Years ago when I painted my '72 GS (Fire Red), I had it blasted professionally and then painted by a local painter. That was around 1993, and the paint was pretty expensive--red seems to be. Anyway, with stripping and painting, the whole thing cost about $5000. I did all the dismantling myself...EVERYTHING was off the car body and interior. (Funny story--I actually had my mom follow me up I-95 to the paint shop with no lights, no bumpers, and the front seat not even bolted down--never try that today, and she was NOT happy!) Today, the car is in somebody's "collection" and looks as if it was just painted--29 years later! Very good painter! We are having a bit of a discussion on the Corvette board about painting a C-2, and there is some discussion that the price for a C-2 goes up just because it is "that car." I.E., if you tell the painter you have a 1990 car, still fiberglass, the cost will be MUCH less. My point in that discussion was that the hourly rate is the hourly rate, and it is much higher today no matter WHAT you are painting. Also, it is difficult to strip a fiberglass car--typically done by endless sanding--so more hours and materials. Anyway, if any of you have taken in your cars to a shop to be painted recently--mine was a convertible, FYI--what do you expect to pay for a good base/clear job? Thanks!
Is the body.paint guy getting the car already stripped of parts? Is he assembling anything or giving the car back to you unassembled? Installing front clip only? Any trunk or floor pan work? Rust repair on body?
If we factor out bodywork/assembly ect charges, and talk just about prep/application/finishing of the topcoat.... While labor rates have certainly increased since the early 90's, the biggest driver of costs has been the dramatic increase in cost of paint and paint materials. I would anticipate that your 5 K paint job from the 90's might be 3-4 times that now, due mainly to paint/paint materials costs increases. Beware of anyone that wants to sell you on something less.. there is an entire sub industry now for "second line or ecomony" paint that is cheaper than the top of the line stuff, which is the only thing you want to put on a classic car. Economy paint is fine for production repairs on cars that most likely will be in the scrap yard in 10 years or less. Or for a car that you really don't care about longevity. Flippers typically use these products, to enhance their return on investment when they sell. Now I am not super familiar with this, I have not painted a car in a dozen years, and never used the latest products.... there are many paint/body guys on the board here who might have better information than I, but the latest thing in painting in the last few years has been the switch to water based paints. Since a good portion of the solvent type paint price increase has been due to compliance costs for new EPA regs, you can avoid this with the water base stuff I assume. JW
I'd bet that fiberglass that is nearing 60 years old is pain to work with. Couple that will years of previous repairs, ill fitting panels and the stigma of Corvette owners are all reasons the price increases dramatically when you mention what you want painted. it is possible to get a decent paint job for 10k on a normal car, but you'll have to drop it off ready for primer with all the major repairs done already, and then do all the assembly work after. I would add 50% to that number for a Corvette
I stripped my car of all chrome interior blah blah...... Delivered the car as a running shell. I will be involved in the final teardown to a frame off. Im into about 5K for the paint, primer, Clear coat, ETC... 850 for new glass... Seal kit haven't ordered yet.... Did get a good deal 200 on local CL for the trunk pan.... Still got the sand blasting bill coming (will be about 1000 I hope...). The bodyman/painter will be getting about 15k.. I still got to get the bumpers rechromed...
It adds up quickly for sure. I took my car to a "restorer" in Mukilteo WA. he quoted me 56k to do the metal repair and paint (I do all the take apart and the interior). Car needs both fenders repaired and has crunchy vinyl roof. Too much. I could put 100K into the car and then I would have a really nice 20k $ car.
