[pistolgrip]

Hello everyone,

Okay I'm sure this has probably been asked about a zillion times but here goes anyway.
I used to do paint and body work on the side several years ago and I'm looking to get back into helping out a few local friends by doing some side work for them on their cars.
A friend of mine approached me about painting his '69 AMC S/C Rambler. Very cool car. All of the rust repair and most of the bodywork with the exception of a few dings has been completed. He is looking to have me prime and block the car, paint the car white and the red sections on the side (if you know what these cars look like you'll know what I'm talking about). The car will be painted using Dupont's Base/Clear Chroma-system paints and it will be wet sanded and buffed. Now the question is what do you think a fair price for all of the LABOR for this project should be?

Any input would be greatly appreciated as I have often sold myself short on doing side work for folks.

Rob

[Dubz]

all depends on how fast you work, and how good of a job you do. Just because it's not a shop doing it doesn't meen it should cost less, as usually most budget shops are based on getting cars in and out, not doing the best job they can for a customer, unlike how you would go about doing a friends car. I'd rather pay a friend $3000 for a paint job than pay that to a shop anyday.

[BarryK]

Gallon Primer-$150
Quart white sealer-$40
Gallon of white-$175
quart red-$75
Gallon basemaker $75
Gallon clear $200
Sand paper, tape,masking paper, buffing compounds, pads, bodyfiller.
Your going to be at $800 minimum before you start.
Just so you know what the latest price of materials are since you have been out of it for a while.

Being a friend:
If you can turn out a good (average) finish $2500.
If you can turn out a better than new $4000.
If you can turn out a show winner $6000.
At these prices your doing him a big favor.

He allready knows what a shop will charge, so don't be shy about the pricing.

[mr4speed]

I would keep the labor and materials seperate, whenever you need more materials just have him pick them up for you, that way you never have to worry about the cost of them. Then you just have to decide whats a fair price for the labor end of it, what kind of job you will end up giving him. Doing work for freinds is a tough one, you want to be as fair as you can without burning yourself, after all your the one doing the work.

By the way I also own a Sc/rambler as well, dont know if you already have all the paint formulas, but when I painted mine (back in 89) I lucked out as my local Mcglauhlins auto store had all the paint codes listed in the AMC section of there PPG paint code catalog. It was in bold printed section marked special paint codes for sc/rambler

special bright white
special bright blue (wheels)
special bright red
special black (rear valance)
These colors at the time were mixed in acrylic lacquer PPG Ditzler, just beware that the white is a much brighter white than your standard rambler white (more cream colored)....HTH!!!!
I beleive I still have the leftover paint up in the loft if you need the actual number codes off these cans to cross reference to your brand of paint..........just post back if needed!!

[daimon1054]

Are you doing it as a friend or to make money? If it's a good friend then why are you charging him labor? If it to make money then see above post.

[pistolgrip]

Thanks very much for all of your input. I can honestly say that the quality of the paint job would be close to a show job as I have painted many of my own cars and have been complimented numerous times on how well the paint turned out and then they ask who painted it. Most people can't believe that I was the one who painted the car and the next thing I hear "Can you paint mine?" I believe in taking a little more time for that perfect job than trying to rush things. I just find out that people normally don't understand why it takes so long and don't appreciate how much work that goes into a great paint job.
Once again thanks for all of your help. Hotrodders.com has been great so far and seems to be a great place to meet fellow hot rodders like yourselves!

Originally posted by mr4speed
I would keep the labor and materials seperate, whenever you need more materials just have him pick them up for you, that way you never have to worry about the cost of them. Then you just have to decide whats a fair price for the labor end of it, what kind of job you will end up giving him. Doing work for freinds is a tough one, you want to be as fair as you can without burning yourself, after all your the one doing the work.

By the way I also own a Sc/rambler as well, dont know if you already have all the paint formulas, but when I painted mine (back in 89) I lucked out as my local Mcglauhlins auto store had all the paint codes listed in the AMC section of there PPG paint code catalog. It was in bold printed section marked special paint codes for sc/rambler

special bright white
special bright blue (wheels)
special bright red
special black (rear valance)
These colors at the time were mixed in acrylic lacquer PPG Ditzler, just beware that the white is a much brighter white than your standard rambler white (more cream colored)....HTH!!!!
I beleive I still have the leftover paint up in the loft if you need the actual number codes off these cans to cross reference to your brand of paint..........just post back if needed!!

