[kingbuzzo]

not too bad considering interior too...was there much metal work?

[tom s]

The only car I prepped for paint was a 69 Corvette coupe.Huge PITA,had a ES blk paint job that came out great.Prep as everyone knows is the key.Tom

[tom s]

Well,the 76 TA we had a 15K bid a little over a year ago for a no color change is now 25K.Understand BASF just took another 7% increase!Tom

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by dataway

There are some extremely nice big Pontiacs out there for sale now for reasonable money, really nicely restored stuff. I might have to pick up one of those sometime .. for like $12-15K you can buy an outstanding big car.

Absolutely. You would have the purchase price of the car covered just to cover the expense of having all the chrome trim, grills, headlight trim and bumpers re-chromed. If body and paint are not your strong suit or major interest, this is a good path to pursue., Plus, no paint jail to deal with for years.

[b-man]

If you don’t have a particularly rare or well-optioned car with no sentimental value then unloading your project car that’s in need of body and paint and buying a finished one will put you money ahead in a big way.

If you’re financially able buy a nice car before selling your project then do that and swap your drivetrain and other special parts onto it.

If your car has some kind of sentimental value and there’s no way you’d ever part with it then pay the man and have it painted, costs be damned.

[tom s]

2X B-man

[getmygoat]

Originally Posted by kingbuzzo

not too bad considering interior too...was there much metal work?

Car was pretty clean. Needed fender heel repair and a small spot on one quarter. California car.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by b-man

If you don’t have a particularly rare or well-optioned car with no sentimental value then unloading your project car that’s in need of body and paint and buying a finished one will put you money ahead in a big way.

If you’re financially able buy a nice car before selling your project then do that and swap your drivetrain and other special parts onto it.

If your car has some kind of sentimental value and there’s no way you’d ever part with it then pay the man and have it painted, costs be damned.

Great advice B-man. We are not getting any younger!

[R 70 Judge]

Originally Posted by getmygoat

Just got my Judge back from paint about a month ago. It was about $23k for paint/rechroming/striping and upholstery (labor - I provided legendary seat kit).

Can't recommend the place I took it to enough. Conservative Auto Body in San Diego. Phil Sanchez. He's having a hard time turning a profit so prices might go up from here but he is very skilled and very trustworthy.

Thanks. I’ll check them out since they are only a few miles away from me. Sounds like they did all the reassembly on the car.

I’ll be honest I was strongly considering sending my TA to be painted in Mexico but it scares the **** out of me. They do have legit guys down there if you research first.

[b-man]

Originally Posted by R 70 Judge

Thanks. I’ll check them out since they are only a few miles away from me. Sounds like they did all the reassembly on the car.

I’ll be honest I was strongly considering sending my TA to be painted in Mexico but it scares the **** out of me. They do have legit guys down there if you research first.

I’d only consider doing that if I was from Mexico and knew my way around. Too risky I’m thinking, body shops here north of the border are hard enough to trust already.

[Gator67]

I hauled my son's 79 TA to a friends place last year to get painted. It was rust free, required no body work, and was mostly disassembled...we thought it would be done in a couple weekends. Wrong! Between the three of us, we ended up putting in about 900 hours, and there are still some small items that need to be sprayed and it all needs a final buffing. The body looks great (black single stage), but it took a ton of time and effort to get it that way, and about $5k in materials. I thought I paid a lot the year before to have my 70 Formula painted, but after this experience, I feel like I got a good deal! That said, it was a great learning experience for my boy, who now understands why I suggested that we find a project car that was already painted.

[Gator67]

Originally Posted by b-man

I’d only consider doing that if I was from Mexico and knew my way around. Too risky I’m thinking, body shops here north of the border are hard enough to trust already.

I have a buddy who is getting an old Bronco done in Columbia...he flys down there every couple months to check on progress. It's taken a lot longer than he thought it would but supposedly the work is very good and inexpensive. I'm too risk averse for that sort of deal

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by pont3

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?

Yeah pretty much, lol.

Most shops here will tell you they won't even touch the car for less than $20k, and it's been that way long before the price hikes started a couple years ago. In fact most of them here were charging that much 15 years ago, and yeah, they stay busy. That does generally include paint material though which can run as high as $5000 easily.

That's just paint, if you need panel replacement and body work they'll usually quote that by the hour with as much as $100 an hour labor rate on top of that.

