I need a paint job estimate

I was going to get a paintjob too a couple months ago, and did some research. Turns out that a factory quality paintjob goes for around $3,500, give or take a couple hundred. It was then that I decided that my car could wait a while, lol.

all depends on who your know.....im getting a color change to black for 700 bucks....my uncle is a painter and has been painting for ford for like 35 years

Try to "meet a painter" at a local bar, or body shop or somewhere. I ran into one at a convenience store one time and he sprayed some (bike) body parts for me. Cut a huge deal away from the actual body shop and it was really good work.

Cars are a little more expensive than bikes though...

I'd say if you aren't going to go for full show, Maaco (yes, really) seems to churn out some decent work. I say that because my cousin and his father have restored three older GMs (1957 Chevy, 1977? El Camino and a mid-70s Nova). They all got Maaco paint jobs for like $2000 and they all look pretty darn good. If you REALLY look at the paint close, you can see little issues, but again, if it's not a show car, don't worry about it.
Incidentally, the 1957 Chevy was featured in a magazine with pics of both my cousin and his father with a nice glossy 4 page write up. All that with Maaco paint.

The other deal-io is to save money on doing some prep work yourself, like the bodywork. Spoons, dollys and a hammer are all pretty cheap and it can be a learning experience. You could also get a cheap-o set of paintless dent removal tools. Mustangs have loads of room to get at dents through holes, especially 'verts. Watch eBay for cheap-o PDR tools. $100 and you can get two or three very useful ones and then it's just a matter of learning how metal works when it gets stretched.

Good luck!

lol when ford got slow my uncle looked into macco around here haha what a joke that place was he said there was about 3 inches of bodyfiller powder on the floors.....the owner said i dont want you taking time and what not to make them look good its all about quanity ....he said they throw a ton of mud on them and sand it down to where it needs to be and ships them out.....they would probley last about 4 years or so till it started blistering...and when i worked at the parts store and they were running low on materials they would get stuff from us...and they would use the cheapest **** that wasnt ment to be mixed with the stuff they were spraying and the guys response to me was well its not my car it will look good when it rolls out haha he said as long as it makes it down the road ill get my money i wanted to punch that guy in the face!!!...def. look into who ever you are considering have do the work and get some example of what he has sprayed.

trav_19 said:

lol when ford got slow my uncle looked into macco around here haha what a joke that place was he said there was about 3 inches of bodyfiller powder on the floors.....the owner said i dont want you taking time and what not to make them look good its all about quanity ....he said they throw a ton of mud on them and sand it down to where it needs to be and ships them out.....they would probley last about 4 years or so till it started blistering...and when i worked at the parts store and they were running low on materials they would get stuff from us...and they would use the cheapest **** that wasnt ment to be mixed with the stuff they were spraying and the guys response to me was well its not my car it will look good when it rolls out haha he said as long as it makes it down the road ill get my money i wanted to punch that guy in the face!!!...def. look into who ever you are considering have do the work and get some example of what he has sprayed.

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No doubt, one thing I neglected to mention was the possibility about talking to the person actually painting the car. I see no reason to spend a dollar at a place where you can't talk to someone about what you want done. You, after all, are the customer. Talking to the actual painter or body guy is key to getting what you want.

That is indeed a drawback to "factory" bodyshops. On the other hand, a lot of the world is like that. Quantity over quality. Too much mud and not enough actual bodywork.

Because bodyshops get d1cked with labor rates from insurance companies, the only way to make money is to juggle multiple things at once. Unfortunately, quality can suffer if the shop is overloaded or people just don't care or whatever. Sometimes they get forced into cutting corners simply because the estimate wasn't enough to cover the expenses.

On the other hand, an the estimate comes in play when it is seen as an "allowance" as to how much you can spend on the car. And the bodyshop needs to balance the amount of time they will spend on a particular car.

But that is also where walk-in customers come into play: they bring cash and that offsets the low dollars from the lovely insurance world. So that is where our friend here has an advantage.

Way off on a tangent. Sorry. Whew!.

well..I suggest you do the prep yourself.

You'll be out of the shop for $1000 with a better than factory paint job

Maaco will be different from one franchise to another. Best bet is to check out the management and staff beforehand. If you don't get any bad gut feelings, then you're probably safe. I like to think that I can spot a shaky operation by talking to those that run it.

The main problem with maaco, short of unreliability within chains (there actually are quite a few good ones out there) is that they do not do a very good prep job typically. Many people have had good results by doing the prep themselves, and then having Maaco do it. Depending on other time constraints, you could most likely do all the work on weekends and have it read to be sprayed by spring.

I did it myself, with no prior experience. Car looks gorgeous

preping is what makes a paint job if your totally green i wouldn't try it yourself

trav_19 said:

preping is what makes a paint job if your totally green i wouldn't try it yourself

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You are correct, however I wouldn't be so rash as to write it off altogether

Kyle, if you are any bit of the perfectionist that I am, (and it seems that you would be) have faith in your meticulousness, as that is what allows you to do prep/body work.

