What should a high quality paint job cost?

[That One Guy]

Thanks guys, I was wanting the same info, I've got 2 guys I'm checking into to have mine painted, one has painted many drag cars and everything else under the sun, he's my first choice, but he's a little pricey, the other is my engine builder, I have seen his cars that he's had done and they all look good, but I won't get the car done for a very long time, he doesn't get in a hurry for anything.

[dartcharger_270]

I paid about $7200 for my paint, insided and out.  I removed most parts, they put them back on for the most part.

[moparwedden]

Well I Have $4000 Into Mine And My Brother Only Charged Me $1200 To Do It The Rest Was Supplies. I Spent 60 Hours Blocking This Thing Out Then My Brother Went Behind Me For Another 8. The Shop He Works For Charged Me Only $600 To Paint It. Down Draft Booth And Baked It In The Oven. Real Good Job. So Get Your Money Out Because If You Pay Somone To Do It It Will Cost You. A Guy That Delivers For Us Has A 67 Chevell He Is Doing. The Shop He Took It Too Just Got It Under Primer, $14000, He Has To Block It Out Then They Want Another $2500 Just To Spray It.

[redfastback]

i paid 6k for mine and that included me doing all the disassembly and reassembly. i supplied the tape stripe and front/rear gaskets as well. i had 45 hoours of bodywork to make it really straight and zero rust.

         I love your car especially the wheels I am going to put a set of the police wheels on my 1968 gts after i convert it too big bolt. Did you have to mini tub or             anything? I also like the rally center, did you just drill the wheel and bolt it on?

no mini tub.  springs in factory location.  i will be putting on a pair of 15x8, 4.5" bs, cop wheels i had made.  they will get 255/60r15 bfg ta's.  i just made a template and drilled the holes for the center caps.

[west]

I stripped my car to bare metal myself and then had the metal work done,thats your big variable.
 After getting that done and primed I left the locks,handles and glass on and prepped the whole car with a d/a sander in one day  (hardly  no hand sanding at all,mostly because i'm lazy and i was moving across country in a week and just wanted paint on the car the next day.(i always thought i would get a real paintjob some day in the future and this was temporary )I paid the local shop $700 to squirt a single stage white on it.
 so aside from the metal work my paint job was about $1200.I did not touch the engine bay or the hood at that time.does it have flaws?you betcha.but for the price i think it looks pretty good and I no longer have plans to paint it again.most people dont even see the flaws in the paint .
as said above its all about your expectation level and you really need to be on the same page as your painter in that respect.
heres some pics,I still havn't wet sanded it yet.

you can see in this one why its worth the time to remove the locks and handles


this one shows the poor fitment of the panels


more dribble


most of these things are easily avoided by just spending a little time,I didn't have much of that nor did i expect the car to last more than a year or two so i didn't care.I'm glad i painted it before i got the resto bug,it saved me alot of money.i just wanted it to be one color and somewhat shiny

[IL.DART340- 4SP]

I paid about $7200 for my paint, insided and out.  I removed most parts, they put them back on for the most part.

Man that is sweet.

[rrstroker71]

Most restoration paint jobs are time and material, because of the un knowns on older cars. We average any where from 10k-18k depending on the condition of the car. for a rottisseri paint job. that is with BASF Glasurit paint. modst everybody who has responded seemed to under stand. The average paint job requires about 150-200 hours depenring on how rough it is and how much dolly work is done.

[moparchop]

I just bought a auto twirler,plus I worked at a body shop about 16 years ago.Hopefully if I take my time it should turn out ok.I just have to research all the new paint products.Wasent this many choices back then.Got most of the welding done so I should be just about ready to start smoothing every thing out.Its like theropy to me...

[hemi62valiant]

I spent $11,600.00 on my car. $2200.00 was for material alone, plus 180 hours at $50.00 an hour. You get what you pay for and mine was on the cheap side as far as labor goes which is why I am now going to auto body school part time to make my next project affordable...

[NYrr496]

There is actually no price on a quality paint job. The quality really lies in the prep work. I'm no bodyman, but I do have insane levels of patience.  A friend and I painted my 69 Charger yellow. We did all the work ourselves and sprayed the car outside on the absolute perfect day. No matter where I took that car, no one believed we did it ourselves and sprayed it outside.
The next car I did was a black 80 Trans Am. I prepped the body and had a friend with a bodyshop spray it for !!300!! dollars. Put it all back together, car looked awesome.

I restored an old speedboat, long boarded all the glass that I laid by hand, had the same guy that painted the T/A shoot it.

What I'm saying is, the more prep work you're able to do, the less you'll have to lay out.

[hemi62valiant]

NYrr496 is right. You can buy a book to learn how to do all the prep work and it can be done outside. You just need patience for the times you mess up and have to start over...

[BigSlim]

  If its not a show car give it a try. A buddy of mine did the same thing on a black Belvidere. Completed all the body work, paid $300 to have it sprayed (2 stage)and it looks AWSOME. Don't forget about the bbd tech pages, if you are not afraid to get dirty and can follow some instructions you can save latsa money. IMHO When I here stories about 180 hrs of prep work at $50+ an hr my eye starts to twitch. Bottom line is that for methat kind of expenditure is out of the question.