How much to paint a 32 highboy?

"How long is a piece of string?"

It's all in what you want. I like primer beaters. I've had big dollar paint jobs and was too worried about driving the cars. I've had cheaper jobs but the quality always drove me crazy. Primer beaters are fun for me.

 

Somebody said; I agree. Learn by doing. If you are afraid of hard work, pay somebody else. The most labor/cost/hardest work of any paint job is the body work and the first couple of coats of primer. If you get that far and it looks good, the color goes on just as easy as the primer, just not as forgiving, because if you mess up the primer you can sand and go again. But, by the time most guys have got that far the learning curve has levelled off too.
The prep, through the first coat of primer is a learning experience that I would recomment to most. The hardst hurdle is having the initiative to try it. If, after you've put on the primer and have a lot of turds, might be better to pay somebody to put the color on.
Locations differ, but with all the dirty work and a coat of primer on, Local custom auto painters are in compe***ion and most will shoot the color of your choice for about $300. If it's smooth as a baby's *** with the primer, the color with some practice, goes on just the same.

I do my own. A driver, enough primer/thinner/cleanup/ and a gallon of one step Acrylic Enamel and all the other materials imaginable, throw away breathing protection,etc. less than $300 total. I do all of the body work and primer in the garage, outside on nice days, and then when in the booth I bust the glaze with 400grit on final primer coat. Wipe down and masked by 10am, and by 4pm I'm drinking a beer admiring my work. One time last year I had to re-do hood and a door, so rented the booth a second day, but most jobs, absent my screwups, one day is plenty.
Booth rent $100
Paint/etc, $300

 

This is an interesting thread. We all live in the same world, differently.

 

Paint, etc for $300? Does not sound right to me.

 

DrJ has it right. As the owner of a gl*** roadster, I blocked and blocked until it was straight and perfect, a good friend that owns a body shop painted it and it looked good until it went through the desert to Cali to the LAR. It wasn't so straight by the time I got home. So if you're working with fibergl*** do a decent paint job, but don't spend a ton on it unless you plan keeping it in a box to roll out with the rest of the trailer queens. And don't say it wasn't cured either because the body was over 10 years old when I got it. There is a reason I call gl*** cars "tupperware". Don't get me wrong, I love the car and have driven it over 50K, so the paint job or what its made of isn't what you are thinking of when you are going down the road with a big smile on your face.

 

Oh no..can't be a quality job useing only one case of beer..you cut corners

 

I have a rule, no beer before 10am.

I dug out the invoices. My grandson and I did this truck for him last year all of the supplies totaled $247.87. We used respirators with enough time left on them from a different job, that saved us $60. Had nearly a half gallon of the PPG (OMNI), platinum metal flake left over, so if I wanted to nitpick I'd deduct $55........... This is the one I spoke of earlier where I f'd-up the hood and door, had to rent booth for a second day. Total expended; Many, many hours of body work and sanding, yep gotta 'fess up, more than a case of beer LOL~!, Dollars expended,(not counting suds), $447.87, including booth rent, but now, if the kid ever wants to paint another one he won't need any help, he did the inside of the bed, got good enough that he ended up doing the tailgate.

 

how long does it take to catch a fish?

 

That's laughable at best.

 

How much to paint your car? Id keep going until its all painted, that much would do. Any less just wouldn't look finished.

Doc.

 

QUOTE=29nash;4346919]Locations differ, but with all the dirty work and a coat of primer on, Local custom auto painters are in compe***ion and most will shoot the color of your choice for about $300. If it's smooth as a baby's *** with the primer, the color with some practice, goes on just the same.[/QUOTE]

Oh? What’s laughable about it? If you know……………………??

 

I don't know of a legitimate painter that will do that for $300 anywhere, let alone without having done the bodywork. Shop costs being what they are, overhead, etc. Hell I wouldn't let ya park it out front for $300. Well maybe I'd let ya do that. But any shop worth the time is going to care about their reputation. And not doing the bodywork compromises that. And $300 doesn't cover the time or materials to paint it let alone make a couple bucks.

