For you own sake buy paint from your local jobber.

I buy from a jobber always, but since I paint a lot of semi-trailers I buy quite a bit of paint so depending on the jobber I go to I can usually get a pretty good deal, way, way, cheaper than list for most any product.

With that said, there is a reason besides the $$ factor why jobbers might sell at "list price" to many walk in customers.

I have been in one of these places more than once when a do it yourself guy spends a LOT of time demanding his money back because the paint is "defective", like "just look at it, the paint is peeling off like crazy", or "that **** fish-eyed everywhere", or look at that fender, it dosen't match the original paint on my 86 Dodge at all, I need my money back".

Sometimes, extra money is due for the PIA factor, that said next time you buy ask for "level 5" pricing and see what reaction you get....

For me, considering the time spent in prep on a car a person wants to look good it is a no brainier to spend some money on good supplies, a quicky paint job, not so much.

There is a difference in budget line paints and the higher priced stuff, often the difference in COVERAGE is huge, not just a little. (when painting an entire trailer, I might use as much as 7 gallons or as little as 4 1/2 gallons depending on the product).

I LIKE the convenience of having a good relationship with my jobbers.

 

From what I hear in the near future you won't have to worry about the cost of paint, with all of the new EPA rules coming out about keeping records for all the thinner you buy, to disposal of your booth filters. We little guys will not be able to even buy at any price. My local Jobber says you will have to be a real shop( paint booth) to be able to purchase any paint at all...Any of you bigger body shop guys know more about this runor?

 

It's getting tougher all the time for hobbists without online for sure.
We had a small jobber here that carried two lines of paint, both sorta off brand, Metalux, which was an ok economical paint and Prospray, a premium paint I really liked using. This store really would cater to hobbists and small, very low volume shops like mine and he would sell for half of what the big jobbers wanted. Recently Metalux pulled their line from him because a "big" jobber wanted it and Prospray pull theirs because he wasn't selling enough volume. Don't really understand that, now there isn't a Prospray jobber in the state, I would think a small volume would be better then no volume. Bottom line is this small store closed up leaving us with the big stores that really care less about you unless your spending big $$$ with them.
I needed some lacquer to repair a car painted in it, a 53 Pontiac painted the original color. Local PPG jobber didn't have a formula and didn't want to try and match the paint (pick something close off a fleet chart) and and wanted $55 a pint. Called TCP, they had the formula, sent me a quart for $55. I think I'll be buying more and more online.

 

Well, you can tell the pros from the bargain shoppers here. Buyer beware. How do some of you think that online suppliers are able to get their prices so low? There's an answer but you'll have to wait for it. PPG has several lines of product. Their tried and true "DITZLER" brand now under the PPG name has withstood the test of time. They also have another line, "Shopline", deigned for your basic corner body shop that can't compete with the bigger shops. The savings are substantial. The trick here is to study and get well aquainted with the science. The most expensive element in refinish material is the UV protection. Bargain paints don't have very much of it and on the general Grand AM or Focus throw-away car UV protection doesn't matter much. It matters on a Lexus or a Mercedes or a Bentley, and it really should matter on your personal project. 48cad has it right, you get more than the paint when you develop a relationship with a professional supplier. The other lack of insight is the hazmat shipping charges. Did you save $15-20 a quart? Maybe, but you have less real material, less chemical content that matters, less technical support when you need it most (like trying for that "perfect" finsh) all for the low low price of, whatever.

On a related subject, I like how the prices of HOK materials are percieved as outrageous. Marketing at it's finest. It's not. It's less expensive than the general major supplies and the support is always just a phone call away unless you actually buy the $35 book. Good paint post 'cad...

 

I don't think you have any idea how complex paint is, or how much R&D goes into paint technologies.

 

A friend of mine just repainted a Buick GN for his son. He told me $1,200.00 in materials! Thats insane. When the time for color comes, I think I'll give Kirker a shot.

 

I've bought from TCP Global with good results. I've also used Summit's paints recently. Pretty good stuff. But again, I'm not building any Riddler contenders! LoL.

 

Put me in the "bargain shopper" category. I'm a weekend hot rodder, not a pro builder that can p*** along the high costs to a customer. The customer is me.

