So I know there are a lot of painters and people who have dealt with getting a car painted on here. It's time to get my 63 Galaxie painted. I have taken it to two shops for estimates so far. They have both come back at around $3500. Not as low as I expected, but fairly reasonable considering the work that needs to be done. Thats including spraying the door jambs and under the hood and trunk lid. All of my body work has been done courtesy of fellow HAMBER 2tall2beahotrodder, and it is sitting in primer right now with no trim on it. By the way, this price at one of the shops included putting all the trim back on and installing my new weatherstrips on all 4 doors. Does this price sound reasonable? Just trying to get a gauge of what others may have paid for a similar service and make sure I'm not getting taken.
Sounds fair with the information you provided. There are so many variables involved it is hard to speculate.
The price includes cutting and buffing. And it's for base/clear body, with a white pearl roof. He said they do 3 coats of clear, and it's all PPG paint.
That doesnt seem bad to me. It's not TOO cheap that it would be impossible for them to do it. Especially since you've had most of the hard work done. Have you seen any work from the guys? It doesnt mean they will do a great job, but it atleast lets you know they can! When I had my '56 the shop owner showed me some awesome paintjobs they had done, then mine turned out like shit.
$3500.00 seems like a lot of money to paint a car without having to do body work or disassembly. How much is materials and how much is labor?
Materials alone will be $1,500 at the cheapest. That leaves $2k for labor. I just did a 65 Chevelle, every night and weekend for 4 months. Did the job for 2k and know I did the hard labor for less than $5/hr. Would have made more money working somewhere else for no risk. lol I have to edit that I did do a LOT of body work in that time. It does sound about $1,000 too high. Depends on the quality and price of their materials.
People will always have their own opinions whether it a good price or not. As long as they do not F it up and do a decent turnaround I would say its a good deal! My brother wont touch a car for less than 10K and on some cars that does not include assembly....
$3500 seems way to high to me, for a car that has all the body work done, chrome stripped, and in primer ready to scuff and paint! Of coarse I stay pretty much dead broke, all the time, so I have to all my work myself and learn as I go. But even if I wasnt, I would paint mine with a brush, before I would pay somebody $3500 just to spray my car.
All good info. The shop that I'm leaning toward does good work and used to be well known for building show cars and hotrods throughout the 60's, 70's and 80's. It's now run by the owners daughter (who seems to know old cars pretty well, as she's a bit older and showed me a few of her 50 and 52 chopped Mercury's). They primarily specialize in newer insurance jobs as most shops do these days. But there are a lot of older 50's and 60's projects in the shop right that they showed me. So I know the quality is not an issue. The way the quote she printed and gave me was broken down like this: Paint Complete with 3x clear: $2500 Install Moldings and new weatherstrip: $500 Repair body: $500 Now she pointed out a few flaws in the body work that needed to be addressed, but they were very minor. She actually said the price of that would probably be slightly less. She said she was high-balling it to cover her ass. So it could end up being slightly less than $3500.
This question has been debated over and over here. Do a search. Bottom line, it could cost anywhere from $500 to $25,000 to finish your car. Depends on a LOT of things. A body shop is not going to just pull your "bodywork finished" car in the booth and spray it. There is way too much liability for them to do that and provide any sort of warranty for what THEY are considered the supplier of. Any failure of the complete system, will likely come back on them. $1,000 plus for materials leaves approximately one week of labor left over. Seems about right. But impossible to say really without knowing a LOT of variables. Why don't you go get a couple more quotes like most people do and see how they compare??
PS: The fact that they understand old cars is a big plus. Have you seen any recent cars they have done? I would suggest you check a few jobs out AND talk with the owners regarding their satisfaction. And, I mean cars done in the last 6 months, not the last couple of years. Things can change fast in a bodyshop.
^^^^^ amen^^^^^ My favorite is when people say its way too high of a price then say they got theirs done for 1k less and when you see it, it is a 25 footer.
The spraying of the car is the least of the job. 4-5 hours in the booth. Materials $1000- $1500. Last time I buffed out a clearcoat job. From sanding 4-6 times then buffing 4-6 times, each time a finer grit, took the better part of 40 man hours. Just compute that out to $$'s per hour. Don't forget the shop's reputation is on the finished car, no matter who did the body work. People always ask "who painted the car" never who did the body work.
This is quote number two so far. The problem is, there are not a lot of shops around here that will even touch an older car. Or if they do, they say they will get to it when they get to it. And that means it sits around in the back of their shop for 2 years. I plan on getting one more quote to make it 3. Just wanted to hear what experiences others have had. But both have been $3500 so far.
I haver done paint jobs from little money to lots of money, but I learned along time ago not to paint a car that someone else did the bodywork. I could teach a monkey to spray a car, how straight it is is the most important thing. If you are the painter everybody that sees the vehicle will blame you for how wavy it is regardless that you didn't do the body work. If someone tells me the bodywork is already done & they convince me they have to have me do it, I charge alot to straighten it out before I paint it! Oldolds was typing the same time I was!
