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Why is painting so expensive?

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bugedd

bugedd

Jedi Knight
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So in a couple weeks I am picking up the replacement tub for my car, as mine is trashed. Today I started doing some asking around about painting the car. Now, I explained I am having the car abrasive blasted inside and out, sealed in epoxy primer, and the car will be completely disassembled. I also explained that I don't want a show paint job, as it will be a driver. I want a good looking car.
My quotes.....$8k-10K.
Really? Where is the $2k-3k paint jobs?
And tell me your opinions on this color, Mercedes Caspian Blue. Scroll half way down....
https://www.mbworld.org/forums/slk55-r171/158196-slk55-color-combos-survey-picture-thread.html
 
If the car is stripped and ready for paint, the paint and related supplys are about $500.
It takes about 2 hours to paint a Sprite inside, under the bonnet, and outside if you give it 4 to 6 coats. (single stage)
Find a local old timer or somebody who can paint a car I bet he will do it for a couple hundred bucks.
A shop has to deal with all the environmental issues and they do but they also past the buck onto the consumer.
The kid in the shop who does the paint job is going to make $30 for painting your car. The paint and sundries cost $500 and the paint booth time costs money too.
Ask around. A 10,000 dollar paint job on a car that is worth $10,000 doesn't make much sense.
 
If you shop around you will get a wide range of prices. Just don't expect a good estimate with too many unknowns for a body shop to be held to. Speaking from experience, if someone told me they were going to bring me a car body primed and ready to paint, I would not expect it to be ready. Ready to paint to one guy is no where near ready to paint to another. After a body is stripped, blasted and epoxy primed, the work has only just begun. Making it smooth takes hours. These cars have a lot of exposed surfaces that get painted and to look good, it takes a lot of work. 90% of the job is labor. 100 hours goes by fast when you are filling, priming, blocking and repeating the process over and over. Just the underside of the bonnet alone can take many hours. Any good body man is only going to do good work, because you are judged by your worst job not your best.

I recommend learning to do it yourself and then pay someone to spray it. The painter will do that if he can look over your work and feel good about it. A lot of guys who paint for big shops do part time work on the side.
 
When I was just finishing up my C*bra replica I couldn't even find a shop to paint my car. All they were interested it were insurance work. I ended up painting it myself. As spritenut said it can be done for cheap if you are willing to learn. Although I do paint a car every year or two I am far from "experienced" but even painting OUTDOORS the results were very acceptable and cost was around $500 in 2002 dollars. Last year around this time I painted my '62 Vette , not perfect but good, another $500 success. Try it. Bob
 
I had about 100 hours of work done one a car that came into the shop blasted, in pieces, still cost me half of what you are talking about - I know that good paint can be costly but that sounds a lot like a "go away" price to me. Check with local clubs - this is one time that word of mouth is absolutely the way to go.
 
Please do the work yourself, unless you are a perfectionist. Paint it drive it enjoy it. Life is that simple
 
I am a perfectionist, but to a point. I am thinking of taking a auto body/paint class at a local community college this fall to see what I can learn and how good I can get.
 
I might have an option for you here in Modesto. I know a long hall. My brother is using a shop to paint his 1950 GMC PU. I will get pictures for you and $ when it is done in about a week. His pickup was about at the same stage when he sent it in for paint.

Paul
 
Modesto really isn't that far, considering I'm having the blasting/sealing done in Lockeford.
 
I've checked out craigslist for painters before and found some very good talent. Some are paint pro's just moonlighting for extra cash. Many have references and photos. If you're not interested in a concourse finish and dropping thousands, this might be an option. I'm sure there's some risk involved, but check the references thoroughly.
 
My B/E is in Escalon, just down the road in a garage at my office. It might also be worth getting a quote at Esclon Body and Frame on Main street. Who is blasting your car?
Paul
 
Its all the preparation that takes the time. Still, they want way too much to paint such a small car. I had $600 in mine including the compressor from harbor freight and the gun. I bought fancy paint and if I had to do it again would get a solid color and not metallic. Solid color base coat goes on like primer and dries quickly and its hard to get a run. The clear goes on more like the old enamel and you can get a run but you can remove a run with the right sandpaper as if it was never there.
The thing is that if you mess up on the basecoat, you can take it down and do it again a few times and still not come near the cost of a paint shop. It depends on what you want. If you want perfect and have the money, you still can't beat the look of a professional lacquer paint job. The EPA hates lacquer and so it costs. Even the paint price is outrageous now.
 
