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How Much For A Spray?

2K views 22 replies 13 participants last post by  red65mustang 
#1 ·
when i bring my car to the shop to get sprayed with paint, what should i expect to pay in labor....? this assuming the body work is essentially done and the car is semi-dissassembled (chrome removed, wipers, bumpers etc...)

i know paint prices can vary so i wont even have you attempt to include that in the price, but just to get an idea, how much do you think?
 
#2 ·
Every area and shop is different on how they figure stuff like that. I know some shops here that figure an overall paint as 40+ hours times the labor rate, plus materials. That does not include any repairs that they do. You should check with the local shops to find one that will do it.

Aaron
 
#3 ·
Virtually impossible to give you an estimate as too many variables involved. Essentially ready to spray means different things to different people. One painter may go ahead and shoot some paint on your car as is, and another painter may spend hours going that extra mile.

Vince
 
#4 ·
SHIFTY101EASY said:
when i bring my car to the shop to get sprayed with paint, what should i expect to pay in labor....? this assuming the body work is essentially done and the car is semi-dissassembled (chrome removed, wipers, bumpers etc...)

i know paint prices can vary so i wont even have you attempt to include that in the price, but just to get an idea, how much do you think?
If it is a good shop they wont paint right over your work.. Not be offensive, but regardless how good you think you have done it, your best may not be the quality you are after once the dust has settled and the clear has been sprayed..

I, like many other painters have learned this the hard way.. Who ever gets it is going to need to be paid to go over it with a block and probably re prime for a final blocking to make sure it is good to go..

I also doubt that you will get any warrenty with a paint job, when the shop does not know what lies beneath.. Just some food for thought.. Not trying to be negative or anything.. just being real..

All that being said, it depends on the level of finish that you want also to figure in cost.. there are many variables to consider my friend
 
#6 ·
And you may have trouble finding a shop that will want to do it at all. I am sure someone will, but like others said, not many will want to paint over others work, not knowing. We all have experienced people who say yeah the bodyworks all done, and it needs a lot of work before paint can be sprayed. Many shops do mainly collision work which is more profitable to them, and don't mess around with completes or working on older cars. They might only do things like that when the shop is slow. The rate for a decent factory type base clear paint job same color, no jambs or bodywork ect, would be somewhere around $2000-3000 and a production type place using a cheaper single stage may be less. Of course there will be rates anywhere under and over that and one place may use better quality materials then another. Also depends somewhat on the area. CA where the cost of living is high and labor rates usually higher may be more then another area where shop rate is 30 something an hour. There is no labor times published for a complete paint job, so It pretty much what the shop guestimates how much time and work its going to be and what they are willing to do it for, if they are at all. I'd go around with the car and get some estimates. Also look at what kind of work the shop is doing.
You could also ask people you know. Maybe they know someone that does some sidework. Also many tech schools that have body repair programs take some cars in off the street. May be hard to get in though, depending on what openings and type of work they are looking for. Where I went though, they only charged for materials. A shop or anyone for that matter who is concerned about there name going on it, is going to be weary of painting over someone elses work. If the paint job fails for some reason or looks like crap, even though it may not be their fault, they are going to be the one who gets blamed and looks bad when someone asks who painted it. Your not going to say I didn't do the bodywork well or prep well enough and thats the reason it looks bad. They'll just say Joe blows bodyshop did it. Even the best job of spraying the paint in the world won't look good if bodywork and prep aren't done well. I remember a dealership I worked for, one of the painters sprayed a escort one of the mechanics cars for a favor after hours. The mechanic did the body and prep and when done it was just a shiney mess.
 
#7 ·
buy a spray gun and do it yourself. unless your after who quality results. there are different pieces of literature out there that will walk you through the process step by step. or better yet make friends with someone that knows how to paint. when it comes time to paint get some plastic sheeting cover everything in your garage that you can. take your garden hose and wet everything down that is safe to wet down. especialy the floor. make sure the room is at the proper temperature 65-70 and go to town. (you probably want a respirator..or you'll have the worst headache your my life) you'll save hundreds in labor cost and have a new skill. gotta love a new skill.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Shifty, I read your journal,

the only metal work you have done is buy new fenders

90% (?) of the mustangs need new rear quarter skins, outer wheel housings and probably door skins, new brace behind the gas tank, rebuild the rear glass sill for no leaks, new door hing pins and bushings etc,etc, etc, etc

the good news is the sheet metal and parts are dirt cheap compared to most ($69 for a qtr skin or full half floor)

"no holes in the floors" is not the issue.....the problem with a unibody car is that the metal has lost it's strength/ridgity from constantly flexing (bend a soda can in half enough times it breaks)...atleast replace the torque boxes ($50?), they are shot

your not ready to go paint shopping.... (unless it was a desert car that never left the garage)

do it right, do it complete, the car is increasing in value at 20%+ per year and doing it right does add ALOT to the resale value
 
