How much to paint and install tail?
 

I am thinking about replacing my stock lid with a fiberglass reproduction tail (either Carrera style, duck, or RS replica). How much can I expect to spend to have it painted and mounted?

I prepped and installed mine, I paid $300 to have it painted.

Just a FYI
Most ducks are full f/g lids, fitment and warping are often issues associted w/ this type. I bought and returned multiple ducks when I installed one on my '72 because the fitment was terrible.

A better way to do a duck is to have one boded to a stock steel lid or frame. The above issues go away w/ this type of install.

The latter whale tails as used on SC, Carrera and RSA all bolt to an existing lid. The bolt configurations vary among the different factory tails and are generally not interchangeable and of couse the aftermarkets are all custom drilled.

I would purchase a sacrifical stock lid, and install any tail using it, as a base.

It also depends on how nice you want it to look. Fiberglass isn't going to look as nice as metal unless the painter spends a lot of time with it before he paints it. Even the factory fiberglass has imperfections. Worse yet, it will likely change with time. You may paint the thing and have it looking good initially, only to find that a few years down the road, it doesn't look as good.

JR

This is for a car that is used almost only on the track now, so it doesn't have to be perfect. Also for that reason, I want a one-piece unit for weight purposes (instead of bolting it on to the stock lid).

A stock lid w/ an aftermarket RSA tail is quite light. It is a mistake to think that a 1 piece f/g tail is always lighter.

for track use duck < RSA < biwing in terms of aero efficiency, the bi wings can actually generate down force rather than just cutting lift as on the others