Expect 10k for MINIMAL body work and paint,....15 to 40k for rust repair body and paint,.....material alone is close to 5k
Another point I'll make is expected timeline,....I have 11 full paint jobs here now,...I'm a one man show as I can't trust or afford help. So contrary to popular belief these 15k paint jobs ARE NOT MONEY MAKERS,....they don't pay the bills,...so it's gonna take some time be patient with them
Also don't micro manage a body paint guy,...fastest way to piss us off,...and extend your stay in the shop. We don't need constant reminders we have your car,...we see it eveyday,...also remember yours isn't the only one in the shop and if it is its because they suck and can't get work More money paid doesn't equal faster work More overhead IE larger shop will most likely cut down turn around time but will cost ALOT more Low overhead small shop obviously means much longer turnaround time but less money this is where a 15k really nice job happens The best shop us the older guy that has no real overhead and does one or two at a time and has all his life things situated,..house paid for,..no kids,. No woman especially,..yea those guys will knock your job out in no time,..they don't habe bills to pay like a younger guy so they can concentrate on your project,....these guys are hard to find because they've done their time and want to relax now,.....so pick your poison
I done this 65 about 6yrs ago,....charged 9500 and LOST MY ASS,.....car has won just about every show its attended and has several paint awards,....should have been 20k Best process on a vette with lots of material imo,..is blast with walnut shells,...then epoxy,...bodywork,...6 coats of poly primer,..block with 80,....then 6 more of poly,..block with 100/120,...then 4 coats of urethane block with 220 down to 400 then sponge with 600,..then sealer/color/clear that was the process on this one,...I actually forgot after the urethane primer I put down 2cts of mp182 omni primer surfacer,...the sponged with 400 to 600,....my fingers were bleeding after each session
@hugger AMAZING job from the pics...and yes, you did lose your butt on that price. Any chance you wanna do another one (KIDDING!)? Local guy has a sliding scale--strip, so much, prep, so much, paint, so much, etc. By the time you finish, you are looking at AT LEAST $25,000 with little or no "body work" done on the car. And yes, paint prices are nuts. For example, we re-did the 13 small trim pieces inside the hardtop. Some rust, so I blasted and sanded them, and my friend/painter primed, sanded, primed, painted, buffed. He sent me to pick up the PINT of white paint--nothing special--and just the paint was $100.00, paint-shop price! This did not include all the mix-ins, which he had and provided since it was such a small job. I still paid him $300.00 even though I did about 25% of the work...as Jim and others have pointed out, today's paint is expensive!! For other posters, I did my OWN dismantling on the '72, and really used that process to "learn" about this car. Not easy, but it IS a hobby for some of us, and thus was a lot of fun (and some interesting swear words...) for me. With the C-2, a LOT of different issues. First of all, fiberglass, as @hugger pointed out, takes a TON of coats of different prep stuff and TONS of sanding, sponging, etc. LOTS of hours and really difficult to get straight. I know, boats are fiberglass as well and are not that expensive to do, but boats ain't cars, 'nuff said. One of the biggest issues I have is that my hardtop still has factory paint on it, thus will NEVER match any repaint. @hugger, that looks kind of like my color--Nassau Blue--but hard to tell from a picture, of course--and today's paints are simply not capable of replicating the factory enamel from back then. I see the original paint every day on my hard top and have seen MANY repainted cars in that color. It NEVER matches the original, but that is not to say it is not close. Evidently, the flake in the enamel was such back then that it can't be perfectly duplicated today. ANYWAY, thank-you for the level of detail you provided. Since I drive my car pretty much every day, I am kind of glad the paint, which was done years ago by the previous owner and VERY badly, is not that good. It is, at best, a 50-footer, but then again since I drive the car, I really don't worry about chips, etc., and the imperfections are available for others to comment upon, which makes them feel good, I suppose. The difference is, I really ENJOY my car by DRIVING it all the time, so there is that. Getting old changes your perspective on stuff, for sure. As for dismantling the C-2 vs the GS, MUCH different, unfortunately. Sure, it is the same GM stuff, basically, but really different in so many ways. First of all, there are VERY FEW bolted-on parts. Obviously, you can't put bolts into fiberglass, so you have a whole other level of discovering how things are put together--mostly glue and rivets. Next, my biggest learning curve on this car was that I wanted a "smaller" car to deal with in my old age. What I forgot was that GM simply took all the stuff from an Impala and shoved it into a space 1/2 the size, which means that where you could get your hand in on a GS, there is NO WAY on a C-2. You basically have to dismantle the car to work on it. Did you know, for example, that some of the spark plug wires go between the motor and the motor mounts on these cars?? Some fun, that...I could go on and on, but as a hobby, it is all good, and I am learning a lot. A paint job is not in the cards for me--lottery win excepted, of course--so I will enjoy the car as is and not worry about the outside. I redid the INSIDE, which is where I sit, and that is fine with me! Cheers, and thanks for all the great comments, ideas, etc.! Richard
