Hot Rods The damb painter won't paint

Hell no-
But- there's not ever $10,000 of cost or value added by the paint gun.
Once the car is in the booth & the paint is mixed & in the gun - it's over really really quick.
There's very very very little work done in that paint booth with that paint gun.
Realistically it's just usually 2-5% of the labor hours.

It's the other 95-98% of the work and labor hours that get the costs up there.

 

I like nice shiny paint on cars, but ...
I've been reading this thread since it started, and ...
I'm beginning to really appreciate ... "patina"!

 

ding ding ding winner winner chicken dinner

AS
31VICKY WITH A HEMI says
and i say --->He is oh so CORRECT


Hell no-
But- there's not ever $10,000 of cost or value added by the paint gun.
Once the car is in the booth & the paint is mixed & in the gun - it's over really really quick.
There's very very very little work done in that paint booth with that paint gun.
Realistically it's just usually 2-5% of the labor hours.

It's the other 95-98% of the work and labor hours that get the costs up there.

 

That block sanding ('long board') and door gaposis RX get real old real quick.

I built and flew nice Control Line airplanes for years, would sand and sand...then apply Sanding Sealer, and sand some more. (my bud Mike Shannon nicknamed me "Sansamore", some 'new guys' thought that was my name!) I got pretty close again last year, a 52" wingspan P51 Mustang. (it's STILL in primer!)

I did the paint strip act on my Deuce, (Omigod, I was crazy! Flyer (of San Jose) had painted the car maroon, but it had to be red...) so I stripped, then prepped, primed, and painted it. 32 coats of red Nitro. Took 7 months, just a Hiboy, no fenders...
That was when I was 17, haven't done one since!
There were two Model A's, both synthetic enamel. Easier. Just 'drivers'...
Primered my '55 F100...6 times since 1975. Needs it again...

 

35 years ago I could do a full paneled layer candy with murals custom Custom Van and not break a $ 1.000.00 bill and take the rest of the month off. we are not comparing apples and apples here.
I was also working on cars 35 years newer and the term laser straight had not been in vented yet! Don't mean to insult or degrade, just saying, different time, different place ,different expectations. people say driver but seem to mean show quality. A lot has changed in 35 years. Larry

 

Totally agree. The point I was trying to make is that after 35 years, the AE still looks very nice and is quite acceptable for a driver.

 

I understand . one of my wifes favorite summer drivers is a little powder blue off topic 66 mustang coupe with what was an award winning acrylic enamel paint job 30 years ago and I do not think that any of the customers I had in say the last20 would not think it is a nice ride ,they would not accept it now at the standards the hobby has established in the last 20 years or so! Kind of sad really , but we did it to ourselves in the name of COMPETION !! And I am just as bad . I keep telling her I should redo it after all these years and she says leave it alone , she likes it just the way it is. She has a 66 convertible as well that I did to more current standards and is always afraid of scratching it lol Larry

 

Ain't that the truth !!!
"Driver" is a very opinionated qualification term that's anchored solidly in the middle of no meaning at all. I think it's some kind of "politically correct" ******** word so people aren't offended.

In my opinion mainstream OEM quality is "driver" quality. It's generally a uniformly and consistently flawed finish where no area is perfect but there are no none zero areas that stick out as flawed or different. BIG Reflection bobbles are unacceptable, sand scratches are unacceptable, moldings that OBVIOUSLY don't fit are unacceptable. You don't get perfect fit and finish or gaps, jambs should be not OBVIOUS, ,,,,, just like you'd see on any regural run of the mill dealers showroom floor.

A friend finally got his long term project truck out of "body shop jail". You could not place a sheet of note book paper on the truck without it hitting at least 2 flaws or defects yet you could look thru a roll of masking tape, place it all over the thing and find perfection within those 4" circles. He said he told them "driver" quality but he's not thrilled and expected nicer. The body shop said they delivered "driver" quality. To me that's a "dump truck" quality job.

