When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I did all my own work and I think I spent a solid 3500 in materials that's including panels. I agree labor is expensive but for a frame off resto yes 30k plus is ok but for a proper paint job I think in the 7 to 10k region depending on materials and other variables is ok. Total resto probably 30-60k. I know my old boss had his vette restored to original condition with repop parts that ran him 55k.
I agree with the top end restorations just to be a trailer queen $. I also replaced quarters, outer wheel houses, drop-offs, and minor patches on mine and had around your figure of $3500 into mine. All rust cut out and replaced with new metal. I did all the work myself. Including paint. If I had to figure my labor for say 6 mos. on and off, the price also would scare me. Luckily, I did not keep track!
Edit- I just found my receipts and it was around $3k for parts and materials.
Last edited by ziff396; July 7th, 2013 at 05:42 PM.
sorry copper and sampson I posted that improperly ,I mean 5k for all the materials isn't out of the ordinary for a complete flame off resto . thats enough material for the entire body ,engine bay trunk passenger compartment underbody and suspension and what not.we were also shocked that the owner wanted to put the money in that stang ,but he did he could have bought one done for what he put in that onebad thing is he hit a dear 6 months later when he picked it up from storage and hadn't put insurance on it yet so he had to have us redo it again. Luckily just the dog house and right side that time.labor is the biggest part of any job make sure your getting your moneys worth.We try to make sure to give our customers there money worth for example we had a 95 ferrari that was a convertible conversion that the top used micro switches to make it work and they got out of sink and tore up the trunk and blew out the quarter windows .the problem is since it was a conversion they used different windows the only way we found out what they were is we found some glass shards that told us they were from a GM so I got a pattern and went to parking lots all over the area till I found out the windows came from a 95 grand am who would have thought.All of this was on my own time just because it was a challenge.heres a couple of pics of the ferrari. ferrari.jpgferrari3.jpgferrari1.jpg
Last edited by f85delta88andcutlassS; July 9th, 2013 at 08:12 PM.
I'm glad you corrected that, 5k seemed like a lot for paint. I'm sure all prices are relative to location, blasting around here for a frame off goes for $1500 on the high end. As longs as your customers feel you give them their moneys worth, thats all that matters.
Well, just go ahead and assume alot of money will be needed! Sell your wife, your dog, your everything and still lie awake at night wondering how to pay for a paint job. No cutlass has ever needed just "minor" paint job. there is always something leading to years and stress and $$$$$$
That's if you have someone do it start to finish. I did my 72 when I was 17 and just cutting my teeth in the auto body industry. To this day I looks better and in many cases straighter than other peoples cars. I did it on a limited budget. People avoid body work like the plauge. Imho if you can follow directions and have some skills time and patience will be your best friend on doing your own body work.
People avoid body work like the plauge. Imho if you can follow directions and have some skills time and patience will be your best friend on doing your own body work.
Agreed. Now if I could learn how to lay down good paint.
Paint is another area where practicing on junkyard fenders and doors will help. Paint one of those things that is an aquired skill because you have to be able to not only know how to spray it but how to lay it down along with being able to see the metallic lay out before clear coat.
yeah copper and a good painter also knows how to fix his screw ups . trust me I've been screwing them up for thirty years now LOL I guess the moral to that story is don't get discouraged if you screw something up. we all do .when you are doing a paint job the most influential part is the prep before painting.The first 6 years of my career was spent as a helper so I could learn how to get the best prep work for the paint job. and to learn the in's and out's and do's and don'ts of laying on the paint.yeah it's necessary to know how to paint but even more important in my opinion to be a better prepper.plus if you talk to a bodyshop will let you do all your own prep work at home or where ever. and they just do the final sanding mask, paint and buff imagine the money you can save. But alot of bodyshops don't want to paint over someone elses prep if it don't look good or has inferior quality products under the paint.Some of the cheeper products don't hold up well to other paints.
Last edited by f85delta88andcutlassS; July 16th, 2013 at 02:08 PM.
I just saw this.After looking at some of these pics some people have no Idea what a quality paint job is. I never paint a car with panels hung,everything is disasembled, stripped, Rehung. all panels are worked to get perfect panel alignment, then straightened all staightening is finished with 320 all panels are sprayed with a high quality sprayable polyester (Spies or Standox) hand blocked.If there are areas that arent perfect it gets resprayed and reblocked. Then it is disasembled and resprayed with eurothane primer and reblocked.This a condensed explaination there are many more step and processes along the way.I will have anywhere from 4000.00 to 8000 im materials depending upon Color and if its a body resto (paint job) or a full ground up body off. After paint I spend in excess of 60 hrs sanding and buffing I can spend 500 minimum in finishing materials and finish sand paper in a heartbeat. I charge 60 per hr and a full blown resto can take 6- 12 months depending on parts availability etc. I might add Ive been doing this for 45 yrs. and was repairing these cars since they were new. In the end you get what you pay for, I use only the best materials and parts available and try to keep Reproduction parts to a minimum.
