Big difference in price for Joe Blow off the street and if you have a commercial account too. I have a art small business and set up an account through one of the huge east coast chain suppliers, my cost is 25% break on retail and I really never buy stuff so not a frequent user. Have your body shop friend get it and save you some money.
This is rolled on Rustoleum Antique White. Did it fifteen years ago. Car spends most the time in the garage. Still looks good. Easily scratches though. Painted four other cars the same way. Not perfect but gets thumbs up. Cars i never plan on selling so, whatever.
@Crusty Chevy is right. If you know someone that’s a shop owner or tech have them pick it up. Techs get a 15% discount at our supplier. Be prepared though, they may want to see certificates or want a shop name if they don’t know you. I always carry my first ASE card for that reason.
Back in 83 when I worked at the shop I bought in 87 I remember the owner having a fit because the material bill for the previous month was $325. That was everything for a two man shop that moved cars.
Most barns were painted with red lead - pretty cheap stuff. Red is expensive for 2 reasons... It takes gold to make red paint. I don't have to tell you the price of gold, right? And red is a low energy color, and needs twice as much pigment as other colors. Don't believe me? Weigh a can of red and whatever color is next to it. Red has more pigment in it because it will fade before all other colors begin fading.
I actually just started a paint and body professional account at O'Reilly. Some of the discounts are really nice. Only got a 15-20% discount on my primer and on the hardener for my color coat. But all the masking tape was a 50% discount. And all the discounts will increase once I go up a tier I mainly opened it to get a discount on my own stuff. But I have been getting questioned more and more about doing body and paint side jobs. So I've been thinking about offering a semi mobile paint service lol.
Used Nason on many of mine. Do a couple more base coats than normal and its fine--just use a top shelf clear over it for a good finish. Don't get me wrong, still bitched about the cost.
You have to talk to the main store manager in person. Tell them cod and to include taxes. Took me a couple months to catch the manager but the account was up in a couple days lol
Red has always been more expensive. Red was almost twice the price of other colours when I was doing screen printing 50 years ago. 30 years ago I painted my nephew's truck a Chrysler red and it hurt then. I was told it was the density of pigment in red paint was the cause whether that is true or not. If someone told me it was $2k per gallon for red urethane I would shop around.
ALWAYS. And when Red becomes more fashionable, it drives the price of pigments even higher. Some companies will buy lower quality pigments, to save $$, but they fade over time.
Sorry, but paint is literally the absolute last place where I would cut a corner. Yes, it is expensive. But you get one crack at it and that's it. It is without question the most labor intensive aspect of the build. You spend how many hundreds, if not thousands, of hours cutting out rust, repairing rot, hammering and dollying, straightening dents, then priming, filling, sanding, sanding, sanding, and sanding some more, to get the body and panels straight. Then after all of that, you're going to cheap out on the material that everyone sees? F that. If I don't like a set of cylinder heads, I can have them off and on the engine again in an afternoon. If I don't like a carburetor I can swap it in probably an hour. But if I don't like that paint? Forget it. Weeks of work or more. It's the first thing you see on the car. It's what draws you in. Not to mention that after all that work getting to that point, don't you want the car to look the way you want it to look? The color is a major aspect of that. Pictured here was my paint order for my 61 Olds. What you're looking at was around $7000 Personally, I think it was worth it.
Definitely was worth it, but dang...that pic of the supplies sort of puts things in perspective of just how much supplies cost now. Back when I quit painting about 25 years ago, pretty sure that same picture would have had about a $2500 price tag or so.
When I did my 57 Ford 15 years ago, a similar order was $1300 from Smart Shoppers. I was initially expecting around $3000 since both the white and the gold were three-stage colors, plus the intercoat, and the primer. But it was over double even that estimate. And FWIW, I think HOK is a good value for the quality of finish. I've seen Spies-Hecker orders go much higher than that for less intricate paint jobs.
In 1962 Earl offered complete paint job for any car , any color , including current model year for $19.95 ..
That's fine if you have $7K to spend on paint. I do not. I have done just about everything on my car myself, so I can relate to your point, but unfortunately I am on a fixed budget. I will do a damn nice job on the paint, but I have to keep it within the budget. I am aware that reds are among the higher cost colors, but I have chosen this color, and I will make it work to the best of my abilities. It is not going to be a show car, but will be pampered. It will be garaged when not driven, so hopefully that will minimize any sun fading of a lower cost base coat paint. Thank you for the response to my thread.
Mobile paint would be easier. Regular extension cord and I'm in business. And I'd be more mobile do it at their house mobile.....not in the street like in the pic you're talking about lol
For a build and car of that quality^^^ I agree, buy the best. For many of us like Anthony stated we don’t have 7k in the whole enchilada. For many of us Summit, Eastwood etc will work just fine, show quality No ,driver quality Yep, personally I’m going to use some SPI stuff. 15 or 20 years ago a friend used I think Rustoleum and a roller then sanded and buffed a trunk lid, looked pretty good. Dan
There are plenty of other quality paints and clear coats out there that won't break the bank too badly. A couple buddies I have around here that do very high end paint work often use American Icon, which is surprisingly inexpensive. I totally get the budget aspect of it, and everyone's budget is different. Nothing wring with that at all. My point was simply that it is my opinion that you should use the best materials you can afford because it's not something you can simply go back and redo without issue. You work hard to make it nice, don't cut corners and it will look great and hold up for years.
Stripping a earl sceib paint job to bare metal will cost you a fortune in sand paper. I have done a lot of them it clogs up your good 3m sandpaper.
Every time I come across one of these threads, my jaw drops further. I know absolutely nothing about paint/painting but prices just seem out of control. Just watched a YT vid a days ago which stated about 70% - 80% of new cars sold are grey, silver, and one other colour I can’t recall. Industry was blaming customers saying they no longer wanted colourful vehicles. It would seem it is more about saving money on paint.
My nephew that owns the body shop is looking into a few different paint lines for me, one of which is Matrix that was mentioned earlier in this thread. Hopefully we can come up with a balance of quality and cost that will work for me.
The Jalopy Journal
