Help, on this topic I am over my head. Most of the mechanical stuff I have a plan for and I understand my costs and what I need to do. Body work and paint. I have never done it and I suspect this is one thing that I would suck at. I was never a good colorer even as a child. I don't have a lot of money but I want to fix a little rust on the car and have it painted. I would like to just go with a solid color, maybe the original color and later perhaps do the stripes and or repaint. I just want the car looking ok in the spring to drive around. I could save my money for a real paint job but this would most likely be 3 years out. My brother-in-law who does this for a living says a paint job would cost $4,000.00. Actually, I didn't get a chance to talk to him yet my wife did so I am not sure what that entails. My question is how much would painting a car to the same color it is cost? I know this depends, but what are some scenarios? Pro's and Con's. Such as: 1. Cheap paint job - (Say Maaco) 2. Basic Paint job - last maybe 3 years? 3. Quality Paint job - last maybe 10 years? 4. Hi-Quality Paint job - Last my lifetime? 20 years? This is assuming that I had most of the rust fixed but there is 2 small areas (2-4 inchs) in the lower rear quarters that needs to be addressed that I would require a pro to fix. Like I said I am way over my head and I don't even know what I should be looking for so I am hoping someone can give a little advice. AE - Acrylic Enamel AU - Acrylic Urethane AL - Acrylic Lacquer UB - Urethane Basecoat
well actual application of paint is the qwickest and easyest part of the whole process. its the prep work and mateareals that will jack the price up. first you want all rust gone.and depending on your original paint has to do with how much spend too. if its flawless just scuff sand with 80 grit and clean and prime and shoot paint. if its flaking or peeling you will have to strip the car.me im stripping min to bair metal. well thats a verry basic way of doing things.you can dis assemble the panels and level them out before paint too its called blocking.talking with your brother and having the facilatys to paint in is a great thing. just remember the more prep you do under the paint the better the car will look painted.pluss information is key.look it up online or get some books.practice on a junk hood and save some money.
if the pain is a disaster right now and you don't have a lot of money you will be happy with a maaco or earl scheib pain job for the next few years. find a good branch, not all of them are the same which seems to be the consensus. In 2007 I talked to a guy who runs a local chain here called 1-day auto body and pain and for a pretty basic paint job and sanding and some bondo filling (if needed) he quoted me about a 1,000 dollars. Another company that did muscle car restoration in West Los Angeles I got quoted $5,500 for a much higher quality pain job and he said that's assuming minimal rust damage and to factor in another 1-2K if there was major rust damage. My brother in law built a cobra kit and had the fiberglass body sanded and painted (very high quality paint job, unbelievable) for $4,000 but he really shopped around. Now, my brother in law had a 1996 toyota 4Runner that had major panel work that it needed. He took it to a place down in mexico to have all the body work done. Then brought it back up here to California and had it just sprayed with primer and topcoat for I think somewhere under $1,500. He said he paid less than $500 for all the body work in mexico and the car looked very nice. If you broke as a joke then I'd look into renting a booth and maybe $300 of material and try painting it yourself.
The links go to the site where I got my stuff from. I am doing it myself cause I want to see if I can beat the system. I am also wanting to see just how good I can do it compared to the profesionals. Of course they would do this faster but that also comes with a price. I think I saved money so far but we shall see. If it's your daily driver I don't see how it can be done properly as it will see dirt and grease from the roads. Hopefuly it's a project you have time to work on.
Thanks Fella's. I guess 4,000.00 is a good price for a great paint job. I just wasn't expecting that. My pricing expectations seems to be stuck in the 80's. This will definately have to wait. Blugene, I have looked at the site you recommended very much. Thanks. Did you purchase a book on this? Do you think that 1 gallon is enough paint for a Maverick? I have no idea. I do think that I would like to fix some of the easier things. I would like to just fix those and apply primer. Is there a good Aeresol primer that I could use.
Most if not all shops will not give a guarantee with your work. I was told that you don't want to paint your car with can primer underneath.
Listen to your brother-in-law very closely and try to get him to give you some freebie help. I mean after all..what are families for?
Am getting ready to paint my mav and I just spent $400 on the basecoat paint ALONE. That means I still need reducer for the paint, sealer and reducer for before the paint, then the clear with all of its reducers and hardeners. I would imagine once done I will have over a thousand bucks in just materials. So 4k for a paint job isnt to unrealistic.
spent about $1200 on the paint job on my blue '71 from a friend that i used to work for. i helped with the body work and prep, then he sprayed it. paint is Dupont acrylic enamel, full gallon of Grabber Blue and a quart of Wimbledon White for the top. after everything was mixed it come out to about 4 complete coats of blue and 3 coats of white. i dont expect the paint job to last forever but so far after 2 yrs, it's done pretty good but it's perfect.