 

Oh? What’s laughable about it? If you know……………………??[/QUOTE]



most guys charge 300 to rent their booth around here. no body in my neck of the woods will spray custom paint job for 300 bucks.

also your material bill would be cheap for house paint, let alone a car.

the primer i use is 300 per gallon. the clear is 600 per kit (ici, or ppg global)

paint cost varies by color, some of the red pearls are 6-700 per gallon.

a good single stage even in black or white (the cheap colors) will run you over 400 with hardner and reducer.

if you can get your bondo sandpaper and tape for free, you still are gonna be in a paint job alot of coin

my quote of 9500 in my earlier post wasnt just a guess, thats what people are paying here for a decent job as well as the other shops in the area that can do that type of work. some get more, hats off to them, lol

i agree with vintagehotrods, that gl*** cars can be a a ****-shot when painted dark colors. you are at the mercy of the quailty of the materials used in the construction of the body.

i have been surprised by many that did hold up, and disapointed by many that did not. painted a black 65 corvette a few years back, and the guy parks it outside his tire store in the sun all day , everyday. he was back a few weeks ago with a chip in the door, and the car still looked great with no shrinkage or gl*** marks showing. i wouldnt have believed it if i hadnt seen it , and im still not sure i do, lol


skull

 

I visited a local restorer/bodywork/painter yesterday. He has the German line of paint mixing materials and a georgous spray booth. The cost per gallon of color began at $400.
Hopefully you can read up and get the best quality face mask you can afford, and go to town on it. A solid color can be sanded, buffed and polished if you end up needing to. The hardening catalysts permit this I've read, but toxicity is a concern.

 

In this thread you can tell who has and who has not painted a car the correct way before. A good paint job requires hours and hours of prep. Not just body work and sanding but taking everything apart and putting it back together correctly. All the trims, mouldings, weather stripping, windows, window felts and on and on and on need to be taken apart, all this before you can even start the body work. Then metal work, mud work and countless hours of sanding and straightening. Then you can actually get to painting, cutting and buffing and after all that you still have to put it back together correctly and make sure it fits perfectly without damaging anything.

On top of all that labor you still have to buy materials, a car start to finish will be masked and unmasked several times in the process and masking tape is not cheap for good tape, if you use cheap tape sooner or later it will bite you in the ***. Large amounts of sand paper, etching primer, primer, filler, icing, paint and clear. Quality materials are not cheap, after all you get what you pay for.

If anyone ever balks at the price being too high, they should give it a whirl and see just how much goes into a quality paint job. You will either hack the job up or gain plenty of respect for painters, either way you will understand why it costs so much money to get it done correctly.

 

I agree with most here that the only way to find out what it really costs is to start buying the materials yourself. Teach yourself the things you need to know to get it ready to paint by doing a lot of reading and research or having an experianced person show you the way. Then grab that gun like you got a pair and put color to it. That's the only way to learn. When its YOUR money and YOUR time you learn fast.

 

I'm gonna have to call you out too. I just spent $300 on a gallon of Northstar epoxy sealer primer and a roll of 80grit, 3M sandpaper. I've spent countless hours on panel work not to mention cutting, welding, and the like to get the gaps right. Quality is what shows a real paint job, not the price. Here's your change mister.......$.02

 

The actual spraying of the paint is what we at the shop refer to as "the fun part".

The time involved in getting to that point (metal work, primer, more metal work, filler, priming, blocking, priming, blocking, etc...) is the "not fun" part.


For a mere 300 dollars, it's not worth the risk for a real painter to walk into the booth and shoot your car. Too much risk of getting a bad rap for someone elses shoddy bodywork. Professionals live or die off of reputation.

If I were looking to just drop it off somewhere and have it done, I'd be prepared for 10K-15K potentially.

If I were looking to save costs and get some experience in the process, I'd look for a shop that would allow me to come in and help do all of the prep work. That makes the painter a whole lot more comfortable knowing that the shop and you did the prep work.

 

Just for ****s and grins check this out for an example of what real paint costs ; http://www.paintforcars.com/acrylic_enamel_paint.html

Just so the facts don't get strung out. My quote stands. It happened. It happens every day with people that paint for a living. Painting is a skill, but for us that know how, not majic, it takes about a day to put the topcoat on after all the body work and priming is done. Throwing other factors in is okay, except when you cut and paste my remarks and ignore what I really said. PPG OMNI Acrylic Enamel is great paint and for you boys spouting 'durable', etc. if it don't last it's the fault of the guy that put it on, not the paint.

I hear all of you, the professional painters, that make your living at it. You just don't want the public to know they can paint their own car, can buy paint themselves for a hell of a lot less. There are a lot of us that aren't stupid and pay just because you have jacked up the prices. A gallon of paint costs a hundred a gallon, or four hundred, depending on where you buy it. <!-- / message --><!-- sig --> Some paint shops quotes for a gallon include the primer, the thinner, the reducer, the activator, and the topcoat, jacked up three hundred percent for your profit.

All of the body prep is common labor, at minimum labor wages. The skilled labor on the color coat on a paint job is about five or six hours. Any painter that takes longer than that(one single color), is not a painter.

