Holy shit! I'm packing up my shit and moving my shop to Michigan!!! Might be worth a 9 hour trip man. This car is complete suspension, of topic for here, full brakes, fuel system, wired, motor and trans installed, running, driving, cutting all the glass, etc.... just not the interior. And that might change. $10,000. Material included.
Holy shit x2! I need to find a shop like yours. My car is all solid now that I've made the sheet metal repairs and the necessary filler work is mainly at the patch panel areas (so, not over-the-top). $10-$15k for ONLY filler, blocking, and priming is nuts to me. No way I can afford that...
I talked to a body shop about taking care of the rust spots, the materials to use and any guidance they might offer. I had cleaned rust off and successfully refinished areas on other cars on my own. I was told to not be aggressive or I would warp the area so I gently sand blasted the rust out of the pits, did a little clean up, used same products for spot priming then turned it over to the body shop. It saved some hours on doing the dirty work and I was comfortable that it was taken down to good clean metal. The paint job stood up and went with the car when it was retired about 6 years later. It was appreciated that I could do some of the work and the shop would paint it. The car was hailed on at 6 months old that had a paint job that did not last, then it was repainted that eventually became a crackle finish. Young with a family and money was tight so if I could save some money it was worth it. The shop took all the layers off the did the bodywork and did paint that lasted the last 6 years of the cars life. That was 35 years ago so no memory so they likely did not guarantee the work. EOD warranty. (warranty to the end of the driveway.) Really appreciated that a small shop that did quality work was willing to work with me. In reality if the entire new paint paint job failed it would not be because of the few spots I cleaned.
I just checked google maps and I’m 12 hours from owingsville. I just mite be greasing the trailer bearings and taking a road trip. I’m at least two years away from paint.
OK, I see you have done a lot of welding on a lot of areas of your car. We do not know what level of experience you have concerning welding body sheet metal. Some people can weld sheet metal like pros the first time they touch a welder, but most don't do so good. We don't have any idea where you stand on that spectrum. You could have done an amazing job with your patching of the major rust areas, or you could have done an OK job, or you could have really screwed it up. The simple fact is, if the body guy that gave you numbers has looked at your car and gave you those numbers, it may be because the car is pretty screwed up, or it could be he suspects he can make a bundle off of you, or he does not want to work on your car. If the shop that gave you the price makes good money doing a lot of quick and easy crash jobs, the effort involved in doing he quality of work most guys like us expect will cost them a lot more money then your job pays. It takes more time and effort to put lipstick on our pigs then it does to do the quick easy crash damage work. The numbers he gave you may represent the amount of money he thinks he would loose from the easy crash damage by working on your car. I also get a kick out of the guys that say anyone can paint a car, they obviously have not seen my paint jobs. LOL! It is important to go through life with an understanding of the things you can do and things you can not do. A painter I am not, nor will I ever be. I do believe every car guy should be required to try everything involved with building a car. It gives them great perspective concerning what is involved with every part of a build, and an understanding of the time and labor involved with each step. If you have never done the hand sanding, blocking, and paint prep, you have no idea what is really involved, so you have no idea how long it really takes to do it. Gene
The world has changed through time!. In 1950s an 60s in most big towns there were a number of paint shops that had add's" Anycar for $19.95"> but that was what we call a fasty spray job,no extra work,just tape the windows,lights ,bumpers,grill an door handles/no small chrome tag thingys at all/paint right over those LOL,yes I know,I tryed one,before going back to painting myself in my back yard. Closer to now days,I think in some places they have Macco, or something like that. A lot towns now have rule,that you can't spray in your back yard. So over all not much help. In the late 70s,our Birdroad car club had its own paint booth for a few years,tell our clubhouse rent got so high,we closed down.
@Alt so a 30k paint job when complete ? that’s either concourse quality job or there “ I’m gonna price it high to scare him” quote. the body shops ive used in the past always ask me “ so what are you looking for ?” Amd I’ll say either a good job or “ just make it clean and respectable “ big difference in price between those two comments. we used to have a maco and another body shop that did the $199 spray jobs but they have been long gone for years . last car I got a really good paint job on after I did the prep work was a 1980 vw rabbit and it cost me 4000 grand It came out looking incredible and completely worth my time and the cost of paint and final body work.