Here's my personal quality hierarchy on level of finish

Riddler
Show
Luxury OEM
Mainstream OEM = driver quality
Fleet
Suede
Work truck/trailer
Dump truck
Garbage can
Who gives a ****

 

^agree
another perfect ****ogy
-n- the hits keep on comming

 

I'm looking at that list and trying to determine which of the bottom 4 my car belongs in......

What I find amazing is how many people are quite happy with a daily driver that has shiny paint and waves at you as they drive by, but expect a "driver quality" to win trophies at car shows with their old car.
I repair rust at my shop by welding in patches. I don't do filler work, and I don't paint. There used to be a few places in our town where I could send people to get the body and paint done when I'm done doing my thing, but that appears to be a thing of the past these days.

A lot of people want metal welded in where they have rust on their cars, but most don't want to pay to have it done. I've been doing this for 24 years, I have a pretty good idea how long its going to take to do most jobs, (I'm very good at giving time estimates) but a lot of people don't believe it will take as long as it does.
I run a one man, one work stall shop. The material gets paid for before its ordered. When the material is on my shop floor, the job comes in, I work on it, I get paid for the labor, and the job leaves. I don't have the space to leave something sit. I don't want to get paid for the job before I begin, and I expect to be paid and the job to leave when I'm done, so the next job can come in.

My customers know how much its going to cost them before the job comes in, and they know about any potential problem spots. I always address the potential problem spots first. If adjustments need to be made, they know it up front, and agree with the changes, or they come and get their stuff out. I've had unhappy customers, but very few mad customers. Gene

 

I wouldn't waist another minute, and grab my ride out of his shop... ASAP!


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Is it me, or are others trying to figure out why this thread was about paint when the pics the OP posted show a car not anywhere near the paint stage. Maybe it's the angle of the pics, but for example, that rear area between the ribs going up looks like it was beat with a rubber mallet.
I'm in the same boat of learning to do it all because I can't afford to have stuff done. And I'm not saying it's because I think it's overpriced...it isn't. When you learn to do it yourself and try to do it right, amoungst all the other stuff you learn is why it is so expensive and why unexpected things will pop up. My "driver quality" is on my avatar, and it's not driver quality because I didn't try for better, but it was my first.

 

I friend of mine took his '55 Chevy to "One Day Paint and Body". He had done all the prep work and removed all the bright work. He bought his own paint and had the car two-toned making sure there was enough paint for several coats. He also told them to color sand and buff the car. The total cost was around $3K. The car sits outside under a car cover and it's been holding up quite well. It's been 15 years now and still looks great. I could believe that "One Day" painted the car. He said the best time is Winter when they are slow. All those guys do is paint cars. There downfall is the cheap paint. Bring your own and you get a good quality paint job cheap.

 

That was my initial thought when first seeing his pictures. We don't know what condition he dropped off at "the painter" but if it looks like his initial pics it wasn't paint ready. Also don't know what the deal was between the painter and the owner. If you only want a paint job than send me a totally blocked out body ready for paint. If you want me to finish your body work than it's no longer just a "paint job"

 

Ok, so 15 years ago -2001


The was "Actually" ready to roll into the final prep area in front of the booth.
$ 3000 cost covered NO PAINT but the booth and shop expenses, tape, paper, solvent, plus wet sand paper, compound and throw in 2 fresh buffing wheels. Call that $ 500 if they baked it. $ 2500 labor to refinish. 10 hrs for 2 tone and 20 hrs to cut and buff.
No bodywork, no bolts, no clips just shoot paint. Remember the "squirt paint part" of the job is just 2-5% of the work involved.


Today, take that $4,050. Add the paint material costs at today's prices (average $3,000 and average means that exactly 1/2 were less and exactly 1/2 were more) your looking at $7,000 paint job & that's meaning a paint job with NOTHING else. That's SOOO rare. If you brought a brand spanking new car in for just a color change there's more work than that.