A decent paint job with a straight body should be no more than $7500. I paid $5500 back in 2008 with z stripes. They removed everything. If its a trailer queen show only for points, then I could see 15k plus. Otherwise u r getting taken to the cleaners. As someone said, that was the I don't want to do it price. My buddy showed and owned 64 and 71 vettes and won every show around and took second only once. He was so **** he would reshoot the underneath and wheel wells once he arrived at its final resting spot. Pissed the other contestants off to the max. Those were 20k paint jobs. If u are that **** about your paint then spend good money.
Last edited by yankees; December 8th, 2013 at 10:13 AM.
A decent paint job with a straight body should be no more than $7500.
Unfortunately, there is no agreed-to definition of "decent paint job" or "straight body". If you are JUST talking about sanding and shooting paint on perfect sheet metal, I agree. If there is ANY work associated with getting the last 10% of the waviness out of the body, expect a LOT more labor cost.
After being trained on half a dozen all-overs of my own cars, I learned from my good friend and painter that it's a car with the very least amount of material beneath the paint that looks the best. This was at a time when lacquer paint was used for most high-end, read your watch like it's on your wrist in the reflection jobs. Durability has come a long way compared to fine lacquer paint jobs, but I seldom see premium paint that doesn't look thick to me. Probably my degenerative eyesight though. - Steven
I have done a few of these cars for myself and think the 10-15k should be a good number to replace both rear quarters,remove front sheet metal,doors and decklid strip and do some bodywork and repaint. Now this would not be a frame off just a really nice paint job with good detailing on the jambs. I did keep track of my hours on my 73 442 when I did it and had 550 hours in a total frame off restoration. I would think your job would be in the 125-150 hour range. If you are in car club or ask around about car clubs and there will be suggestions there for where to take it. You need to find someone who likes doing this type of work or things might not go well. Another suggestion would be to dissasemble the car yourself and save some labor. Steve
Originally Posted by randomarrival
Yeah - I expected 10-15K but the first thing we got was double that. We want it done right - what recommendations do you guys have for picking the right person to do it besides checking out their work? There have to be some guidelines to follow here.
After being trained on half a dozen all-overs of my own cars, I learned from my good friend and painter that it's a car with the very least amount of material beneath the paint that looks the best. This was at a time when lacquer paint was used for most high-end, read your watch like it's on your wrist in the reflection jobs. Durability has come a long way compared to fine lacquer paint jobs, but I seldom see premium paint that doesn't look thick to me. Probably my degenerative eyesight though. - Steven
This is very true I am currently going to bare metal on my whole car except left quarter way to much work in it not rust but collision repairs
I work for lexus and we did a complete car audi a4 black it was already black. So we didn't have to shoot the jambs etc. etc. We did fix a few dings ,obviously took it apart, fixed the front and rear bumpers at that ran 4k. All I do is body work I don't paint in the shop I hate painting unless it's my stuff or a side job.
Last edited by coppercutlass; December 8th, 2013 at 11:34 AM.
Wow, lots of passion here, I can’t and won’t speak for anyone but myself here, so, with that said. In California, the shop I go to won’t touch a muscle car that needs paint for less than 15-20K. Then if you add a repair like two quarter panels etc., the price goes up from there. Like others have said on the site, you get what you pay for. Now I am sure that some of you may have gotten a good paint job for 10K, 5K, 2K whatever, but I guarantee you, you got lucky if it’s a nice job.
Proper material alone to do a car correctly is at least 5K. Another thing I want to point out, the shop I use will only take the car if they can get on it immediately and stay on it, they don’t stack up cars and take 8-10 months to finish the job. A quality paint job from them on a fairly straight car will be completed in 10-12 weeks and they can do a full blown restoration in 6-8 months! To me that is the real value of a job, how long will it take! The only commodity that cannot be replaced is time! The shop I work with will commit to a completion date, and as long as I don’t make changes, they will stand by the date, and if then miss it, I get a discount.
There are some important questions to ask:
What is the car worth to you once the car is painted / restored?
What is the value of the car in the market if you want to sell it once painted/restored?
If the car is a rare, high value car, then it is imperative that you go with a shop that has a proven reputation with these types of cars and that will give you references that you can call to review their experiences and results.
