Featured Technical Why Paint Is So Expensive

This article explains it quite well, I think. It's the most expensive and most fragile part of building a nice car, regardless of year and make.

https://www.hagerty.com/media/marke...a638c61f0e7182ecc70109a3946d413d04e7b88435b70

 

Don't forget the environmental charges in certain cities/counties/states. Depending on where you live can make a big difference. I can buy mail-order paint for roughly 25% of the local cost (sometimes the same paint). That's also why some online sources don't deliver to some states.

 

In 1965 a gallon of Ditzler white paint was about $11.00, Red was $15.00. This was straight enamel, not acrylic. It took a long time to dry unless it was baked. If you ran it you were screwed as it was near impossible to fix without repainting the whole panel. The new paints are much more forgiving. But we pay for that. It seems to me that the cost of paint has gotten way out of hand, and someone is making a lot of money on $600 a gallon paint.

 

If $15 in 65 has the equivalent buying power of $150 today
TCP has red acrylic enamel for $195 per gallon

 

I would have loved it if my paint was only $600 a gallon. Mine cost me $1000 a gallon, and that was for Matrix! PPG was $2000 a gallon for the color I chose, and that was just for the base coat

 

In 1965 gas for premium was 35 cents a gallon, today it's $2.85 a gallon. Using $3 per gallon and dividing by .35 comes out to a little over 8 and 1/2 time what it was in 1965. Using $600 a gallon for paint and dividing by $15 comes out to 40 times what it was in 1965. Both petro chemicals. Someone is getting rich.

 

There is far more expense to a gallon of paint than what is in the gallon. Paint companies pay shops to use their paint, they have to swap out existing paint companies products with their own for n/c if they want to convert a shop, they have to provide mixing banks , they have to provide computers, they have to provide variance decks, they have to pay to train painters, they will have multiple people in a shop for weeks to get everything up and running when a shop does switch paint lines, they or the jobber selling the paint often have to supply painters to cover for guys on holidays, they have to pay tech reps enough so that when a shop has a problem at 5:00 on a Friday they show up to fix it. Just because joe blow doesn't see any of that doesn't mean it doesn't happen or cost money.

 

Yep. When you buy the most expensive base coat you are buying the most up to date paint matching technology not needed for an all over on an old car.
If you want that newest tri coat pearl “candy” you just have to pay.

 

Not to get all "economics" and all but that's how things work, when someone else is willing to pay for goods and services, I guess that's how the other half lives.
Long live primer!

 

some day paint will be all but banned and we will be wrapping our cars.

 

Can’t wrap over bare metal

 

And if you leave the wrap on for too long, you're good to paint the car.

 

@rockable thanks for the article. Funny how when presented with solid, well researched information, some immediately point to prices being lower 60 years ago, or a grand profit conspiracy.
Guess they didn't care about profit back then and the inflation that is a planned part of a strong, stable economy is not going to affect prices.

Oh, and it's not the same formula made in the same factory by the same people, either.

@49ratfink there is a new vehicle that is supposed to be coming out with no paint, and that was a big part of the cost savings. I have doubts about any startup, but we will see.

 

I just saw a video about a "guy" that wrapped his Cyber Truck. Decided he didn't like it red so had it removed and it ruined the SS finish. Like Bugs Bunny used to say "what a maroon"

 

I'm waiting for some big headed aliens to deploy a retrieval brigage to rid our roadways of those obnoxious looking things!

 

I get confused about paint costs. The HAMB cut off is 64 and the cars I had painted back then were either lacquer or acrylic enamel. Eastwood is selling acrylic enamel for $155/gallon. Acrylic enamel is good enough for my HAMB cars.

 

'65 is actually the HAMB cutoff for vehicle manufacturing, not the date of the engines (should be though), tires, paint, gas in the tank or air in the tires.

 

$155 today is almost the same price as 1965

 

The paint being sprayed on most vehicles these days is not the enamel from 1965, very few people will spray a vehicle in straight enamel anymore. Even the stuff used to make most of the color pigments have changed. The currently available enamel does not share the same paint formula that the enamel of 1965 had, the government requirements have changed dramatically.

Comparing today's paint costs to the cost of a paint that no longer exists doesn't make any sense.

 

All of us senior citizen car guys always remember yesterday's prices. Being a DIY guy forever in a lot of areas, Everything is big time pricey today, But IMO we can't change that so what I learned a LONG long long time ago was, Pay up OR sit down, shut up and do without that item. WE all occasionally****** about things we cannot change, I don't remember 1 time it worked, do you ? Life is Good, Thankful and Grateful to be here this AM, Everybody have a great day !

 

Don't need a fancy paint job to enjoy an old car. But if you're "that guy", get your damn wallet out.

 

Facts.
I’ve participated in paint jobs from $100 to over 40k.
Both customers were happy with the results.

 

Someone else painted my car 40 years ago. It looks like*****, with the scratches, waves, orange peel, cracks, and big primer spot. I drive it all over, and lots of people say "beautiful car!".

I took it to a small local show last week end, put on by the local corvette club. A few guys asked when I was going to paint it, but most just accept it as it is.

I did the last few cars I painted with relatively cheap acrylic enamel, the paint cost was hundreds of dollars, not thousands of dollars. They came out OK, they ended up looking like old cars, not new cars. But that's the point?

and I didn't see any explanation in the article about why modern paint costs so much. They did sort of explain why a modern paint job costs a lot, though.

 

The OTC price is only part of it. I painted cars for 35 years, I'm still paying for it with health issues.
Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. If you must paint, please do it safely

 

In 1965 you could buy a new car for less than $2500, too!

 

Are you rubbing off on any of the corvette guys? I would love to show up in this, and as Anthony would say, you don’t even have to paint it.

 

Jim drove this 55 for several years, looking like this...but since he's a painter, he finally succumbed and took it apart to paint it. Oh well.

That vette needs a lot of mechanical work to get it on the road. I can totally agree with not touching the finish while doing so, then drive it around and have a blast with it.

 

There is also an article from Hemmings Motor News that was written by Barry Kluczyk along the same line that is worth a read

 

no mention in that article about why paint is so expensive. It just explains how much labor is needed for a top end paint job.

 

The article leaves out the fact that a large portion of the chemicals are petroleum based. I have painted since 1970. I'm in shock over how materials have risen in cost. What else is there to add.