01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

can't wait to see the end result!

It'll either be another clapped out SC, or another clapped out SC.

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

lol^^^ from a fellow canadian too ,,,you disgust me.

biturbo632

Love it!!!!



I'm a car painter since 2007 now. I can tell you can have a complete car paint for the price you want. But as someone says here, you got what you pay for.


- 1500$ vs 5000$ paint jobs, to me;

A 5000$ paint job and over, your car have to look stunning at the end, and at that price that's a color changed or everything repair and repaint, to me (always depend on the damage of the car, but for now we talk about light normal damage).
Using quality products that have a cost, simply because it makes my job easier, make a great finish easier and stay good longer. The car will be dissassemble in pieces to get it repair, prep and paint right. It will be better than factory. That's the way I work, "show room edition or go home".. eeeeee I'm a perfectionnist lolll!

A 1500$ job will, also, won't bother putting your car in pieces to get it paint right. They won't remove the bumpers, lights, handles, windows trims, doors trims, side skirts, modling, even windows if needed. they will just mask everything off with masking tape and paper.. That way you save waaaaaay more time, but you get paint that will come off around handle a molding after years, rubber paints, fume in some unwanted parts or area, etc..


So like an exemple, I do an SC, exterior only, same color but need a refresh. The front of the car is all stone ship, front bumper cracked but every piece is there. couple of dent all around, the top and trunk doesn't have dent but the clear goes away.

front bumper 300$
rear bumper 200$
hood 300$
front fenders 400$ (for boths)
doors 600$ (for boths)
rear quarters 600$ (for boths)
top 250$
trunk 200$
wing 150$
Others pieces like mirror, handle, molding are included.

Total: 3000$ fast evaluation.. could be less or more, allllllllways depend on the damage you have to repair. But let's say 3000$ is an average. At that price, you let me your car, ulgy and dents, and I'll give it to your, repair and new, boffed and washed. I would take me, by night and weekend, 3 weeks approx. about 40 to 60 hours job. Everything would be dissassemble.

cost of material, 1500$
(paint 400$ / clear 400$ / primer 200$ / sand paper, masking tape, masking paper, compound and different abrasive for glossy finish without any dust in the clear 500$)
cost of paintshop / electricity / place location 400$
My pockets feeds with 1100$ split in.. let's say 50hours = 22$/hours...

Is that really me stealing you? I would rather want to do at least 30$/ hours in my pocket, but at that price, you'll **** bricks and go another place, then, after 1 years, come back to me to get thing fixed when you'll realize I'm work hard to do it right. I love my job for you to love the end result!!!

xxtoobsxx

iTrader: (4)

Ill probably end up painting my own car. If you take your time, do it right and use quality products your going to save a lot more.

This thread has pretty much become pointless. It resembles a "how much to do a gte swap" Can you do it for under 700 bucks, im pretty sure you can IF you get LUCKY and find a used gte motor on Craigslist that someone left in a garage and the new owners don't want it and sell it for like 50 bucks. see what im getting at... If you are legit and know how to do body work then sure you can paint a car with good products and have it last for around 700 bucks. People talking about it last for 10 years are jsut talking. Most of us wont keep the same SC for 10 years, Most of us get the itch to change things up every couple of years (like some wheel *****s who get new wheels every quarter...lol. I love it though). So if a guy says he can paint a car and make it look good for 700 bucks and some hours of his life then let it be. We all know 90% of us are "self proclaimed experts" on here and what not.

I guess what im trying to say is instead of beating on someone one for doing what may seem like a "cheap job," encourage them to DO IT THEMSELVES; wait till we get the results and give constructive criticism if they ask! Either way I feel like this forum as just turned to hate and bickering. I know I myself have caught myself doing it, then edited it later once i realize the ERR of my ways.

So I say hey...make a paint thread and show us how you did a sweet paint job on your sc for under 700 bucks! maybe we can learn something good from it!

xxtoobsxx

iTrader: (4)

Oh and im sure we all agree that plastidiping a sc is not a viable solution...rock the crappy paint and save the "plastidip" cash to go towards your paint. We all rocked a not so cool looking project at one point!