When spraying Metallic paint I use a old stlyle spray can with an agitator powered by air built in to paint can to keep metallic mixed in paint. Also I fan the paint like I am spraying for bugs to keep from leaving lines. Don't know if you can get a visual on that but it works.
 
Paint and material is expensive, yep. But the labor in the prep and finish is where the real money is.
 
From someone that has done this for a living, It is very time consuming, and customers expect perfection. It was just to much stress for me so I got out of it. For some reason people would come to pick up there car looking for something to pick, and if they couldn't find something they had had a friend that could a week later.
It was like a game to them. Let me see what I can find wrong with this paint job

THIS IS WHY PAINT SHOPS CHARGE SO MUCH

I worked for a fellow who was fantastic, but people would still nick pic his work
 
mightymidget said:
From someone that has done this for a living, It is very time consuming, and customers expect perfection. It was just to much stress for me so I got out of it. For some reason people would come to pick up there car looking for something to pick, and if they couldn't find something they had had a friend that could a week later.
It was like a game to them. Let me see what I can find wrong with this paint job

THIS IS WHY PAINT SHOPS CHARGE SO MUCH

I worked for a fellow who was fantastic, but people would still nick pic his work
Click to expand...
Yeah, people are awful. Especially when they say they want a decent paint job and are not looking for perfection. Time to run from that one. Send them to MAKO. They actually got some good painters because they do it so much, but you do your own prep and you get what you prepared. That is exactly how it should be. Lots of people say they need a car painted when for the most part they are full of it and need a body man. I have painted several cars and only a couple for other people and that was for people who I knew were going to drive those cars. I have no use for a trophy car myself and so would never consider trying to paint one. I intend on driving mine and know I will get the occasional scratch or chip and so what is an imperfection on something like that?
 
mightymidget said:
When spraying Metallic paint I use a old stlyle spray can with an agitator powered by air built in to paint can to keep metallic mixed in paint. Also I fan the paint like I am spraying for bugs to keep from leaving lines. Don't know if you can get a visual on that but it works.
Click to expand...
Ah, the zebra stripes. With the metallic base coat, I go over with my bigger gun, then hit it with bright light from every angle and hit any stripes(there is always some that you can't see from the angle you see when spaying)and go over any of those with the air brush one until I am satisfied, then another coat with the big gun from farther back to hopefully blend anything I missed. That has worked so far on two cars. Then that truck back into my midget in Canton and I had to try and fix that. I did ok with getting the base to match, but when I cleared it off that part has a slightly greener tint to the clear. Most people don't notice but I see it every time the car is in the sun.
 
Did the body shop that gave the estimate actually see the car? If not, they could have been giving you the "go away" price for a job they didn't want to take. If they saw the car, is the car ready to shoot, or does it require dent/rust repair, filling, priming, blocking, etc? As has been said above, this takes time and is expensive. Also, painting regs in California are strict and the cost of compliance gets passed onto the customer. Some paints can also be more expensive and some colors may require more than just a basecoat/clearcoat. BTW, I really like that Caspian Blue color.

The cheapest way to get a good paint job is probably what I did with my Healey, sign up for a vocational school auto body course. A lot of paint prep isn't specialized work. It's boring manual labor that most people can pick up after they've been shown the right way to do it. (I'm not saying paint and body guys have no talent, a lot of them are true artists. It's just that there's a lot of grunt work that gets farmed out to helpers) In most classes, there'll be in instructor to guide you along or some of the other "students" are already pretty good and can help you out. The classes I've taken weren't really formal classes, they've been basically a do-it-yourself deal where you get a place to work on your car and access to all the bodywork tools. You may have to seek out the instructor and ask him for some guidance if you're a novice. Depending on your confidence level,you can try shooting the final paint yourself. I was concerned about tiger striping my Healey Blue metallic paint, so I farmed out the topcoats to a local painter who did it on the cheap.
 
JPSmit said:
that sounds a lot like a "go away" price to me.
Click to expand...

I never have understood that. I'd give them a a three year wait time. I'd rather be known as busy than pricey.


I've always just told folks I didn't want to do it for whatever reason.
 
My car is due back from the local high schools auto body shop. I had them fix some minor metal work and paint it. They will be charging me the cost of materials they use (i bought the paint). I don't expect it will be very expensive at all. This may be an option in your area- check with the local high school. I dropped mine off about Christmas time and hope to get it back anytime now. The way i look at it is i also gained free heated storage for the winter.


m
 
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