Im looking to get my car painted but I want to know what is reasonable. I have only been to three shops so far, and I have been quoted as high as $5000 starting price. I already have my whole car sanded and trim removed so I thought that would take a good chunk out of the price, but Im not sure where to even start. So my question is,

How much did you pay for paint?

How much prep work did you do yourself?

How good did it come out/how long did it last?

That sounds a bit steep to me. I have a local guy that will do mine for $1,500 if I do all the prep, including taping. A lot does depend on what kind of paint you plan on using, single stage, base/clear, candy etc. Paint alone for a single stage urethane can run about $800.

I know your asking about professional paint jobs, but I just want to point out that you have a lot of options.

This is krylon spray paint. I have about $300 bucks in paint and supplies. Its been on for two full years now, and looks great







have fun with it. you can also wrap it. If I was doing it again, i'd wrap it.

Rob

Damn! If I fill my trunk with spray bombs and drive to Virginia Beach can you do mine?

I paid about $1800 for mine. I did no prep work, the shop did everything even applied new decals and had a new door skin put on. The job was excellent and lasted about 5 years, now the clear coat is bubbling. I have had the car parked for over 5 years now and plan on seeing if they will honor their "lifetime warranty" since i will be driving it again daily. I would have gotten it fixed but have been overseas for the past 5 years.

This will give you a general idea of paint. Hope you don't mind all the pic's.

Here is my car. This was painted about six months ago.
PAINT Price approx. $1200.00
House of Kolor
Color.
Kandy Apple Brandywine

Labor Price approx. $1200.00
Installed New Nose, New Hood, Both Door Skins, Archie Type Side Scoops, Quarter Windows Scoops, Sunroof Rust,
Sanded, Prep and Painted with three coats of clear
on a scale of 1-10 probably at least 8 1/2 - 9 out of 10

The 88 GT was repainted at a Pontiac dealer in ( the car sat in the Florida sun and was baked ) 1997 including putting on a new aero nose (you could get a new one back then) They did all the work and I think it was $1600. It still looks good. It has another nose with a chin spoiler and a replacement wing done at Menace body shop in Melbourne anout two years ago. The original repaint still looks good.

About 200. I wet sanded with 400, and sprayed with Duplicolor Acrylic Lacquer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCUfGLYQAns

A lot of paint shops that have "better things to do" will usually quote you at whatever wl make you not come back and bother them anymore.... poke around and throw some numbers like 1800 at some shops and see if they bite.

$5,000 is pretty steep. A really good job should be around $3,000. Ive done them on Fieros from $200 and up. It really depends on what you want. Daily driver, weekend cruise in shows, professional car shows, Fieros arent that big of a job. I just quoted a couple of old cars. One was a 62 Lincoln hardtop all relatively easy body work, no jams, engine compartment in bct/clearcoat sanded and rubbed for $4500 and a 68 Impala, hardly any body work and OEM paint, all jams in bct/clearcoat sanded and rubbed, $5500. Both of those are twice the size of a Fiero.

quote Originally posted by qwikgta: I know your asking about professional paint jobs, but I just want to point out that you have a lot of options. This is krylon spray paint. I have about $300 bucks in paint and supplies. Its been on for two full years now, and looks great ... have fun with it. you can also wrap it. If I was doing it again, i'd wrap it. Rob

Any chance you did a write up when you did it, would love to check it out if you did, to see how to do it too. Was thinking of doing the plastidip flat black but might just do it like you did with the flat black spray paint.

Thanks,

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: $5,000 is pretty steep. A really good job should be around $3,000. Ive done them on Fieros from $200 and up. It really depends on what you want. Daily driver, weekend cruise in shows, professional car shows, Fieros arent that big of a job. I just quoted a couple of old cars. One was a 62 Lincoln hardtop all relatively easy body work, no jams, engine compartment in bct/clearcoat sanded and rubbed for $4500 and a 68 Impala, hardly any body work and OEM paint, all jams in bct/clearcoat sanded and rubbed, $5500. Both of those are twice the size of a Fiero.

on top of that, most will not touch a car someone else prep'd ..
as the owner will not say to people that ask whom painted it.. that they did the prep. and they are the reason it's a wavy mess..
my dad would sy, sure you can prep it. and I'll still go over it.. again..
one guy was so pissed as dad walked around the car, circling all the "issues" in the owners prep work.. after the 3rd time of this, the guy just gave up..
it was going to be a black car.. after the 3rd time, the car still had 30ish circles of "issues" still in the prep..
dad said, if I paint it. my names on it.. if you want it painted as it sits take it to maacco

My paint job cost $1800. People say that they like it, but I can find a lot of things to criticize about it.
The only prep that I did was removing as much of a poor repaint from the rear clip as I could, and removing anything that would otherwise have to be taped or otherwise fiddled with. (Side trim, wheel well liners, rockers, headlight doors, mirrors, etc.)
When I dropped the car off, I handed the guy about two bushel baskets of parts and said "paint these, too".
I bonded the whaletail to the decklid, and started to do the filler at the seam, but ran out of patience and skill about halfway through. Told the painter to finish it.









