Paint Question..., so expensive...why? Options

[Raek]

ok, so i'm going around getting quotes from a bunch of diff places.

i'd like to get my whole car resprayed. i only have a couple of TINY areas that need bodywork, but the rest of the car is smooth and such...

my passenger side from the bumper to the end of the front door has really small cracks up the whoooole side. it loks like it's UNDER the paint...which sucks, cause the clear coat is still nice and shiny.

there's rust by the 3rd break light, so that MOS DEF needs repair...

and, that's the major stuff.

the other stuff is just wear and tear from 5 years of driving. the underside has plenty of rock chips. the front bumper, fenders and hood have more than plenty of rock chips...

now...places are quoting me 2500 - 3000 bucks to do the whole car. why?

i'm seeing some of you guys saying that it's only like 1000 - 1500 bucks to do it.

wtf?

[forkee]

thats cuz we got hookups

[sinner96ST]

Correct me if i'm wrong about this, but I had a friend who worked at a body shop tell it to me.

I guess when they create the cars themselves, they positively (or negatively) charge the paint, so that it literally STICKS to the car itself. They have booths like this at auto body places, and it costs a lot of money. You get what you pay for, but I do believe the prices you are getting are completely out of whack. I paid 9 grand for my car, and i'll be damned if a 1/3rd of that is going in to paint. I'd tell them to go **** themselves, and find a friend who knows a friend, etc.. or do it yourself.

Whatever you do, don't go to maaco. I've never heard of anybody actually happy with their work.

This post has been edited by sinner96ST: Jun 26, 2003 - 1:51 PM

[95STHATCH]

It sounds like you don't NEED to have the whole car painted. Try to find a small custom shop. They should be about to paint the places that need to be painted(unless there are too many spots?). If they paint only the areas needed, what they will to make it all match(even) is buff the car down really well. LIke someone said before, don't go to macco. Oh yea,about the rust, I know exactly where your talking about and that is not a hard fix so don't let a body shop tell you it is. Hope this helps.

[ScoobyDooCruiser]

A good paint job is expensive. If you check my profile, you can see the front bumper is missing some paint. I checked with 4 different places to get that tiny part repainted, and they want on average, about $350 for it. Good luck, but I think $2500-$3000 is what you'll end up paying to repaint the whole thing.

[95STHATCH]

For 3000 dollars you should get a complete color change. That much money would mean that they would be doing primer, adhesion promoter, color, and numerous amounts of clear coat. It is true that a proffessional paint job will eat at your wallet,but not if your keeping the same color.


P.S. I painted my whole front end for 200 dollars

This post has been edited by 95STHATCH: Jun 27, 2003 - 10:51 PM

[Guest_Jason_*]

For 1,000$, my car is getting the Blitz Kit, VIS Sport Sideskirts and VIS Rear Bumper molded and blended onto my car, and the whole car painted a fresh silver. It pays to have an Uncle that is parts manager for Mercedes, it was done by a professional Mercedes Body Shop. -score!

This post has been edited by Jason: Jun 27, 2003 - 11:58 PM

[Pvc99gT]

yea dude. 3k sounds right for a really really good paint job

now heres what i mean by a really good paint job. strip the entire car. take everything that isnt a part of the body that is being painted off of the car. this includes all the lights, wheather stripping, the GLASS, and the small parts like the side mirrors( they get painted separately) have it like that, then have it painted with a European Paintsystem (only way to go for quality) multiple coats of paint and clearcoat. reassemble the whole car. i dunno is that a good deal? anyway yea it just sounds like u need touch ups not a full paintjob. and yea a good paintjob will be expensive!

[boosted_K2]

QUOTE (sinner96ST @ Jun 26, 2003 - 1:05 PM)

Correct me if i'm wrong about this, but I had a friend who worked at a body shop tell it to me. I guess when they create the cars themselves, they positively (or negatively) charge the paint, so that it literally STICKS to the car itself. They have booths like this at auto body places, and it costs a lot of money. You get what you pay for, but I do believe the prices you are getting are completely out of whack. I paid 9 grand for my car, and i'll be damned if a 1/3rd of that is going in to paint. I'd tell them to go **** themselves, and find a friend who knows a friend, etc.. or do it yourself. Whatever you do, don't go to maaco. I've never heard of anybody actually happy with their work.

90% of places dont have the ability to charge the paint, and that wouldnt work anyways unless you take the car down to bare metal because the current paint negates the magnetic effect. The electron paint guns are around 1.8K + a piece, more than any regular shop would pay for them. and yea, macco is a waste of time and money.

[boosted_K2]

QUOTE (Pvc99gT @ Jun 28, 2003 - 12:25 AM)

yea dude. 3k sounds right for a really really good paint job now heres what i mean by a really good paint job. strip the entire car. take everything that isnt a part of the body that is being painted off of the car. this includes all the lights, wheather stripping, the GLASS, and the small parts like the side mirrors( they get painted separately) have it like that, then have it painted with a European Paintsystem (only way to go for quality) multiple coats of paint and clearcoat. reassemble the whole car. i dunno is that a good deal? anyway yea it just sounds like u need touch ups not a full paintjob. and yea a good paintjob will be expensive!

nah, about 8K will get the car stripped, most places dont even bother to do any more than just spot sanding let alone strip the car, you just mask it off and spray. and in actuality, the more coats you do the worse the paint job will chip. less is more, if you gauge a factory paint job off the line it is like .13 (this is just off the top of my head) microns thick, aftermarket paint jobs usually come out to about .3 something microns thick or more, in my case when i was painting, .5 microns, oh well... atleast i was just painting pannels and not my car.

[Pvc99gT]

well i guess i either know the right people, or you know crazy over-prices. problem with not strippin the car is that it will peel if its not stripped cuz it just isnt possible to get it taped down that well. the 3k quote was for my friends civic, not really friends with him anymore lol. and the guy quoting him was a friend of my family, he would do it way cheaper for me, prolly just cost of paint, maybe a lil more but nowhere near 3k. prolly not even 1k. but that guy works strictly quality, he wont do your job if you want it done shoddy cuz he has full lifetime warranty on all of his work. if its not perfect or if there are any problems ever, its covered. so i didnt really know about the coats, plus its the best paint and he knows what hes doing.i just figured multiple coats would be better, either way i know its perfect, so STFU and most places are crap!

[blkGT]

I have never gotten a paintjob, and I dont mean to offend anyone. But my mom's mercedes was repainted by Maaco, and I dont think anyone who saw it was impressed. As far as I can tell they dont do very quality work.

[boosted_K2]

ya, you just figured, you didnt know, so why should i STFU??? cuz i know.