Paint Shop recommendation
 

I'm looking for recommendations to have my 87 Camaro painted. I would much rather have someone do a better than average job than get ripped off by the local collision shop. I'm near Augusta, Ga if that helps. I don't want to drive further than possibly Atlanta area if possible.

I just got an estimate from the local shop this afternoon - $5500. I guess that's not terrible, but then the guy told me it could be 2-6 months before I get the car back because insurance work gets priority. While I did already know this somewhat, I was not expecting 6 months from what is the largest shop in the area. They wouldn't even adjust the cost if I complete things such as disassembly/reassembly, etc. Hopefully someone will chime in on this - what's a realistic expectation for turn around time? My car needs minor body work (both doors have quite a few dings, but nothing major) and it needs the paint completely stripped because the color is reacting. I have the tools to completely strip the paint and even have a primer gun (that I don't know how to use!). Maybe it's high time I learn? I'm open to suggestions - I really didn't want to spend $5500 on my daily driver. I was hoping for around $3500 on the high side.

it depends on current condition of the car and how much of trim/parts will be removed as well as if you will do the paint stripping,I could probably do it for $3500-4000 if you strip the paint and remove glass,trim,e.t.c. BTW, I'm located in Jacksonville,1 month is reasonable on job like that

[email protected]

Thanks for the reply. Can you possibly share a some references? I'm really not sure what other questions I need to ask.

You can get it done for around $800.. But they don't take off the parts and trim. Just take all the stuff off yourself, spend $800, and walkaway with a paint job that looks $5000... After working at a body shop, the whole $8000 for a paint job is such bull ****.. It is like $100 in paint and like 10 hours of labor with 2 guys..

Yea right.................dream on $100 in paint...:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: you are obviously what 16 years old and have never had anything painted:rolleyes: you say you worked at a body shop ...doing what sweeping floors??

Whoever does your car there are a couple things that make the job outstanding. First make sure that they use no laquer primers sealers or paint. Beleive it or not some people cheat out and use laquer primer then try to put decent paint over it. It wont last trust me on this one. Todays BC/CC paint jobs are designed to be long lasting finishes. If the metal work is properly prepared and sanded well (speaking as if the car has little to no body repair that is) they should be using a 2 part epoxy sealer, or a tintable catylized sealer under a good BC/CC paint job. Then if they need to sand and polish the paint, make sure they dont use wool pads to do so. Todays paint is better suited to the foam pad polishing. If the paint is of any quality they can do this withing 24-48 hours with no issue. I use PPG products in my shop and it has a better track record in matching the original color. SOme painters like Dupont its all in the shop's opinion. The cost of a GOOD paint job is also reflective on the quality of materials. SOme colors can cost $200 a quart, clear is $290 a gallon + catylist and reducers so this shop that said $5500 is really in line with todays prices of paint as well. When oil went to $140 a barrel all the paint went up 45% then when oil came down guess what .... the paint didnt. Not trying to scare you but on average our completes with body work has a $2500-4000 material bill. Depends on the amount of work done. Of course I havent ever done any cars that "just needed paint" If you can disassemble some of it to save some money I would recommend it. Just remember that you have to bolt it back together without scratching it too. 2-6 months is BS really but every shop has its priorities.
Good luck on your job. Of course I would love to help but Im 1000 miles away.

EDIT: ALso one more thing to concider, make sure they plan to back mask every part of your car so that you dont have to have overspray in the fenderwells, cowl panels, door jams etc etc. The more that is masked back the cleaner the job will look.

:rofl:

Puff Puff pass.

I don't think you could get spray bombs from Walmart for $100.

Thanks for the responses. It's been so long since I had any dealings with a paint and body shop that I just didn't know what to expect. I was somewhat surprised when the guy at the local shop said $5500. I also thought about what I'd been told about this particular shop being high price wise. I know you get what you pay for, but thought 2-6 mo is just wrong. I think for $5500 the car should be in and out in no more than a month tops (but that's just me). I guess it would be different if I didn't know that it could technically be done in a week or two if a couple guys were dedicated to the job.