Every "legitimate" paint shop I know hires laborers to do the body work and prep. Paying a laborer a fifty an hour would be stupid.

I know a painter, he's the highest price I know, charges a hundred an hour. So if I took him a car and he did it in a day after I did the prep, that wouold be five, absolute tops, six hundred. Any more than that is blue sky. A lot of good painters demand much less than a hundred an hour.

If you want to call me out, quote the entire post, and point out where you're saying that I'm lying. PPG don't sell **** paint, and just because somebody else charges five times that much don't mean its better paint.

A painter that turns down a job where the body work and prep is done, that won't make a couple, three hundred for a day's work, isn't protecting his reputation, he's protecting his empire...................

 

WTF?

Name one thing that you can't do yourself and save money, including painting your own car.

Do the majority of people here have the experience and skill to get the quality of paint job that they desire by doing themselves? Probably not.

Gallons of real paint cost more than 100.00.

I'd love to see one of your paint jobs. I know that I could pick it apart and point out every flaw. And I'm not a paying customer demanding it to be redone or demanding my money back.

If it were really that inexpensive and easy, you would be doing it for a living. But your not.

 

A quart of paint can cost more than 100 bucks, the color red is a good example.

 

thats one of the differences right there. we dont use minimum wage guys to do the prep. if you do you are asking for problems down the road. every step must be done correctly, or all the following steps are a waste of time.

no arguement that many shops do just that, but they aint gettin 10gs for a paint job.

skull

 

delete

 

You don't have a clue. You are missing the point. I'm retired, only painted three cars last year, for fun. I paint my own because I can. If you read my posts you would know that I never said it was easy.

A gallon of real paint, PPG Black Acrylic Enamel and that metallic platinum I put on my grandson's pickup truck costs a hundred a gallon.

Other brands, not PPG cost half that. Aqua Pearl Metallic; British Racing Green; Bronze metallic; Candy Apple Red, etc. etc. etc. http://www.paintforcars.com/acrylic_enamel_paint.html


You make many of my points. Pick apart my paint? Sure you can. So, what's your point?

I see a lot of VERY HIGH DOLLAR paint jobs that I could equal. If a shop charges high dollar, it should at least do a great job. Lots of customers are getting royally ****ed with the ****ty work they get, after paying THOUSANDS.

 

This is the real world, materials are through the roof, and I bet if you go back and add the price of sand paper, reducer, wash up thinner, roll locs, welding supplies, light bill, paint mask, ect. You would poop your britches.

 

I understand that, it's a sign of the times. In my day, I ran industrial shops, aircraft, automotive, food handling equipment. Some people take some supervision, a thing that's been lost in our society. Nobody in the shops want to do it.

A good body man (then) could supervise five others. It was expected of the more mature employees. Got a lot of time with the company, take on some trainees. One that could not wouldn't have lasted in my shop, twenty/thirty years ago.

The drill for training a body man is easy, with a smart trainee. You go over the drill once. When they **** up, you repeat it, no questions asked. If it takes a third time, I told them, "It's obvious this isn't working out, pick up your timecard."

 

I guess its a good thing I think Rustoleum looks cool. I would have a hard time paying fifteen grand for a whole car let alone a paintjob.

 

There's an unlimited supply of great paint for reasonable prices. Just remember the shops sell their customers hundreds of dollars a gallon don't tell the customer what their REBATES are.............

Just to point out to those that haven't got it through their head that a lot of paint costs less than a half a hundred................... I haven't tried it, I like PPG.

Aqua Pearl Metallic; British Racing Green; Bronze metallic; Candy Apple Red, etc. etc. etc. http://www.paintforcars.com/acrylic_enamel_paint.html

Off Topic; It's the under the table shennagians that piss me off. One customer found out a shop up in the mile high city was charging hundreds a gallon, but was using $50 a gallon Acrylic Enamel and then clearcoat, selling it as a highdollar paint job. Painter was in the hospital, customer went to the slammer for a couple of weeks. Said it was worth it. The paint job? Excellent.
It's **** like that that brings out the negative in me. I know a couple of paint jobs that demanded big bucks this past year, on SR owners that I hang with. Wouldn't hurt their feelings, but it's my bet that one of them that cost over 14k was for 12k pure profit. Looks like buffed-out clear over acrylic to me. .....................
I would only suggest that if you are paying big prices, stop by the shop real regular and take note of the action that is actually happening on your car and compare that to the timesheet............

 

About ten years ago I had a beautifully painted OT Camaro............I was constantly washing/waxing/worried about where it was parked. Never again.

 

i still use that procedure, and i agree with ya there.