so what does a paint job go for these days?

i know...i know...
but seriously.

i've never paid to have anyone ever do anything on my cars, but this time i just dont feel like painting mine. so now i gotta get an idea on a budget so i can get the 52 ready for paint....

what does a nice paint job go for anyway?

not an earl scheib tape and spray but a really nice job.

the car will need final blocking before paint, and lining up the doors.

and i dont wanna have the car sitting in the shop for 6 months either...

so what kinda money should i be putting together?

thanks.

 

thats about what i figgered...

 

sky's the limit dude.

depends on how "nice" you want it.

i would agree with ccc though, 5K is a good starting point.

 

What kind of car?

Our local "streed rod painter" gets 10K for minor body work and paint. Usually takes three months or so.

I did my Merc in about six months of after work and weekends. I truely understand why it costs 10K for decent paint. Body and paint is no fun at all...

Good luck, -Abone.

 

I know a guy that will do a scratch and squirt for 100 bucks plus materials.

the cost of a paint job is more about body work and assembly/disassembly than spraying and buffing.

so I'd say somewhere between $200.00 and $20,000.00

 

8k min. Materials have gotten outrageous. More like 12 to 15k to get sumthin decent (materials and quality).

 

I can tell you that a full pearl/candy paint job is gonna cost you at least 2k-3k just in materials!!! if you are going that route. Straight forward quality job will still b eover 1k for materials.


FONZI

 

I just did a decent job on a '65 Mustang for a friend for $650, he already had the paint, I just skuffed it (he had it primed) and shot the paint. Check with local guys, there's usually somebody that will shoot paint for around 1K. BTW the guy whose Mustang I painted was very happy with it!

 

I guess I'm getting a bargain, my '56 Fairlane is getting tutoned for about $3K. All body work is extra. That's complete, inside doors, deck, trunk, hood, firewall, interior/dash. . .

This question gave me one of those "remember when?" moments - When THE Earl Sheib used to hawk on TV that "....I'll paint any car for $29.95"

How times have changed. But today it appears that $2K-$5K would be a decent price for a decent job. And as said earlier, you get what you pay for.

 

i'll paint any car for $29.95


that used to be earl's deal...i couldn't afford the 29.95

 

I still charge $40/hour and most paint jobs end up being between $8500 and $12,000. That includes blocking, (and blocking and blocking...) then after painting it, it includes cuttin' and buffin' the finish down to glass smooth. Most nice paint jobs will take anywhere from 150 to 250 hours, plus the cost of materials. Most of my paint jobs are either candy's, pearls, or black and with all of them, there's absolutely no room for error. The surface has to be absolutely flat and smooth. The truth of the matter is...you can teach a monkey to squeeze the trigger on a paint gun, the real deal is in the preparation and then cuttin' and buffin' the finished project.

 

Buddy of mine built a '55 Chevy for his girlfriend. He went to 1 Day Paint and Body and paid extra for extra paint, color sand and buff. Car came out fantastic. His personal car is a blown '69 Chevelle which was painted at 1 Day.

Now A-1 Auto Body and Paint at Figueroa and Anaheim, Wilmington, does decent paint and body. They do all the Toyota Museum cars. Check with them for price. It will depend on how upscale a job you want. They filled holes, fixed rust, color matched and buffed my old Biscayne for under $1K. When I brought the car home, my wife thought I had repainted the whole car.

Hot Rods and Hobbies in Signal Hill did my '32 but it was $8K. Now his paint jobs are $15K, but his work is show quality.

 

Any one got any ideas on my 66 Impala convert. That thing has acres of surface area. its in good shape however

 

Yep, what these guys said. But more importantly than money is reputation. Make sure you get someone that has a good one. Finding someone in a back yard or in Mexico somewhere that will do the job for cheap is more than likely gonna get you an "experimental" paint job meaning your car is a lab rat or they just don't really know what they are doing. Around here people think they are getting a good job from some guy out of mexico. If you want to settle for sanding marks, solvent pop, and poor prep, that's fine, but the more money you invest in the good/trustworthy painter the longer the job will last and the longer you are happy. Just remember, you metal work is the "concrete foundation" of your paint job. If the metal work is bad, nothing on top of it will last. Surveyors don't just walk out to a plot of land and stomp on the ground and say "eh, feels solid, put the building here." The same goes with metal. Bottom line, talk to different shops, find out who's painting your car, how long they have worked there, possibly the boss/owner will do the work. It's usually better if the shop owner does all the work because his butt is directly on the line.

 

yup ..all the above ..i charge 6-12,000 find some one good out of work needs cash and thats how you get a deal .
for what i think you want id say 3000 for mat and 3000 for labor ..

 

Nothing wrong with an Earl Schieb paint job.

 

I had to chuckle when I read "find some one good out of work needs cash and thats how you get a deal". Not trying to sound like a smart-aleck, but anyone that's good isn't out of work. If anyone can start on your car within 6 or 8 months, beware.

 

LOL!!! Smokin Joe X2

 

Hey Mitch,

What kinda shape are the hood and door hinges in ?

If they arn't just "tits", alignment will be a big issue, if not now, shortly.

The landlord for my shop jus' paid $9,600 for a Mopar blue metalic/clear urethane (Viper Blue) on a '46 Ford coupe. Some light metal work & alignment work, prep and paint. Five week job! Given the number of layers of paint on this, from old paint jobs, I'd hate to warrant this reshoot! I'm bettin' that price didn't include a bare metal reshoot.

