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We just painted 4 new United Pacific fenders for my deuce pickup with Rustoleum XL gloss black rattle can paint. Looks good and was perfect for my daily driver. A friend recently painted his entire 29 Panel Delivery with XL, waited a month, sanded and buffed it. Looks great. He did this after a couple local shops in his area gave him a rough estimate of $15-20K for materials and to shoot, sand & buff his truck.
Done with high end paint. Hell...... done with paint. ( full blown jobs) No complete makeovers - just some easy DIY small stuff in the shop with the music on and a cold beverage to drink. Whatever paint is currently on them I try to make the best of it. What ever buffs - buffs. What ever doesn't - doesn't. Drive em' and go visit friends. Getting older has its give and takes. I give a shit less and take my time enjoying it. I’d give my right arm to find another true survivor with the old faded paint, bump, scrape, and take it home. Every day is a good day fellas.
I'm an amateur painter and did this 5 years ago with Matrix acrylic polyurethane single stage. It covers very well and I am happy with the results.
Unfortunately, these are the times we live in. Some shops and companies are gouging anyone they think is dumb enough to pay what they are asking. While a rattle can paint job will never be the same as a professional paint job, It is doubtful, make that impossible for a professional to expect someone who would be content with an OK paint job applied with rattle cans. If they were trying to take care of the customer they should have figured out what he wanted and what would have made him happy. There are a lot of products that could have been used that would have cost well under that estimate. But, this does prove that good does not have to be budget breaking. Disclaimer: The above comments are not intended to discredit professional painters that have gained their skills through hard work and personal sacrifice. Merely to point out that like everything there are professionals that do their job just to make money and those who make money doing a job that they love doing.
Doing things you love quite often won't pay the bills . I loved doing what I did for a living , I hated composing / presenting & collecting bills , especially when I knew the folks well enough to know my bill was devastating to them financially , I gave lots of " discounts" , that's why I'm broke now !
Most people don't realize what goes into mixing that color that looks so good in the sun that you just have to have it he'll all you need to do is get some red mix in a little black maybe some white your done. Not the case the cost of toners and binders and pearls that make that color pop is nuts and you don't realize how much and how many different color toners go into that mix. If you want cheap paint stick with solids whites and black colors and a value line.
I do have a lot of respect for those pro painters that do custom work and/or top shelf rod finishes. The ones that can blend paint to match perfectly older finishes, even newer versions on cars now. When the cost of a job is broken down, they probably don't make a killing since the cost of materials is so high. Face it, rod type guys like us have to pony up bucks where insurance companies normally get involved with the collision/repair market. Had a fender bender on a later Silverado, my bud collision guy did the work with genuine GM parts, matched the paint, etc. Insurance paid, over 5 grand, and that was with a break my friend gave me. No way could I have paid that on my own---- off to the junkyard and cheapie paint (ha!) plus my wonderful amateur skills. Still probably in the thousands and i'm sure it would have looked mint (wanna buy a bridge?)
How much white would make Kubota orange a lighter shade? Is it like a teaspoon per gallon or larger/smaller amounts of white? Do you need to mix in any other color?
Painters/shops are not in business to search out cheaper materials to make your bill cheaper. They use what they use because they are use to it and if anything goes wrong they have a relationship with the paint company who will back them up. Using a new product that you are not familiar with for a one off paint job (and yes every paint sprays and behaves different) and which you will get zero support for if things goes sideways because you have no relationship with that company is not a good business decision. The other thing people can't seem to wrap their heads around is shops do not want to do complete paint jobs on vehicles that they haven't done all the paint work from bare metal up. They have no idea what they are spraying over and if something goes wrong because whatever they are spraying over was done incorrectly who do you think the customer is going to blame? And a scuff and shoot is NEVER a scuff and shoot regardless of what any customer claims.
I remember when Earl Scheib was $29.99, and they included $10 worth of free metal work! I painted the Caddie (and guitar) in my avatar in the early 90's using ppg single stage urethane. As I recall, two gallons of paint with associated reducer and hardener was around $400-ish.
It may very well be that it's also the customer wanting to save money by not wanting to spend an extra $500 to $1000+ for an "Arrest Me Red" or "Screaming Yellow Zonker" paint job. To paraphrase H. Ford, "You can have your vehicle painted any color you like, as long as it's metallic gray."