It's kind of funny because I generally charge half that much and sometimes less and still see peoples jaws drop at the price. I can quickly tell they haven't been around getting many quotes at other shops.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by tom s

Well,the 76 TA we had a 15K bid a little over a year ago for a no color change is now 25K.Understand BASF just took another 7% increase!Tom

Yep, BASF is what I primarily use and it's getting pretty expensive to buy materials right now. Just glamour clear alone adds just over $1000 to the price which is causing more people to just want a simple single stage system, and even causing some to change the color they wanted for the car too.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by MUSLCAH

Rob....what is a driver quality paint Job ?

Guys approach me with that line too..

Which means ..I want to see my face in the paint...but don’t want to pay for it...lol

If you put out Driver Quality paint work....the next door neighbor sees it and asks “ Who Did that for You “ ....then says to himself ...I ain’t going there.

It’s hard to half ass a paint job...for me anyways.

And this is exactly why I get turned off as soon as I hear those words.

For starters, the last thing I want to do is put my name on a "driver quality" paint job for everyone else to see.

Second, A lot of the cars I see come in here when those words are spoken, I tell them "If that's all you want, leave the car as it is, it's good enough to drive and you'll enjoy it more" Because once I put a paint job on it, you won't want to drive it much.

In the end, when they say I want a driver quality paint job, they don't really mean that. They want a slick mirror finish paint job for driver quality prices, just like you said.

[Greg Reid]

"If that's all you want, leave the car as it is, it's good enough to drive and you'll enjoy it more" Because once I put a paint job on it, you won't want to drive it much."

I'm enjoying my car more now than ever before and I'm sure it's because It's acquired several dings and a couple of chips. I don't sweat about it any more.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

"If that's all you want, leave the car as it is, it's good enough to drive and you'll enjoy it more" Because once I put a paint job on it, you won't want to drive it much."

I'm enjoying my car more now than ever before and I'm sure it's because It's acquired several dings and a couple of chips. I don't sweat about it any more.

Yep, those are the types of cars I enjoy the most, but I find most people don't want that, even though they try to tell me they do. It's a ploy to get the price down, even though I'm already half the cost of anyone around.

It's a big reason why my daily drivers are not painted. My wife didn't want paint on the 69Z, she didn't want to have to worry about it and quite frankly I agreed and find that's the one we all drive the most. I just straightened the body and put primer on the car, with satin clear on top to seal it off, put the stripes back on it. Believe it or not it actually gets more compliments than I ever thought it would, and some people actually think it's paint. lol Best part is that one day when we stop daily driving it all I really have to do is blow it back apart and block sand the car down and for the most part it'll be ready for color.

My bird could use a paint job, it's still in the shape I found it more than 25 years ago but honestly it's good enough and since I drive it daily I don't really worry about the rock chips it acquires. Kind of funny coming from a painter but being a painter is really what puts me in that frame of mind. I realize more than most the work involved, the time and money it takes, to put a nice paint job on a car............only to daily drive it??? Na, I just won't do that. I have other cars with super nice paint that I can drive if I want to show off a paint job.

[John Milner]

My next car to paint, I'll be giving SPI products a try I believe. A gallon of their high solids Universal clear and activator appears to cost $384.68 directly from SPI. It mixes 1:1 so you'll have 2 sprayable gallons. A gallon of their 2K primer with activator costs $229.05/gallon. Their Epoxy primer with activator costs $272.54/gallon. Where I'm from, a good quality basecoat costs in the $400-$800/gallon range, depending on what brand you get. Back in September, I sprayed my 69 GTO Warwick Blue with Akzo Nobel basecoat, which I believe is a Sikkens product. A gallon of basecoat and a gallon of reducer costed right at $400. I'm sure a gallon Diamont R&M or Dupont would have easily been twice that much.

[tooski]

"For starters, the last thing I want to do is put my name on a "driver quality" paint job for everyone else to see."

That's the problem I have. How do you ask a painter to do less than their best which would be a top end job. I've talked to a couple of body/painters. All want to do a top of the line paint job cause their name is on it. That $25k and up job is something I would hesitate to drive on the gravel road and driveway up to my house.

[tom s]

REALLY hard to find someone around here to shoot single stage anymore.My friend with 3 body shops will not paint classic cars.Too much time involved to pass insurance work up.Tom