What's the going rate on painting cars these days? My collision guy is an old school muscle car guy, his wife drives a 66 Chevelle SS 4 speed, beautiful car. He recently seen my 71 GS and fell in love with it. My car needs both door corners done as far as body work is concerned. The paint shows well from 15 feet but is thinning and chipping and it's time. Anyway I think he gave me a great price on B/C or single stage my choice, 7k that's body work included stripping it down and keeping it black. I really wasn't thinking about doing this, but at that price I may take him up on it. I've seen his work so I'm cool with it, and he's only a mile from me. What do you think?
That actually sounds pretty good, if his work is quality. Some corvette guys out there get charged 15-25k to paint their C3s
That's for a show job, if a shop quotes you 20k for a strip and shoot, your dealing with an egotistical jackass, we have one of them guys close by,..a "builder" as he calls himself. It's fun to see one of my 10k to 15k jobs next to his 30k jobs at a show,...if anyone here is paying 30k for paint on a clean car you are getting bent over dry,..which may be common practice in the Northeast or California where 1200sqft 100yrold homes are 700k
7k, with body work.. and it's black?... on LI NY?... Good deal out here in flyover land.... a screaming deal in NY where a sandwich is $12.... if the work is good.. Go B/C.. I assume he is using the discount paint line from whichever supplier he likes... talk to him about paying a little more, for an upgrade to a higher quality paint.. JW
I average around 2yrs on my all overs, if that was all a fella had to work on, you can do one in 3 to 6 months
it's going to be in the $10k range on my 66 to paint it a charcoal grey color. I'd love to get quality work done for 7k. If he's good you better not hesitate!
Collision guys usually charge less as we see damage differently than everyone else, when a "restorer" sees a bunch of rust or wavy panels they tend to charge more because they cant perform the work as fast or efficiently as a collision guy, so we may price stuff less but we can do it in a 1/3 the time as we are used to hanging 2 1/4's a day , 4 door skins, 3 or 4 bedsides, nasty rocker frame cuts etc etc. The down side to Collision shops is when insurance work comes in most always in waves yours takes the back seat until we catch up. Just the way it is we have bills to pay like everybody else and while we may only do work for you once we will work for Nationwide and Allstate etc etc daily for years to come so they are priority. Just remember this moving forward
Living on this Island & knowing what the market here considers " average " if your familiar with the shops work give him the car ASAP. As long as all of the work is spelled out clearly in writing, quality paints are included, and a realistic time frame for completion is agreed upon , this sounds like a great deal
Rrecently paid $14K for 'show paint' that was a complete re-do (no rust or body damage) by restoration guys who are not cheap but have done quality work for years. They tell me the red paint alone from the paint store is $1000+ these days and that is not counting primer, etc. All about taking the time to do it right and a talented painter. If there had been body work it could have run to $18-20K easily. My $0.02
In Collision work all anyone uses except for the super shops is 2nd line stuff, cant make any money on material otherwise
Around here, 5k will get you a paint job you can be proud of at local shows and cruises if the car needs only minor body work and rust repair....For a national show car ready paint job on a car in similar condition will be 8-15k. I've seen a few 2k jobs laid down on cars that were clean to begin with and didn't need to be taken down to metal out there looking good and pretty, with no one the wiser. If you're going to do it, see how much prep work the shop will let you do yourself before taking it in (trim and bumper removal, etc.). You can save a lot of labor costs by removing stuff yourself, if the shop is ok with it. Some don't want you to, as reassembling something you didn't take apart can be a pain.
After striping all paint. Bodywork. A Quality paint job that can handle UV . Should be (1-2) coats of epoxy- (3) coats high build. Then block sanded till little metal shows on the ends. (3) coats surfacer . blocked then paint. That’s how i was taught. Then the paint job would not shrink from sunlight. There’s Half solids. And Full solids . Top name brand high solids . They call Glamour clear. Is Best. You pay for what you get. I’m a huge fan of Single Stage urethane. Last coat mix 50 color 50 clear. Wet sand 500 1 day later. Tack cloth and blow gun . Then apply (2) coats clear coat. If lucky little dirt No sand No buff.
Sorry did not see your question until now. Yes Advantage Auto in North Richland Hills on Davis Blvd. Great guys and know how to do body work, details and painting right. I have had them work on 5 or 6 of my cars over the years, some re-paint and some partial paint or touch ups. Amazing how they can match paint even metallics and clear.
when you guys say strip are you referring to removing all the jewellery on the car , doorhandles, lights, moulds and stuff.....or are you referring to stripping off the old paint and whatever else is under it, back to metal? There's a huge difference, and a quality job that can be guaranteed would involve both I would imagine. I certainly wouldn't be doing all that for 7K
