Cost for a paint job
 

Okay, I understand the costs of paint have skyrocketed and labor has become unattainable. But in a topic on a different thread it was mentioned that a paint job (without body work) would cost 15k! Is that true?

If that's the case I'm out. Also, are body work labor charges the same as mechanical labor?

It may cost that much, it may be much more, it may be much less. It depends on a multitude of factors so there's no one simple answer. Chances are most cars will require at least some body work before they're ready for paint. Hourly rates will vary a lot depending on the shop as well as your location, but these days a rate in the neighborhood of $100/hour or more isn't out of the question.

We have a 76 TA at a shop,15-20K without a color change,25K with a color change.Tom

I'm paying 18k no color change. Black!!

I help someone who does body and paint at a home shop. Complete body and paint, on frame "pave over", $15-20K. Cash only.

This is just body and paint, no chrome, powder coating, etc... Includes disassembly and assembly, but client usually helps a bit too.

Sometimes the clients completely disassemble car and deliver it on a rolling cart.

Most clients have deep pockets and money isn't an issue.

Having helped him on numerous projects, the labor is incredible. Even at these prices, it sometimes doesn't seem worth it to me. And this is with no fixed overhead. Last summer we probably had 9 man hours into just fitting a deck lid on a '60 Impala.

In Dayton, OH, a "scuff, prep and paint", same color, no body work, OE quality paint job would run right at 10K at a commercial body shop. This would be tape and paint, not disassemble, paint and reassemble. This is why I won't even consider buying a car that needs extensive body and paint work anymore. There are extremely rare exceptions of course. Even at the current crazy auction and selling prices, a frame off, rotisserie restoration is a losing investment unless a very rare, numbers matching model. Especially full size cars, my favorites.

dang, I didn't realize prices have gone so high

makes me feel better about buying one already painted at least...

I'll never be in the market for a shop job. Many good DIY results to share here. I paint in my garage.

DIY

It's not rocket science but is a lot of work.

I agree it's worth learning to paint at todays prices. I've done four, and I agree it's a lot of work.

Learn to do the prep work yourself. You can buy a portable paint booth and spray it yourself or in your garage or rent a booth. Use lacquer paint. very forgiving and you can still get it at TCP global. Base clear is more difficult to do DIY. very messy on the clear part.

I went to the Hot Rod Shop near Queen Creek for mechanical work, which it turns out they do very little of. While I was there the fellow took a cursory look and gave me a very round about estimate of $35k USD plus or minus (more than likely plus).
At home in Canada I had a restorer look over my other car. With the extent of work he wanted to do I'd be looking at close to $60k CDN. At best the non desirable 2nd gen FB would be worth $20-25K.
40 years ago I dabbled in painting cars I was flipping. I found the work too tedious for my tastes. At $125/hr shop rates I am going the DIY route an try not to screw up badly.

Cheapest scuff and respray in SoCal on an already perfect body and has good adhering paint to just scuff and shoot runs $6k minimum. But any half decent paint job with trim removed, body blocked etc is minimum $13K I have been seeing. Show quality and no rust to repair $20k to $30k. Grand National Roadster type show cars cost $50k to $100k to paint - not including body work.

Probably can double these prices if replacing sheet metal and full disassembly of car.

This is why my old bondo bird is in Kuwait right now and I got a better one...

Cheaper than fixing her :(

The key to a cheap paint job is being able to do all of the work yourself and living with a paint job that won't be perfect. I don't have the money to hire someone to paint any of my cars. I do the work myself and have driver quality cars to show from it. I'm perfectly fine with that too.

If you have a garage and air compressor, you can do it. The only suggestion that I would have is to buy a high-quality paint gun and use a good quality paint. A good paint gun will make your life a whole lot easier when you go to paint. My personal favorite is an Iwata LPH 400.

I got lucky(kind of)on my last car.63 tempest convert,factory black,needed some body work.My friend with 3 body shops felt sorry for me a let a couple guys work on it on weekends,preped primered ready to go.cost like $2500.Found a local shop to shoot in single stage for $1500.Came out great,when I sold the car I ended up loosing $4000.Tom

First of all what do you want? Driver quality or show. How much body work does it need? How much of the disassemble/reassembly are you willing to do? If you do the prep and the car is ready for paint one of the chain paint shops can do a very good driver quality paint job. I have had one and several friends have had good ones. Also small local shops are generally going to do a more reasonably priced job than a large production shop. Just remember that it is what's under the paint that makes the paint job.

I'm cheap and don't trust anyone, so learning to do DIY paint work was my goal early on. I figured if I screw up, I can only blame myself.

I started out painting brackets and progressed to the trunk, then primer, then paint.

It IS a ton of work. Like 95% prep work leading to the painting...then another 40-80 hours of sanding and buffing to get the dust and orange peel out.

I think I spent at least 5K on paint and primers so easy to see a shop charging 1.5-2x that.

As others have said, it won't be perfect...there will be dust, hair, bugs, runs, fisheyes, and orange peel. But in my limited experience, if you put enough paint on the panels you can fix a lot of mistakes

I have a couple guys that want to do their own restoration. They come by and pick my brain ...I give them a few pointers ..but not all the pointers.

One of them bought an inflatable spray booth...he did a lot of you tube watching. .. so he came by my shop after he sprayed his car....paid
a ton for color and clear... and asked me what happened to my spray job......

I told him... there is a expensive learning curve to spraying product