Maybe, if your uncles brothers law works for the paint manufacture you get some of the stuff cheaper. Maybe

 

I'd give the OP a break on this line of thinking...Most people would ***ume "body and paint". I mean, when I decided to "paint" my own car, I knew that I would be doing plenty of bodywork before I actually sprayed the color...but I didn't describe what I was doing to friends and family as "body and paint", I just said I was painting my car. I realize that in a collision shop, there are the guys that do "body work" / panel replacements, and then there's the "painter"...but in this context, I'm guessing when the OP says painter, he means the guy that's (supposed to be) taking his car from it's current state, to a finished with shiny paint state...

 

I thought "Suede" and "Who gives a ****" were synonyms?

 

In my experience the body work part is pure ******** and I hate it, but when I get done spraying, I am happy that I went through the ********. Its tough to beat the looks of a fresh painted car. I say learn it and do it yourself, you'll be happier in the end.
Tony

 

Thank you for your helping of common sense, very much appreciated.

 

I thought Riddler was spelled Ridler.

 

I was going for OEM / Driver...by the time I got through the bodywork stage, I settled on dump truck. It happens...but then again, I didn't have to pay anyone $50+ an hour to disappoint me.

 

When you get the MB book out they list the car in 3 zones , zone 3 is the lower part of your car. In each zone they list the # of dust nibs that are acceptable. They also warn some corrective matters make the problem worse. Also to view the paint in natural sun light, because different light sources change the color of the repaired area. I have used this guide but strived to do my best.

 

Damn auto correct

 

A good suede paint job is just as much work as a regular paint job and is probably even harder to do well as you have one shot to get the paint perfectly with no ability to sand and buff out any mistakes.

 

My father called me a few years ago saying that he bought a car like the first new car he owned but was painted the wrong colors and need a recomendation on a painter. I told him to learn to love the colors that were on the car as it was.

 

31 Vicky with a hemi makes many good points. A decent paint job with minor body work is going to be pricey. We have had 7 40's a 62 vette and my black 57 Fuely done in the last few years. We do all dis***embly/***embly etc. The prices have ranged from $10K to $16k. Timelines are usually met-the longest taking 1 yr when agreement was 6 months. I know going in that it is going to cost at least $12K for a 40 and sometimes more and proceed accordingly. It is hard to find someone who does older cars-they are into insurance work. There is a very good shop near by but he will not work on any old stuff-does not even want it at his shop. Sometimes I can get him to paint a fender or hood but must take it off and take it there-the owner then does it himself after hours.

Just helped a fellow with a 40 that was just painted. The panels did not match at all-obviously different shades. This was base/color/clear paint job. The car was ***embled etc. We took it apart enough so it could be reshot and it required some metal work on door edges etc. It had been in paint jail for a while prior. A local shop here reshot all but the front clip and color sanded and buffed for $8000 and got it back in 2 weeks-we then put the gl***, trim and uph back. Turned out very nice but the owner thought it was way too much money-told him it was very reasonable for the work done in my opinion.

 

Seems the majority hates the body work, priming, blocking etc. I am different I guess. I love that part and have for many years. I actually love the making it straight part and time p***es unnoticed to me. I love the look of a near as possible perfect fresh and straight paint job . My problem is that everyone I know thinks I should love doing it on their cars. I have never figured out how to do this for as much money as I make other places so I just do my own for personal enjoyment and count the hours as financial losses for my own satisfaction.

 

body work yuck, and the dreaded WET sanding ick...
sitting on a 5gallon bucket with W/D paper wrapped around a flat 3m block
of different sizes hard -n- soft ones, sponges to drip the water (or a turned down garden hose (with the end appropriately cut off , so you don't s****e your hard work)
tennies (shoes) soaked for (sometimes)
up to 6 months
YA makes the BODY work oh so important...! or LOVABLE,
yes we do it, and we do it all, out of THE PRIDE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT.