Paint Job Costs DIY and PRO (moved from plasti-dipping thread)
02-05-13, 10:55 PM
#32
All I know is that if you want to pay someone to wetsand, cut, and polish a car afterwards....you better be using a **** load of clearcoat to do it right because if you are doing a tiny layer of clear to save on materials.... they'll sand right through it or burn through it during the cutting and final polishing stage. Don't cheap out, do it right. And no way in hell is someone doing a full wetsand and a 2-3 step polish (which is NEEDED) for $200.... you must be out of your mind because that could easily take 30-50+ hours to do properly and that time frame is VERY conservative.
And BTW, most shops (especially ones quoting you $300) don't know diddly squat about proper paint finishing after a wetsand. I can use the simplest light form and show them how bad of a job they've done...but too bad most customers are clueless and wouldn't know the difference.
And BTW, most shops (especially ones quoting you $300) don't know diddly squat about proper paint finishing after a wetsand. I can use the simplest light form and show them how bad of a job they've done...but too bad most customers are clueless and wouldn't know the difference.
If you do a decent paint job there wont be many flaws and in many cases you dont even need to sand and polish afterwards, and if so there isnt much sanding to do.
And yes ive been quoted less then $500 to have my car cut and polished, but since I will be doing the wetsanding part of that myself I figure I can get the price down to $250-- $300 or so for just the polishing end of it.
This is a company that specializes in this kind of thing so if it took them 30-50 hours for a basic cut/polish after all these many years in the business I would say something is wrong , two men doing one side each it can probably be done in an 8 hour work day.
Not sure why people want to vigorously defend these guys that try to rip them off.
02-05-13, 11:16 PM
#33
for the SC im not looking to 'cheap out' but i wont be wasting money either, my finish will be thicker then a new factory finish forsure.
If you do a decent paint job there wont be many flaws and in many cases you dont even need to sand and polish afterwards, and if so there isnt much sanding to do.
And yes ive been quoted less then $500 to have my car cut and polished, but since I will be doing the wetsanding part of that myself I figure I can get the price down to $250-- $300 or so for just the polishing end of it.
This is a company that specializes in this kind of thing so if it took them 30-50 hours for a basic cut/polish after all these many years in the business I would say something is wrong , two men doing one side each it can probably be done in an 8 hour work day.
Not sure why people want to vigorously defend these guys that try to rip them off.
If you do a decent paint job there wont be many flaws and in many cases you dont even need to sand and polish afterwards, and if so there isnt much sanding to do.
And yes ive been quoted less then $500 to have my car cut and polished, but since I will be doing the wetsanding part of that myself I figure I can get the price down to $250-- $300 or so for just the polishing end of it.
This is a company that specializes in this kind of thing so if it took them 30-50 hours for a basic cut/polish after all these many years in the business I would say something is wrong , two men doing one side each it can probably be done in an 8 hour work day.
Not sure why people want to vigorously defend these guys that try to rip them off.
EDIT. I don't even know why I bother with some of these threads... I swear...this place somethimes... smh
Last edited by 97-SC300; 02-05-13 at 11:21 PM.
02-05-13, 11:32 PM
#34
Okay man whatever you say lol... if you believe it than it MUST be true. We're all wrong and you are right. Seems like no matter what experienced people will tell you, you will argue the point your way, so it's a pointless argument.
EDIT. I don't even know why I bother with some of these threads... I swear...this place somethimes... smh
EDIT. I don't even know why I bother with some of these threads... I swear...this place somethimes... smh
I was trying to help people save money but I guess they dont want to hear it , so they can continue spending thousands while i spend hundreds, and we can agree to dissagree
at least I tried.
02-06-13, 06:41 AM
#37
I'm itchy about this thread so I'm joining. Not sure how much you spend & use to paint the whole car, because I didn't paint the whole SC. However, I bought 1 gallon of primer, 1 qt of clear, and 3 pints of base coat to paint the hood, fenders, JIC side skirts, front JIC bumper (bigger than OEM bumper), side view mirrors, trunk, bumper with rear JIC lip. I still have more than 0.5 gallon of primer. Base coat and clear coat are all used up. That's because I had to repaint some parts. I can say my paint is as good as OEM. It is even smoother than OEM. Orange peel is nearly non-existing. That means I got a good clear coat to sand/buff it smooth.
The final thought is how much materials you use really depends on you. It certainly takes more materials if you want a good layer more than just-good-enough layer. A good layer will last for years, while a thin layer may last only a few years. And the cost varies from brand to brand as well. Some brands cost $25 for a pint of base coat, while other brands may cost $40 for a pint. Kind of hard to debate on this.
But honestly speaking, $1000 on materials sounds expensive. A shop can't survive to spend $1000 on materials while charging the whole car for only $2500 for a good paint job. And if it's a $5000 paint job, then that got to be for real high quality show car. I don't talk about dealer job.
The final thought is how much materials you use really depends on you. It certainly takes more materials if you want a good layer more than just-good-enough layer. A good layer will last for years, while a thin layer may last only a few years. And the cost varies from brand to brand as well. Some brands cost $25 for a pint of base coat, while other brands may cost $40 for a pint. Kind of hard to debate on this.
But honestly speaking, $1000 on materials sounds expensive. A shop can't survive to spend $1000 on materials while charging the whole car for only $2500 for a good paint job. And if it's a $5000 paint job, then that got to be for real high quality show car. I don't talk about dealer job.
A box of 50 DA sand paper made by 3M in most grids is roughly $40 by itself and if you do it right considering its an older car and its going to have ton of flaws and chips you will use a ton of sand paper prior primer and then while sanding primer. Depending on the primer used also depends on how easy it sands will also depend on how much sand paper you will use. Dont even get me started on using cheap primer, i know enough about it. When my friend told me not to skimp on anything i was skeptical and bought cheaper end primer. It was about 50 less a gallon and 50 less for hardner. It still wasnt dirt cheap. Fast forward to 8 months later after the car baked on the sun and so forth the primer started to shrink, if you dont know what that is then you have little experience in painting cars. Primer is used to cover up sand scratches as deep as 320 grid, when it shrinks the 320 grid sand marks start to appear in the clear coat. I had to re wet sand and rebuff the car to cut more clear off. It sucks that i cheaped out and didnt spend the extra $, i just hope other people dont make same mistakes....oh well.
Last edited by MDSC; 02-06-13 at 06:49 AM.
02-06-13, 01:42 PM
#38
I can assure you no legit body shop that does insurance work and has multiple legal employees and store front/office will do an all over paint job for 2500. Thats just crazy, an all over paint job pays roughly 60hrs of paint labor...at $40 per hour which is about the going rate right now is 2400 just in labor....
02-06-13, 03:45 PM
#39
I agree with stevechumo^^^^ A few months back my rear quarter panel got pushed in from a hit and run. I went through insurance and luckily one of the shops they had on the list was a brand new Toyota dealership here in central Florida. Just to repaint my quarter panel they repainted my entire back half of the car including rear bumper, both quarter panels, and the top of the roof of the car (no re-paint on trunk or wing). If I would have done this out of pocket they quoted me 1300. Since it only cost me my deductible (250) I was interested in getting the whole car repainted and I would pay the difference after 1300.
I was told that I could go with the same DWP or change it to Starfire Pearl (still pearl white) and it would cost a grand total of 2200 (so I would have paid around 1000 out of pocket). So to me an OEM quality paint job should cost around that much. What's even more impressive is that is pearl paint so its a 3 stage paint job. If you look at my car now it looks better than OEM. So for me paying any more than around 2400 for a complete pearl paint job is a little off in my book.
I was told that I could go with the same DWP or change it to Starfire Pearl (still pearl white) and it would cost a grand total of 2200 (so I would have paid around 1000 out of pocket). So to me an OEM quality paint job should cost around that much. What's even more impressive is that is pearl paint so its a 3 stage paint job. If you look at my car now it looks better than OEM. So for me paying any more than around 2400 for a complete pearl paint job is a little off in my book.
