chris wrote:He said zero body work. In a collision shop doing a complete like that with 14 hours of labor is not a stretch. This is not taking anything off the car. I gave you guys the hours breakdown, which part don't you agree with

I wasn't disagreeing with you. If it was just a straight scuff and paint you could do it, maybe even I could do it, especially on a convertible. I'm not a machine like Jay.

My concern was, and remains, if the car needs repainting, why? It would be a rare vehicle indeed that was that age and didn't have other issues.

Doright wrote:Then same customer will be back about every little tiny flaw forever

Exactly.

It sounds like you are looking for an economy job but you have contacted only collision shops. I hit a deer and my insurance company came out and wrote an estimate....the damage was $1700 parts, material and labor....$975 for paint work (labor and material) which included the front bumper cover. grille, left front fender and 2 left doors. My experience is that insurance companies don't give these shops carte blanc....there is a nationwide estimate guide being used!!! I am guessing there are some factors you might be missing...the shop that fixed my car is being required by my insurance company to offer a lifetime warranty on the repair. If it is a collision shop you contacted maybe you can negotiate some of those factors out or go to a economy repaint center that does only all over repaint at a reduced cost!! I've seen a few shop names mentioned in other post, but hey don't stress ....someone mentioned you could always do it yourself if you cant find value in these shops....I've been coming to this forum for ages but never joined...I have gotten so much useful information here and am attempting to restore a model A pick up truck on my own!! Good Luck!!

model A cool, now that will take some time. i'm doing a 31 chevy pickup now its not going to be a resto but a old school hot rod. flat black, red wheels gmc 270 six with 3 carbs, cam, headers and a 5 speed. I may bob the box a little 7 to 8 in.. my plan is to find a rebuildable 50s camp trailer to pull behind it.
Jay D.

The reason a shop gives a ballpark of $3k is because they have done numerous paint jobs, they know what it entails, and what is a fair profit for them and a fair price for you. Why would a shop spend over an hour writing you an itemized estimate for you to turn around, drive off, and never hear from you again?? If shops spent that kind of time for every tom, dick, or harry they wouldn't get anything done. I could go on and on. Go to maaco it seems more in your price range. And then when the paints peeling off, cracked, and faded it will cost you 6k to do it right.

The problem with this whole thing is that you think you have an idea of what it takes to paint a car. In the time it takes me to do an all over paint job correctly I could have made our shop four times the amount doing average collision work. Most of the time when you drop off a car for a 3000.00 all over paint job you will be lucky to get the thing back in any decent amount of time. Why? Cause we are working on cars that will actually pay some decent money. A good tech will normally produce double per flag hours. Meaning if it pays me 2.0 to remove and install a bumper, I should be able to do that in 1 hour or less. And if a shop charges 44.00 per hour (our labor rate in our area) that bumper paid 88.00. But you figured you would be generous and pay the guy 40.00 per hour. The way I figured it the shop would loose 48.00 per hour to work on your car.

Chuck