Pro's thoughts on a paint job cost.

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:24 pm
I was wondering what someone who does this for a living would charge for the paint job I'm doing. This is just for fun for me; I'm just wondering how much money I am really saving. Anyway, here it is- My 1995 Mustang GT convertible was in perfect shape, with no rust or dents, and the factory paint started coming off in sheets. So, I took it to bare metal, including the door jambs, and also decided to change the color from white to black. I also took off the fenders, hood, and both bumper covers to really get everything perfectly sanded, and to make sure there was no sign of the color change. I also took off many under hood components (nothing crazy, just electrical components and easy stuff to remove) and painted that black too. I am painting it single stage PPG black, and plan to do the whole 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, and maybe 2500 thing prior to buffing. I should also mention that I did epoxy, then urethane, blocking with 80, more urethane and then blocking with 180, some more urethane, and, am now working toward my final dry sanding with 320 prior to sealer and the color. My goal is as close to perfection as possible . This will be my 5th (I think) overall black paint job, and since this car is so straight, I am hoping it will be amazing. Thanks for any thoughts!

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 16, 2015 9:40 am
I don't do this for a living but I am connected to enough people around here that do, to take an educated guess.

Complete strip and color change on a vintage car with the expectation that the results will be "show quality" -- I'm going to say minimum $10,000 for any shop I know. To just do a complete color change without stripping the car first would probably be around $7,000.

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 7:41 pm
To do all that, with a full colour change I'd be looking at a starting point around $15,000. There is a huge amount of labour in that job - hours and hours of blocking, sanding, preparation, and then nearly as much again after painting.

I'm halfway through a BMW E30 at the moment and it looks like coming in at a bit over $20,000, figuring on around 200 hours. Same thing, solid black but in BC/CC. Black needs a lot more work than other colours to really look spectacular.
Chris



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PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 12:05 am
Thanks guys for your response. That is kind of shocking for me. All in I'll probably have $1000 in materials. Like I said in my initial question, this isn't my first overall black paint job, but it is the first that was totally stripped to bare metal, and the car itself has no damage at all. Anybody else want to chime in as to what you'd charge?



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PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 9:41 pm
Hello Mark 56 Pittsburgh [I`m from the pitt area also actually in beaver county ] anyways pretty much what the other guys said, for a color change and show quality, very time consuming, and paying attention to detail, 10,000 or more is about right, for me just doing this as a hobby and not having the overhead and payroll and ect of a regular body shop, probably 7-10 grand, but I also work a full time job and it would take me much longer than a reg body shop

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