I had never done any prep work whatsoever before I did my car. I had never watched anyone do it, and I had no friends/relatives that had experience. I did a lot of research before deciding that I wanted to take it on.

I took it on like a job. I knew that it was going to save me at least 1500 and that was always in the back of my mind. It was also a fantastic learning experience, I must say.

I estimate that it took me around 20-28 hours to do all disassembly, prepping, taping, and reassembly. I then had it towed to a good shop nearby.

Here's an initial thread of mine:
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=645864&highlight=paint

This shows some of my progress pictures (note I do recommend using a DA sander. Some say that it will make the substrate uneven, but if you're not using it at high speeds, this is a non concern. I often felt that it wasn't abrasive enough. I believe I was using 320 grit with the DA.)



some tips/info:

1. Get a D/A sander (assuming you have an air compressor)...my campbell hausfeld D/A worked quite well for this job...don't feel the need to spend more than $100 on the sander unless you plan to be doing jobs after...if you have the flow go nuts...but there is a reason you're doing the prep yourself. If you don't have an air compressor, you're stuck with blocking the car...that's ok...buy a 24 and get a friend to help

2. Tape off dings before starting initial sanding. go around the car until you've thought you've found all of them. then go around 10 more times. last thing you want to see is a dent once the car is fully painted

3. Take off anything on the car that will come off. mirrors, spoiler, front bumper, rear bumper, side skirts, a pillar mouldings (I couldn't get the buggers off) etc.

3. Take dented areas down to bare metal with 80 grit sandpaper. it will take a while to get through and you'll notice all the different layers of paint as you go. bondo the dent and sand with 180 to get level...then go into it with 320-400 to get it smooth. prime the area and let it dry sufficiently. go over once more with 320.

4. start with 320-400 grit with the sanding. There isn't any need to go any deeper than the primer unless the car has been repainted (poorly) before. most likely you won't be going as deep as the primer. Just sand until the sheen and gloss is removed from the paint. You will have to look from several angles to ensure you have sanded uniformly.

5. After you have all dents worked, and the car is sanded down, you will next want to wetsand with 600. Do this with blocks only. you will need to keep the paper wet at all times and you will find that you change paper often.

6. Tape off all areas you don't want paint on. Use 3M tape.

7. Take the car to a respected body shop and have the owner go over the car to ensure that there isn't any trouble spots you have missed. if you've done a good job he'll paint it for you...you're not going to do a bad job on your own car are you?

8. Should be able to get the car painted for between $800-1200 with quality materials.

and the end product

my advice is get the biggest sanging block that you can use with reason...the more area you cover the better chances you have of making it level and not dipped....do cross sanding to never go up and down or side to side always make x's with the curveture of the body you will want a rolled sanding block also.

droptopford 5 0 said:

wow... thanks a lot... i guess it will take some more research and debate before i make up my mind, but having heard that you have never done body work before, and seeing how well it came out makes me think this just might be within reason... a few questions i still have are about removing body panels, etc... what did you take off when doing the body work and sanding? did the bumper covers come off before sanding them? and if so how did you keep em still to work with them, cuz they are real floppy last time i had the front off... also how did you get it to the body shop without getting it all dirty?... in my eyes, you would have to sand it down the final time right where you were gonna paint it to avoid dust and dirt under the paint? also are all of the bumper covers and side skirts on the car when its painted? ive seen it done both ways and it always comes out better with them off the car, but did that cost estimate from you include him re-attaching them once he was done?

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I took off -

Side Mirrors
Front bumper cover
rear bumper cover
side skirts
spoiler
headlights
taillights

You are correct with assuming the paint job will come out better with the body parts off. I was unable to get the window moldings off unfortunately...but this didn't affect the overall look.

sanding the bumper covers is tricky...it is very flexible, you just have to be patient with it. I did them by hand with a flexible block. You have to be more careful with urethane than with the rest of the car. Do a little reading on it and you'll see the reasoning.

I actually stripped the car AND reassembled it. So he didn't have to do any of it. Probably saved me somewhere around $200. For me it was worth it (poor college student).

Once I got the car towed to the shop I had them go over it with me. As long as they know in advance that you will be doing the prep, they will be more helpful with telling you how you did. In my case, there was only one dent that they wanted to go over again. prior to paint they rubbed it down quickly with 600 grit to get any contaminants off from the tow over.

If you do decide to go ahead with this, make sure you talk to your local body shops. Some will not paint a car that someone else has prepped (due to liability reasons...paint cracking, etc due to poor prep)...but if you start a good relationship with the owner, ask for advice, and show that you have done your research...they will probably give you the green light