Mean_Mav - I hope to duplicate something like what you have done. 55crownvic - Yeah, I was looking at total supplies and probably about 1,000.00 but it would be less if my brother in law had some of the materials and tools. rayzorsharp - Yeah, I was hoping for some blugene - Well, we can re-prime if needed. I don't want to leave metal rusting. In anycase my best friend said he would help me if I would just finish my metal building. I have too many projects I think
I typically have close to a grand in materials or over depending on color to do a complete alone. Paint is really expensive these days, and all the little materials like sandpaper, tape, masking paper, filler, primer, solvents. cleaners, welding wire, buffing supplies ect ect ect really add up. The days of a cheap paint job are long gone (a good line of deltron urethane primer, paint and clear for a cougar I did back in tech school came to just under 200 bucks, wish the prices were still there). Add in all the labor time prep and bodywork consumes, along with rust repair, and 4000 actually is a pretty good price or toward the cheap size, if the work is done well and good materials are used. I wouldn't waste time with rattle cans. Its possible to get 2k products in an aerosol, but pricey for the amount of material, would have to be all used up in a pretty short time once used and activated, and would be rough to do a large area with an aerosol. Some options to get a decent job and save some money. Sign up for an autobody course. Sometimes there are affordable night classes available which you would have time to work on your car. Also would have access to the schools equiptment (mine had nicer stuff then any shop I've worked in), and an instructor for questions and hands on help. Have the work done at a trade school. Some work on cars for cost of materials only (mine did). But can be tough to get a car in and could depend on what they are looking for for the students to learn. Also could be hit or miss at the results, depending on who they put on the car. Most of my classmates were pretty good and there to learn, but also a few doofuses. But instructors there to guide the students, and when a job wasn't right at my tech school, they would fix it. It may be possible to find someone who works on the side at a reduced cost, but quality materials are still expensive and the work time consuming. I've seen some nicer jobs come out of garages then some paint booths. Have to watch out for the paint gypsys that are only out to steel peoples money (but some shops do that too), and try to check out or get references on anyone doing the work, which holds true for an individual or a shop. I did a little bodywork, prepped and painted a car for a past customer in trade for an older ford pickup. Now Been trying to trade a little work for a good 302 engine which is now shot in that truck, and having less luck with that. But sure wouldn't do a complete for a engine worth maybe a few hundred bucks. Like mentioned already, many shops don't like to work over someone elses work, and risk there name and reputation, You would have to find a shop that is willing to work with you, and no that there will be no guarentees if you do the prep work. Also can prove difficult to even find a shop that want to take the work, as most stick to doing collison work that brings better money and fills up shop space for less time then work on an older rusty car. Lastly there is maaco and other budget production shops. Possible to get a decent job if you do all the time consuming prep work, and make sure or pay for good materials to be used, and bring there all clean and ready to shoot. One things for sure, at the low cost paint job advertised, the best materials are not used and not enough time is being spent on prep and sanding and they don't have the highest skilled workers in the industry or they would be losing money. I'd say the odds are probably better of getting a bad paint job that doesn't last then a good one at a few hundred bucks. Since they are a franchise, the quality and results may very. The painters probably should be able to paint after some time. Just probably hope yours isn't the 10th vehicle that painter has had to paint that day. As far as quality, urethane would be the most durable. A base clear urethane would probably give the longest life, especially for certain colors like reds that the pigments are prone to fading and metallics. The clearcoat provides protection to the color, and provides more uv protection then a single stage can give. Next in durability and longevity would be an acrylic enamel, but an activator should be used. It will help gloss, durabilty, curing, and repairablity. At the little added cost of an ae activator it would be stupid not to add one, even though its optional. Synthetic enamel would be next, and bottom of the barrel would be lacquer. Its hard to beat the look of a freshly buffed lacquer paint, but durability and longevity is the bottom of the barrel. Requires a lot of upkeep and does not hold up to chemicals or the elements well. Lacquer drys hard, shrinks, and is prone to cracking and checking over time. Not even cheap when you consider it is mostly solvent (which is not enviro friendly which is why its use has been pretty much banned and not widely available today), and requires many more coats for adequate coverage. And now that the lead has been taken out, its not even as good as what was available many years ago when it was still widely used. If you are painting a show car and you will be spending most of your time waxing it and looking at it while its sitting in the garage, and you will only be driving it or trailing it to a show once a year, well then maybe consider using lacquer.
Tony, I have done all the work myself on mine, and I'm no body or paint man. It looks pretty good, not show car quality, but I get a lot of compliments on it. I bought all my primers and paint from a company that sells on eBay. They are WAY below what other companies charge, and the paint is good quality. Some of the other board members here have used the same company for their paint, too. Look at my gallery pics and you can see for yourself. Here's a link to the paint company-- http://www.paintforcars.com/ I used the acrylic enamel on mine. If you buy the kit, also order extra reducer. I thin mine more than they reccomend, it seems to flow better. And you will need the extra to clean the gun afterwards.
Something for you too keep in mind is you can use laquer thinner to clean you gun it is cheaper then using the enamel reducer to do so.
is it drying before you can clean it? should clean it right out what ive used for years to clean (urethane,enamel,laquer,etc) out