#10 ·
I'd say preparation is about 95 0/0 of the paint job. That said, get some old metal and practice painting. If you're just looking for a 30 footer paint job, you can do that yourself. If you're wanting show quality, save, save, save. Dan
 
#11 ·
the good news is the sheet metal and parts are dirt cheap compared to most
Yeah but how do they fit? Maybe BK will stop by and he will share his experience fitting aftermarket sheetmetal on a mustang he worked on. I didn't look at the journal at all, but bodywork on majority of old cars is going to requre quite a few hours of patching, bodywork and prep before its ready to see paint, If you want something that won't look like arse or need to be redone in the near future. And yes, inside the cowl on most older cougars and mustangs I've seen rust in, and its a weld on panel. And around here at least, your pretty much assured the bottoms of the quarters, wheelwell lips and doors are going to need some work.
 
#13 ·
Not to be different for the sake of being different, but if you take your car to Maaco they will shoot paint over whatever you have done, right or wrong, and charge you a reasonable price for it. (IIRC it is about 400.00 for shooting the car, not counting materials.)

I have spoken with a couple of guys who did that and were happy with the outcome. I saw the cars and it looked like new paint.

I'll just say that you shouldn't expect miracles or show quality or any kind of guarantee.

I'll bet there is a Maaco up in your area.

Later, mikey
 
#14 ·
okay, well first thing you guys should do is disregard my journal. Thats not any indicator of what state my car is in right now. I have done metal work actually. Im getting pretty sick of it so im taking a break...not even going to hammer and dolly anything today....

the car has been stripped to bare metal, rust has been cut out, new metal welded in. Also, just about finished shaving the drip rails since the were rusted out so bad.

I'm not an idiot...and besides, i started that journal, and haven't exactly finished it. The latest entry in that journal is probably from the time period "10-12 months ago". So don't go by that.

yes the mustang reproduction sheet metal fits less than stellar but i got some fenders that aren't as bad as some people claim. I got sent two left fenders so they send me a right one too to fix it and i compared them all and there is two decent ones and one bad one......so i think its hit or miss unless you spend like $500 on a new Ford Tooling fender.

i have also been in the process of fitting a bunch of fiberglass parts that fit so bad initially they should have a warning label of "you will end up basically making your own part, this is just a very rough starting point to add and subtract fiberglass from...." Although, i expected that from seeing pictures of other peoples cars and stuff so oh well....not as bad as i thought. I'm doing a California Special clone type thing but probably wont have any GT/CS emblems or anything, just the duck tail spoiler, sides scoops and tail lights and some other stuff.

i never said my car is ready to paint either...im still replacing metal....im trying to get a rough idea of how much $$$ i need in the bank before i go to some body shops.

I went to one when i got the car and they said they could just said down the top layers of paint and smooth it all out and spray it for like 3k...which isn't what i want in the end, and decided to really get into this car instead of just make it drivable, but i was just gaging the price range.

I can do the initial filler and epoxy primer and stuff like that but i don't even begin to pretend i will be getting it to the point where i can just drop it off and it will go straight into the booth. I know theres going to be final-final stuff done. But what i mean by "body work mostly done" is metal is patched, initial filler and primer...then it needs smoothing/blocking.

I've considered doing it myself (spraying the paint) but don't really want to after really thinking about it. I don't think it would turn out good enough to justify staying up til 4 in the morning every night...which is why i want a shop to finish it all off.
 
#15 ·
My suggestion would be to do the metal work, then go shopping for estimates, I would rather see it that way than having body work started, because at least that way you can see what you have. if it came in with filler on it, I would want to strip it back down. so you might just be wasting your time at that point.
 
#16 · (Edited)
shifty, apology, your journal was all the info I had to "guesstimate" a price from.....

I agree with shine's post above, approx 100 hours at what ever the SF area shop rate is for a "very good" paint job, and you do all the re-assembly and panel fit

you sound very capable, do ask the shop if you can assist, there are so many areas that "can be" prep finished "better", to make it a "WOW" paint job but would add another 50-100 hours to your bill (ex:hand blocking the door jams, trunk lip, gravel pan, heck, block and sand the inside of the hood....it's all in the details....not hard to do just takes time)

side note: I did say "cheap", didn't say "good fit" above, and agree some parts are terrible (the floor pans are "one size fits all 65-73'" YUCH) but half the battle for "fit" is it is a twisted bent unibody from use and very probably has been banged hard in atleast one accident....a perfect panel won't mount on a twisted unibody.....there are still "crap parts" "seconds" being sold if you buy on price alone
 