Mr4speed,

Thanks for all of your help. If you have those paint codes I'm sure they would be a huge help. I'm not sure if he has the codes for the paint yet so that would be great!

[mr4speed]

Ill try and get to that tonite and see what I have left exactly, and Ill post back tomorrow morning........till then.

[mr4speed]

Here are the paint codes that I could find, hope they are some help to you and you can cross reference them with the Dupont base/clear.

1) BRIGHT WHITE DDL 8810
2) BRIGHT RED DDL 71816
3) SATIN BLACK (REAR VALANCE) DDL9372
4) CHARCHOL INTERIOR COLOR DUPONT LUCITE 9595L
(DASH & INNER DOOR RAILS)
THE FIRST 3 ARE PPG DITZLER DURACRYL LACQUER CODES

THE 4th ONE IS DUPONT LACQUER.

THESE ARE THE "CORRECT" COLORS FOR THIS CAR, SORRY I DO NOT HAVE ANY BLUE LEFT OVER BUT I DO REMEMBER THAT WHEN I ORDERED THE STRIPE KIT AT THE TIME FROM HILLICKS THE SOURCE IN GEORGIA, THE BLUE I HAD MIXED FROM THESE CODES WAS AN ABSOLUTE DEAD ON MATCH TO THE BLUE OF THE STRIPE KIT.............HTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hoss]

$1,000 +++
TIME IS MONEY$$$$$$$$$
specially for a near show quality paint job.
buffing at least 350.00
spraying $250 minimum
thats $500 without even touching the bodywork

[Dubz]

Originally posted by daimon1054
Are you doing it as a friend or to make money? If it's a good friend then why are you charging him labor? If it to make money then see above post.

just cause he's a good friend, doesn't meen you should give him $2000 of you time and effort for nothing.

[BodymanDave]

When I have a friend do work for me I demand to pay the same price as he would charge a stranger. I figure if I paid a stranger full price for work I would much rather pay a friend the full price for their work.

[pistolgrip]

Thanks very much everyone and thanks mr4speed for the paint codes!

[BackwoodsBum]

Originally posted by pistolgrip
I can honestly say that the quality of the paint job would be close to a show job as I have painted many of my own cars and have been complimented numerous times on how well the paint turned out and then they ask who painted it. Most people can't believe that I was the one who painted the car and the next thing I hear "Can you paint mine?" I believe in taking a little more time for that perfect job than trying to rush things. I just find out that people normally don't understand why it takes so long and don't appreciate how much work that goes into a great paint job.

You sound like me...I'm constantly having people ask me to paint their car, but most nearly faint when I quote them a price. That's why I rarely paint cars for anyone except myself or my family. I really love it when people say "why do you charge so much when Maaco, Earl Schieb, etc. only charge $200 - $300". Places like that usually use a lower grade of materials and buy in bulk so their costs are much lower. Their prices wouldn't cover a fraction of the cost of materials alone for a custom paint job. I'm just about to finish a 1966 F100 for my dad and we have nearly $1500 in materials alone and more hours of work than I can count. This truck wasn't really intended to be a show truck, but I had some things I was wanting to experiment with and his truck happened to be in the shop at that time so one thing lead to another and it's days as a work truck are over now.

Anyway, it sounds like you're trying to determine how much to charge for labor and are not concerned with materials cost. This is tough because no two jobs are the same so it would be hard for anyone to say how much you should charge. Only you can decide what you think your time is worth and how much time you will spend on this project. Once you've done that, then quote your friend a price. Good luck!

[pistolgrip]

Thanks Backwoods,

I know how you feel when you finally quote someone a price for a paint job and they have no idea in whats involved. I think this guy has somewhat of a clue and I belive I have already figured out what to quote him based on how helpful you and the other members of this board have been, Good luck on the truck!

Rob

[BuickLeSabre1960]

The guy that painted my brothers 66 catalina and is going to paint my car charged a little over $2500 and it is a really nice paint job, that price also included rust work and priming. here's a picture of his car. You can't really tell but the top is a candy.