so what does a paint job go for these days?

Well, it's obvious the pros here have a pretty good handle on their costs, what they're worth, what it really costs for a top-notch paint job and are pretty defensive about it, too. Zman, you've obviously got a lot of pride and talent in what you do, no need to put your back against the wall against everyone not anxious for high end show paint.

However, this is still a traditional hotord site and a lot of HAMBer's take pride in doing as much themselves as they can and not all can afford a 10-20-30K paint job. Lots of cars here worth about 15-25 K )(not to say there isn't more into them than that). While laying an $80000 paint job on a 2 million dollar car to make it three makes sense, spraying a $20000 paint job on a $20000 car doesn't.

So what's the answer for the basic,traditional hot rodder who still needs paint,wants a good job and can't afford five figures?

 

A place that does "completes" is usually also a top dollar enterprise. I have seen GREAT professional paint jobs that cost $5K and crappy ones that cost $10K. More than the cost, you need to figure out what you're willing to live with. And as already mentioned, the PREP is the key to a great paint job...bad prep = bad paint.

I bought my DuPont Chromabase Pearl Red three years ago and have around $800 WHOLESALE into it...would have run me almost $2K had I had to pay retail prices. No matter how you look at it, paint isn't a cheap proposition, and shooting pearls, candies and flakes takes someone who knows EXACTLY what they're doing. I've seen amateur applications of pearl and the guy would have been better off spraying rattle can over the entire car.

 

Find someone like me who enjoys painting and helping regular, working stiffs make their hotrods look good.

 

I don't want to speak for Zman but I think he is trying to make the point that it is the impression that guys have about having paint done.

Say you are talking about a $15,000 to $20,000 car build maybe yours was in that range. Most guys would probably drop $3000 on wheels and tires on a build of that budget without blinking an eye to get the right look they are after but then balk at $3500- $5000 for a paint job which is a way more labour intensive process and has just as much if not more impact on how your car looks and is precieved by others.

I don't think that anyone building a $15,00 or $20,000 dollar car would be expected to shell out $10,000 plus on a paint job but in this hobby $15,000-$20,000 is more than likely the low end of a build cost on a project and budgeting 1/3 on paint and body is probably not a ridiculous expectation. Most guys just don't do it. They build their car and then when everything else is done they think about paint and then are shocked when it is so expensive. Then they fall back on the old "it's not traditional to spend big money on paint and if you do you are either a streetrod guy or a gold chainer or the I can do it at home for way less."

What Zman is saying (I think) is when you factor in ALL of your expenses it is not super cheap no matter what you do if you use decent materials and do a decent job. Pro's just know what they are spending down to the dime where as guys at home don't factor in half of what they have had to purchase to get the job done and then cry foul at prices.

 

Well- guess again. In the 50's & 60's (was too young to have a car in the 40's), not everyone was happy with a primered car. We weren't. We also weren't happy w/ a shit roller/brush rattle can job either. So- painting a car & spending 25-100% of annual income makes it non-traditional?
On an equal percentage line......Drivetrain..........
Go price a blown Ardun. Since that costs more than most guys here make in a year- I guess that's not traditional either. Damn Ardun gold chainers.
We all had painted cars in the day (at least we did). Nice painted cars. Custom painted cars. And yes- usually 6 months of pay too in some cases. Sometimes more. How did we swing it? Working OT. Working odd jobs or second jobs. Whatever it took to get paint.
It completes the car. Want it bad enough- you find a way. Want that Watson fade? Ain't gonna happen from a rattle can. You gotta pay.

There's nothing wrong at all with John Deere paint, or primer, or Imeron. There's nothing wrong with a guy building his own booth & painting himself either, Just don't shit on the guy who wanted more. The guy who wanted near perfection (nothing is perfect) & took it to a shop & call it non-traditional based on dollars spent.

All my cars have had high-end paint jobs.
Hell- my Ricklefs flames cost more than some of these guys entire paint budget!
Then add the fact the car is black- it's straight as glass & painted apart. It's shot by a pro who is waaay more talented than I could ever be.
Is it traditional? You tell me. I guess not when you factor in your % scale.

 

Here's my friend Bob's car. A huge dollar build. Stupid money in this car but it his non-HAMB car & his money. I can show pics because it's not done. May run for Ridler- he won't say. Body is by Marcel Delay- all hand formed aluminum. You might know the guy in the driver seat.
Seat & wheels are rollers. Motor is stack injected Rousch Ford. Sweet!
Budget for paint? 80k+ & it will be as close to flawless as you can get.
That's not Bob in pic BTW.

 

$3000 wheels and tires for my traditional hot rod. Lets see...$500 for four Firestone delux champs from Coker + $50 for tubes + $100 for a pair of '40 Ford 16x4 steelies + $50 for another pair of late '40's Ford 16x4.5 steelies. Ok thats $700...that leaves $2300 for painting the wheels...sounds about right!

No offense meant, just poking fun. I can see how a shop might need to charge those rates I just can't see how a "traditional hot rodder" can afford them. But more power too 'em if they can.

