I have a 1973 Mercury comet GT. It needs to be repainted and it also has some rust and dents that need to be taken care of. The rust is minimal but there and I have a few dents in the hood, roof, and door. After those are taken care of I need a paint job. Does anyone have any estimates of what it might cost or what they paid to have their car done that was in similar condition? Thanks.
Pictures would obviously be best.. but assuming no other serious rust issues in the cowl or torque boxes?.. I'd guess somewhere in the 3k range if you just dropped it off at the shop and had them pound out and putty it all up. And if you want topline urethanes in black then add another 2k to that price range. If you dont want much putty.. then add another 3-5k on top of that. Lol Problem with rust is its like wildfire.. the fact that it exists in the first place shows that conditions were present and may have spread. You can easily see and plan to put out the bigger one.. but its really all the smaller hidden ones that suck up manpower far beyond the original estimate. Bodywork and rust repair eats up man hours really quick and until you get it apart there's not much way of knowing how much it will end up costing in the end. 25% job cost cushions are smart to implement right off the bat for cars with rust. A lot of variables involved here. How nice a finished job and more importantly, how long you want it to last, affects final cost. All a balancing act.
Probably cost you more than you paid for the car, the issue with dealing with getting a car repaired and painted is not only the cost but finding someone to do it, many people have ended up with their car in paint jail and after long periods of no work done on it had to go bail it out and sometimes it is in the state of being torn apart and parts missing, so before you worry about cost try and find someone who can do it and ask them. Its a bummer that is has to be that way but more time than not it ends up that way, thats why I ventured into painting besides being a miser . LOL
Primer , paint , clear and labor all add up quick especially if your using quality products , and going through all the work of a paint job it would be crazy to skimp on materials
I see lots of "crazy people" doing it all the time. Hate to say it.. but lots of shops out there use production based product lines. Would be similar to builders quality construction materials.. designed for profitability over quality. Ah, good old greedy capitalism.. gotta love it.
Builder quality, you hit my dad's hot button! He built many high end homes in the days of good lumber and says if he was still in the business he'd only use metal studs.
as Mike said...paint jail. many body shops give you a "starting" price and then when they get into it, it's more than they want to do for that amount. don't fall for the old line..."if I work it in it will be cheaper"...they are talking years... one of mine was in jail for over a year then I went and got it. I drove it there and picked up the pieces on a rollback... having one of these cars painted is a slippery slope. it will take them 3 times as long and cost twice the est.
Friend of mine that had a body shop did mine, had it for a year while they "worked it in" between insurance jobs. But they installed a whole new front end (gotta love Comet fenders for replacement parts LOL) including welding shut the trim holes in the fenders, installed NOS rear quarter panels, fabricated new outer wheel housings, used PPG base/clear and added stripes for a grand total of $3000. The replacement sheet metal probably cost a little over $1000 more at that time, 20 years ago.
My older brother was a production quality car painter and had no end of word of mouth customers. What I know about it would fill a thimble, but at this point in life I know where to ask questions and am not afraid to make mistakes......so I just might cut my teeth on car painting with mine. I have been painting houses for many years, and understand masking and moving fast enough to keep a wet edge. I have mucked up enough scale model paint jobs with incompatible thinners too. I am NOT going to pay someone the "when the shop is mt" price unless I am hard up for some long term dry storage, and the front burner price will be more than I could stand to part with. If I wind up with a corn cob, I will have to just do it again.
I didn't pay anything for the car. The last owner had it in storage for 15 years, racking up $9,000 worth of storage bills. A friend of mine introduced me to him and he said he just wanted someone to take it off of his hands, so I did. I got a GT for free!
Well getting the car for free certainly helps, but yeah some pics would be very helpful. One thing you should do is take a bucket full of water and pour it down the area in front of the windshield with the louvers and then go inside the car and see if any is going on the floor.