 

A point to ponder. Are you killing your local businesses/ community by purchasing on the net ? Yes its a little cheaper but how much harm does the boarded up building around the corner from your house cause you. I only bring up this point because its one of the causes of the economic problems our communities and municpalities are challenged with. Support your local businesses.

 

ooops

 

While some may think this is a joke or funny , it is this lack of foresight that can lead to ones demise.

 

I cant afford any ppg products here. The prices go up every time you go in to check prices or look at color charts.

 

I'm walking both sides of the fence.

We buy a lot of PPG materials (CARC and white zinc primer)from the local supplier, so I get the same pricing schedule when I buy for my personal **** too. I'm lucky in that aspect and I know it.

For my own projects I like to stick with the PPG-branded product (Global or Deltron). But the people I usually paint for think rattle cans cost too much, so for customer work most times I get stuck using off-brand product from eBay or maybe Western from O'riellys if I'm lucky.

Really, the problem I have with online paint suppliers (like Summit, Beatwood or eBay sellers) is their anybody-can-do-this at***ude about their products. True, anybody can, but not everybody should.

The **** should come with disclaimers like "IF you can read and understand the directions" and "IF you take your time with the prep and practice up a little with the spraygun BEFORE you try to spray the car you can PROBABLY do this and it will look nice as long as you don't look at it too close".

 

If you know someone behind the counter and sometimes you don't have to, just ask them if they have any paint that they goofed on, and sometimes you can get good paint at half price. Unless your mind is set on one exact color. Had a good friend that could get everything at cost because he worked there, plus he had first pick of any paint that the other guys didn't get quite right.

 

I can tell you right now that Kirker products are easy to spray, last for a little while. The black on my 61 Uni is checked and peeling, and will all have to come off soon. It has a good shine, but just doesnt last. I believe the paint is about 5 or 6 years old, and is Kirker Acrylic Enamel. Their urethane paint is a lot better, shines better, etc. If I had gotten to the paint on this uni before it checked, it would have been a lot easier to fix, prob have to soda blast it all off now. WIth paint, in a sense, you do get what you pay for, but I'm not paying 800 gallon for ppg, sw, sikkens, etc. I'll pay 125 for Kirker urethane. JMO.

 

I will support the local paint shop as long as I can afford to, but agree price is high. For me, I need the knowledge. Local shop did tip me off and say that PPG was raising prices for them October 4th. It was a heads up to buy sooner than later for my car.

 

I've had so much trouble getting the color that I want from my local suppliers over the years that I'm paranoid about it. I have NEVER gotten the color that I want even from different suppliers over a 30 year period. Both PPG and Dupont. I had a friend with a body shop try to get some 1956 Ford platinum gray. I had the color code. It wasn't even close. It's soooo frustrating!!!

I ordered a qt of BCCC from Auto Color Library. It was a perfect match to the area under the fender shielded from the sun. I was shocked. I did the firewall and I'm tickled ****less. It's a very subtle color and they got it right.

The last time I bought paint from a local Dupont supplier I picked a nonmetalic green from their fleet paint chip book. I took it back and asked the guy does this paint look like this chip? He added a hell of a lot of black to get it even close to their chip. It's not like it was a shade off.

This will probably be my last paint job but if I do want some more in the future I will buy it from ACL again.

If I want an antique color for anything, I'd get it from ACL.

 

Some of you high and mighty guys got it wrong, i have been painting for the past 35 years and yes their is different lines of paint, quality and whatnot, but when i can get the same paint as the jobber for almost half why the hell should i buy from him? 20 years from buying from them and no real discount, but since i found TCP their Ditzler acrylic enamel is the same as i used to buy 30yrs ago. same coverage and quality as the old days. and don't forget some formulas have more binder than others so coverage is effected that way also. by the way i bought a gallon of this 29.95 paint from the bumper chrome shop and that was the best paint i ever used! flowed great, had a gloss that was as good or better than the 150.00 a gallon paint( at that time was top of the line paint) and the hold out was unbelievable! i used it on a buddys car and he is lazy and if lucky will wash it once or twice a year, and going on 14 years now and it shines like the day i painted it. so long story short not always is it "cheap" paint you get for less $$, but sometimes the greed of the supplier makes it more for the same product. just because someone sells the same product for 500.00 does not mean it is better than the same product at 250.00, just how much the mark up is!

