Projects Eight Thousand Dollars for a paint job?

Kripfink cracked me up.

I'm with him, shiny paint is awesome.

A shit primer job that chalks and has no adhesion is just that, shit.

 

Shiny or semi-gloss/primer, it all comes down to $$$. Wait years untill you have enough $ to do it perfect, or semi-gloss/primer and drive it?...to each their own.

 

I had a sign in my shop that read "I never have anything bad to say about those who will do the job for less. THEY know what their work is worth".

 

Yup, choose wisely.

My brother chose hot rods as a hobby and a landscape company as a business.

I chose hot rods as a business.

He out earns me 4:1, has a house, a few cars and motorcycles, wife, kid, etc.

I've got no money, no house, no family, a daily driver, and a pile of Model A parts. I spent the first 6-1/2 years of the decade that I ran my own shop, sleeping in my truck, or in the the shop.

Of my 70+ former customers, I only see a few of them, or the cars I built, on a regular basis. Some of them, and some present owners, now claim my work as their own, or as the work of another shop.

 

The older i get the lazier I get and I am not ashamed,I am tired of keeping all my shit cleaned. Primer or dull paint is low maintenance to me so if you morons want me to have all vehicles with shiny paint then you are getting your asses over to my place to help me keep them clean.

 

Well said! I simply cannot be bothered spending a small fortune and a thousand man hours putting on some flash paint job to impress other people with. And then trying to preserve it from damage afterwards.

If some people like to do that, then I have no issues, as nice paint looks outstanding, but that is their opinion and they would do better to keep it to themselves rather than TELL people what they should be doing with their ride.

The ignorance and arrogance of anybody telling people what paint they should have on their car to be acceptable is truly nauseating.

 

Funny thing is I find shiny paint much easier to take care of than primer or flattened paint. You can wash bird shit off of it without getting a shiny spot on it. And it tends not to stick as much.

The ignorance and arrogance of anybody trying to change the history of what this site is about is truly nauseating. No one is telling anyone truly what to do with their car but more what is acceptable here.

 

If you have never nutted up and spent the money on a truly professional paint job, try it. Its addicting though. Im trading a 16 thousand dollar show bike for my next paintjob, and i couldnt be more excited about it. When people see a truly beautiful paintjob at a car show, it makes them happy. They showed up to see awesome cars. Its not a "ooh look at me" thing. Most people dont really give a crap who built it or drives it, they just like seeing it.

 

I think hot rodding is about doing your own work,,building from ground up not dropping your bucket of bolts off at a shop with a blank check that says fix me and make me pretty. JMHO

 

blah blah blah.... yeah, we've heard it before.

 

haha yes!

 

So explain to me how I apply your philosophy without the use of my arms and legs?
Paul

 

"Suede" paint never was meant to be permanent. In the 50's the car you were working on WAS your daily driver. so as you worked on the body you drove your car to school with primer spots. If you got lotsa tips working as a grocery bagger after school you could prime the whole damn car for a better look. If you wanted to be really "Snazzy" you could have the paint supplier tint your primer. Thats where the easter egg primers originated.
The big advantage to dull paint and primer is that it hides your shiitty bodywork. And there are a LOT of sucky bodymen that work on their own cars. Everytime I see a suede car I say to myself "There goes another shitty bodyman." Theres also probably a million other things on that car that he didnt spend the time to do right as well. Maybe if you put skulls all over it they wont notice your crappy work!
A good paint job is simply a sign of the care you exercise in your auto building.
If you are going to do your own work, take the time to learn to do it well.

 

Where's the ROFL Smilie when you need one??

 

My thoughts are that 8K should provide you with a really nice driver quality paint job. To me- 8K should not include taking car to bare metal. That costs alot. It's the best way to do it but I know that 8K isn't enough to do everything needed after the car is in bare metal.

Most of you guys would shit your pants if I told you what top quality paint jobs cost. Granted, it includes near perfect metal work before paint prep, but it really costs a small fortune.

As an example, our shop estimates 100 hours per panel. That's stripping to metal, doing metal work as needed. Unforseen issues are addressed and estimated seperately at this point. The average two door has 10 body panels.

100 hours X 10 panels x 60/hour = 60,000 dolars.

Yep. 60K on metal work and paint. Crazy isn't it?

There are plenty of people who have more than enough cash to spend that amount on numerous cars that they own. We have about a year long waiting list to get into our shop mostly because we do what we say we are going to do. Every car goes out the door with the owner happy. Happy customers are customers that got everything they wanted, or more. We don't bid jobs at lowball prices because no one is happy after the fact.

 

I need a LOL on 100 hours a panel. Are you kidding me?? I can strip an entire car in 4-6 hours, depending. A panel?? lets go wild and say 1 hour. Now I can't tell you how many hours will be in that panel when the repairs are done, because we don't know what needs to be done.A palm size repair is about an hour, so lets say two or three of those. Then finish work, priming, paint etc. Maybe 10-15 hours? But no where near 100 hours. I can't even swallow that number.

