Projects Eight Thousand Dollars for a paint job?

Not true,I'm PPG certified. OMNI SUCKS!!I never use it.

 

One day the only people painting and doing bodywork will be franchised insurance company body shops. Your premiums will go up with the cost of materials and labor. You see when the insurance pays for it , the price can be high linda like when you got health insurance and you pay more than someone who doesn't. Just a thought.

 

My PPG rep stores dropped OMNI back in the late 90s. PPG does offer Shopline and now Shopline Plus. The Plus has a better range of tints to hit the mark in color match. The real money is the clear, the real protection is too. You can vary just a bit based on the car. A typical cruise night 67 Firebird SURELY did not get the care a Packard or pro-built Deuce roadster gets. It also probably sits more than it's driven. But why would I even mention Shopline? I bought a qt of base for my dually. DBC or DBU, $140 give or take. Shopline was $57. This was the BASE! I put good clear on it, it's always outdoors, it's been several months and I see no issues. I also don't see a glaring blingy fender on an otherwise 7yr old rig.


Less than 1/2 of the membership here would accept the "general" quality that was seen on the cars we love so much back in their heydays. Many times a coating of enamel, a few quick lint buffs, go drive it. THAT was the reality. Don't like the high cost of quality work? Do that. Start a movement to make superb craftsmanship in the fit and finish dept a joke. That's not directed at you FC. I had a guy freak out over a refinish on a 57 a dozen years ago. The day he brought me his "perfect" doors I wiped em with wax n grease remover for shine. When I told him we were done if I had to use them he calmed down a little but still challenged the hrs. "Hey man, you're here. Let's hang one of these doors together." 'OK, I got a few minutes." I was laughing inside. The few minutes, by the time that door was matched to the 1/4, then the front fender jacked around to match the front, open, close, open, close, well, you get it. 45min later it was dead on. "See, that only took a few minutes so why does your bill seem so high?" I pointed at the clock and he was then stuttering and stammering and suddenly had an appointment to keep.

 

This being a traditional hotrodding forum....What did the good ole boys paint with back in the post-war, '50's, and '60's?

I couldn't imagine they were using the equivalent of a $2k bucket of paint.

 

It was a 356 Speedster.... wanna color sand one of them? Not a flat panel on the car! Material was around $5000 if memory serves, and it had to be stripped completely down to bare metal as the old paint was checked pretty badly. There was VERY little bodywork on the car, but it was a huge job. It also included painting the dash, insides of the panels, etc.

 

I know that Stan Betz (Betz Speed and Color) was mixing custom paint for hot rodders during the mid-fifties here in Southern California, and continued to do so for over fifty years. He was so good that the big-three had him develop colors for their concept cars and also color palettes for their production-line vehicles.
So, yeah. There has been some uniquely-colored, high-quality, and pricy stuff around for almost sixty years....

 

whenever someone asks me what im payin to have my car done, i say $70 per hour.

 

This thread should change the way we look at buying project cars. We should be looking for cars with decent paint and crapped out mechanicals. I stripped my Healey down to bare metal, did all the body work, primed with DP and block sanded it all, finally shipping it out to a pro to color shoot it with DBU. Probably took about three years to get it done. Tons of work and I really appreciate what the pros go through.

I'm surprised the pros haven't mentioned all the other stuff that goes into that price ... clean air regs, hazardous material disposal fees, nasty iso paints that require full suits that could've been used on Apollo 13 plus all the health and labor regs that go along with running a shop. All that stuff costs money and has to be figured in to the price.

I've got old Hot Rods from the 60s and 70s telling you how to paint your car in your driveway. Just try that now.

 

HealyRick, you nailed it. Just yesterday I spent 1.5hrs around the gas fill opening getting it final shaped for prime. That did not include the 4hrs to fab the insert and bore a hole in the top of the 1/4 panel, and weld it, metal finish it, etc. So there's gonna be 6hrs in that hole. Will it be stunning? If it isn't I'm outta buisness. My client thought it went relatively quick. Sorry, no picks, OT street rod...

 

The last car I done had over $4500 in the painting supplies. Bondo, primer, paint, sandpaper etc.

Started in 2006 finished the car in 2010. Painted the frame, underside of the car with John Deere blitz black. The rest of the car was painted with first line DuPont material. The outside color was a factory mix, 2007 Vibe metallic red. It amazed me that I spent that much. If I had know it would of been that high..........a ratrod style of car would be very tempting.

A friend of mine has done body work for years and I asked him about the cheaper paints. He said go to walmart and get some outside barn paint and you will have about the same quality.

