A local shop here in San Antonio charges $42/hr paint labor and $28/hr for materials. I'm curious if I do all the bodywork and prep sanding the car to 400 all around, how many hours could I expect them to say to spray primer and a base/clear ?
Also, don't be shocked if you can't find if you can't find a shop to paint over your work. Nothing personal, but a paint job is like building a house, it's either right from the foundation up or it's worthless. Spraying the paint is the easy part. But it's the one to get the blame if something goes wrong. Paint fell off? Damn painter. Rust coming through after 3 months? Damn painter. Ripply body and misaligned panels? Damn painter. You see where I'm going? The painter has nothing to gain and everything to lose. If he's lucky, he'll make a few hundred bucks. If it falls apart in a few months, he gets his reputation trashed for something that's not his fault. There's no way I'd even consider painting someone else's bodywork, nor would any pros I know. Just be ready.
That's actually a good point I didn't even think of. Since I don't have $5k to spend on painting the car.. and I'm willing to prep it all myself, how can I find a paint booth to paint it in? My parents house is a definite 'no' this time around.
Also, don't be shocked if you can't find if you can't find a shop to paint over your work. Nothing personal, but a paint job is like building a house, it's either right from the foundation up or it's worthless. Spraying the paint is the easy part. But it's the one to get the blame if something goes wrong. Paint fell off? Damn painter. Rust coming through after 3 months? Damn painter. Ripply body and misaligned panels? Damn painter. You see where I'm going? The painter has nothing to gain and everything to lose. If he's lucky, he'll make a few hundred bucks. If it falls apart in a few months, he gets his reputation trashed for something that's not his fault. There's no way I'd even consider painting someone else's bodywork, nor would any pros I know. Just be ready.
That's actually a good point I didn't even think of. Since I don't have $5k to spend on painting the car.. and I'm willing to prep it all myself, how can I find a paint booth to paint it in? My parents house is a definite 'no' this time around.
Hey, if you're willing to do the prep work yourself, why not try renting a booth and try shooting it? It's not as hard as it might seem, and after shooting the car in primer for blocking, you'll get a feel for it. If you choose bc/cc systems, it's easy to shoot and easy to match. I've never painted anything in my life with a spray gun, and like you, there's no way I could pay a pro, so I bought a couple books, borrowed a video and did it myself. You can too. There's lots of info online Kevin Tetz's Paintucation - Paint Your Own Car! is full of great guys, including the one and only Kevin Tetz, of SpikeTV's "Trucks" show. He's always on there and quick to offer help and ecouragement. I vote for trying it yourself, after all you never know until you try.
What Ihave done in situations like this is do all the prep etc. yourself. I assume you would have all the misc. parts off the vehicle, door jams done etc, including primer. I've taken the vehicle prepped to a shop like "One-a-Day" and had them shoot the paint. At those shops, you have a person doing nothing but shooting paint all day. They lturned the vehicle around quickly. If you have the windhield out and all the trim off the car you will be able to do a better job at preping the surface than most shops would do. You could even supply them the paint. As another responder pointed out, the finished paint will reflect the underlying bodywork.
Find a paint booth? Doubt it will show in yellow pages. Try to think if you don't know someone working for a local dealership, they may rent you the box for Sunday or so (don't ask receoptinist at Benz as you willl scare her). I painted my stang that way, cost me $100 you need only your gun as those guys don't lend their guns to anybody. Yet I paid a professional painter who does not paint cars for living to do the job
That's actually a good point I didn't even think of. Since I don't have $5k to spend on painting the car.. and I'm willing to prep it all myself, how can I find a paint booth to paint it in? My parents house is a definite 'no' this time around.