MKIVS374

iTrader: (2)

Hey man obviously you have no idea I don't mean to be an *** dude but every gal of paint is diff and every mix all have diff price. Sherwin Williams is our jobber and it always differs I have used ppg as well same thing and that goes from prep I.e. water born is more costly than solvent in prep time like sanding primer from 400,600, and having to add that 800 grit sand for primer before base to it. Look and paint guns ha don't matter if you have a devillbis, sata, or a iwata there all costly. I got my sata 4000 hvlp gun for 750 at discount from the sata rep direct with stainless cup and some other things primer gun was 300 I mean that's not cheap stuff there then my hammer and dollies were 300$ alone from Martin cause there not cheap crap from egay. Just from you saying how much is a gal of paint shows me you don't understand what you are talking about so I will end this and say good luck at macco or billy bob's paint shop where you don't use a mixing bank and understand all the variables that go into each batch for blending and mixing.

IXI187IXI

iTrader: (3)

im sorry but that is incorrect. just like mechanics, they are certified. you dont just learn body work from looking over someones shoulder then saying i can do that.

can you get that for next to nothing, sure but its not going to be good. sure you can get an eastwood gun for $20 but its not going to be as good as a graco. same thing with tools. yes the husky line at home depot would work but theres a reason why people buy snap-on and its not to throw money away.

MDSC

iTrader: (3)

Thats wrong and you are at a wrong paint shop. The Body shop my buddy works at they have a downdraft booth Est. 75grand, most places have a prep booth where they paint small things like bumpers and fenders those booths are somwhere around $7k. They have welders, lifts, frame machine is about $15k most shops that do collision work for insurance companys will also have a good hunter or bosch alignment machine $25-35k. The shop he works at they have 2 paint systems, one is waterborne and another is regular sikkens i belive.
My buddy for example owns 4 guns, One is for primer, its a 300-400 sata jet, another sata for base coat 700-800, Iwata for clear coat 700-800 and another back up gun. Yes this is your average number of guns a painter will have in the mixing booth at all times. He also owns a medium size tool box with a decent amount of quality matco,snap on, mac tools. When youre a painter there will be days when youre short staffed and a body man dosent show up sometimes you have to DE trim a car yourself....
The clear they spray on their customers cars cost $350 per gallon and thats not including hardner which is also very expensive for expensive clears usually around $100-150 per quart to activate that gallon.

MDSC

iTrader: (3)

Didnt you know that you can go to harbor freight? You can become a painter, Mechanic and carpetner for damn near free, plus their tools come with lifetime warranty
I'm a tech myself and i probably have somewhere in the neighborhood of $30-40k in tools and i still need new tools constantly. Most painters, body men, mechanics carry a bill on multiple tool trucks for as long as they work and thats 30-50 bucks a week for pretty much as long as you work.

IXI187IXI

iTrader: (3)

lol oh i know. i have as buddy who is a mechanic and is snap-on toolbox was 20k

my other buddy works at a very high body shop where all they fix is lexus, bwm, benz (considered their lower end cars) aston's, ferraris, lambos, porsche, etc...

eknine9

iTrader: (8)

I never said you had to pay somebody else to do it. You stated that you were watering down your clear to the point where it runs when you spray it on just to save from buying more paint. And you also said that you were not cutting and buffing to save buying more paint.
If you could do such a thing and have a quality paint job that lasts the test of time, none of us would be saying anything to you, but when you cut corners, you are also cutting into the lifetime of your paint job. Hence why I said, save your money and do it right so you only do it once. I'm very pro-DIY and believe that everybody should get their own hands dirty when working on their cars so that they can really come to know their cars, and know what they need and know whats been fixed and know the quality of the repair. As much as I am pro-DIY I also think that if you know you are doing a stop-gap job you should expect to be coming back to fix your work soon. That is why the mantra exists.

Do it right do it once, do it cheap, do it twice.

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

Why is it I can pay retail prices and still pay less then 25% of what your paying? Am I really that special? Or are you just a liar?

amen toobs good luck with your project, and yea I will definitely be making a paint thread soon and i will be 100% honest about everything involved, costs , time etc.....with the money we save we can put it towards other things.