 

"This thread should change the way we look at buying project cars. We should be looking for cars with decent paint and crapped out mechanicals."

Thank you Rick, thats a great line..... I guess the point is that nothing in this game is cheap - If you do it correctly. You can save some money doing it yourself, but its gonna take your time. That old equation of time = money.
I started this post to acknowledge the difficult work painters do, and the hours they invest to make your car look GREAT ! Thanks to all you painters who chimed in. Hopefully we changed some opinions. I know I have a new appreciation.
BTW Mike (earl schieb) I've seen your work--- It IS art!

 

in the overall picture of a restoration/paint job the price on second line paint saves very little and there is a big difference in what u get for quality.the oldman always said it only cost a little more to go first cabin....oh what i'am the old man now lol

 

I'll never have $8k to spend on a paint job but i can see where the costs come from quite easily. I've just set myself up with everything i need to start airbrushing as another hobby and by the time you've chosen a small mix of metallics, pearls and candies the cost goes nuts. Paint, especially trick paints are damn expensive and endless amounts of sanding and prep all amount up.


My brother asked me for a quote on a bike frame done in a pearl and he nearly dropped when i told him the material costs. That wasn't even with any labour Soon got him out the garage!!

 

Just finished this O/T Corvette---
Razor strip 4 previous pant jobs and
hand sand areas like jambs etc. 35 hrs
Prep for epoxy primer 24 hrs
Block Epoxy 16 hrs
Re - Epoxy and 2nd blocking 20 hrs
set up for B/C C/C 24 hrs
Shoot base 3 hrs
nib out a little dust 2 hrs
Shoot clear 3 coats 3 hrs
Nib clear and re warp 3 hrs
Shoot 2 more coats clear 2 hrs
Color sand and buff 36 hrs
--------
168 hrs @ enter yer own $$$

Materials $2435.75

Minor body work 28 hrs

You guys do the math .


This is 2012 not 1962

 

Paint cost is there and damn near robbery.
I bought some PPG vibrance. Which is a tricoat. During the discussion I asked what would be a suitable and compatible medium to deliver some extra flake before the candy. Deltron 2000 DBC 500 color blender would be perfect and @ 50.00 a quart. That's actually the base (main ingredient)for the vibrance candy mid coat and the base coat.

Ok now get this, the quart of the candy alone was nearly $190.00 IIRC. Out of 1000 parts , there is 987/1000 parts of the DBC 500, ( THAT'S $50.00) and 13/1000 parts tint. That few drops of tint costs, $140.00 ??? No it don't. You could probably buy full quarts of the tints for 60.00 but you would 3 of them.
So for 180.00 you could tint enough DBC 500 to paint a battle ship.

Paint costs are there, people and shops really do pay those prices, but they aren't realistic.

My buddy does small repairs and blends. I bet he does 3-4 a week and he cant remember the last time he mixed more than a cup full of paint for a job. Refuses to do a complete paint job anymore. He mixes and tints all of his own paint. Shopline base maker @ 160.00 a gallon with a wall full of pigments, mica, pearls, and tints. Most are around 40.00 a quart, some are much more.

My Harley needed a fender repair and Harley wanted 180.00 for a pint of paint. He mixed enough to paint the fender and guessed it cost less than 15.00 for the base.

 

Nice Job on that. You were pretty efficient with your time. Is this your own project or something you did for someone else?

 

8 K is sort of on the low end...8k will buy you a pretty decent paint job in the Corvette guy world. 10-15 for the exceptionally nice stuff....the guy I used to work for would spend 500 hours on a paint job

 

It also goes a long way in explaining why there's so much interest in patina cars, rustoleum roller painting and Tractor Supply flat black. If a guy on a tight budget wants to build a rod, those finishes are one way to go.

The other possibility is adult education classes at a local high school or technical school. If you don't have a shop set up for painting, you can do a lot of your prep work, priming and sanding there. Some of the newer ones have downdraft booths and there's usually a lot of guys with experience to help you out. Usually you can't store your car there, so it has to be a runner. I did this with the Healey and carried the individual parts back and forth in my DD. Downside is you're limited to about three hrs of work so you have to plan it out in advance so you have time for materials to set up before you leave.

 

I appreciate the talent to prep and paint anything.
I am glad there are still people out there that can support your talents!!
Hooray for the guys that have money to fund such nice paint for thier car.
But, for 8,000 dollars I would have to literally work for 4 months and not eat anything, not pay the mortage or any bills, not buy gas or feed the kids or blah blah blah... That's a lotta dough!!