 

The prices i was quoted by PPG in my area werent too bad..I was quoted $121.oo per gallon for a base coat color, its not the top of the line, but than thats fine with me. i dont need to spend 1,400$ on just the coatings
I was told to spend the money on a good clear.

I will be shopping, and i will be putting this all together soon, hopefully be able to get to the point someday soon to have someone pull the trigger.

 

if the local supplier is ****** you on price then he is the one putting himself out of business not the internet. i would think internet paint sales would be for "experienced" painters only.

 

You want to drive it or put it in a museum? This is why so many are spraying rustoleum, or even rattle cans.

Looking at your car, I think the bodywork made the difference, no matter what was sprayed on it. Excellent !!

 

This is just not the "local jobbers". This anywhere. I shake my head and just laugh. I personally hate big stores. I dont like dealing with the staff, I hate dealing with people who dont want to do there job if a computer cant tell them what the do.

Funny thing that Im reading here is that a lot of guys are saying the paint from online is just as good. Hey Ill give you all the benefit of the doubt and say maybe its not the paint but the painter. Maybe you guys are so good you can paint with anything.

There are ***holes in all types of businesses. Shop around local. You will find the price you want. And hell maybe you will find a business you want to do business with. And what are you guys going to do when your morning cup of coffee prices go up? You going to buy that online too?

 

Most jobbers do not want walk in business period. It is a tiny portion of their sales and a huge portion of their head aches. I rep a sundry product line and I am in jobber stores all the time and everytime I am in any of the ones that sell to the public they have some clown at the counter that didn't know what he was doing complaining that something didn't work etc.

They don't give discounts to walk ins becasue they know most will only be buying once or twice a year max and call or come in 10 times for that one purchase.

Jobber stores are not in business to teach people how to paint they are there to sell products to professionals that know how to use them and if they are a decent jobber selling to body shops losing your business to online vendors is going to effect their bottom line very little.

 

As a hobbyist who just painted his first car, I was tempted to by online but really wanted to give a local business a chance first.
I stopped at a couple of PPG jobbers and they seemed bothered by my questions and the prospect of my giving money to them.

My local Sherwin Williams automotive outlet on the other hand was extremely helpful and clearly wanted my business, so I spent my money with them.

If they had been an *** to me too then I would have bought online.

 

Ok howz about I piss all of you off? I'm getting the basecoat custom mixed to my spec for the 61 from PPG. How much? N/C. That's right, no charge. It's a customer loyalty thing. I have to pay for the clear and the reducers but I won't turn down my supplier's offer. This is one of the payoffs of dealing with the same company for your needs. I don't nor have I ever done high volume work. I do tend to do high profile work and since my late Dad and myself have dealt with this place since '63 I don't expect too many others can get this. But I see no reason why you can't get something. There's 2 words for the high cost of paints: PETROLEUM DISTILLATES. How much is gas? How much is diesel? Oh, paint? Yup. It's high too. I have ordered paint from outta town suppliers. I ordered some TCP from ACL just to get the color I wanted and my supplier mixed it to that standard. I've also ordered OEM 30s colors by the qt from Hibernia in the past for the same reason, to get the color. The rest of the look from a color is a bit more involved. Hey tommy, PM me with your color concerns. I'll be glad to share what I know and you can go from there with what you need.

Hey von finkenstien, you know where to find me and if you don't I'll infest your garage with gnats that love paint!!

 

I go to my local paint store to read the magazines for free and get the latest gossip. kinda like Floyds Barber shop in Mayberry. can't get that on the interweb.

 

Are you talking about Smart Shoppers in Louisville, Ky. ?

 

I think that in this case the "local" business often doesn't want to deal with the walk in trade. I'm lucky in that I have three good jobbers within 25 miles of the house that are all good to deal with and one is right on my way to work.

The other issue is as mentioned before. We have the EPA and other en***ies telling the paint stores who they can sell to and what they can sell them in some areas which makes it difficult for the guy working on his own projects in his own garage to get products locally in many cases.

 

I chcked out my local store and the Omni line is about the same price as Summit's stuff. I've never shot either, my point is locals can be compe***ive if you give them a chance.

 

Hey von finkenstien, you know where to find me and if you don't I'll infest your garage with gnats that love paint!![/QUOTE]

Call me Bro..you know where i live
I hate buggin ya at work..but im playing Boss today so when you get a chance ring me if you C this