How much to paint a 32 highboy?

Put up or shut the **** up.....

 

Paint that ***** yourself ................and put the 20 grand in a old dragster or ?

 

Fibergl*** doesn't fall out or the box straight, smooth, and completely true, ready for finish build up spot putty and primer. This is where the large labor dollars come in.
Old steel is even worse.
I have $1000 in materials using connections buying fillers, primer, and paint for something I bought for $175, and he's doing a fine job fixing my amatuer body work skills. The car eats bondo and primer, LABOR.
The guys that are calling out higher labor prices or looking at reality about buying consumables---papers, bondo, primer, before the the body is ready for final primer sanding to decent paint.
I'm not the body guy or the bidder, just an observer having a good lesson applied to my wallet.
Get'm!

 

Materials...

tape
paper
mixing cups
epoxy
primer
catalyst
reducers
cleaner
paint
clear
sandpaper
rags
filler
and I'm sure I'm missing something.

It'll add up real quick. And to way more than $300.

Labor Hours...
Generally a full paint job including stripping, sealing, bodywork, paint, etc. will go over 100 man hours easy.

Tools...
aren't free...

Overhead...
rent, utilities, insurance, equipment...

Bring me a rust free car that needs no major bodywork and this adds up to $5k for a driver paintjob real quick. And that's using Omni. Decide you want metallic, pearl, HOK, Vibrance, whatever and it starts going up from there. White or Black is gonna cost you more. Black every imperfection shows. White the panel fit and gaps have to be perfect. Body work, metal work, panel fitment, gl*** work, it all adds up real quick.

I regularly charge less than the actual hours. IF you think this is a scam and I'm getting rich off of this you're delusional. If you think you can do this quality (even the driver stuff) for $300, put it up... I'd like to see it.

This is a $5k driver job....

 

$300 won't buy Montana primer and the sandpaper, let alone labor, and the rest.
Thank you zman for some more info on my build.

 

Well, Mike that hit a nerve. Your 4th post and tick, tick BOOM. I look at it this way, if you have the time and interest, roll up your sleeves and get to it. Your first attempts will take a lot more time and effort than you would dream possible. The results will be less than top notch professional work. The first results will be similar to your first attempts at welding, engineering and your mechanical work. You will have failures, people will point out your short comings. Idiots will taunt your efforts. You will lose time and money. Do what you want to do.

 

I am glad that there are people out there willing to pay for high quality paint jobs on their hotrod/streetrods. If it wasnt for the gold chain crowd I wouldnt be able to work for myself building cars and supporting my habit of owning traditional hotrods. On most of our builds using PPG and HoK we will usually end up spending around $3000.00 in material costs alone,especially on fibergl*** cars. Here is an example of A $11,000.00 job on a fibergl*** 32 roadster that we did and keep in mind that every weld on the frame was ground down and finished smooth and so was the bottom of the roadster. This customer is a 4 time repeat customer and we are currently working on his 32 Ford Vicky.

 

Zman, can I order one of those 5k Jobs, looks great to me, the commute is just a little rough from NY ! I have spent more than 300.00 in rattle cans !

 

Acouple of things to remember, every part is going to have to get primed and blocked at least twice . The hood has two sides, inside and out . The body has to be painted on the bottom as well as the top. A deck lid has two sides. Painting a ch***is is very time consumming , a coupleof coats of primer,then sand forabout 12 hrs. then do it again one more timethe whole process. Now your ready to apply some paint , probably single stage I'm guessing since your trying to save $$. Three laps around the ch***is with color and hey, you've got the frame painted. But wait, hold on , you think maybe it has a little to much orange peel ? OK then spend the next 6-8 hrs color sanding and buffing to get it "nice ". Congrats , you've got the frame done !! Now all you have left is everything else,,see how easy that was. One more thing , don't forget you still have to paint the engine , trans driveshaft rearend,steering box ,grille shell,and probably a few misc. parts that I've missed . Take all that work and and I'm guessing about 200+ hrs X hr $$$ and you have a rough estimate of your costs. Good ,fast cheap ,,pick one,because you can't have them all . Good luck