Like HealeyRick said, thats why you see so many patina, rustoleum cars, tractor supply flat black cars around.

They are pretty to look at, just sucks knowing I can't afford it.

 

Just dug up my notes on having that $25k job done...

Supplies were a tad over $5,000 actually.

Labor? That's the kicker, about 400 hours total. Throw in tax... they made less than $50/hr.

 

Could always set aside 4hrs a week for 3 years and swing it that way.
Second job moonlighting, or scrapping should take way less to accumulate the dough.
There's always a way and there's always tractor paint.

 

I have buddy that actually makes money buying and selling classics and hot rods. He says he "buys the paint" 'cause the rest is cheap - even a re-power. When you buy a car for under $12K, if it doesn't need a re-paint, you just got the car for free!

I have $600 in materials and over 60 hours of prep and finish work in just my all-new metal '32 chassis for my RPU.

 

My experience is from nearly 10 years in a restoration shop, and customers are often baffled as to why the difference in cost between a nice driver and show car can easily be 2-3x. They have no idea the time it takes to go from something that looks good driving down the street on a sunny Sunday afternoon, to something that looks perfect, sitting still, and under the scrutiny of show goers, or worse, judges intentionally looking for flaws...

Unless you've seen how much work goes into a paint job, you have no idea, and a lot of people don't. Educating the customer is often half the job...

 

Thanx 4 the kudo's
Customer was very happy! with quality and turn around time( 5 weeks)
Went out the door for a little over 10K
He shopped around (150 mile radius) and closest he could come to it was 15K.
I told him "can't give ya an exact, but it would probably be under 12K."
We were both happy with the 10 K deal.
Nuff said !!!!!!!

 

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Sorry...I'm going to hi-jack this thread for a second, but I think some of us will appreciate the information that will come from it. Having all you pro painters in one place is like going to the mountain....
Old race car. 'glass body. Shitty paint job,after all, it was a race car. Painted with Martin Senor acrylic. After, it got a kick ass striping and lettering job by none other than the late, great Ed Crawford and his son. Don't want to paint the whole car and loose the striping.
Now come the relevant questions;
How does one talk a pro painter into "patching" the spots that were repaired, considering how crude the original paint is? Most/all of you guys are very wary of having your work attached to someone else's for fear of the "unknowing" associating your work with a bad job.
Also, how do you guys go about repairing a job like this without the repair looking great, and the original looking like what it is...mediocre? Would have to be harder than a whole paint job, you have way less control over the finished product.
This is a prime example of what a lot of customers would bring in and say" What!?! How much!?! you only have to do the top of the cowl, and feather a few chips for cripe's sakes!!"
My dad painted in the early 50's, Dulux, lacquer, lead....died in 71 from emphysema. You guys work cheap.
Thanks, Mike
BTW, I'll probably do this repair myself. Wouldn't ask a pro to attach his name to this job...

 

Yep, great post. You are right, 8K is about the going rate for a decent paint job. Think about it this way. 100 hours of work at $80 an hour. Less than 3 weeks labor (and that doesn't even include the paint and materials).

Yeah, you can paint a car for $500 or you can paint it for $25,000 plus (and both will obviously have had those amounts of money invested...), but the average for a decent job is likely right exactly where you are talking about.

Nice car by the way!

 

Bring it up to Southern OK.
I could possiby screw it up just as good as anybody else !!!!!!!
Whatcha got 2 lose ??????

 

Mike, if you were not so far away I'd do for the challenge. I started doing something similar at my ex employers place. I'm not letting out my "hook", but it was so successful it scared him and he never pushed it. PM me for details if you like, or plan a week in Motown sometime in the future. I'd love to preserve your car.

 

I love to build, I love to tweak on already built cars, I love to weld, wrench, and make new. That said, every penny spent on having someone else do the bodywork and paint on a car is more than well spent in my book. It's the one area of car building I have absolutely no interest in, hell if it were up to me I'd clear coat everything bare metal but I know that isn't even all that easy to do right

 

When I painted my motorcycle with DuPont Hot Hues, the material cost alone for the paints, primer, and clearcoat along with the necessary activator and reducer was around $800. I had to have that color though, along with the 4 color blended flames. I never kept track of how many hours I had in the actual paintjob, but labor would have been thousands. A tank, 2 fenders, and a pair of sidecovers. Shit, it took the better part of 6 hours just to lay out the flames and mask them.

The Hot Hues were nice and covered well, however, it's still price gouging to the extreme for what they charge for those materials.