Author Topic: What's a paint job worth? (Read 10011 times)

Laurentian · « **on:** July 08, 2006, 02:24:22 pm »

What's the going rate for a complete paint job on a A2 Jetta?
No rust, just lots of stone chips, sand blasted big bumpers.
Staying with original black.
I've heard 2500 to 4000 Can :shock:

malone · « **Reply #1 on:** July 08, 2006, 08:08:23 pm »

$50 paint job, if you wanna save:

http://www.thedov.com/forum/index.php?topic=94417

JohnBeretta · « **Reply #2 on:** July 11, 2006, 01:20:02 pm »

Could you do a paint job like that with a Wagner Power Sprayer? This might just be the trick my Jetta needs.....

Do you have to strip the old paint off or can you just rough it up and prime and paint over it?

nkb · « **Reply #3 on:** July 12, 2006, 07:01:32 am »

2500 for a paint job is way too high, 4k is just sick. if your car has no rust it shouldn't cost much more than 500-1000 for base clear. people are always ripping people off on paint jobs, claim that materials are expensive thats why i paint all my own cars!!

akrallysport · « **Reply #4 on:** July 12, 2006, 12:34:40 pm »

Paint is not expensive, it's the labour to do it right.

nkb · « **Reply #5 on:** July 12, 2006, 01:24:15 pm »

Quote from: akrallysport

Paint is not expensive, it's the labour to do it right.

well there isn't much labour involved in a no rust car, feather edge the whole body, prime, block, wetsand, washnwipe then paint, the only time consuming part of painting cars is doing rust resto. even that should cost nowheres near 2500...

vwmike · « **Reply #6 on:** July 12, 2006, 03:39:11 pm »

What you just described still takes a lot of hours. I've done this before and I think my friend and I spent about 30 hours (each) on my Rabbit before it was ready for paint. There wasn't a spec of rust on it (desert car) and bodywork was fairly minimal. That doesn't count cutting and buffing it either.

MaxHedrm · « **Reply #7 on:** July 12, 2006, 04:11:01 pm »

Nor did he mention masking.

Laurentian · « **Reply #8 on:** July 12, 2006, 04:12:10 pm »

OK, been away, got a quote from a local body shop here in the Laval Ind. park, when there he had just painted some kind of Porsche for 6000,
he showed me a Maxima with a 4000 paint on it.
The guy knows his stuff, Lebanease origin, worked in Cali for 10 years and now has his own shop here in Montreal for past 2.
He raced an A2 GTI in Rally in Cali, now owns an A3 Rally car ( full cage, the works )
He freaked when he saw how clean my Jetta is, suggests painting hood, trunck lid, my 4 doors, big bumpers, and inner rockers, compond /polish the balance, oh and blast / paint / reseal the bottom of the doors and other problem areas. Also he will repaint the windsheild well and I pay his cost on the new windsheild install.
All for 1600.
I find that pretty good considering his experience and the level of work he does.

Oh yeah, Malone, thanks for the Tremclad 50.00 link, I think I'll be painting my '86 Toyota pick-up utility dove grey that way!

nkb · « **Reply #9 on:** July 12, 2006, 04:38:12 pm »

Quote from: MaxHedrm

Nor did he mention masking.

masking doesn't take long, i remove all lightsand trim, leaving only glass to cover up

and as for cutting and buffing, not everyone does that, you lay a good coat and you shouldn't need to unless you have a trailer queen, or you just can't paint to save your own life.

this paintjob wasn't colorsanded

lord_verminaard · « **Reply #10 on:** July 13, 2006, 05:49:27 am »

Quote from: Laurentian

He freaked when he saw how clean my Jetta is, suggests painting hood, trunck lid, my 4 doors, big bumpers, and inner rockers, compond /polish the balance, oh and blast / paint / reseal the bottom of the doors and other problem areas. Also he will repaint the windsheild well and I pay his cost on the new windsheild install.
All for 1600.
I find that pretty good considering his experience and the level of work he does.

Sounds like a good deal to me. I'm working for a friend part-time who is doing custom paint and he usually charges minimum 1500 for a base-clear paint job. (that's basic, nothing special either) We're charging over 30k (yes, thirty-thousand) for a full restoration on a Mercedes 190 SL here very soon but the paint and bodywork are a minor part of that whole project. Paint jobs are all in what you want to pay- a $500 MACO job will not look the same as a $1500 professional job.

Brendan
84 Scirocco 8v
00 Camaro L36 M49

akrallysport · « **Reply #11 on:** July 13, 2006, 09:07:16 am »

1500 for a full respray is very acceptable, especially in the MTL area. An acquaintance of mine had his mk2 Wolfsburg repaired, shaved and repainted for $3k after he t-boned an Audi TT a few years ago.

houseofdiesel · « **Reply #12 on:** July 14, 2006, 08:40:31 am »

Paint jobs in Canada run $3000-5000 now, no "and if ors or buts". Bodyshops spend many hours before painting, my experience is if it costs under $2000 it will not look pretty...lots of sanding marks/scratches visible under the new paint, lots of ripples in the metal visible (wavy looking down the side of the car), possible runs in the paint, poor masking, bondo etc. 15 years ago a good paint job with rust repair was $4000....imagine now!
There is usually a couple days of sanding involved to make the car straight again-door dings, scratches, dents etc take alot of time to fix unless you cover them with bondo. If you see the employees using bondo everywhere on every panel they are not a body shop, just scam artists...
Greg

lord_verminaard · « **Reply #13 on:** July 15, 2006, 05:50:11 am »

Quote from: houseofdiesel

If you see the employees using bondo everywhere on every panel they are not a body shop, just scam artists...
Greg

Not entirely true. Bondo gets a bad reputation but in a lot of cases, it's the only way to make it look right. If done right, bondo will last longer than the paint will! If you ever watch those hot-rod shows on TV, they use bondo everywhere. It's pretty common, especially on older cars, to use a thin skim-coat of filler on a whole panel after it's been sanded down to bare metal, otherwise the panel will never be uniform. It's the hacks and chop-shops that gave bondo a bad name, when they use it to join panels, or use it over rust damage, or not even prep the surface before they use it. And I'm sure that we've ALL seen what that looks like, unfortunately.

Brendan
84 Scirocco 8v
00 Camaro L36 M49

houseofdiesel · « **Reply #14 on:** July 17, 2006, 12:02:21 pm »

But bondo should not be used all over the car, just the imperfections...and it rarely lasts very long and makes the panels sound hollow. Around here it is never used properly...
My fathers Mercedes they used lead to fill all the pitting, it still looks mint after 16 years and 500k since the restoration
Greg