 

we did a gl*** 5 window new body (russ no more brand) i think, and the grille shell and a rootleib steel three pc hood ... the body took a ton of work to make it flat on the roof and straight everywhere the jambs were ****ty and un even and after all of that it went black, the price was 9700 dollars and it was on a roll around brand new when delivered and i didnt make anything over usual grief and a bit of profit... believe me if i had scuffed it and painted it , it would certainly be bad... and a shop cant do that and stay in business, it has to be right or let the know it alls and part timers do it for less....

 

i agree!!i have painted acouple of cars and have never had more than $400.in materials.that was high because i spent $160 on primer.i just flaked my car for $75.00.i used some old clear that i had and a friend gave me his old clear.i did buy new actavator and reducer!!!!and for the people who say they would pick apart your paint job tell them that they can **** it!!!there isnt a paint job you cant find something wrong with!also when i do bodywork i always let it sit for a couple weeks to shrink up then paint.i have seen so many "bodyshops"sand prime fill and paint in one day.look at there work a month later and look at the sanding marks from shrinkadge.ps.if you want a $15000.00 paintjob make sure it has a hemi in it and has new tires on the car when you pick up your new hotrod!!!!

 

My buddy Mike does high end show cars for a living here in Parry Sound. When I had him paint my car he asked if I wanted a $3,000.00 or a $12,000.00 paint job. I,ve got 2 kids with bicycles and I,m going to run the **** out of the car I told him. Long story short...it,s scratched and chipped and I,m out $3,000.00. Damn nice paint for 3 grand though!

 

I never quite got this quote, Good and Fast? Fast and Cheap? Good and Cheap? Guess I'd take Good and Cheap. How fast??

 

How much to paint a 32 roadster? Well as Zman etc say, there's lot to it. And when you do it properly in pieces, there are a LOT of pieces. Then there's the outside, the inside, the frame, diff, misc. parts and brackets all of which has to be prepped. And all those smaller pieces and the frame can chew through a lot of material.

Way more involved than masking off a Mustang and giving it a coat!

 

Paint car, time and materials: $1500.00
Preparation for paint: $15,000.00
It's all in the prep.

 

$10,000-$15,000 for a full roadster job, so much involved in frame and body prep plus full rub out & buff. $2,000 in materials easy for a clear over base job. 1200, 1500, 2000, 4000 grit then two days buff out. No matter what state a car turns up in it nearly always needs finishing work.

 

When I had my shop, people would tell me that I'm too high. I'd tell them to go do one, put in all the hard work, do it the right way, if you can, and then come back and tell me I'm too high. If you've never painted a vehicle and put in all the time it takes to do it correct, then maybe you should so you'll know why good shops charge what they do.

On the flip side, I stripe for shops who do paint jobs priced from $2500 to $30,000 and somtimes you wonder why the high end paint job is better than the low end.

Mikey
"does bad things to good cars"
www.mikeyspinstriping.com

 

Yeah 29 Nash,
I'd love to see 1 of them $300 paint jobs also.
Or was that $300 worth of beer and bulls*it

 

Lemme help ya with that......

Good and fast....okay, but it won't be cheap. Fast and cheap? Sure, but it won't be very good You want good and cheap? Hope you're not in a hurry....

Most everybody's baggin' on mister 29Nash.....well, he says he did what he did, and I believe him...BUT...he doesn't do it every day---and he can't(not for long anyway)--that's the sticking point. Some of us do it for a living, so we HAVE TO factor in overhead/materials/etc. THAT is where the cost comes into play. And we haven't addressed the issue of QUALITY or longevity. If his $300 job turns to poop in a year--big deal--he can do it over....if he still owns it. What I gotta contend with(along with zman and others) is when mine turns bad, I have to do it over at MY expense, and MY rep gets dinged. NOBODY, and I repeat NOBODY'S gonna stay in business long in the same place doing marginal work.

