[dataway]

Much like artistic oil painting .... I don't have any $50K paintings on my wall. I won't have any $15K paint jobs in my garage.

Great for the people that can afford either the painting or the paint job. The vast majority of us are not those people.

And the people that walk in my house wouldn't be able to tell a $50K painting from a $15 one, nor would they be able to tell a $20K paint job from a $5K. So play to your audience, if you go to high end car shows, or take paintings off your wall and put them in galleries ... maybe you should get that $20K paint job. If you are like me and have friends that will probably spill beer on your car .... maybe not.

[bird72]

Are there eco-rules, or typical county / city rules that don't allow home shop painting for occasional hobby purpose? Is it getting harder to do legally? I am more and more interested in maybe trying my hand at it. Everything in threads like this and what dataway says about scope matching real world need / level of perfection. I know I have good prep skills and amateur paint level ability. I can see it being a lot of fun.

The "shop" that did my small door repair last year:

Left clearcoat run (like a petrified rain drop)
Butchered 200 buck stripe kit (cut short)
Wash grunt person blew off one inch end of existing other side small width edge stripe
Did lazy blend and the whole side (I wanted to reserve as much ORIGINAL paint as possible)
And grand finale: put chip in trunk lid 1/2 inch dia. (would not admit) wash guy wand (?)

I was so disgusted I car covered car all last summer, because got PO'd every time I looked at it.

Why wouldn't I learn to paint?

[TAKerry]

I would think that 400 hrs would be close. 1000 hours would be one man working 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week for a little over 6 months. A competent worker should be able to complete a tremendous amount of work in that time. I would think that hours are hours, regardless if one guy or ten are working on the car. As far as deposits, I would see no problem giving a start up deposit. I am a contractor and depending on the size of the job I will take up to a 30% (allowed by law) deposit to start a job. This will cover the start up cost for the material, I dont see why I should bankroll the lumber/shingles/flooring etc. that is immediately being used on the customers property. In my case things are a bit different because I wont bill until parts are delivered to job site, at the least the customer can see a tangible product for the value, not as easily done when you car is away at a shop. You have no idea where the money is being spent.