Good paint job - how much?

[eflat]

have a coulple of civics that I want to get looking new.

Say I did all the possible prep-work, including stripping the interior and everything, how much does it cost to have them spray on the coats?

 

[Vette73]

Prep work is about half the cost sometimes. But they will still need to do the priming. Also are you staying the same color or trying to change? If you are staying the same then that will help a good deal. If changing then that will make it go up if you want it to look good.


But price you will have to ask and also what type of paint/primer you want will also add in. Reds and other deep tint paints cost more then your basic whites/blacks.

 

[HannibalX]

$4-5k for a very good paint job from skilled people and high quality paint. I have seen some ridiculous paint jobs for upwards of 10K for base color and much, much more for custom graphics.

You could do most of the prep work yourself and get the $1000 paint job from Maaco. I have seen several cars in person with this paint job and it "looks" very sharp when properly polished and waxed. It won't last long on a DD driver though. It's fine for a weekend car though that sits in a garage most of the time.

 

[alimoalem]

call up some shops and ask for rates.

also ask about the warranty. unless they shop does the prep work itself, there's a good chance it won't give a warranty on the paint job.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Just because you do all the prep work doesn't mean the place you hire to paint it will do a decent job. There is a lot of work involved in painting a car, not the least of which is stripping it of all molding and masking it properly along with the actual paint work.

You get what you pay for IMO. Cheap paint jobs will never look as good as a quality paint job.

 

[EarthwormJim]

How much do you value these cars?

A good OEM looking paint job will set you back at least $5000, probably even if you do the prep work.

If this is just your daily driver, why not do all the painting yourself and use rollers?

http://board.moparts.org/ubbth...82&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

Here's the thread about it. I have not personally painted any car panels or whole cars with this method. But I have experimented on some metal and wooden furniture.

It really works. I've had the pieces out in the sun and it does look like a professional single stage paint job. Throw on a little wax and no one would know the difference.

Since this is such a low mess method, you could paint one panel at a time and still use the cars.

 

[mooseracing]

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim

If this is just your daily driver, why not do all the painting yourself and use rollers?


It really works. I've had the pieces out in the sun and it does look like a professional single stage paint job. Throw on a little wax and no one would know the difference.

.

It will take a alot of sanding to get that to not look rolled. Even spray canning a car can make it look brand new, but it alas takes a ton of sanding.

The best & cheapest way would be to use a small compressor and touch up gun. With the touch up gun you can do one panel at a time and take your time. Each panel is going to look different though until the paint is finally cured in 6-12 months, if using an auto based one.

For my offroad/DD truck that constantly gets scraped up, I opted for Rust Stop Black from ACE hardware. More of a tractor paint, but at 25$ a gallon it can't be beat for the price. I wet sanded my truck adn then sprayed it. Without putting clear on it, it has only faded slightly in the past couple years.

If you were to do everything yourself, with automotive quality paints, its going to run you $500 easily. To a shop that does bodywork (they will no matter how much you have done, unless you specifically tell them not too) it will easily run over $1k. All shops should do bodywork otherwise they should warranty their work, as it would be dumb on their part.

 

[Throckmorton]

Not worth the cost, even for a newer car. How about doing it yourself? People get great results with rolling. The point of rolling on paint, is that you use a thin enough mixture that it flows very evenly. Even if it only looks 75% as good as a normal car paint job, seems worth it to not spend the value of the car itself on paint

http://rollyourcar.com/default.aspx

 

[alkemyst]

You will have to still get a quote. Many will not take owner prepared cars totally either.

Around here you can get a repaint that looks really nice from $1500 to $6000.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: mooseracing

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim

If this is just your daily driver, why not do all the painting yourself and use rollers?


It really works. I've had the pieces out in the sun and it does look like a professional single stage paint job. Throw on a little wax and no one would know the difference.

.

It will take a alot of sanding to get that to not look rolled. Even spray canning a car can make it look brand new, but it alas takes a ton of sanding.

The best & cheapest way would be to use a small compressor and touch up gun. With the touch up gun you can do one panel at a time and take your time. Each panel is going to look different though until the paint is finally cured in 6-12 months, if using an auto based one.

For my offroad/DD truck that constantly gets scraped up, I opted for Rust Stop Black from ACE hardware. More of a tractor paint, but at 25$ a gallon it can't be beat for the price. I wet sanded my truck adn then sprayed it. Without putting clear on it, it has only faded slightly in the past couple years.

If you were to do everything yourself, with automotive quality paints, its going to run you $500 easily. To a shop that does bodywork (they will no matter how much you have done, unless you specifically tell them not too) it will easily run over $1k. All shops should do bodywork otherwise they should warranty their work, as it would be dumb on their part.

It's not that bad sanding wise, no more so than using a cheap paint gun. The key is to thin out the rustoleum to nearly water like consistency. It self levels, so there's no markings left from the rollers.

 

[franksta]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Not worth the cost, even for a newer car. How about doing it yourself? People get great results with rolling. The point of rolling on paint, is that you use a thin enough mixture that it flows very evenly. Even if it only looks 75% as good as a normal car paint job, seems worth it to not spend the value of the car itself on paint

http://rollyourcar.com/default.aspx

I'm the Frank listed on the galleries page. I spent $88 on it but if you include the polishing supplies it's closer to $250.


Original color

Taking off the original color

After the first wetsanding

All done with the paint steps

 

[Throckmorton]

Wow, that looks great. How many coats did you use?

 

[franksta]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Wow, that looks great. How many coats did you use?

I did 6 coats. I did a progressively finer wetsand after every even numbered coat.