To the OP.... man, if you can do a lot of the work yourself, it's rewarding financially and spiritually Go for it.

 

whatever, it's like every other thread you do this **** on, you spout the cheap cheap ****, then someone calls you out and you get all ****ty. There is no badgering, i want you to show us your $300 paint job that even rivals a $5k driver job and account for all materials and expenses. Put up or shut up, oh wait this is your last post on this thread...

What name you gonna come back under next time?

and it goes up again...

 

Lucky for you there's guys a few miles closer!

This is becoming a weekly thing, and I'm laughing like crazy once more.

Zman hit it on the head. $5kish for a decent driver quality job with good materials. OMNI is not good materials. OMNI, though made by PPG, is the watered down version of the good stuff. Put 2 cars next to each other painted by the same painter, one with OMNI and one with PPG Deltron and you will see a difference. Let those 2 cars sit outside for a year and you will see a difference.

The point is anyone can paint any car for any price. There are so many variables involved that one has to be real specific on what they want when asking for a price. $5K for a driver and $10K plus for show paint is about the general concencus. The person standing up saying you spend $1500 in materials and I only spend $300 either doesn't have a clue or just likes to hear themselves talk. I hear it all the time, buy a gallon of Rust-o-leum and lay it down. There's a difference between just doing it and doing it right.

Spend $300 and get a job that may last a year or two looking decent. Spend $5K and get a job that looks good for 6-8 years, or spend more and get a perfect job that lasts longer than you.

 

Well yea a guy can paint a car out in the garage for somewhere 300 in materials and even sand off the mistakes and start over a couple of times. I have no doubt in that as I have done it but one forgets that he often uses a lot of left over supplies and materials. Also even when calculating your time at minimum wage the hours add up.

The first time I painted my 48 I probably had close to two hundred hours in sanding and prepping the body at two, three or more hours at a time for a period of three months. The body was stone stock at that time with no modifications and the sheet metal was in great condition but it still took hundreds of hours that were all done by hand with a long board or sanding block. It also turned out far better than it did the last time when I used power sanding tools.

Personally I'd wag the roadster down to Zman in the raw untouched fibergl*** with only the holes to mount various attachments and taillights in it where I wanted them and see what he says.

Otherwise I'd probably get the sanding block and long board out and go at it myself after getting a copy of a good how to paint your fibergl*** car book and studying it closely. For us amateur body men hand tools such as a rubber sanding block and a long board tend to produce better results than the power tools. The best way to screw up a good body work is a da sander in the wrong hands.

Outside of paying the real pro custom painter real money or doing it yourself there is the option of finding a good local painter who takes on side jobs to actually shoot the car. Often there is a good painter working in one of the local high end dealerships that takes on side jobs for what might be considered a reasonable price. At least around here that is the case.
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ZMan, you left out one big thing in this list... you know, and I know it is a bad word around here, but it is the reason you are in business. PROFIT.

no it is not a bad thing! you are being asked to provide a service. you should be able to mark up your materials, and be able you charge enough to cover your list above and put some in your pocket.

Can it be done cheaper than what has been quoted here? YES

if everybody did it themselves would many of us here have jobs?

we are finishing a car now with a paint job that was over 20 grand (not including the base body work) and it WILL be a driver. (it looks damn good!)

 

It's all about what your idea of quality is. If you will be happy with a $1600 paint job then great. If you are happy with Omni paint, which is the bottom of the PPG line, then thats great too. Thats what makes this the world that it is, no two people are the same, or have the same expectations.

When I get ready to paint my car, I will not buy cheap products. Painting a car is a lot of work, and I don't want to do it again in a few years because I chose cheap ****. As has been said many times, you get what you pay for.