It didn't help when the guy told me they had an 83 Z28 in the shop that had been there for 6 months and they are just now fitting the doors back (it's not even painted yet!). The guy then proceeds to tell me that the owner will have around $7-8k in it when they're done with it.

Yeah 6 months is not right. Move on to another shop if you can. Talk to people in the business and find out what shop they have used though car shows and what not. A lot of us have spent 10k and more on just paint and body work. That's kind of the norm. Do as much body work as you can, and prep it as best you can, this might help, but expect to pay for paint. It’s like the old saying, buy nice or buy twice, that very much applies to paint. And don't listen to guys like Trey who have no idea what their talking about, talk to car real guys in your area.

wow....................... Having done my own paint jobs I'm wanting to know where you can buy all the materials needed to paint a car for $100. Hell, I just spent $400+ in just clear.

Jody

here is a thread I made on one of my projects I finished couple months ago

https://lateral-g.net/forums/show...d=1#post190129

give me a little time as I'm uploading pics ,since it only allows for 5 pics per post

you can check with Stage 6 Motorsports,904Motorsports, Speedfab,Velocity Trends,Aerotrends ,Fifth Gear,TK Performance or Duval Acura, I do paint and body work on all their brand new never titled cars,so I don't think I do sloppy work,otherwise I wouldn't be working on brand new cars

I saw that thread just before looking this one back up to see if there were any replies. That Supra looks very nice. I am definitely not looking to take mine down that far! :)

Just payed 430.00 just for clear ..:mad:

Must have been MAACO, and their CHEAP paint. The gallon of Dupont red basecoat I just bought cost me $397 with a 15% discount.

Sheesh - paint sure has gone up. When I had this car painted 12-15 years ago, I paid between $600-700 for the paint, clear, and all the D/A discs and other misc prep items. It was good stuff too - PPG and their Concept line clear.

:wow: And to think I had it wrong all these years!!! Oh hey Pete I need a refund on the paint for KARMA :rofl: I'll tell you what , do'nt send me all my money keep a $100.00 ,oh wait keep $150.00 I want you to go all out with one extra coat of clear!!! Thats cuz I like Tony.:lol: We have a saying in my shop when one speaks with out knowledge ''WHY DOES HE SPEAK''.......:_paranoid
Mario

LOL ........ I wish it was only 100
Just paid
1168.oo 1 gal base with reducer and 1 gal of clear with activator and reducer
no primers or sealers :wow:

You guys are a riot! :lol: You're making me think I should do the prep myself, buy the paint, and then pay someone to shoot it in a booth... (maybe I should, really).

Man I wish I could paint my car for 100 bux I remember when I did it like 12 years ago and I did all the body work my self paint clear buff. The paint cost 350 buxs for everthing and that was with a hookup from a friend. But if I had to cash in my time it would easily be a couple grand. :cheers: but good luck with the 100 dollar paint job:lol:

I usually use Sherwin Williams paints which arent too bad price wise, but an average size car still cost around $300 to $500 in supplies. Too bad youre not closer or i could paint it for you. I charge somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-3k per job since im still learning.

Heres my most recent project. I honestly beleive you can get show quality results with less than top notch paint......as long as you know what you are doing.
https://lateral-g.net/forums/show...ighlight=300zx

You may not tell the difference now, but you will in 5-10 years.

I here ya my clear bill alone last month was $2100.00:faint: Pete sent you a PM .......
Mario

i think if one keeps on top of the waxing/polishing with good quality products and keeps the car garaged it will last a lot longer than that.
What brand/products do you use?

got your PM
Your the man THANKS .....you gave enough already

Ive been using Sherwin Williams 4th Demension (Nason, Omni equivilant) for about 4 years now and everything Ive done so far has held up real nice, even in the heat and UV rays we get here in AZ. If thats not a test I dont know what is.