-Jeff

 

I painted my off-topic car myself, at home in my garage. All-in, it probably cost me as much or more than having it done professionally. I got three estimates, all of them in the $3500 - $5000 range.

Having to do stuff two or three times because I wasn't happy with the results, buying a new Devilbiss gun because my old cheap gun wasn't up to it, masking materials, all that shit adds up with the quickness.

Talk all you want about how you can do it yourself for cheap, but it really don't work that way. The price is the price on materials, but how much is your time and aggravation worth?

About the only upside to my story is now I know how to prep and paint a car. Next time it won't be as expensive, and hopefully not quite as much work. Maybe that ain't so much, but knowing I can do my own paint and body work makes me happy.

Maybe some of these days I'll be able to bring in customer work and get big bucks for my work. Or maybe not, but it'd be nice to have a sideline just in case my day job plays out.

 

steves32........couple more than nice cars you got pictured there.

traditional or not that aluminum coupe is a work of art worthy of being shown anywhere


skull

 

Steves32-absolutely beautiful cars-way out of my league. But I doubt that you'd be comfortable driving either of them for 5 minutes on our Pennsylvania highways.

 

Hey- I'm in So Cal- home of potholes! We have shitty roads here too.
I roll in all my rides. Just because the budget is higher doesn't mean I'm going to store it in a room built of glass. I put about 10,000 miles on my Deuce last year. Not so much lately as I've been concentrating on moving my shop. I am leaving next week for a show about 800 miles rt.
I drive the shit out of them & I'd roll right along side you buddy! That's what it's all about.

As for Bob's ride- it's his 1st nice build. Kinda knocked it out of the park I'd say. He has a 60's build T bucket in the garage that is his regular fun ride. He's probably in his 70's, very successful & has had a few health issues this past year & can't do the work anymore. So- he is using Chip to fulfill his dream. This level of build will have a year of indoor show commitments & the plan after that? Drive the shit out of it!

 

That aluminum body '36 is kinda neat...but the top looks kinda like it's pushed back...actually, the whole car looks to be "slanting" back.....weird look. Should be a standout once paint is applied though.

 

waterborne is faster in collision, and is alot cheaper then solvent.

its not water with food coloring, alot more complex then that.

they arent forced to do nothing.... the law lowered the voc to 3.5. there are still 3.5 solvent basecoats that are legal. but the bodyshops figured out that waterborne is faster.

sounds like someone is feeeding u alot of false info.

 

pinstripes on flames over clear is tacky nowadays, if the flames cost that much... they should not be felt.

 

My truck is a pile of stuff.. It came from a junk yard and is slowly improving. Its a slow build that gets used all year around. It is and always will be a work truck, I haul brush, parts, and junk in it through the summer months, and it plows my driveway in the winter. Its lucky the doors fit, open and close. The body pannel gaps are lucky being within a 1/4" of each other. Mechanically, the truck is in great condition, body wise, there is no rust. I have done any body work that has been done on that truck in the last 20 years, and i can stand to do it for only short peroids of time before I loose it and its done "for now". Its been painted at least 3 times over the past 8 or so years I've been driving it. It gets "tractor paint" @ $24/gal, suppose to be gloss. The tractor paint is good for 3 years before it fades, chips, and scratches off. Then it gets another round of body work, and another tractor paint job. This year I even sprayed it. (The guy that thinks everyone can paint should get to know me, I can run any paint on the market.) Truck looks pretty good from 10 feet away and attracts a lot of attension. That paint is only there to protect the body, being all 1 color is an extra.

The whole point of this is simply, some cars & trucks may not be worth dropping 5K in a paint job, but doing anything is better then letting it rot. That is why there are so many levels of paint quality. The problem is with expectation, a guy that wants a cheap paint job shouldn't expect a great paint job that is going to last forever. To a guy that makes $20K a year, a $5K paint is expensive but in reality its not. Tell a guy making $10/hour that its going to take 100 hours to paint his car and his mind thats $10 x 100 hrs and comes up with $1,000 labor and thinks a couple hundred will cover materials, a gal of tractor paint is $24, so the "good stuff" may cost a little more, the other stuff you need can't possibly add up to much more then a couple hundred. He can not comprehend where you came up with $5,000! He also expects you to have his car done in 3 weeks. 100 hours divided by 40 hours/week = 2 1/2 weeks, not the 6 months your telling him. We all hear about the guys that get ripped off by bad body shop guys and your numbers, in his mind, don't look good. On top of that, your telling him his car is in a lot worst shape then it appears to him. "Hidden flaws" only mean a way for you to add to the already high estamate. He is mad, and you don't understand why, you thought you gave him a great price (and probably did.)

Don't blast me for putting tractor paint on my 5K truck, and I won't blast you for your $100,000 paint job on your 3 mil car. Neither of us is going to understand where the other guy is coming from, and neither of us would be comfortable in the other guys car. Gene

 

This thread makes me think I can never afford even a decent paint job..

 

Unless you are from around these parts. Most guys will paint your car for a decent job for about 2000 bucks. And that's decent in the lowest terms. You drive half hour from where I live and go to Farmer Brothers paintshop and they will charge 10-12 grand for a good quality paint job. My buddy Dan figures, what the hell, if I can get 10,000 for two full paint jobs on two different vehicles, then right on.