YEP, and on my car new badges are $1000.00, bumper re-chrome is AT LEAST 1200.00, seals, etc., $1000, etc., etc., etc. This is why C-2 restorations run well over $125,000 easily, and more if you have any real issues with the panels. Funny, like on GS cars, body mounts are about $100.oo, but getting to them is almost impossible on a C-2. Not planning on this for mine, but I am slowly replacing things here and there. For example, I bought door hinge pins and seals and handles, but there is no guarantee that replacing the hinge pins will work since the body bushings contribute to alignment so much on a car that is put together with glue and rivets... Anyway, back in the day I could order all kinds of NOS stuff from Year One. Today, NOS parts are pretty rare for a C-2 (or a GS, for that matter), and being retired, I can only buy a few here and there. BUT, I am driving my car and enjoying it, so that is the best part of the hobby for me these days. Cheers!
You would be hard pressed to find a straighter mid year,...gaps are very nice also lots of hours on gapping h alone
Reading through this thread makes it pretty obvious why the patina look has become popular. It's sounds crazy expensive to get a high quality paint job done nowadays.
Depends on the state,....we are 75% of full retail,....so i fix stuff that's murdered all the time,....some states are 45% maybe less
Having done all the work myself. My last "real" experience (Jeeps don't count as they are Jeeps and destined to get scratched) painting/prepping was in '95. I had a GREAT starting point that I just wanted to clean up and keep white as I bought it. No real body work to do. A couple of very minor rust spots to work. Easy enough even I could weld them. As I started to try to clean things up, the three paint jobs on top of the factory paint would just peel off in some places in good sized chunks when sanding. I bought some 80 grit disks and just stripped to the factory paint. Started working the issues that were found as I blocked. About the time I was in "final primer", I had kind of remembered what I liked to do. New materials are WAY different than what I was used to but the work is still pretty similar. That's the amount of work I wanted to put into the car. This car really could have been a NICE car if I would have blocked it a couple more times. It's nice enough that I don't want to park it in common parking spaces. Not so nice that I can't talk myself into driving it. I believe I have a decent paint job on my car but it is a 10-20' car. If you look closely, there is a little more texture to the clear than I would have left 20+ years ago. I can sand that flat and buff back or I can just let it go and enjoy what I have. I'm choosing the latter except for a few spots. I'm about $1800-2300 into just paint supplies (tape, paper, primer, sandpaper, etc). I still have most of my tools that make a job like this go decently fast. Not exactly the greatest paint line from what I hear but I used PPG Omni. I'm reasonably happy with it and I did have to 1500 the clear and buff back from there. If you count the supplies and my 100-120 hours of work, you're looking at some decent cheese to have it done. We'll see how long it lasts. There is good mechanical adhesion for sure. Hoping for good chemical and mechanical adhesion to get a paint job that will last at least 5-15 years for a car that might see about 20-30 sun days per year? (hopefully more but let's be realistic ) I truly don't know that you could do this for a whole lot less unless you went with the Summit type single stage (which was considered for this car). You might save about $500ish by going with the Summit single stage.
And in collision we habe to work for peanuts so there's more room to make repairs,...you're told what you can charge
Totally correct. Your work is amazing...people forget that bodies were manufactured in two different plants and shipped to St. Louis for assembly. Fit was haphazard at BEST, and even the assembly book says the rear deck lid will stick up 1/4" because of the rubber seal (roadsters). The Corvette Forum actually has pictures of the assembly line--they are hilarious given today's world of safety and so forth. I will post a link when I find it. You will see the real deal there--what showed up, and what happened to it. I promise you that your work blows away pretty much anything the factory did other than by accident... Cheers!
