My local guy get 25 a panel for bike tanks. More if it's real fancy or more intricate. He does a lot of work and usually pulls better than 5 bills at an all day show. He also get 3 grand up for bike custom paint jobs. But work is where you find it. Rod
Yes indeed...what do you think you're worth. That's the big denominator here, ins't it. My most artistic specialty is woodgraining. I know there's several guys out there (and in here) that do it as well, but I've always done the old world way with my eyes and a paint brush. No two cars have ever looked the same. I get serious money for a big American classic. A Packard roadster pays $1800. Complicated work and never a complaint. Striping is the same thing. One thing I see here from you guys doin it is that you do DEALER WORK. Pays the freakin bills, don't it? While the glamourous thoughts of being the next Von Dutch or Ed Roth may motivate your artistic talents, they never pay the rent until you get it out there. And it takes years and years of dedication and perhaps starvation before you even get known at the level you may dream of. As for any of you Motown "lifers", how many of you remember a guy that did custom shit by the name "Overdose"? For 50 extra bonus points who is he? I used to pay him $100/hr to stripe a Packard. That was of course 20+years after he worked under that name. FWIW those Packards had a double 1/16 stripe top and bottom of the feature lines that ran into 4 1/16 stripes at the point on the hood. Doing a car that was pushin $250K in value required a steady hand. I was happy to pay it. That too was over 10yrs ago. I hope you can get your stuff out there man. There was a time that I could feed 3 kids just doing woodgraining. There's nothing like that feeling of having a unique talent and having a demand for it. But my boss was an asshole back then...and he always hung out over the top of my bathroom sink
This is a great thread! I have been meaning to post the same basic question for sometime. Lots of great advice thanks for sharing. Chad
if you stripe for your professon.then you charge a professonal price.if it's a hobby,keep it that way. your not paying for the time it takes,your paying for the time it took to learn...and i was really bad for a long time....
Well with me my rates are gonna be allot lower than the rest of the guys cus im just starting, with no rep or anything like the resy of them have.
Great responses guys. My original question was born out of the fact that I was going to do some striping over the weekend and have very little experience in charging. I had an idea what I thought I was worth and it seems fairly well in line with what I've read here. I did a few paying jobs as I had hoped, got leads on a few more and didn't have a problem getting the sort of money I thought was fair. I did a sleeve on a guy's leather jacket. Told him $40. He happily gave me $50. Stuff like that is a good indicator you're not aiming too high I think. With your responses and my weekend's experience I think I'm in a better position to price my stuff. Thanks to you all. Pete
It's like going to the Dentist,you don't pay based on how hard your Dentist has to work,but instead,you pay based on how difficult it would be for you to do the same thing for yourself.
The Jalopy Journal