I also am not trying to be an *** but again you cant even answer how much you are getting your materials for, so I can no longer debate with you because you are just changing topics and bouncing all over the place.

This is about the cost of materials on a DIY paint job, not how much it costs to go to school or any of your other off topic rantings.

Yes I know they have to be certified and go to school, but id say 75% of the training is in house , hands on , and then maybe you have 25% of schooling to learn some of the more technical things.

And again i agree with you , I know you can buy a cheap gun (like the one I have) for $150-$200 or you can spend over a thousand on a high end one, I was just trying to make a point that even the high end ones are really not all that expensive, not enough to justify their over the top pricing anyways, and anyways we are going way off track, this was originally about the cost of materials involved in doing a DIY, people are trying to change the argument because thats what people do when they they run out of excuses, not saying thats what you did, ur just commenting on my previous statement.

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

yea your right a properly insured shop should have those things but again we arent talking about frame damage and serious body work repairs, just the cost of material to do a DIY re-spray, ive allowed myself to get pulled into a completely different argument because some people have ran out of any valid points.

I didnt say any of those things, your resorting to manipulating my words now, thats how desperate you guys are getting.

I said i thin the clear coat because it reduces the amount of orange peeling and flaws dramatically, and it dries much much faster, since i am not doing the job in a spray booth both of these are very important, and yes the only drawbacks are you have to becareful with runs and you have to do more coats to get a proper thickness to your finish, but since I use very thin coats runs are never really a problem, i was just warning others that might want to try it.

And no I didnt say I am not cutting and buffing to save on paint costs, my point has nothing to do with sacrificing quality to save money , but some of you are not bright enough to see that, its about the fact that you can do a GOOD job or even a GREAT job with a VERY limited budget, IF you want too.

If i needed more materials on the paint jobs i did , I would simply gone out to buy some, its as simple as that.

MDSC

iTrader: (3)

How are you thinning out the clear coat? because you know that basecoat reducer should not be mixed with clear. I hope youre not thinning out the clear with hardner...either way i've never heard of anyone thinning out clear to avoid orange peel. Orange peel is created by a few different things.
1.Orange peel can not be avoided 100% as it builds up when you spray a coat on top of coat.
2. Although you can drastically reduce the amount of organge peel by using good quality products, and good quality gun that is properly set up that puts out the proper amount of material,air pressure and spray pattern.
3. Some people go as far as after 2-3 coats of clear they block sand the whole car after 2 weeks with 600 grid and then reclear that gives it much smoother surface and will take less time to wet sand and buff after. Yes this method is mostly for show quality finish.
4. You cannot avoid dirt in your clear coat without a REAL paint booth, no matter what you do so in order to get an oem type finish even you have to wet sand and buff the car after you paint it with no booth.

As far as cost go, less expensive BASF or PPG products will run you about 800 just for liquids and yes you have to prime the car prior painting it especially when you have old car with who knows who painted it before. I say you need a DA sander if you want to speed up the process of prep or you will be sanding the car for days by hand. Sand paper you will need 180 box/320box/600 box minimum 150 pieces of DA about $150. 4-5 Rolls of 3m tape at 8 bucks a piece, a roll of masking paper $50.
I say a minimum of $1000+ time spent

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

The body shop I go to for materials sells a thinner for the clear, they only recomend using 5-10% if needed, but I use much more then recomended for reasons I stated earlier.

I realise my technique might not be one tought at school but i can tell you ive learned from experiance, the thicker the clear coat you spray the more orange peeling and flaws you are likely to get, it takes much longer to dry and is in general much less forgiving.

When i thin the clear out and spray very thin coats you literally get next to no orange peeling or flaws, I do need to apply more coats though.

I am not saying I am a pro finisher, I am very open to hearing other peoples techniques and tricks but for now this is the system i use and it works for me.

Also my car is an original finish, I dont think I will be using sealer or primer except on areas where i did body work, I will sand off the clear and get into the original base, but i will do a little more research to see if maybe i should lay sealer over the original base, although i never have before.