02-06-13, 05:45 PM
#40
You can't put a standard on paint cost guys. All I will say is you get what you pay for. Price varies on type of paint used may it be solvent or water based the prep what needs to be replaced or removed so on and so on. The price of shop line paint vs a high end I.e. ultra 7000 something of the sort. To much to go into it. But what op said I'd nuts cheap and gonna come out like ****. Sorry dude but that's not correct at all for materials and price unless you get them at harbor freight type of store. I pay cost for paint and don't get it that cheap for even a spray over on a small car with 4th dimension.
02-06-13, 06:44 PM
#42
You can't put a standard on paint cost guys. All I will say is you get what you pay for. Price varies on type of paint used may it be solvent or water based the prep what needs to be replaced or removed so on and so on. The price of shop line paint vs a high end I.e. ultra 7000 something of the sort. To much to go into it. But what op said I'd nuts cheap and gonna come out like ****. Sorry dude but that's not correct at all for materials and price unless you get them at harbor freight type of store. I pay cost for paint and don't get it that cheap for even a spray over on a small car with 4th dimension.
You guys are missing the point , the point is you dont have to spend all this money, the point is these shops are ripping you off, but you dont want to accept it for some reason, so you go waste your money but dont go telling me to waste mine. Ive told you before ive done this already,multiple times, im not specualting or guessing, its been done, im doing it now, ill be doing it again in the future.
The only reason you would have to do it over again is if you fail to prep the car properly and do a half assed job, aside from that theres no reason it wont last as long or even longer then the origjnal factory finish.
02-06-13, 07:03 PM
#43
I say at least half gallon of paint, you need for respray of same color for a car, I quoted the paint with clear included and is like $300 ish only paint and clear, I have good guy that paint cars, he usually charge $1500 for whole car and no cheap paint.
02-06-13, 07:06 PM
#44
Ok so lets say this. Today's painters shops want properly trained techs. So lets say they go to a decent school so they spend 40k on school or so then off to work so the need pain guns body hammers dollies ect ect. So techs gonna want to make some decent money so there is a bit of cost then prep materials time paint is quite exspensive even for a shop line bc/cc, primer, etch primer if needed, icing, filler if needed, tools the shop had to buy to provide all that. A decent paint booth with proper haz cont say 40-80k. Then all the other **** I could go on for hrs on this. I hate to say it bud but you didn't do your homework on this one.
02-06-13, 07:22 PM
#45
Ok so lets say this. Today's painters shops want properly trained techs. So lets say they go to a decent school so they spend 40k on school or so then off to work so the need pain guns body hammers dollies ect ect. So techs gonna want to make some decent money so there is a bit of cost then prep materials time paint is quite exspensive even for a shop line bc/cc, primer, etch primer if needed, icing, filler if needed, tools the shop had to buy to provide all that. A decent paint booth with proper haz cont say 40-80k. Then all the other **** I could go on for hrs on this. I hate to say it bud but you didn't do your homework on this one.
Most body shop technitions were trained on site as PAID apprentices with maybe a few night courses in beetween to learn about finishes and this and that.
All of the things you stated are inexpensive as well, paint guns, hammers, dollies, primers and fillers????All these can be had for next to nothing. When was the last time you were in a body shop, they are completely empty! They only need one gun and one spray booth and one area to mix and match paint. The rest is empty space to work on the cars.
And I notice you werent able to answer me the most simple question which is how much you get your materials for , probably because you dont know how much they cost, or two you are a body shop guy yourself and your afraid to admit the truth.
Didnt I see you mention you were taking some school courses in body shop work and learning how to give estimates?
So again ill ask you , how much are your materials costing you , for 1 gallon of base and 1 gallon of clear.
Last edited by 1WILLY1; 02-06-13 at 07:26 PM.