It's funny you say that, because she told me the same thing today. But she did comment on how good a job the body guy had done. All of the body lines are nice and straight.
$3500 seems like a good deal for a gloss job... I took my 62 caddy in for a complete repaint (HOK flat pearl/gloss roof), repair some damage, etc... they did a killer job on it IMO, but for the size of the car, amount of materials, prep, etc... I end up close to $8000 when all was said and done... it's like anything else, you get what you pay for... if you're comfortable with their quality, etc etc... $3500 is hard to beat
Lo-Fi, I looked for a long time to get my '64 Galaxie painted. It was black with a white top, and I got it repainted solid black. Single stage black enamel. I wasn't looking for car show quality, just nice Sunday night cruiser quality. I painted under the hood, left the door jambs alone for the most part. Took off most of the chrome, and had some of the car (doors, trunk, hood) primed or painted myself. Shops in town were talking $3,500-$5,000 to paint it. I found a neighbor up the road that went to school for painting. He farms, does mechanic work, and paints used tractors and implements for one of the equipment dealers in town. He quoted me at $1,500. He took the whole car, including what I had done, down to bare metal. He pulled the rest of the chrome, made several patch panels, popped lots of dents, primed and painted it, reinstalled the all of the chrome, and sprayed the bottom 6" with chip guard (We both live on a gravel road). When it was all said and done he charged me $1,560. He did a really nice job, and it turned out better than I expected. I would look around; ask some of your local buddies because you might find a similar deal. Just because they don't have a body shop on broadway doesn't mean they don't do nice work. That said, for two tone with 3x clear that doesn't seem too out of line. Adam
I skipped past all the replies, so i dunno if this has been said but 3500$ for base/ clear/ PPG that will be wet sanded and polished sounds pretty damn good. Also I gurantee that if they're worth a damn they'll probably go over that bodywork that is already done..so for 3500 it's pretty hard to beat.
yep, lots of stuff to think about. even with the $3,500 estimate have to allow for the what if they come across a problem factor. they certainly have to sand, prep and seal before starting their paint job. shops don't like going over work by someone else because no true idea of work done, products compatible with products to be used, etc. have had cars painted at mass production shops like MAACO & Miracle with great results. I have always had drivers with no 10K paint jobs.
I'm going through this right now, cept I had my unemployed buddy come do the work at my shop. He's a laid off body man. I just asked him to come by and get it "good enough for flat" as I don't intend to do a nice paint job until get the car chromed. I had the car roughed in pretty decent, actually thought I did allright. My buddy comes in takes one look at the car and asks "what the hell happened to this car?" Granted Jack is almost 7 feet tall, so he noticed the ripples in the roof pretty easy. Once he started sanding on the car he noticed that the primer on the deck lid was flaking off. It turns out I didn't use the right type of primer for bare metal, everything had to be stripped. Guess I learned something from that...
3500= good deal----if there was a few problem areas--there are usually a few more hidden ones--show up when u sand the car---
It really is! You can't compare some guy working from home's price, to a shop with overhead, a reputation, and professional paintbooth...
Years ago, I took my '32 3 window to a very well known shop. No one else in the regular shops would touch it. His cheapest paint job was $8K at the time. The car was black and the straightest paint job I ever saw. The only disassembly were the doors. Now that he is more well known, his minimum paint job is $15K. When it came to another car, I figured I couldn't afford the previous painter. My friend does all the museum Toyota cars. The painter he used charged $7K, so I went ti him next. The job was very good driver quality. In the past, I've used 1 Day Paint and Body with good results and their price was $400. I wouldn't used them for a show car, but a driver. If you keep it waxed, I've had good results.
that price sounds pretty fair,maybe that is about the rate in your area.my lincoln is in the shop now,i took it completely apart had it media blasted.the price for body work and paint is 4500.it wasn't terrible ruff.i been helping the guy do some things on mine and others so mine will get done.he won't make squat,time and materials eat cash fast.with the shop that has those 50s 60s projects ,how long they been there? good luck
Don't go by this... This "Painter lost his SHORTS. Adam got a FREE paint job, including material. What this gal is quoting you for the work she is intending to do is a better than fair deal.
I've been in the collision end of the auto body business for a few decades. Every shop I've ever worked at wont do complete paint jobs because it's a losing game. They make a LOT more money doing spot repairs. A complete takes them away from this cash cow. Some shops will nicely tell a customer who asks for a complete that the job starts around $7,000. It doesn't help that Maaco will do it for $595.oo We just have to educate them. Hell, the materials alone can come to over $2,000 if there is any primer work to do first. Like it's been said, You get what you pay for. What kind of quality do YOU want?
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