[Speargun]

a paint job on a '67 Firebird?
I know it's a relative number, but I'm looking for a ballpark figure.

Here's what I have:
Rolling '67 Firebird completely stripped. No interior, trim, badges, nothing; just a shell.
Body work is complete. Car is in primer.
Front end is aligned and can be easily removed to paint each part individually.
All it needs (afaik) is the final sanding, etc..., and painted.

I'm just looking to get the car in color and have it look better than if I painted it in my garage.

[Birdguy]

Some details to be filled in:

Is it now in epoxy primer or high-build sandable primer
What is your budget for the paint (by brand and name)
Single-stage or BC/CC


Perhaps more to come.

[Stuart]

Somewhere between 1,000 and 50,000.

Really, it's difficult to say. It depends on the quality of the work, the paint and materials used, your location and a million other things.

The fact you already have it in primer may be a problem for some shops - they don't know for sure what brand/type primer you used and they have to paint it with compatible products, plus they can't tell what's underneath that primer so they can't guarantee the work will turn out. Also, the car may look straight and ready for the paint booth to you, but an experienced body man may see a lot of work that still needs to be done.

[Speargun]

I'l try to fill in what I can.....

The guy that did most of the work up to were it is now was planning on base coat clear coat.
When he ran into other issues and had to stop work on it, he shot sealer over the bare metal.
I've finally decided to go with a white exterior and blue interior. Mainly because I couldn't decide on any other color I wanted, it was the original colors, and white is a bit cooler in the hell fired heat of Florida.
At this point I'd be happy with old school gray primer as long as the car was all one color and didn't look like it had been beat with a hammer.

Just looked in the garage and found the following items:
1 gallon can "MAR-HYDE"(sp?) ULTIMATE 2K PRIMER SURFACER & the same brand catalyst in smaller can. Says polyurethane on the can.
"EVERCOAT" LIGHTWEIGHT Z-GRIP filler.
"TRANSTAR" UNIVERSAL PRIMER 6001. Gray square-ish can.
1 gallon can "EVERCOAT" (iirc, green & yellow can) CLEAR COAT & smaller can of activator or catalyst.

My budget is "keep it as low as possible." I would like to stay below $2000 and $1500 would be even better.

I stopped by one local shop (Central Florida) that does a lot of older cars and they said that a paint job starts at $3500 and $48 an hour for body work. This is out of my price range and if I can't do better than that, I'll end up shooting it myself. .... or take a paint roller to it.

Once the paint is done, I can get started on fuel lines, brake lines, wiring harness, and all of the stuff that makes it go & whoa.

[4dblnkldude]

The guys that painted my firebird charge 2500 bucks just to shoot bc/cc. So with sanding and materials and a few other things I'll answer your ? vaguely and say 5 grand.

[ra96]

I dont think price is gonna be the main issue id bet most shops will paint the car with wont stand behind paint failure due to they dont know what they are painting over -
i realize you can tell them every thing your body guy did but it wont matter yea id say depending -5 to 9 but at any price id dont think they will fix a future issue

[Goatracer1]

If the car is really ready for paint (and I know I'll get crap from people on this) MAACO will do a decent paint job for about $500.00. I have seen several cars, including a nice 1959 Olds in BLACK ) that had nice paint jobs by them. If you are going to do white and you just want some paint that will look decent I would give them a try. My grandson's dad is a good painter and worked for one.

[Birdguy]

Remember that if you do go the MAACO route, ask them what paint brand they would use so you will know if they are low-balling the price based on using cheap stuff that won't have the quality or durability of top-of-the-line stuff. The material for the '62 Catalina I am working on ran $1,500 for 1.5 gallons of PPG Concept Single Stage (with reducer and hardener), 1 gallon of K-38 with catalyst, and 3 qts. of DPLF90 with catalyst.

If they are quoting the cheaper lines they are usually open to using the higher-quality stuff if you pay the difference.

[Birdguy]

Remember that if you do go the MAACO route, ask them what paint brand they are using so you will know if they are low-balling the price based on using cheap stuff that won't have the quality or durability of top-of-the-line stuff. The material for the '62 Catalina I am working on ran $1,500 for 1.5 gallons of PPG Concept Single Stage (with reducer and hardener), 1 gallon of K-38 with catalyst, and 3 qts. of DPLF90 with catalyst.

If they are quoting the cheaper lines they are usually open to using the higher-quality stuff if you pay the difference.

[68azbird]

Quality paint supplies are not cheap.
The total of all supplies from stripping my car,sandpaper,thinners for cleaning, primers, fillers,paint...etc came out to $3400.
I used all PPG except for a gallon of ever coat slicksand.
PPG DP90LF
PPG DBC base
PPG 2021 clear
PPG K-36

But I have the confidence I can go back and do any repairs if needed and color match perfectly.

[GREATGTO]

My advice would be to paint it yourself, or Maaco. I'm in leesburg fl and the only thing I could do for you is block sand it out with 400 grit, then shoot it with base, clear it and buff it out if needed for around 1300 if you supply everything. No guarantee of any kind . Might look awesome and last for many years or might not last long at all. Doesn't. Sound like the guy you had working on it did anything wrong so you should be ok.

[Speargun]

I had a guy that owns local shop with a good rep take a look at it Saturday. He said that the previous work was good and he sounded kinda surprised when he said that it was just about ready for paint.
We talked about a couple minor issues that needed fixed and he gave me a price of $2800 to fix the issues, pull the front end & doors off, seal seams, sand, prime, paint, etc..

[richard sargent]

I have had several cars painted to show quality and 3 to 3.5k just for materials is normal.