$5000 Paint Job????

[BigT]

Down here in Alabama, the body shop was asking $3,000. I'm not sure where you are, but here I was on a list for the local trade school and prison program. I was on the waiting list for about a year before the prison called me. But it only cost $650 in materials. It has some runs here and there, but compared to the rust bucket it was before, it's great now!

[neums]

When I had my '86 painted last fall, it ran $4200. That included some body work to a door and the hood, no rust repair needed though. Also, they filled in an antenna hole on the trunk. They removed all the trim, but I told them to leave it all off after painting because I would install better pieces myself (probably saved some labor cost there). Your car is a two-tone, so maybe you could save if you had it painted one solid color instead. I probably could have saved some money if I put a vinyl stripe on my car instead of having it painted on, but Ford used to deliver the stripes painted on back then so thats why I did it.

[Lincolnmania]

it's not an easy job, i did all the body work to gmgt's vic, it took me two months to get it to the point where i could have a painter come in and apply the finish

[LTDMan83]

It really is alot of work, especially if the panels are rusty/dented/not straight to begin with. Even on a newer perfect bodied car, that doesn't require any bodywork, we won't even touch a full re-paint job for less than $3000. We just recently did a full re-paint on a '05 Corvette that was in immaculate condition for $3200. It can even go as high as $12-15K when the owner wants a top of the line paint job, and needs a little bit of bodywork to boot.

Or, like we tell some people, if you don't like the prices of a real shop, and don't want quality bodywork done, you can always take it to maaco and get their $800 special. You'll get to enjoy the cheap shine that they sprayed over gobs of cheap Bondo, for a couple years before it starts peeling off, to reveal the horrors that they have done to the car underneath that cheap paint.

[gadget73]

I have an 11 year old Maaco job in my driveway. Its not terrible but you can see the poor prep work. I don't think any bodywork was done but the really lousy sanding marks are still visible through the paint. I also have overspray all over the place from poor masking. Both cornering lights had overspray around the edges, the rear quarter windows were slightly hazy too.They also painted over the factory black anodized wheelwell trim. Mind you the paint was 9+ years old when I got the car, and signs of poor work are still there.

[87DeuceVic]

I usually hear about $1000-$2000 for a paintjob. Honestly I would pay much more than that unless your gettin custom airbrushing and such.

[gadget73]

1-2 grand plus materials is what I'd expect for a good paint job with minimal bodywork. Figure the materials are an easy $500 plus for decent stuff.

[GM_Guy]

Anything being done beside paint? If its a typical collision shop, and just shooting paint, the guy doesn't want to touch your car, but he'll price it high enough that if you do end up going to him he makes extra "aggravation" money. Collision shops usually just want fast turn around insurance paying jobs. If its a higher end restoration shop, price will be higher since they tend to take a bit more care on any job they do. Go get some more estimates, as many as you can get as it will paint a good picture of the pricing in your area and it'll help you see who's pricing jobs high to avoid them (if you only get three estimates you might be hitting three insurance shops and getting similar over pricing). Also when your going around, ask them what brand paints they use.

That said, paint & supplies are probably running close to 2000 bucks these days per vehicle. Supply pricing around here was around 1200 bucks a few years ago.

Alex.

[watchdog]

I got my 91 done for 850 but I told him to keep the car as long as he need it. He had the car for three months but it came out great.

Before


During



After



That quote was for paint and minor body work. I removed all the trim before it went to paint so I'm sure that brought the cost down a little.

[torquelover]

Almost worth driving down to Florida and leaving your car there for a winter...

[watchdog]

I can put you in touch with the shop.

[1987cp]

I saw a paint job not that long ago that was said to have cost $30,000. $3,000 of that was said to be materials, the rest I think went to unimaginably careful prep, lots of wetsanding, and obtaining templates for and laying out factory Boss stripes in paint instead of decals.

[over2tonsofFun]

That is actually a decent price depending on prep, paint costs, etc. I have seen paint jobs run 30K or more.

I just wish I had the place to do it I would do all my own work, including paint.

Tim

[1980c10]

If I where to do a paint job to the level that I did my yellow mustang I would charge at least 5k. It was completley taken apart, old paint was completley stripped off and I started from scratch. I had right around 200 hours of prep into that car before the paint go layed down. Just blocking sanding and removing all imperfections. There was no rust on the car, so the 200 hours didn't include any rust repair or anything like that.

I had about $1500 in matrials, it won't be that much for a regular paint job though, the mustang was a 3 stage pearl yellow.

Man I can't believe I ever got rid of that car :-/

[Brown_Muscle]

30K LOL. for that you buy a new car -_-