Painting cost

[brent615]

Can someone give me an idea of what it will cost to paint a TR6? I would plan on taking the chrome etc. off and having it as ready to paint as possible. I'm not looking for a show quality finish, just a very nice driver quality finish that will hold up. If you have before and after photos I would love to see them. Thanks!

 

[jerrybny]

A decent paint job would be between 2-4k.

 

[macino62]

my old shop charged $30 an hour for paint time, and $60 for body time (we worked on mercedes, ferrari, porsche, etc). lots of variables depending on paint choices (single stage, base/clear, brands, etc) if you do ALOT of the work (ie: taking it apart and putting it together), you should be able to get away with a decently nice job for 2-4K. (this is meaning there is no rust to contend with, and everything gets painted.

i've seen $15,000 paint jobs (ferrari with standox paint) and i've seen nice jobs for $2,000


Do you have the resources to do the job yourself? In all honesty, it is totally within reason to get a almost perfect paint job in a garage. You can pull this off for under 1K for paint and materials. (I just repainted my '73 Porsche 911S in my garage....to show standards (a +$30,000 car, painted in a garage!)

I've got quite a bit of paint experience, so feel free to PM with questions....

Mike

 

[macino62]

.....and there's a great sense of pride in doing it yourself!

 

[Geo Hahn]

There's always this guy's approach...

How I painted my car for $50, with pics

Many towns have guys (often rural or in the more industrial area of town) who do one car at a time in their garage. Some are Bozos but others are excellent... your local club may know of a few and which type they are. The savings with these guys can be significant though it may take longer and may be subject to his personal problems/lifestyle.

 

[Aldwyn]

I was just quoted 5-6K for a concourse/show winning paint job.

And they have a 8 month waiting list! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[kodanja]

[ QUOTE ]
I was just quoted 5-6K for a concourse/show winning paint job.

And they have a 8 month waiting list! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

sound right on the money! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif

 

[tomshobby]

This topic comes up pretty often here and the question always seems to be how much does it cost. I wonder what the expectations are. The best paint job on the planet or the $50 paint job (gob) that guy threw at his cars. Did you see the close-up of the front of his Charger?

I would prefer someone that really knows what he/she is doing. Then I would look at examples of different levels of his work to see if what I can afford is acceptable to me.

I would then repeat this procedure with at least a couple of others and then decide what to do.

Repainting a car is a lot of work. Repainting one that has been messed up is a gigantic pain!

 

[Aldwyn]

The PO put a $1000 paint job on my TR6... looks nice from a distance. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[kodanja]

mine costed 2k

 

[Geo Hahn]

Here's the tale of the paint on my 59 TR3A. I found a shop that did mostly rental cars but had an owner who liked to take on a project now & then. I was fortunate that he was willing to quote a fixed price ($5,000) for whatever it took to get it right.

https://www.geocities.com/tucson_british_car_register/tr-restoration.html

It took a looooong time (he thought it would be done in 4 to 6 weeks... took 16 months) but it really looked great. Still looks excellent (even up close) 5 years later.

He did all the important stuff himself but used his considerable 'staff' for the grunt work.

There is much more to this than just the dollar figure... with lots of trade-offs between quality, time and money.

Like the saying goes... "Cheap, fast and good... you can have 2 out of 3".

You can have it cheap and fast but it won't be good.
You can have it cheap and good, but it won't be fast.
Or you can have it good and fast but it won't be cheap.

 

[kodanja]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gifYou aint kiddin brother!

mine took 8 months for something he said would be done in 8 weeks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif

but when it was finally done I was very satisfied!

 

[R6MGS]

I've done a black car in the garage an it turned out close to perfect...but be prepared to put alot of timei into it. I am going to do the TR6 in the spring.

 

[kodanja]

If ya have the time and facilities then GO FOR IT!

I usually farm out my painting need to a pro /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif

 

[R6MGS]

I have no time...and an extremely clutter two car garage(with 4 cars in it)...but I move all the cars out for a couple days, wet down the floor to keep dust down and go for it....I use a 50+ year old sprayer(might get a new one this time around) which makes the paint go on pretty nasty...so I like to get a couple good thick coats on it, then wet sand and polish to a mirror finish.

 

[R6MGS]

Heres the after shot.....

 

[R6MGS]

My 58 MGA was painted with the same gun in 1970 by my father, outside! It still has that same paint job, and has won many awards. I remember running out of reducer half way through and mixing the paint with gasoline! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[kodanja]

looks great!