks in the spoiler, fix a large dent in the drivers door, paint and clear the car. It was from a Macco-like paint shop. That is just painting outside of the car, no jams, or under hood.

[gabestr]

$8,000 for all the same body work and a new nose (excluding parts). just about everything was stripped out of the car by myself except the engine + trans. (which I wasn't going to pull at first) and the diff. (which I didn't pull). If you need no body work maybe 3,000 is about right.

The new blog/web page:

http://home.comcast.net/~mintier-1/wsb/

[andrewro]

If you really want to try it yourself, you could rent a paint booth...

[auggiemize]

If I rememeber correctly, your car had some rust in the front valence, right?Because of that history, I think you should at least go to bare metal in the usual exterior rust places like the lower doors, fender bottoms, etc to ensure that you don't paint and start having bubbles from within in a couple of years. I totally agree with the previous guys on the "foundation is what a house is built on." You did buy it from an architect, didn't you?

I went to bare metal on my e9 coupe, and it got really expensive, but its the only way to know for sure what lies beneath. Best money that I ever spent that I didn't have!

And please keep it Riviera.

Dave V. in NC

[Guest Anonymous]

I bought the top of the line products from the local DuPont store and paid about $400for the "P2"primer surfacer, filler and rust converter/metal prep and another $750 for the Arcticblau metallic paint and clearcoat. Not all of it was used up and that will go toward the next project.

[FL02]

I heard a ball park $450 for the paint. If you are going to do it yourself, spend a lot of time getting it perfectly smooth and clean, as any defects will show up. I just reciently got the ol' 69 2002 back from MAACO and it looked good, although I should have spent more time on the skim coat and block sand stage. It looks good, and at $1000, should help preserve it for another 37 years or so. I had the door jams, under the hood, the trunk jams all painted and a little body work underneath the door and on the back window sill. New Glass, New Paint, now I'm ready to go for the Spring cruisin' Season'.

[punchesdfw]

I just find it crazy that cars cost so much to paint. I've had several aircraft painted in multi-color, highly detailed paint jobs in the $5,000 - $8,000 range, depending on the aircraft. That includes stripping the entire aircraft to bare aluminum, alodine etching and multistage paint, taking several days. Sometimes, the masking alone can take days.

[B-Doon]

A good painter here in the midwest can easily earn 100k in a year...

There is quite a bit of money to be made in automotive refinishing.

Brian

72 inka

[dcombee]

You really don't need a paint booth. If you have a garrage to put it in for paint that will do. hang some plastic. and bam you got a booth. i have done it plenty of times and it works great. besides, if you spend the time and you know what you are doing you can get a better paint job than many body shops will give you. If you do a base coat clear, you can shoot on the base, let it dry, sand it with 800 grit, that will get orange peal out and any dust nibbs. Then come over with your coats of clear. Sand and buff, you will have a dust free flat paint job; as long as you do the primer and prep right, that is the hard part.

[Mitch]

The valence is being replaced, because the lip rotted out, and was being held together by the paint.

I'm trying very hard to get a job at a (huge) new collision repair place, and I'm going to be in a Collision Repair class next year my my vocational school. All of the panels are very straight, they're most likely all new from a previous previous owner, but the paint looks like the inside of a toilet at a Lane-Bryant store.

P.S: I'm a skilled painter, I've had some very nice pieces of work when I airbrushed, and have had a masterpiece or two when I sprayed diecasts and plastics.

Fact: Mitch has the best analogies

[RandyMolson]

I just called a few local paint shops today. They said call them back in the summer when things are slower, oh, and expect to pay $3k minimum with no bodywork. Hell, that's more than I paid for the car!

A few years back, I did a fine job painting my jeep doors in my backyard at 40-degrees F with good quality paint and zero car painting experience. Its all common sense. The 02 is next.