The truth is in the old axiom that contractors use when doing home repairs. Figure what you think it will take/cost to do the repair. Double it and add 10%. When you take something to a body shop and it needs custom repairs rather than just bolting on replacement parts, the shop can only take a SWAG at what it will take to do the job. Then the inevitable unforseen issues pop up and they have to make an allowance for that......just in case. Since this is their living, they can't afford to underestimate. They may be honest, but they have to err on the side that helps them. I'm wondering if maybe you don't have a little "burnout" from the work and time you have invested . Project Lag.......
I agree, with one exception. Use single stage urethane in a solid color. even easier to fix mistakes, right up to the last coat. With no metallic to worry about it can be panel painted or individual parts done separately and jambs can be easily blended to the last outer coat. Equals parts of sweat and patience will make it happen. I sometimes have a problem with the latter.
30 years ago the body shop I worked at would paint your car for $200 if you prepped it yourself. We LOVED doing these, could make a couple hundred bucks for a couple hours work, good money back then. BUT the owner was responsible for having the car prepped, masked off and ready to paint. I'll never forget the guy who dropped off a Vega streaked with mud, not sanded or taped, and expected us to paint it for $200. We did, over glass chrome mud and all. Hope the guy had fun scraping the paint off the windows with a razor blade. You will have to find a 'meat and potatoes' guy who doesn't mind doing this kind of work, the fancy corporate places probably won't. It helps if the painter knows you, and knows you know your way around and what you can expect and what you have to do to prep your car.
You know it's possible to paint your car at home, using auto paint, with a roller and brush then wet sand and buff to a fine finish. Won't work with metallic but will with straight colors.
You can get your monies worth with a $200 paint job and a 40k paint job. But I’m trying to figure out how we know something is too expensive or too cheap for an unknown hypothetical car? how much will any of you guys charge to build an engine. I’m not gonna tell ya what kind or condition. start bidding
I too have been quoted $30K for a paint job. It would have been a concours quality job from that shop, no doubt. But the car isn't the concours type and it doesn't matter. Would be just as cool and really just as nice with a lesser professional paint job. It's not to say that $30K isn't worth it for a repaint. It just isn't worth it to me and my car.
It seems I always had more time than money in my younger years so I learned how to do everything myself. Even to this day I prefer doing everything myself no matter what the task is. The satisfaction reaped is the payoff for me. I am just a slow moving hobbyist today with less than optimal facilities and the work is much less than concourse quality but I'm OK with that. It all depends on the individual, their abilities and expectations if painting the car yourself. I was a painter by profession before retiring and can't even begin to calculate how much money I had tied up in equipment and consumables. If this is a one time "just want it painted" job it is in most cases more economically feasible to seek out a well known local painter who can fit you in the lineup. Hit the local car shows and ask questions. I can pinpoint a least a half dozen of good sideline painters here locally and I'm not even looking.
During college I worked as a collision repair technician for a number of years. I wouldn't say my abilities are on par with a professional, but I'm no slouch. All these numbers and quotes I've discussed are "blanket" estimates from the shops I've contacted - not specific to my car or the work done on it. Though, if a place quotes me a range of $25k-$30k for a paint job, I can easily conclude they're out of my price range. Yeah I agree. Most of these places are restoration shops or custom shops so my guess is that they're used to putting out show/concourse quality jobs. I need a regular Joe who runs his own shop - hell I'd show up regularly and help with the grunt work if it saves me a few bucks! Oh I'm sure I'm suffering from a bit of project burn out. It's definitely taken longer than I anticipated and I'm doing my best to keep motivated.
Many products are created with the professional in mind, but many are created for guys that aren't pros. Like most things in life, if you are willing to give something an honest try, you often find you can do it. Sometimes they come out terrible.........but more often than not I think they come out pretty nice. There are plenty of guys on here driving cars they painted out in their yard or in a miserable little shop. I recently went to visit a friend of mine who makes his living doing high dollar Corvette builds. He had gone thru a divorce and lost everything years ago and had to start from scratch. He had a homemade paint booth (if you could call it that) and yet he turned out concours quality jobs. Had displays at the Corvette museum and featured in magazines. When I went over to see him, he wanted to show me his new paint booth......a real one. You can do a lot with less than optimum equipment if you just try.