#17 ·
I work in a body shop. Its just me and my Boss. I know for a fact that he wont touch a paint job for under 4 grand. Then if you want it jammed too... he told me another 1000-1500. One of our regular customers brought us a car and said its ready to paint. Long story short we had over 50-60 hours in work to do before we even put a drop of paint on the car. The guy also wanted the bottem of the car painted, all said and done we had 70 hours on the floor and about 75 on the body. Like prevous poster have said not alot of people will paint a car when you say its ready. I know a guy who will paint anything for about 600 bux but it is a $600 paint job.... not someting i would want on my rod. Mike
 
#18 ·
Streamline55 said:
I work in a body shop. Its just me and my Boss. I know for a fact that he wont touch a paint job for under 4 grand. Then if you want it jammed too... he told me another 1000-1500. One of our regular customers brought us a car and said its ready to paint. Long story short we had over 50-60 hours in work to do before we even put a drop of paint on the car. The guy also wanted the bottem of the car painted, all said and done we had 70 hours on the floor and about 75 on the body. Like prevous poster have said not alot of people will paint a car when you say its ready. I know a guy who will paint anything for about 600 bux but it is a $600 paint job.... not someting i would want on my rod. Mike

i gotcha....but im not saying its ready for paint....all i was saying is that the work is started.
 
#20 ·
well, i was thinking since its stripped to bare metal, just epoxy primering it at my house so when i take it to the shop and stuff theres no insta-surface-rust going on...then sort of letting them take it from there....im pretty sure there is at least one body shop that will spray over my work (after they do their own over it) but im not gonna limit myself to them per se....

but i have taken my car there before and the guy had another mustang to show me and it looks like it was super duper straight and he said that it was costing the other guy $3500 to take it down through the old paint to the primer, block it, and spray it with primer, and block it out a few times then spray it with light blue. He said it would take 35-45 days depending on the car and he only wanted 1-2 full paint jobs in at one time. He said it would cost more for a darker color like black and he would want to take longer on it and would really like to take it down to metal before work on it. Basically meaning, he wasn't going to just do a quicky job if its a dark or metallic color.....he said he usually does it by paying half up front and half once its finished and your satisfied...seemed decent deal like that.

i guess i could always consider doing it myself with a light color...i mean ive sprayed other things than car panels without any real problems....just not a car yet besides some primer. my grandpa knows how to and stuff...and i have all the right tools and decent enough space....its just a matter of buckling down and doing it. I'm not at that point yet so im still going to be mulling my options.....
 
#21 ·
ha!
Shifty you must be a lawyer!
"Never ask a question (how much for a spray?) that you don't already know the answer"......$3500 labor only for a light color....quoted by your local shop=70 hours in central FL, (SF area has gotta be higher per hour for quality work????)

so far he has given you a standard verbal "sales pitch" talkin' the talk" to get you to come back......cheap price and fast delivery

go back and ask for the owners names and ph#'s of the last 5 cars he did....ask them if they would recommend him and how long to get their car finished?

ask for 1/3down, 1/3 after inspecting final primer (your last chance to check for straight and flat flaws) 1/3 on delivery....

get a detailed quote from him in writing, price AND delivery date

(that's how we do business)
 
#22 ·
yeah well this was before i decided to strip the car to bare metal and all this stuff...so im thinking the story would read a bit differently now....

he did say he suggested coming down as much as i could, every other day even to check on the work and even take pictures of the process and stuff...so i don't really think its like...a real shady place...they guy has his kids there giving free car washes and stuff on Saturdays or whatever and wouldn't let them take tips..."hes already paying them" so i couldn't tip the little kids lol

the difference is, the car is in differnt shape now...and that quote was based off of "what i could afford" at the time...plus, i'd want a dark color....so its really a differnt situation...but maybe i will be come a lawyer anyways.... ;)
 
#23 · (Edited)
Shifty, I wrote that last post based on what is happening here today in central FL....."et caveot emptor"=buyer beware, some shop's quality has turned to crap, some shops actual finish dates are ridiculous

for the record, both Dick (metal work) and myself (grunt work) are retired and do work "cheap" at Nelson's (great painter and artist) shop....more as a hobby than work and the pleasure of seeing it finished....it is possible your local guy has the same attitude....only one other shop in our area out of 10 has our "attitude".... (but Nelson has to bust his butt doing fast turn around collision work every week to keep the business profitable "to feed his kids")

we have been taking in more and more "redo's" or "just finish it" in a reasonable length of time

there is a very well respected member of this board based in the SF area named MARTINSR, easy to find in the exterior forum or use the "search" function.....send him a private message.....he may know your guy and/or direct you to other shops

"he has kids"=cash hungry, "car wash"=cheap advertising "no tips"=? he is trying to appear wealthy/classy?

get the references!
 
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