Before...

Ah, err, um...paint was included with the car.

I understand what your saying about doing your own prep. If your paying a good price, you should let the shop do most of the work. I always say you will save worry doing it at a place like Maaco. They do very little prep other than wiping it off. If you sand and disassemble what you want yourself, you know its going to stay on. If someone wants a higher priced job and do their own prep, its fine with me as long as you know the only thing im responsible for is dirt or runs period. Im not responsible for scratches, chips and waves...you own it. Your complaints will fall on deaf ears.

I paid over $10,000 for the VR6 paint and over $12,000 for my orange and black gt. The vr6, I did no prep whatsoever. The orange GT, I tried to prep it, but found out that I really suck at bodywork.
My gold GT got done at Maaco 4 years ago for $2500 and next year I will be sending it out for a proper paintjob.
Dave

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www.hausofguru.com

painted blue by you in my drive way for around 350 did all the body work then which was about 7 years ago paint has held up nice I did use two stage acrylic on it ...working on my next project which will be much much better I have 700 into paint and materials but will not be showing pics of this because I'm keeping it to me and my helpers but should be out in time for the 30th

to anybody who lives close i will paint cars for just the material and help on the body work ....I'm no professional but it looks better then rattle can thats for sure !!
~Tom

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BLUE BY YOU!
NYFOC

qwikgta, how much has the car been out in the rain and sun? because im using it as a daily driver and it would always be outside

IIKool, so your paint guy only charged 2400 for all of that? If I could find a deal like that I would go for it, by the way, your car looks great

Raydar, I had a shop quote me that price exactly and if they could do a job that good I would be happy with it

Roger, I understand what your saying, I may just let the shop finish up everything

One thing I WONT do is paint a car over a customer primer job. I have to primer it or they have to use MY primer. I got bit hard doing a Corvette once the customer had done and primered in 2 part primer. After I painted it in factory 2 tone, color sanded and buffed it all out, the primer started blistering up under the paint. I ended up redoing all the body work, all new primer (mine) and repainting it again...all at my expense. Never again.

Thus the saying " Putty And Paint, makes it seem what it Ain't" !

quote Originally posted by fierogt27: qwikgta, how much has the car been out in the rain and sun? because im using it as a daily driver and it would always be outside

garage kept. never has seen rain in 12 years. Ya got me on this one.

rob

Can a paint place fix all the little chips out of the fiberlass? My hood and top have a lot of little chunks missing where the paint and a small portion of the fiberglass has broke out. On thing I've always feared is have someone put bondo on it and the bondo popping loose and cracking the paint job, I've seen it a lot, but does it happen often? Seems like it doesn't ad-hear to metal like it should. I would think bondo would not be used to repair fiberglass/plastic.

Generally, you use SMC type filler. Most places refer to it as Corvetter Repair Filler. Its made for the material mostly used on a Fiero. The bumpers use a different filler because there different material. Ive had very good luck on body parts with Duraglass too. Its a resin filler with chopped up fiber strands mixed into it. If you take it to a shop, veryify what they use...dont take their word for it. In most cases, regular gray type body filler wont last as well. Duraglass is dark grayish or dark greenish, SMC filler is a very dark gray or off black. Reg filler is white, light gray, blueish or reddish depending on the hardner used. Ask to see it before they primer it if you want to be sure. A lot of shops will use just regular bondo filler because its cheaper and easier to work with and covered with primer you cant tell till it pops.

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: Generally, you use SMC type filler. Most places refer to it as Corvetter Repair Filler. Its made for the material mostly used on a Fiero. The bumpers use a different filler because there different material. Ive had very good luck on body parts with Duraglass too. Its a resin filler with chopped up fiber strands mixed into it. If you take it to a shop, veryify what they use...dont take their word for it. In most cases, regular gray type body filler wont last as well. Duraglass is dark grayish or dark greenish, SMC filler is a very dark gray or off black. Reg filler is white, light gray, blueish or reddish depending on the hardner used. Ask to see it before they primer it if you want to be sure. A lot of shops will use just regular bondo filler because its cheaper and easier to work with and covered with primer you cant tell till it pops.

Great info. You have to trust the shop doing the work. Its just normal for them to use cheaper stuff to keep the profit up. Unfortuatlly i don't trust anyone, I've had so many bad experiances over the years. Good luck

Rob

By any chance, has anyone on here had work done by someone in the Dallas/North Texas area? I really need recommendations, every shop is saying about the same thing.