 

That's a pretty rude comment.

 

You can't even cover decent materials for $2k. Let alone labor, overhead, and on and on. If all they are doing is shooting a car for $2k with cheap paint, rock on. What are they doing for prep and bodywork? There is a huge difference in stripping a car, doing metal work, bodywork, aligning panels, sealing priming, block sanding, guide coat, block sanding, painting, color sanding, painting, clear coat, cutting and buffing. IF you don't think so then you have quite a bit to learn about a "decent" paint job.

And just FYI, $10k is not what I would call a "show quality" paint job if it's including stripping a car, doing metal work, bodywork, aligning panels, sealing priming, block sanding, guide coat, block sanding, painting, color sanding, painting, clear coat, cutting and buffing.

 

I agree. Besides- nobody cleared over the whole car after flames back in the day. It was all lacquer & there definately was an edge. That's traditional & was done this way on purpose! They are traditional style flames by the master. I wanted it to look like flamed done back in the day.

Besides, if I had my choice of some no-name flame job buried under clear or Dennis Ricklefs flames w/ a pinstripe edge- the choice would be a no brainer.

 

No-brainer, indeed. The licks look bitchin'...

 

My 2 cents , if you need a decent driver quality paint job just do the prep work and deliver it to scheib. I've had a couple cars done there and the painters did a decent job, its the *masking* where they really suck.

1 day did a friend's car. A major builder sent him there after doing his chop etc because for them to even roll it in the paint booth he was looking at 5 grand min.

$1600 at 1-day gets you primed, base coat/ clear coat including metallics or pearls, and color sanding and bufffing.

It doesn't take much browsing at smartshoppersinc.com or tcpglobal.com to see that's not a bad price, *IF* you bring them a straightened , prepped car.

I'm just a novice, but it looks to me like hotrods are such a PITA compared to insurance work, if I had a shop I wouldn't touch one for less than 5 or 10 grand. Who needs the aggrivation for less than that.

 

Also, clearing over 1-Shot can be dicey......
1-Shot, when dry, can barely be felt anyway.....if it LOOKS good, what's it matter what it FEELS like?

Absolutely.....there is ALOT of labor involved in "show quality" paint that most people don't realize.

 

its no big deal to clear 1-shot with urethane, as long as ya put some of the clear's hardner in the 1-shot, and let it dry well.
back in the day though, laquer sure wouldnt go over it.
i was paintn flames back in the late 60's, early 70's and still do today.
when a guy wanted a buried set of flames, we striped them in laquer, which was a pita. i had a 74 van (new)in baby blue pearl, with flake flames and you couldnt feel the edge.
that wasnt the norm though, as a rule you just striped the edge, and we still do flames for many customer's street rides that way to save dollars.

i actually still like the look of a well polished laquer job with the striping setting on top, gives it more depth imo.
when doing a big $$ show ride, most do not want to feel the edge.
either way is fine with me



skull

 

Look this is the thing if you are in business you are in it to make money.
Im just trying to pay my bills not get rich, just pay my bills. like said before materials have sky rocketed, shops have insurance, taxes and fees if you have a legal paint booth yearly inspections, maintenance, filters, all kinds of little money grabbers.
Then on your paint job prep do you need to have it taken down to bare metal? if so that takes a lot of time. then count on countless hours of body work, average body guy makes around 15.00 hour the shop has to pay almost double that for an employee, workers comp taxes insurance so on.
Then supplies tape is about $7.00 a roll depending on size, paper, plastic,dust masks, respirators, gloves, thinner, metal wash, wax and grease remover, paper towels not cheap paper towels either one for paint. etch primer for good stuff is around $300.00 a gallon, epoxy primer sealer $300.00 gallon, high build primer $200.00 gallon, sand paper $80.00 a roll just for 80 grit I spend shit loads on paper and if you buy cheap shit it clogs and sucks.
Then paint what color? yes some colors cost more than others, or do you want metallic or pearl just paint for average dupont or ppg can be $500.00 or more a gallon.
Paint costs a lot of money period. most of us who do it for a living are going broke because you make no profit.
A GOOD QUALITY PAINT JOB THAT WILL LAST SHOULD COST ABOUT $15000 OR MORE. SORRY BUT ITS TRUE.

 

It all depends on materials used and time involved. A good body shop is going to really look at it and figure out if it needs just final blocking or needs more body work than that. The car needs to be completely straight that takes a lot more time than most people think. Paint is expensive. The PPG line is the best. But youre looking at $2000 just in materials. A decent paintjob that looks like glass when its done is going to cost you between $10,000 and $20,000 dollars. It all depends on where you are in the country and what the labor rates are.

 

10,000 that is why primer is so nice.

 

my dad's '56 chebby got done at a local shop,took him over 2 years!,but with new rockers and some rust repair,2-tone paint,and he pulled the glass,blasted and painted under the hood,trunk...$3k...

 

there are a few different urethanes out there that can be striped over and every striper ive seen caries both.

 

not really, get over it.