The Cost of Paint Jobs

[greg fulk]

I paint enough stuff in the run of a day I don't screw with it when I'm home! 20 to 25 Kenworths a day! (that's just my 8 hour shift) Well I don't paint them the robots do BUT Nate or I one programed them to do it so I guess I can say I paint them. I have 8 more robot coming.....looked out last night & in my tack area their was a dump truck & a trackhoe!!!!! I was still painting trucks!!!! Oh well if 4 robots are good 12 will be great!

[Bud Lefevre]

The 3 things someone always wants out of a body shop are , Fast , Cheap & Good, well pick 2 , because you won't get all 3.
The shop that did my car is a full on modern production shop. Dropped my car off on a friday , by noon Monday it was gutted and just a body & frame setting there. It was done over the winter time and the shop is big enough it wasn't in there way to get crash work done. They figured the retail price would have been around $7,000.00 , and the body didn't need any panels replaced.

http://public.fotki.com/Maliburacr/i.../2006_updates/

Being a damage appraiser I get to a lot of shops and it seems like you always see shops taking in projects for when it's slow. They always seem to still be there a year or longer.
Anyone ( besides Jeff ) know what a gallon of red pigmented auto paint costs ?

[castle5]

painting a car takes a day or so..but all the preparation to get to the paint takes weeks of sanding straightening and repairing small dents rust etc. the cost of materials are out the roof. it depends on how good a job you want. nice show quality works takes time. and most people want paid for there time...i still like color sanded and buffed laquer jobs. you could do em yourself..the good old days were fun.. i dont see quality like i used too. stickers versus hand painted lettering. and so on..$6000 would be a good deal for a truely nice job. in todays world..

[CFM]

Where have all the hand lettering guys gone? You dont see them like you used to.

[Jason Oldfield]

Well, my last paint job was about $2,000 on my Corvette. It didn't require any major body work, and it was only one color (red if you couldn't guess). I'm no collision guy, so I don't know everything that was required, but I'm guessing it was primarily a sand, paint, and buff (admittedly, the mask job that was done wasn't that great because there was overspray on some of the trim, aluminum, and frame).

I'd have a hard time justifying a $10,000 circus paint job (but man I would LOVE to have one on my car.) So, I generally try to look for an up and comer that is hungry. I'd love to find somebody to do it for free (with me supplying material), but I'm not sure that you can find that anymore.

If there are any good painters out there though looking to showcase their work for free on an original '63 Corvette, let me know...

Oh, and as for the hand-lettered cars, they are still out there. You just have to look for the guy that takes extreme pride in his vehicle, and can afford it (it seems that most of the hand-lettered cars I see nowadays are gold leaf.)

[Bud Lefevre]

Originally Posted by CFM

Where have all the hand lettering guys gone? You dont see them like you used to.

http://www.dansignman.com/

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by Bud Lefevre

http://www.dansignman.com/

Dan's the man. He does great work, and he gets it done when he says he's going to. I don't even know how many cars that he's done have won best appearing awards, but I've got to guess it's 8 to 10. He's lettered my car at least 4 times...I just can't afford to give him carte blanche to win one of those awards. Maybe one of these days though.

More impressive than the lettering that he does is the airbrush work. I swear half the time I see one of his headlights I think they're real...

[a2race]

I have a street car ( 69 nova) that i took apart (interior,motor,trans,removed the front clip) and had a close friend install 2 half quarters, 2 outer wheel housings, and 2 rocker panels. then sprayed the car and hung the front clip back on after i installed the motor/trans. In total (paint, supplies, and labor) i have $5000 invested in it. It's a solid color (69 dusk blue,no stripes, ect.) I think i got a good deal...adam

[bob gonier]

Originally Posted by Bud Lefevre

The 3 things someone always wants out of a body shop are , Fast , Cheap & Good, well pick 2 , because you won't get all 3.



Anyone ( besides Jeff ) know what a gallon of red pigmented auto paint costs ?

I just got a price on a gallon of Dupont "viper" red in chromapremier basecoat and lets just say I didnt pay that much for the car I'm painting !!!! If you need to buy everything in one shot to do a overall paint/resto you can easily pay $2500 or more for paint/materials . Forget about the color........ anyone priced a gallon of any high end primers !!!!!




bob

[Jeff Lee]

First was the artist rendition. I think I had $2800 just in materials on my car. Dupont's version of House of Kolor. Primer, silver base and then the color and clear. It started out as the "sponsor special", materials only and turned into $10K all done. Best Appearing first time out though...

Also, you can't get a paint job better than Maaco at a retail shop for less than $5K on a street car. EPA drove the cost up. So if you look at that then talk race car graphic design, $10K isn't horrible. That's retail of course.