I simply cannot believe how much the price of paint has gone up in the past five years!!! I just spent $417 on some "cheap" Shop line single stage gold urethane and flattening agent...along with hardner and reducer and a couple other essentials. I can see why everyone here wants to paint their hoopty in rustolem or tractor supply paint...especially if they are new to paint and body work. I started painting 27 years ago and had my own shop for several years. I also taught collision repair for quite a few years so I definitely know my way around this stuff but I haven't really bothered painting anything in the past few years or so. I knew things had gone up from hearing from others in the business, but I nearly had the big one when the jobber told me my price...with my old discount...I almost want to rattle can the damn thing. UNBELIEVABLE!!!! End of rant...
I just bought 2 quarts for my Ford, to do the interior trim and the body cut-in work, essentially 2 quarts of acrylic urethane, quart of reducer and 2 small cans of catalyst. That was like $150 right there.
Wait till you go to fix your daily driver and find out it's got tricote paint in it. 3 times the cost. The paint companies are scamming us all big time. They can blame the EPA all they want but I don't believe it has driven the costs up as high as they are. The paint companies are really sticking it to us.
It the EPA. It really is getting out of hand. They no longer report to congress but run under the Executive branch, so basically get to choose what they want to enforce. Hell there is one emission that they are trying to reduce to below what naturally occurs in nature.
Yup, Hardware Store Modified Alkyd Enamel, custom tinted, acrylic enamel hardener and straight xylene or acetone to reduce. Elecheapo paint, much like old time synthetic enamels, with the hardener, it flashes and kicks faster, is shinier and harder when cured. The poorboys paint job....Thos prices in Canada are even higher, if I were in the USA would try TCP Global, or Trinity paint for cars...PS I have shot on the rusto type metal primers, and once fully curedhave used everythimng from 2 k urethane primer surfacer and lacquer based primers too, with no issues. That cheap shitty primer bonds and seals well too, reduced this stuff with everything from xylene,acetone, urethane reducer.
I've had good luck with the cheapo single stage A.E. http://stores.ebay.com/Paintforcars-auto-Paints-Supplies?_rdc=1
Unfortunately no such thing as a cheap paint job anymore when it comes to materials. But I still prefer a nicely painted car.
I own a body shop. Believe me, the epa is sticking it to us in a big way. I can buy 5 gallons of lacquer thinner for 37$, after I use it to Clean my paint gun it costs me Nearly 60$ to get rid of it. Our government is out freaking control. There are a few colors available on newer cars that just the base coat costs me over 100$ a pint to make. If you were to do a complete in these colors you would be in materials over 2500$.
yep, ya get what ya pay for. I spent more than that on primer. Still laugh when I hear guys say the paint was better "back then"
You got away pretty lucky. Most full paint jobs leaving the shop color and clear and the rest of the goods $1500.....for a non trick color.
Maybe some of you guys didn't read all of my original post...I know what can be spent using top quality stuff. I've always sprayed PPG, in fact I had my own mixing system. I also had PPG instructor level certification along with I-CAR , ASE and NATEF...I'm doing a flat gold quickie on my f100 and I had everything but a gallon of what I consider cheap shitty single stage urethane and the catalyst....Shop line crap shouldn't be $417....period My rant was more about how many of the guys who are completely new to this couldn't and really shouldn't even try to do an amateur home paint job anymore at these prices...I couldn't actually care any less about the money...I've been blowing almost all of my money for most of my life on cars and bikes...the rest I wasted on women and fun..lol I just don't see how the average guy with little experience and possibly less money could afford the learning curve these days. There is simply no reason for it to be that expensive...yes I know about all of the research and development that goes into it...I've even been to the PPG chemical lab where they develop all of it. I also know that none of it is really intended for non-professional application.... By the way...at no point did I say that the old products were any better or the way it should be done...But I know for a fact that just a few years ago I could have purchased exactly the same shitty paint line and color for less than half of what it cost today.
EPA is out of control. In Maryland you can't even set up a little homemade BBQ trailer on the corner without Air Permits which require expensive air monitoring and reporting. Your city drinking water is considered too polluted to dispose of without treatment. That's no bull. Not only do paint mfgs have to put up with all the emissions BS but hazmat transportation costs and regulations are outrageous. At one point I was getting free paint from the local auto paint supplier as long as I wasn't picky about color, because it was cheaper for them to give mis-mixed colors away than to pay for disposal.
A loaf of bread ain't a dime and a gallon of gas ain't 25 cents any more either. Get outta the past and into reality, or get outta the game! just my 2 cents worth. Sent from my wooden crank phone in my bath room.
EPA? DEQ? I was gonna go on a big rant, but then I remembered were not supposed to do politics on the hamb. It's outta control my heads starting to hurt. Shit I missed Earth day, I'm gonna go outside to fart, clean the yard and burn some of these damn tires.
I use Imron to paint my engines and some suspension pieces. I forget how much the Imron costs, but the last time I needed just the hardener I paid $ 120 for a bottle of it. Just a couple of years ago the same bottle cost me $80. By the time you buy all the paint, hardener, primer, thinner, etc to paint a car, you have about $1500 or more in it most times. Don
it is why it is a good idea to paint them right now.........think how expensive it will be to do in the future........or if doing it will be a crime.
I got caught in the hail storm while on Congress at the Roundup this year. My beater T-Bird took the pelting w no damage, but while sitting there listening to the crap pop all over my car, all I could think was: "Fuck your shiny paint job" After reading this thread, that sentiment is solidly reaffirmed.
A nephew of my buddy shot the '40 for LESS THAN the price of a gallon of primer, back in '09------$150.00. Base, clear. The paint and materials was my largest expense on the car.
I tried tcp global single stage urethane .... Didnt like it... I heard good things about summits paint line ... I look at paint as a protectant formost ....I have used a lot of tractor paint with success , I haven't had anything sitting outside for long though to test the uv .... I'd guess that's the biggest problem , but sunny sandiego destroyed omni clear too in only 5 yrs..
Yup the Paint I used is very much like "Tractor Enamel" so not a whole lot of UV longevity necessarily. I have a Friend in Southern Oklahoma, uses Van Sickle Tractor paints on trailers, a few old trucks etc. In his words it has stood up to the Oklahoma sun quite well. The reds and oranges would be the most vulnerable. I have painted a few cars with this sorta product and method, not for everyone, maybe a little bush league, but for the price it has worked out. I also subscribe to the notion of a coating as a protective barrier, maybe someday will paint the truck "right" for now she is as she is, and I am driving her burning gas.
A dozen cold ones, are $25 in my part of Canada, what the hell is cheap nowadays, except the quality....
I just don't see how the average guy with little experience and possibly less money could afford the learning curve these days. There is simply no reason for it EXACTLY why I'm going learn how to shoot with Rustoleum - at $37 a gallon, I can afford to screw it up, then respray it with my Harbor Fright purple gun. No way in hell would I even THINK about it if I had to spend 3-bills for a gallon of material... Tim
Hi Tim, ain't nothing wrong with your logic on this. Use Rusto, or tractor enamel like Van Sickle, reduce with xylene, acetone, mineral spirits or naptha. Try their primers first on old panels, inner fenders frames etc, learn how to thin it to the right spray visocity, learn how to adjust your spray gun, and paint a bunch of things for practice. After this you could graduate to more expensive paints, and you will have some experience at least. Same with the cheap sprayguns, get some time with those and graduate up to better quality sprayguns.....good luck
Just yesterday $1350 for material and I already have a gallon of color that already set me back about $500.
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