If the car is not considered a high value collectors car, but is your baby and you are planning to keep it and love it, then it’s all about your budget, the amount of time you are willing to let a shop have your car, and most important, the amount of prep you are willing to do. If you take off all the parts that need to come off, like the bumpers, door handles, trim, windows, etc., you can save yourself some money, however, you can also cost yourself some money if you damage or lose parts.
I could go on and on, bottom line, you make the rules and expectations, take control, decide what you want, do your due diligence, check on the shop and get a quote in writing and get commitments on delivery.
Last edited by Team Sho-Air; December 8th, 2013 at 12:59 PM.
What's wrong with using paint like the car companies use?
It's good enough for new cars, they make it by the trainload, and it cannot possibly cost 5K for a car's worth or they could not sell cars so cheap.
Original paint on these cars was in most cases Lacquer. Does anybody use it or is that an aspect where originality is trumped by durability and newer paint technology?
On a car that's worth 6 figures sure the sky is the limit on paint jobs, but for a car that's worth only $15-30k there is absolutely no reason to sink that much into a paint job at an expensive shop.
What's wrong with using paint like the car companies use?
It's good enough for new cars, they make it by the trainload, and it cannot possibly cost 5K for a car's worth or they could not sell cars so cheap.
Chris,
It's not the paint alone that's the problem but price some OEM quality BC/CC paint sometime. A gallon of base runs in the $250-400 range alone. Add a gallon of clear, primer, activators, etc and you're well into four figures just for the paints. Now add high quality sandpaper (not Home Depot) in grits ranging from 36 to P1500 or P2000 for the final color sand, add polishing compound and buffing wheels, add precleaner, add tack cloths, add masking tape and paper, glazing putty, sealer, etc, etc and the cost for materials easily runs $2000 to $2500. Take the next step to custom paints like HOK or Hot Hues and $5K isn't outside the realm of possibility. And that's BEFORE you add any labor, which is about 90% of a paint job.
Yes, there are lower cost paint systems available. They tend to have much lower UV stability and don't last more than 3-4 years. If that's enough for a particular application, go for it. I have used these on daily drivers, but not on a car I care about.
There is no such thing as a 40 year old car having perfect panels! These cars werent straight when they were new.If you think you can sand it down and prime it and block it a little and paint it your not very fussy about the finished product. I ran a Mercedes,BMW dealer body shop back in the early 80s and we got a hellova lot more than 4k back then to do a complete outside paint on a 320 BMW.
I should add that OEMs buy paint in 55 gallon drums. The individual packaging drives the cost for the single-car quantities. The OEMs also dramatically cut labor costs by using robotic paint systems. The repeatability of application both reduces the quantity of paint used and the post-application labor to finish the job.
It's not the paint alone that's the problem but price some OEM quality BC/CC paint sometime. A gallon of base runs in the $250-400 range alone. Add a gallon of clear, primer, activators, etc and you're well into four figures just for the paints. Now add high quality sandpaper (not Home Depot) in grits ranging from 36 to P1500 or P2000 for the final color sand, add polishing compound and buffing wheels, add precleaner, add tack cloths, add masking tape and paper, glazing putty, sealer, etc, etc and the cost for materials easily runs $2000 to $2500. Take the next step to custom paints like HOK or Hot Hues and $5K isn't outside the realm of possibility. And that's BEFORE you add any labor, which is about 90% of a paint job.
Yes, there are lower cost paint systems available. They tend to have much lower UV stability and don't last more than 3-4 years. If that's enough for a particular application, go for it. I have used these on daily drivers, but not on a car I care about.
I use 3000 and 5000 Trizak finish disks @ 100.00 plus for a box of 25 to finish sand before buffing.
Im sure you got more than 4k. All I know that's what the shop charged. As for materials buying decent materials will run you well over 1500 that's knowing what "cheap" sandpaper will work and what materials you ca save money on. Like rcktdoc said he uses a poly primer I think from spies . I used voss chem it was cheaper and was a german product new to the us. market I tried it and it worked . I used paper bought from tp tools actually turned out to be awesome the grit did not wear out fast and it lasted. I used ppg k36 urethane primer , dbu base and nason 2k select clear. It aint a show car. It's straight where it counts presentable , and for how I use it ., heck it's lasted very well. Just my experience. I don't claim to do concourse work but it's presentable and usually looks better than what many people pay for unless it's an all out show car.
The 3000 grit is awesome the 5000 is just insane . I had never used it before and we got free samples holy carp does it cut buffing time in half. We usually use 3000.
