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Cost quotes to re-paint?

2K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  ben_cline 
#1 ·
Hello all:

What should a good repaint job go for on a 96 LX? This was a FL car until about 2 years ago so no rust or damage - just that the sun in Orlando killed the clearcoat and dark green paint on the flat surfaces. I'm getting quotes in the ballpark of $5,000 - $6,000 in this area which just seems to be way high, and 4-5 weeks to git'er done. Looks like a lot of it is labor (R&R all glass, handles, cladding, lights, etc).

Thanx in advance for opinions,

Larry in Cheyenne WY
 
#2 ·
That sounds about right seeing as how they are including all the prep work. You'll find that a good paint job is all about the prep. Bad prep- bad paint. You may want to talk with them and see if there is anything you could do yourself that would drop the cost a bit. I know when mine goes for paint that I will be taking everything off that I can to save them the time and me the money.

Jay
 
#5 ·
$5000-6000 sounds about right; an estimate for mine was about $4900 with the best painter around here doing all the work. But he said the turn-around time for my car would be about 2 weeks or a little over so 4-5 weeks for yours seems like a long time.

'Vic' is right though; you do get what you pay for.
 
#6 ·
As a painter myself, Ill try to offer some advise to keep the cost down. price is fully dependant on how good you want it. some people want a quickie. some people want a "factory" which is like a quickie with all paint imperfections sanded and buffed. and some people want a "show" job. most people want the show finish, but dont realize the labor that goes into it. on the other hand, most people dont realize that a quickie repaint can last forever, and have awesome shine and be more than enough for some people. so the cost is in the actual labor and it only takes an hour to paint the car. so prep really is everything. I suggest you talk to the shop, decide how nice you really want it to look, and do the R+I's yourself. the downsode with you putting things back together is youll probably scratch the new paint here and there either transporting parts or assembling them. if the paint shop scratches it, they can fix it before you arrive. youll never even know.

A lot of people try to tell you to sand it yourself. My opinion on that is dont. two reasons for that. paint times per panel usually reflect prep anyway, you dont pay extra for it. the main reason is that you can never do the kind of job that they can. yes you can sand it, but youll put dips and waves in the panel that will show in the final product. you will take a nice flat panel and make it worse.

a painter will give the panel the harshest scratch he can without seeing the scratches in the paint. every single time some schmuk brings me a car he sanded himself, claiming it was all set"just shoot it". it comes out nasty. sanding swirls and big long scratches show up both in the metallics and in the clear when the paint shrinks.

as for primer, I throw up in my mouth a lil bit everytime someone says they "primed" their car to get ready for paint. Dont do it, you dont need it, and you WILL do it wrong

hope some of that made sence
 
#8 ·
Have you thought about taking it to WyoTech? Or at least checking on having someone from there doing it? I'd think with only being 53 miles from WyoTech you should be able to get a paint job done cheaper. I went there to check out the campus with my brother, and it's a small town with like 10 used car lots full of cars. I bet they do tons of work there. So I'd see about that.

http://www.wyotech.com
 
#9 ·
I agree w/ '88pimpin' I'd check WyoTech out.
 
#10 ·
Wyo-tech is a possible option, I would check it out. You may end up getting the students taring through it and it could end up taking more than the 5-6 weeks and only saving a few bucks. If you're lucky a instrutor will do it as a side job. My dad used to work at the Wyoming school, it cut down his side jobs in PA due to political reasons ;) .
 
#11 ·
My brother took a while to do a Subaru, but it was completely tore up. The guy who was gonna sell it, just said pull it out and Bondo it, compared to replacing the panel.



That took a while, but a paint job shouldn't take long, as long as that's what they're working on at the time.
 
#12 ·
?? 5 or 6000 for a paint job? i hope your missing the back half of your car that they are going to replace also.

I know things are cheaper in mississippi, but dang.

Regular paint and a solid color around here is like 2k. and i have seen it around 13-1600 on a regular basis. I already know everyone is going to post back "you get what you pay for-- thats cheap paint-- they have to be cutting corners, etc"

Well i had my explorer repainted last year for 2000 and it still looks great, it looked exactly like it did when it was new when i got it back from the paint shop and you COULD NOT tell a diffrence, no orange peel, cracks, etc.

even to paint my car with primer, base, clear, clear with flake, and then more clear was only about 5000, and thats because my paint is 1900 a gallon.
 
#13 ·
Also, are you painting it a different color that they'd have to remove the engine and some other pieces? If it's just painting it the same color, then it should be less. But it depends how extensive the work will be.
 
#14 ·
I paid about $1800 for my paint job at LA body Shop in Cheyenne. That included doing some work to get the hood alingned and installing my FFRP stainless hood pins.

Just pointing out that there are some alternatives between Maaco and the
$5000 job.

A friend out here paid the big bucks for his paint then got nailed in a hail storm about a month later.




Tony
 
#15 ·
If the 5-6 weeks is the hang up don't take it to a trade school, even the good ones. they plain take longer. my capri was in there almost 4 months. they did a good job but it is a learning enviroment.....
We routinely take cars to a local shop for "just paint"(FL west coast) we do the body work in house, they seal it, prime it and shoot it. Car are sent out less glass exterior chrome, all taped up and edges already shot. We still pay $2500-$3500 depending on the color and system (color up, multi layer, metallics ect) so $5k isn't bad for central FL
 
#16 ·
TMcColl said:
I paid about $1800 for my paint job at LA body Shop in Cheyenne.

Tony
If there's a place where you are that does a good job, you might as well go there. Since Tony said this place, and it obviously has a good paint job for less cost, I'd recommend going there.
 
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