just received a paint estimate- what do you think?

[rfuerst911sc]

I just about have my 914 ready to be painted. I have welded on GT flares, stripped the body of all mouldings,mirrors,pads,weatherstripping etc. I've removed the headlights,all door interior pieces so she's stripped pretty far. I still have to pull the windshield. So today a friend from work who does painting on the side came over and looked her over. He's going to paint it inside and out including both trunks and the gas tank well. He will either use PPG or Dupont paint and clearcoat. He said paint basically comes in crap,good,better and best. He's going to use better as I explained this will be a driver,AX,DE machine. I am going to help with the sanding mostly so I can learn a little bit. Anyway the price is $2000.00 including materials and paint products. I think this is a fair price and I trust this guy and others at work have had him paint their cars with good results. Just trying to get a feel for how this price is?

[Cheapsnake]

That's a great price. You'd probably pay closer to $5000 at a good shop. One bit of advice - don't skimp on the body prep. I had a similar experience, had a friend paint my Cobra and I helped with the body prep. After 4 coats of spray on filler and block sanding each coat I was getting tired and impatient and insisted we shoot it against my friend's best advice. Well, we went ahead and shot the color and it looks great BUT, I can see where another coat of filler would have taken it to the next level.

Of course, this was fiberglass and you probably won't need 4 coats of filler unless your body is really bad but take this guy's advice seriously and spend a little extra time on prep if he says so. Let's see some pics when you're finished.

Tom

[futuresoptions]

Sounds like a fair price for Fla... about $500. cheaper in my area...

[Shelby/914]

I just spent $2,600 on a color change and a little body work. Original black car with a crap color change years before I bought it. A friend use to own a body shop but sold it and semi retired. That didn't last long so he bought a smaller building to work on his race car and other projects, so now he is back in business 3-4 days a week. It had trunk slamming dents in both lids and lots of parking lot dings plus he welded up the marker lights and opened up the holes in the passenger door for a factory mirror. I did not bead blast the car but he pretty much sanded all of the color off before priming. It was going to be $2,000 if I didn't go back to black and left the markers on. The trunks were never changed so it was just the exterior, doors and jams.

Your price sounds really fair. I know people who are spending $5-6,000 for a normal repaint and $10,000 to the Sky's the limit on high end stuff.

[Matt Monson]

Shelby,
If your guy is near Boulder or Denver I'd be interested in a referral. I'm going to need a guy in the near future.

[Shelby/914]

Matt, he's in the Springs. If you want to see the car PM me. It's near Parker and Arapahoe just North of Parker Colorado.

[rfuerst911sc]

Thanks for the feedback guys. And cheapsnake I won't rush the prep, I've been working on this chassis for aprox. 2 years so what's the rush? We're trying to get this done between Thanksgiving and Christmas so hopefully I'll have pics to share by the end of the year.

[rfuerst911sc]

Had a couple of follow up questions today with the painter. He'll use epoxy primer and will color sand and buff the paint once done. I like where this is heading

[banger's 70]

Price sounds good. i do bodywork on the side myself, and have been a autobody instuctor and have used ppg and dupont both, i prefer ppg for redo's if nessary. like you have heard take your time do not rush your prep work, that is where the true prefection must be if you want a class job. good luck

[Shelton]

This was just done,including steel flares and jamming out for 3,500 by a 20 year friend,I was told supplies alone were,1400 of that

[panelbilly]

I mean who does all the follow up work? After I painted my car I learned how much more work there is to a proper finish. Cutting and buffing takes many hours and there's the risk of sanding into the color coat (as I have learned the hard way)

[Shelton]

Your absolutely correct,my car as you saw it above was right out of the booth untouched before any cutting and buffing were done.So another 20 plus hours to finished product

[84toy]

That is an unbelievable price if you ask me......My materials cost $1000.00 but we did use the best. I have a new respect for painters after doing my car. To do it right takes MANY hours. If the car was ready to paint (no body work) and you paid for the materials it would still be fair. Make sure you show him pictures of what you want it to look like so there is no arguing about the quality when you are done. Took many months to finish....

[echocanyons]

So Paul, what did you paint job end up costing?

[84toy]

Originally Posted by echocanyons

So Paul, what did you paint job end up costing?

Everything was broken down separately. After all the body work was done it was $3000 labor (with Targa top) for paint inside and out and finished the way you see above. Anyone doing black knows the time it takes to get it perfect.....No regrets though, a good price for the time it took.

[echocanyons]

Not bad at all for how it turned out!

[scott burnett]

For 2000.00 you better jump all over that. BUT don't expect but so much unless he is a REALY good friend. I did a 356 HOOD only a couple months ago and has 865.00 in it.

I have had on a couple occassions, customers come " help out " on their cars to keep costs down. They ALWAYS tell me in the end they never realized what goes into a good job, much less a perfect one. You really do get what you pay for in this line of work. I know a lot of you know what I'm talking about.

[iamchappy]

I paid 6,500 for my paint job, and i did most of the prep work and purchased the paint and supplies.
2,000 is a great price but have realistic expectations.
I still have some work left to get it perfect, after that, i will let the natural wear and tear happen.

[computers4kids]

Like said earlier, 2,000 is a very good price. It all comes down to preparation and a lot of hours after the base coat is sprayed. Since your guy knows what he is doing, a word of caution since you are didn't take the tub down to bare metal. He most likely is going to spray a coat of self etching primer as a sealer before he starts with the primer coats for build up and blocking. If you try to skip past the sealer, you risk the chance of your new paint and primers reacting to what's on their now. You can also get some shrikage of material without a sealer coat that will ultimately show scratches etc later.

Let's see some pics,
Mark

[charliew]

Depending on the number of coats of primer and filler you almost always will have some schrinkage. The better a scratch is feathered so that the scratch is not filled in with primer the less chance of shrinkage. It takes lots of paint jobs two years for all the shrinkage to stop. Thats why I like to wait as long as possible to color sand and buff. If you find a nice paint job that is 5yrs old it would be a good idea to get the painters name for future referance.

The thing that gets me is after a great paint job some of these little cars will get a rust bubble from the inside out that no one knew about or maybe couldn't prevent.

I guess if I was Jay Leno I could have it taken apart and every panel zink coated on the inside and sealed and then do the perfect paint job but it would be impossible to have fun with it on the street.