As far as nice paint jobs. . . . there's no problem if someone doesn't want to spend $8K, $10K, $15K or even $30K. Some don't want to spend $1K. I have no problem with them. They may not make enough money, not enough extra money laying around, maybe the smell of high octane fuel is better than the smile of shiny paint. It's no biggie, either you do or you do not. I'm not a middle of the road guy. I lay it out there. But in this case, neither side should be saying a damn word about whether someone spends lots of money on paint, or does it themselves and spends 100s of hours . . or spends $50 and rolls on something. There is no reason to criticize at all. YOu do it the way you want and that is what counts. They are all cars, enjoy them.

 

I can see how some folks may get confused about the price of painting a car. Maybe they do not understand that there is more involved than just dumping paint in the gun and shooting it.

Maybe they are not understanding the level of effort required to get a car to that stage. Probably 20 years ago dad would have quoted $2k to paint a car. That is just sand, prime, paint, and cut & buff. No body repair of any kind.

I understand that there has been an explosion in costs since then.

 

Wow what an entertaining thread! I've worked at a shop where the boss has said "I can't charge anyone around here more than $10k to paint a car" and at a shop where the boss says "It's $60 an hour. How nice do you want it?" I've never heard a complaint from either shop's customers, and the second shop costs twice as much at times (depending on the car)...

For those of you complaining about not making enough money on a paint job, try this: advertise at the golf courses, country clubs, and high-falutin' joints like that, not at "Skip's Greasy Spoon", Auto parts stores (The customers paying big bucks never set foot in a parts store) etc...

Just my two cents... There's money everywhere- you just have to look and advertise in the spots where the grass is the greenest.

Now, get back in the garage.

 

I love to be challenged. I don't bullshit. Got it? Give me my 8" sander and 50 grit Norton Blue and any car you give me will be to bare metal in 4-6 hours. How do you do a shit job stripping a car anyway?? It's either to bare metal or it's not. If not, it isn't stripped right? Anyway, that is not considering striping door jambs. I normally strip jambs if they need it. Most times cars I work with do not. So my 4-6 hours is not jambs. I am talking exterior sheet metal. Someone wants the under side stripped, then it needs to go to the blaster. I'll strip trunk channel and such with chemical. I did say we don't know what a fender needs done because we are talking about make believe. I assumed 2 hours of dent/rust work in my made up example. A lower patch will add a couple. But you get into too many things done on that fender and you might as well bought a new/used one. How many $100 an hour does it take to go past the price of new or rust free original?

drjones . . yeah it costs more now. I tend to like to work with guys who want to do some there self. I like the guys wanting to save money. Bring me a car already stripped. yeah!! Serious, I'm not out trying to make every dime. That's just me. I like to see the little guy get a good deal. So I often ask if they want to do some pre work before it get the car. because I work time/materials whatever they do , saves them. Every car is different, but here is what I can do for someone wanting to save money. I tell them, bring me a car stripped and I can PROBABLY paint it for $2500-$3500 using value line materials. I don't promise anything, but I know how long it takes to do things and I'm can be within that time frame for most cars that I do. Now I'm giving a cut and buffed repaint that looks stock. I do more on some cars, but I can do this for this type of customer. But what happens usually, is it doesn't show up in the condition the owner said it would So . . it usually ends up costing more, but have no one to blame but their self. I recently did a '67 Firebird convertible that was about $7300 and a '68 Cougar that was about $6900. These are cars owned my working stiffs who saved their money to have this down and expect a lot and want good value. I think I give good value. Probably much like your dad.

 

Your reading comprehension sucks, you're arguing what the shop estimates. He never said they bill that. You seem like you just want to argue about it.

 

Your example came up to $412, is that not proving my point?? or are we nit picking the $12???????????????? And in my case, I don't use 2K primer. I only use epoxy. I get my epoxy for $100 for 2 gallons. So add $20 to the epoxy and subtract $80. I'm well under $400 and room for sandpaper. I don't paint all cars this way, but it works and have never had a problem with Omni base on a total repaint.

 

I think now we are starting to compare complete body restorations with "paint jobs". It's ridiculous to assume a good paint job has to cost $60k just because you can put that much money into it.

 

No Zman, you don't understand . . so leave MY discussion with him between me and him ??????????

 

Wow, you are a piece of work, this is not your discussion. So quite being a douche like you've been on every other body work thread and go play with your mustangs.

And I understand way better than you ever will. Just like your love of Omni. You're wrong.

 

Maybe he's the new and improved version of NASH29?

 

Pretty much, seems to be close enough. lol

 

Hey who has lowered them self to the point of make childish remarks?? You haven't left grade school? I am a shop, I was discussing with what a "shop" says. Get real

 

Childish remarks? Read your own posts. And you show just how clueless you are, "I am a shop". Lol.

 

After 14 pages, my ass is numb. To spend 2-grand - 2500+ plus for top-shelf materials to REFINISH any of my cars would damn sure keep them out of the parking lots. Not to mention the labor to color sand and cut and buff at $70 an hr. I know of one resto shop that gets $100 an hr. in San Diego.

I like to drive my cars wherever I want, whenever I want - spending a grand for a gallon of material would limit my freedom to do that. SoCal is full of assholes that have little respect for others' vehicles. After the first chip or door ding, it could just as well be a tape-n-rape from Maaco or Shibe.

Has anyone tried the low-buck materials from Summit or Eastwood??? How well do they hold up?

Oh, for the days of $40 Centari...as easy as it gets to spray our stock car with. Any runs or sags, we would just slap a decal over! - Tim