I picked up a quart of paint to do a garage door. It was standard automotive paint and cost $65. Way more than I'd like to spend on a garage door, but reasonable for today's prices for paint. I am aware of the price of paint, primer, filler, and other expendables used to paint a vehicle. $15-20K for materials on an estimate better have some very good explanations or how could anyone conclude anything but gouging. At that price, you're not even talking an extra $500 a quart for exotic paint colors. For a full on repaint, body work, and possibly a show quality paint job (see the thread on paint being to nice) the materials might have been reasonably priced. For a job where the customer didn't want a ton of body work and would be happy with rattle can type results, the price is outrageous. Notice the poster didn't say he didn't want to have the shop do all the prep work they required to repaint the car, he didn't want to pay $15K for materials. I know there are a lot of people that paint and do body work so please feel free to justify the 15-20K in paint materials without doing major body work/prep.
You need to read a little more carefully. He didn't say $15-20K on materials. He said materials, spray, colour sand and buff. So a full paint job if the proper prep is done as well. And I can guarantee you no customer is happy with spray can results when they take it to a paint shop regardless of what they say beforehand and no paint shop wants to put that out the door because sure as shit if someone says anything to the car owner about a subpar paint job he will blame the shop not his being cheap. I have been in the industry for 20 years and have been in hundreds of shops in that time and you hear the same story from all of them. Customer said he wanted a basic, cheap paint job then comes back and nit picks every single thing.
The butt pirates at Tesla, charge $1000 extra if you want something other than their boring base colors.
6k for sealer to clear friend of mine posted this. Now add epoxy and primer surfacer Sand paper, tape, masking paper, plastic, surface cleaners, gloves, rags, cup liners, lids, body filler, buffing/polishing supplies……. I’ve seen over 10k worth of liquid on a Detroit contender. We shot 4k on a resto 25+ years ago Crap cost $$$$$$ $$$$$$ spent on paint for a build that costs 6 to even 7 figures is part of the deal. If rustoleum makes ya smile, use it Old crappy paint and rust makes me smile If somewhere between tractor paint and top shelf paint makes ya smile, wear it out. Buy what fits the budget/expectations, follow the instructions and go for it.
When I graduated from autobody school in 1988, a complete pint job material list was about $150. This was single stage enamel, hardener, filler, reducer, sealer and lacquer primer. The materials were not very good by today's standards. You can buy single stage enamel tractor paint, hardener, lacquer primer, sealer and thinner at our local tractor supply for about $275.If you want modern paint that is far superior to this it will cost you $3000-5000. You get what you pay for.
I'm retired and living on SS AND POSTAL PENSION I'm painting my 62 Galaxie Kirker Wimbledon white single stage!
went in a automotive paint store a while back, they had a big shelf with mismatched paint they had screwed up somehow..it was high dollar stuff but maybe only a quart, 1/2 quart, etc. and no labels-just a sample on the lid. It was dirt cheap, like $25 for a quart, etc. So i got to thinking, who said everything must match in color on a rod? can always blame color blind.
Boy Howdy! You hit the nail square on the head there! In a world of full cheap, chiselin' W*lm*rt and Ebay shoppers who expect perfection from a $500 paint job, it's no wonder that a professional paint shop doesn't want to put up with the nit-pickin' and grief. And that's not going to change until the customer re-aligns his priorities and expectations. Or decides to learn how to do the job himself and live with the results.
I thought about that name thing Sharpone but unfortunately the modern Krylon's aren't what they used to be. Don't get the wrong impression I wanted to keep the same look the truck had with the old fenders which were also rattle canned. The Rustoleum lays down good and dries fast. It gave me the look I wanted for my daily driver deuce pickup. The price savings was also a consideration, required no fancy spray equipment and I could do it in my shop. Trust me I've got several high dollar hot rods with custom paint jobs in my down stairs museum (my avatar is one of them) but almost every morning I get the 32 pickup out of the shop for my daily transportation.
Find a few colors that are sorta similar, pour them together. And hope you never need to do any repairs. ---------------------- According to legend, Richard Petty needed to paint his race car. He had White and Dark Blue, but not enough of either. So he combined them, and created Petty Blue.
I think it would be interesting to see a color analysis of a real Petty Blue paint sample. I'd guess that it might have just a touch of violet or some other tint that seems to give it just a little extra "pop".
Repairs on odd paint colors isn't so bad. On this daily deuce pickup I replaced the tailgate and hood sides with new pieces and we have store in Lincoln NE called simply COLORS. I took them the old tailgate I was replacing and a few days later I got a call the paint I needed was loaded in a shake and shoot base coat. They also provided me with this really trick Matt finish catalyzed urethane clear in a shake and shoot can. It had a plunger you smacked which broke a capsule in the can which activated the catalyst, just shake to mix and your ready to go. Pot life if kept in a cool area about 3 days. None of this was cheap but I don't have a paint booth or spray equipment any more. None of the local shops wanted to bother with the job. It was a perfect match and turned out like a pro did the paint.
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