That comes out to 7 1/2 to 15 weeks 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. If the car needs that much body work it better be a Rolls Royce or something similar. Otherwise, buy another car.
Alt, Around here, with the metal work finished and what i mean by finished is, ready for filler, a good quality paint job without re-assembly, but including the cut, buff and minor touch ups, should run you 10-15000$. This is assuming that the car is not a monster, like a 60s lincoln, and you are going with a standard color.
That's definitely more in-line with what I was hoping to find. I'll just have to keep looking for a shop that I'm not priced out of.
I'm sure I'll rock the boat here, but why does everyone think they need a show car paint job? When I painted my avatar car I put on 3 coats of plain old acrylic enamel over about 3 coats of previous paint. 1 gallon of Omaha orange, 1 gallon reducer, no hardner, a little rubbing out by hand and it was done. The picture below is 35 years after the paint job and it was still plenty acceptable for an average hot rod.
Alt, find a painter in your area, lot of pro painters have a booth of their own. Lot of racers have painters they use that paint on the side. Identify a painter you want to use, lay out what you wanna do and what you want them to do. When you get the car as far as you can. Have the painter look again and show you all the stuff that still needs fixed - you or him. Or. Buy some enamel and shoot some panels to get used to a gun. Buy some urethane and shoot that. Single stage urethane. No Metallic, is your friend. If you want a base clear pearl, pay up, It's not first time painter friendly.
Alt, I had macco paint a pedal car I did for my grandson, I did the bodywork, priming and sealer they shot the color. They had no problem doing that and for about what I could a qt of paint and catalyst (and use a 1/3 of it). I am NO pro but I can get it done it just takes me a lot longer. Working on a o/t car that will be black (factory black car) so I can paint a fender at a time and fix my mistakes as I go.
I'd take how that paint looks as NOW, let alone 35 years. I'm sure there are people, just like beer snobs or antique furniture collectors, who can pinpoint the exact issues here and there with every little thing, but a decent paint job that doesn't look like garbage shouldn't cost me $20k, or $40k as I was quoted. I'd pay $10k all day for that paint job in your photo. I'd almost prefer to find someone who has their own "side shop" or something similar so I can either learn from them, help out with the work, or at least form a decent relationship beyond just customer and service provider. So many horror stories about mixing manufacturers, application methods, paint failing, things being ruined, etc. They always make me question the approaches I'm considering. But then I think about all the cars restored and customized over the years... There's no way in hell all these thousands of people with great looking cars paid $30-40k for a paint job.
Do it yourself, or take it to the “best” local to you Macco. Expensive paint jobs can take the fun out of a car. Expensive paint jobs result from...expensive materials...and the hours and hours of skilled and tedious work required to approach perfection, and preserve their reputation. Unknown stuff...materials & workmanship under YOUR primer rightfully scares the crap out of any painter!
Your willing to pay 10k, add all the work and materials completed so far and ya might be closer to 20k than ya think. Are “all these people paying X” for paint work? Every pro shop I visit has a waiting list, so a lot of em are. A friend of mine is getting bids on his car. I’ve done over 300 hours of metal work on it, He did the tear down and all the led work getting the car blasted and epoxied. Plus built his own chassis. All blasted and powder coated. The prices range from the mid teens to mid 20s for a car that will need zero metal work.
I guess I might just be looking for something different than what I've been quoted and what you're describing. I know the crazy amount of time and materials that go into making the cars we all love...the stand-outs at the shows, the ones we talk about with friends, the ones we WANT our cars to look like. But that's not realistic for an everyday kinda guy looking for a nicely finished driver or weekend cruiser. There's gotta be something between the $20-30k paintjob and the $500 Maaco job. That's all I'm looking for - a reasonably priced, worthwhile paintjob that will accomplish a task I'm not able to perform and that will help me be proud of all the work I've put into my car.
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