Yeah mid line DuPont silver, black, primer and clear, $1487.xx I guess a thread really just need a stupid comment to get jump started, hahaha!

I have no reason to try that Nason junk, but I tried 4th dimension as a "freebie" favor for one of my friends and will never use it again,I painted a front bumper ,hood and a fender for his 01 Z28, it was black and took nearly 5 coats to get the coverage ,Ultra 7000 will cover in one coat, so if you do the math, the cheap junk will cost more,as you will need alot more of it ,plus the smell of that junk was just plain nasty,it's like I just stepped next door at MAACO paint booth

isn't that how it usually works on just about any forums?

im not saying Dimension is the best stuff in the world, but i dont think its as bad as some "professionals" make it out to be. The way i look at it is that for the price its a good all around product, no i wouldnt paint a show car with it. It seems like if you ask 10 painters about a product there will be 10 different opinions and there is always one who hates it and one who loves it.

next time, why don't you try the GM 99k or whatever is straight black and let me know how many coats it will take to get for that stuff to cover,

Like I said,it makes no sense to even try to use it,because you will need atleast twice of that cheap base to get the same coverage with premium basecoat ,in the end, you spend the same money and spend atleast double the amount of time spraying the cheap junk, so I know to me it makes no sense ,

If you want a better product at even better price than 4th Dimension, try Pro-Spray or Matrix, trust me, it's 100 times better , I haven't used Valspar in ages, but their sealers and base were pretty good, matching wasn't that great

i have, i shot this 95 Camaro with GM black in Dimension and cleared with their Ultimate Overall Clearcoat. Took about 5 coats to cover completely. Heres some pics;
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...o/HPIM1368.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...o/HPIM1372.jpg

2 coats would have been more than enough with PPG anymore than that with black and your throwing money away

i had a full gallon of it anyway, so i dont see the harm in using it all to cover the car, plus being regular black it was cheaper anyway. Its not like i ran out.

car look great, but you already said it yourself, it took 5 coat to cover,

Why don't you do the math, atleast twice of the basecoat,atleast twice the reducer,and atleast twice the time to spray it, does it make sense?

you spend same money or less for half of the amount of basecoat,atleast half or less of reducer and atleast half the time to spray the good stuff

Do you get what I'm saying?

thanks, i get what you are saying, but it usually ends up being cheaper still than the "good stuff". i mean im in no way against other brands and qualities. I guess im just trying to say that the cheaper stuff can still produce as good results as the more expensive stuff.
What do you guys know about the life span/quality of the SW "Ultimate Overall Clear"

I may not know about your paint quality. BUT...Here is what I do know.... I painted my 70 GS in 1985 I used PPG (at the time the very best material) and to this day I have yet to have to repaint it because the paint is faded. Oh yea it has 245000 miles on it now over 160 since it was painted. I have repolished it about 7 years ago to get scratches out thats it. In 92 I painted my street car and if you park them side by side you cant tell the difference in the paint. Once again only polish required to keep the "like new " finish still on it. I will figure the math out so you dont have too 1985 $1000 worth of product then..............2009 today that makes my paint job 25 years old divided by $1000 I have about nothing in my paint job right now and it still looks great. Now think about this when your cheaper brand of paint is this old will it be show car ready still after a quick hand glaze???...........really only time will tell. I would never use cheaper stuff on a car that Im painting as I dont like the odds. Your car looks fine Im just making a point, you have to see how time and the elements treat your paint. Once you have a LARGE amount of time then you can brag about the cheap stuff. I have customers out there all over the country that I have painted for and ALL of them are still looking great. I hope it lasts for you ...really I do.

Here is a picture of the car taken in 05 that I painted in 85

I dont have any good shots at home they are on the work computer

thanks, i agree with you 100% that I have yet to see the long term durability. I guess all i can say for it right now is, so far so good.