Painting

[paulmusiclover]

Has anyone had their vehicle professionally repainted, and can you suggest approximate prices as to what a typical full-body paintjob should cost?

Also, I hear different things about different kinds of paint - my Chevy was painted by the previous owner with Dupont's Imron paint - which is typically for commercial applications, 18-wheelers, etc. it's a beautiful paintjob, but I'm guessing it cost him a fortune too.

Any advice in this area would be appreciated!

[dezeldoc]

On the cheap one day, earl schieb type look at around 300-1000 depending on any bodywork and extra prep. a good job will be around 3500-6000 and go up from there depending on how crazy you want to go. imron in it's day was very good paint and pretty much the most durable, now there are better but all paint product prices are going through the roof and next year it will be getting worse with some of the new laws and paints that have to be used.

Edited August 27, 2009 by dezeldoc

[Joe Flanagan]

You may want to check out www.autobodystore.com and browse around the site. It is a bunch of professional paint and body guys plus a lot of DIY'ers with experience as well as guys who are just getting into it for the first time. There is a wealth of information there on precisely the questions you are asking. Their overall philosophy is, You get what you pay for. But that's not to say that you have to go all out and spend a fortune for a decent result. I'm painting my own car (after a lot of indecision, worry, etc.). You can PM me if you want to know more about that. But definitely visit that site and search the forum and ask questions. There's a lot of good information there.

[55 Fargo]

Do all your own body/prep work, and get it painted , by someone moonlightling on the side, or even Maaco, prep is 90% of the paint job.

As Dezeldoc stated, a 5 to 6 thousand for body and paint on one of these old girls is not uncommon.

There is a lot of work to prepping these old bodies, worse if there is rust and rot, but dents,dings,stretched metal, inside fenders, door aligment, front clip aligment, lots of of work, involved here..Fred

[Joe Flanagan]

Boy, I second that. My car was pretty straight but had a lot of little pits, dings, dents, creases, etc. It's taken me all summer to get it done and that does not include the doors and body. That's just the four fenders, hood, and trunk lid. I'm a first timer, so that probably accounts for some of the difficulty but even so, it takes a lot of attention to detail and a lot of elbow grease.

[james curl]

I helped a friend do a 51 business coupe last year. We pulled all of the trim, windows, trunk lid, rear fenders, and doors. Stripped to bear metel,epoxy primer, fix all of the rust spots, filled all of the little inperfections. Painted the car with two stage paint and reassembled the car. We ended up with more than 500 man hours in the completed car. My labor was free and my friend who painted the car for another friend had quoted him a price of $7500.00. He normally charges $30.00 an hour and since he knew my labor would be free could just bill him for his time. The friend paid for all of the materials, which was close to $1000.00. So you can see that a $5000.00 to $7500.00 paint job is not out of line if you have everything done by someone else.