Swankey Devils C.C.
"Meanwhile, back aboarg The Tainted Pork"

 

I'm sending my 57 Ford 2d Ht for a Complete. This car is totally apart and gets door jambs and the works. It will be Black with a Charcoal roof. The guy behind the Gun is about the Best I know around here. Excluding any body work, but final Block, Paint, Cut and buff, re-hang all sheet metal. I'm paying $6,500.oo. That's the Buddy deal since I've sent him many Customers over the last 10 years. When it rolls into his shop it will be on a Rotissory and bear steel. The car was Black to start with and has no known rust or body damage and I fully expect to spend around 16-18 K if I'm lucky.
The Wizzard

 

The last one I had done cost me right at 10K...And that was about 12 years ago. But it still looks great.

 

When I was ready to have my 40 Coupe painted I just about went suede when I got my first quote. In 1973 it cost me $273 in and out the door for everything. Now mind you I had a real nice body with very little work to paint. This guy gave me a bid for $13k and he was a friend. I told him I didn't want a snow/show job just driver quality. He said if I want show it would be another $3k. Needless to say I found another friend and got the show job for around $7k. The black paint and supplies alone was $2,100 for PPG base coat - clear coat. He charged me by the hour and did a lot more than would have been done for the higher bid. It came out a lot better than I hoped but the kid knew what he was doing. I just turned him loose and let him do what he wanted. From what I have heard his price is about the same as others in this area but again he was very particular about door, hood and etc alignments.

 

Or someone that is a low payed bodyman, and down on hours at work. Will get booted in a year from the place he's been renting for 8 years and is trying to save up some more money for a house, and hoping he can somehow get a loan in a tightened credit market. But then he would probably be too busy trying to get some of his own shit done, not knowing exactly where he will be going.

I really do think some places may be hurting a little with the economy, and may be able to wheel and deal a little. But then many would rather starve then give too much away.
Sure if someone is really good, or maybe even not so good, but has the reputation and gets more then they probably should because of it, likely he will not have to worry to much about work in the door.
But there are certaintly guys out there that are good, but maybe just establishing themselves, and will actually put more dedication and commitment, knowing letting a bad job out the door could ruin them right away.
Really, if its truely only blocksanding and pulling a trigger on a gun, it isn't rocket science, after getting a bit of experience. But many are very leary to put there name over someone elses work.
It more comes down to dedication and attention to detail, refusing to cut a bunch of corners to save a buck or meet a budget, taking steps to minimize the possibly of something going awry, and if something does go wrong, doing whats right and correcting it. But with the hours put in and price of quality materials to get even a decent outcome, be very wary if something seems way too good to be true.

 

I've read posts like this on this board before and still have a hard time believing it. I've never had that much invested in any completed car I've owned...I couldn't imagine spending that much on a paint job. Guess I'll stick to painting them myself.

What does a cheap (Earl Sheib type) paint job go for?

-Jeff

 

this might help you out a bit.


allot of people hating doing body work but don't want to pay to have it done right.

you also have to take into account. do you want a daily driver, show car or a show stopper? how big do you want your trophy?

do you want the:

body stripped to bare metal
rust repair
body alignment...... test fitting the body panels. taking them on & off about 30 times each panel.
body work, sand, primer, sand, primer, block primer w/ 220,400,
disassemble the body for paint
color sand all body panels and jambs w/ 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000 depends on how flat you want the panels.
new paint means you should put new hardware too.
then assemble the body

do you want the engine compartment painted too, suspension etc.?

your looking at $8,000+ or do you want a 50, 25, 10, footer or great up close.

i finished these 2 earlier this yr. hundreds of hrs in to them. how far do you want to go with your car?

 

that really is the question now, isn't it...

see,

i paint.

i only paint motorcycles and race car panels because i dont have the space nor do i want the commitment to do full size cars.

i know full well the hours and tedium involved in blocking a car, the hours wet sanding, the care in cutting and buffing...only i stick to doing it on a small scale. hence i have no idea what a painter gets to do a job that size. all i know is that even on small jobs, i always wind up wishing i'd charged more...so the numbers dont surprise me at all.

i like painting well enough, i just really DONT want to paint this car myself...too much going on in the real world. its far more worth it right now to just pay someone. but like nimrod said, i'm not so interested in or in love with this car to spend as much as i paid for it to have gloss on it.

how far do i want to go?

we'll see.

my budget will determine that. still gotta put in a grille, do the skirts, headlights, tail lights...

this car is and will always be a driver.

maybe i'll get someone to knock out the finish bodywork...that would be a suitable compromise...its the bodywork i hate...

 

I've only had one car with real nice paint on it. A black 64 malibu ss. It was my daily back in '92 until it came back from Monrovia auto body. It was flawless. I was afraid to drive it. The owner took a liking to the car, Talked me into spending a little more to make it "right". It was a real bad day the first time it got a dent. Someone in a parking lot did it while I was sitting in it. I coulda got arested. I don't know how you guys keep sane driving a car that nice. Anyway he's still there and has a great reputation here in town. A couple years ago he told me on a friends mustang he starts at 6k. Car comes apart, bare metal, and goes from there. simple car, no hidden problems, and the price was to stay on the quote, Good staff and usually a few cars to check out.

 

Depends on what you want it to look like dude. My jobs can be upwards of a hunk of cash for a fully detailed show paintjob but its all on what you want the shop to spend time on and how much time....

My suggestion is start with WHO you want to paint it and then set up a time to meet with them to determine a budget. Just remember that cheap doesnt not always (and mostly never ) equal good. You do get what you pay for.

Budget more than you anticiapte and then make the call to the shop you want to work for you.