I don't claim to do concourse work but it's presentable
Like I said above, terms like "presentable" mean different things to different people. 90% of the people out there probably can't tell the difference between a Maaco paint job and a $10K paint job. For them, there is no reason to pay more. For me, it bothers me every time I look at it. Frankly, I don't care what other people think, it's what I think about my vehicles. Ripples and orange peel become glaring flaws when the sun hits them.
Like I said above, terms like "presentable" mean different things to different people. 90% of the people out there probably can't tell the difference between a Maaco paint job and a $10K paint job. For them, there is no reason to pay more. For me, it bothers me every time I look at it. Frankly, I don't care what other people think, it's what I think about my vehicles. Ripples and orange peel become glaring flaws when the sun hits them.
Joe its hard to beleive that there is somone out there on the same page as me. Its realy refreshing.
that's true joe That term is open to interpretation. I cant speak for anyone else but for me my car is straight . I left a little orange peel very very minimal. I did it when I was 18 but it holds it's own among many cars at cruise nights. Im thinking of re painting it and addressing little areas I let be. Like the bottom of the doors. I left the original waves in it. It's down low no one really see's it but I want to do it that much better. It wont take much . Here is what it looked like the day it was done. It's beat up now. I crached it fixed it. it has rubber on the 1/4's chips dings, and a scrape but I can re do it . Im enjoying it too much to care at the moment.
The 3000 grit is awesome the 5000 is just insane . I had never used it before and we got free samples holy carp does it cut buffing time in half. We usually use 3000.
I start with 1000 and work down to 1500 then 2000 then 3000 and finish with 5000.Buff and if Im not satisfied I resand with 2000 and go thru the same process.
We somewhat have to maintain a factory orange peel. I use 1500 dry pick the nibs the 3000 and it usually turns out pretty flat. I do it the same way you do greg when the job calls for it
My quote for paint water based was 1600 for two coats of base and two coats of clear
I think they said 150 for the primer about three to four coats worth and to just spray it was 2500.00 good thing a friend is going to help out but again this is no body work or prep
8 to 12k before bodywork are you insane you must own a body shop that’s highway robbery paint job should cost no more than 8k and that’s a lot.
t otherwise you’re getting ripped off
I used to live in an expensive area in New York and I would take all the chrome off the car send it to my body guy and he did my paint job and bodywork Mig welding not just bondoed up either. $4500 to $5500 done very presentable job not a Maaco piece of crap either.
He wouldn’t wet sand and polish it because he sprayed it so nice didn’t even have to once in a while I would have to scuff the roof but that’s it don’t be fooled by high bodywork price shops they can be crooks.
oh and my turnaround Time was less than a month
down to metal urethane primer and basecoat clear
You want to pay over 8000 12,000 before bodywork 15,000 $20,000 go for it.
You might as well just sell your car and buy one done at that price. Just my Experience
Originally Posted by Rickman48
Your first quote was probably close - nowadays you're looking at $8-12k before bodywork, for a quality, professional job!
This is one place you get what you pay for.
Last edited by JOHNNYOLDS442; March 10th, 2018 at 12:28 PM.
8 to 12k before bodywork are you insane you must own a body shop that’s highway robbery paint job should cost no more than 8k and that’s a lot.
t otherwise you’re getting ripped off
I used to live in an expensive area in New York and I would take all the chrome off the car send it to my body guy and he did my paint job and bodywork Mig welding not just bondoed up either. $4500 to $5500 done very presentable job not a Maaco piece of crap either.
He wouldn’t wet sand and polish it because he sprayed it so nice didn’t even have to once in a while I would have to scuff the roof but that’s it don’t be fooled by high bodywork price shops they can be crooks.
oh and my turnaround Time was less than a month
down to metal urethane primer and basecoat clear
You want to pay over 8000 12,000 before bodywork 15,000 $20,000 go for it.
You might as well just sell your car and buy one done at that price. Just my Experience
The post you quoted is almost five years old. The price of paint and materials have gone up a lot since that post was written. The wisdom of "you get what you pay for" hasn't changed in five years though. ~BOB
Yes I got what I paid for a beautiful urethane paint job check out the pictures I know what I’m talking about
So you do own a body shop that’s just another excuse for you Body shops
Originally Posted by Carshinebob
The post you quoted is almost five years old. The price of paint and materials have gone up a lot since that post was written. The wisdom of "you get what you pay for" hasn't changed in five years though. ~BOB
Last edited by JOHNNYOLDS442; March 10th, 2018 at 03:27 PM.
Reason: Pics
July 7th, 2013, 05:29 PM
Luckily, I did not keep track!