Another way to look at it, is the affordability factor. Not everyone can step up and pay top dollar for products. I guess I would rather see Blitz black on a car because thats all a guy can afford, than to have that same car sitting in a garage not being used because of unaffordable materials.

 

The big problem is clowns like 29nash try and make it seem like professionals that are making a living at this are ripping people off and he starts quoting retarted figures based on working out of a garage using cheap supplies and materials. He throws names like PPG etc to give his **** some credibility and it sounds to someone who doesn't know any better like the OP that a pro shop should be able to do the same thing. He is undervaluing what people do and it pisses them off. He infuriates me with his high horse **** work at***ude when it come to paint and body and I don't even do it but I know how hard these guys work and how costly GOOD quality products are and for guys to come on here and suggest that they are ripping off customers is a joke. And then he tries to get on his moral horse about peoples at***udes thinking he is better when he is slighting people just as bad as anyone else only in a more backhanded way.

 

Actually, I think I do have a clue.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the OP asking how much to paint his gl*** car? He acknowleged that he was aware that alot of blocking was going to have to be done and that he was looking for something that he wouldn't be embarresed or afraid to drive.



Your suggestion was to do the all of the work himself while spending
300-400 on materials.

While I think your on the right track suggesting that he try the bodywork himself, I think your material cost is so low that it's laughable. Especially on a gl*** car.

Also, for you to suggest that persons who paint for a living would be knocking on his door for the chance to paint his car, should he do all of his own body work, is bunk. Painters live or die on reputation and most don't need 300 dollars bad enough to hurt a reputation.

My point about picking apart you paint jobs is no matter what the charge, be it 1,000 or 10,000 dollars, customers still have the same level of expectation. It's a new paint job after all and they will see flaws that shouldn't be there no matter what the cost.

You paint your own cars and can live with whatever flaws you have. That's normal. A paying customer dosen't understand that and as a result, the guy doing it for a living has to take every step possible to eliminate any potential flaws as he is doing the job. That takes time and materials.

Your insinuation that painters are overcharging because you can do a paint job for 300 dollars plus time is a slap in the face to everyone on this board that prides themselves on providing a service for those people who either don't have the time or money to do it themselves. There are numerous professionals on this site and I highly doubt that any agree with your ***essment of what the OP should expect to have to pay for what he wants.

Sometimes a little bit of knowlege can be dangerous, as you have shown.

 

i didnt come here to make new enemies, but i gota agree with the guys who are upset with the comments about guys being ripped off by painters, most of the guys i know give away alot of time on a job, whether its top notch or just ok, and i still say there is no way to get a decent paint job for 300,period.

if the op wants to send his car over to nash's for paint, i'll put up the 300, we can all see how good those 3 hundy jobs look.....after all , thats the advertised price.

 

I probably would, as I won't/don't do collision/insurance work, that's where all the $$$ is...
All I do is CUSTOM paintwork. What I want-when I want and for who I want...
I'm just a small time fellas who LIKES to paint.
Taking a car to a shop is much different. Employees to pay, shop rent, utilities, etc....

And I've done PLENTY of fibergl*** repairing and painting, and it ****s..haha....

 

I've had the same shop do 4 jobs for me and he's doing a 5th. I dam sure not a gold chainer but I want a nice job and will give up something else in my life to get the job I want. I'm 65 years old and don't want to learn how to do the fine job that many shops are capable of doing. My last 4 roadsters all cost between 10 and 15K to have painted and they all brought top money when I sold them. My last truck was painted with Krylon and was in R&C and went to England for a good price where the buyer is very happy. The original question was how much to paint my roadster, the answer is a little like herding cats!

 

I am not doubting anybody's word-whether it's a claim to do a more than p***able job for $400 or 4000. While it's clear that a very good to great paint job can be hundreds of hours of labor, I just want to know where all these folks are that have $10-20 just for painting their car. My buddy and I both have very comfortable incomes and spouses that work, kids out of college and minimal debt-but we aren't comfortable spending that kind of change at a time.