Paint estimate Options

[Robnxious]

Dave, Forrest and Saigon, VERY nice jobs on your cars. I get what everyone is saying on the cost of painting a car, especially here in CA. I just bought my 74 1.8 in November, and wanted to have it looking nice for driving in spring and summer, so I looked at someone else to do the paint and interior.

The first quote got on paint was starting at 10K (this was without seeing the car). I thought that was obscene and called a few more places and found out that probably was a damn good deal. I even tried taking it to Maaco, but since everything matches on this car, I wanted it shot with the L96B Alaska Blue, and was told they couldn't find the code, but they matched it pretty good, which is not what I wanted. On a side note, the guy at Maaco told me to bring my wife with me to look at the color match so she could decide, which killed the deal right there. I am going to do some of the body work I need to do to paint it, and then wrap it right now, since it's new and I want to drive it, not have it torn apart and spending a ton for a paint job.

I think I am going to end up doing the paint myself, but am going to wait until this fall or next to do it. Thanks for the inspiration guys!

[forrestkhaag]

Thanks to all who commented positive. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

I knew, after driving my 993 and my 914 on the same day, that a 6 was going to be the only way for me to keep the 914.

The self inflicted paint job saved me all the money needed to disassemble and rebuild my 3.0SC motor including Webers, webcam work, and all - including the core. So, for me, it is worth a daily application of the 30-30 rule for paint jobs.

At 30 MPH from 30 feet out, it looks OK. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[ntmatter]

I did exactly this on mine. I had motor out, all glass off, all trim and rubber off, bumpers off, interior out - basically a rolling shell. Every latch, switch, etc that I could remove was removed - the three lids were held down with bungee cords, as were the doors.

Maaco charged about $2000 to prep, prime, and paint, in 2014 Porsche Orange. This was for a good single stage paint job, with some body finishing and full prep. The job was very solid - one small dust mark and one sag, both easily buffed out. There were some runs on the vertical engine firewall, but these are all covered by the firewall padding - everything exterior looks very good. They sprayed the wheel wells in black truck bed paint, and for a driver car I'm very happy. There was a bit of overspray to correct but really nothing to bad.

The key is in the prep - I was doing a full rust cut-out-and-restore so it was a fairly minor increment in work to pull off the other stuff to be ready for paint. I'd say this was maybe an extra 2 afternoons worth of work, not counting the body work that I had to do to cut out and repair rust in the targa b-pillars.

At the end of the day, most of our restorations are for driver cars - a fully restored 914-6 is going to be worth a $10K paint job (or more), but for many of these the money can be better spent elsewhere. Also, I learned there are "good" Maaco places and bad ones - ask around to get recommendations. For a similar restoration I'd easily do it again.

My buddy owns a successful paint shop. He shared with me what the materials cost him for a good paint job...... more than most would expect to pay for the ENTIRE paint job.

That said, he did tell me that he offers the following deal for friends...... pay his crew to prep the car well.... that's AFTER I take off all the trim, etc...(about $1600 for my car).... and then have it taken to a Maaco, etc., to get sprayed. He claims the sprayers at these places can be very good since they spray all day long.

But the paint they use will be cheap-o stuff.

So.... I guess there are ways to get a sub-$3500 paint job...... but you iwlll do a lot of the work, and be rolling the dice on the end result.

The estimates you got seem very, very fair to me.

Good luck.... hope you keep the car.

[Andyrew]

If you want a how to on diy paint jobs see my thread on painting Peters car. It goes through what suprized you can find and how to work through them.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=133838



Also for more custom stuff you can see the first part of my build thread as its mostly me painting my car.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=114780

Both paint jobs were done in my garage.

[JP3]

I had mine wrapped because I plan on taking the body kit off at some point and going with gt flares. When I do that all I have to do is have the new parts wrapped. To do the whole car was 1500.00 and had it back in three days.

[mepstein]

I had mine wrapped because I plan on taking the body kit off at some point and going with gt flares. When I do that all I have to do is have the new parts wrapped. To do the whole car was 1500.00 and had it back in three days.

Looks great!

[flat4guy]

More and more of my friends are going the wrap route - looks great, much cheaper and you keep your original color underneath. To buy the material and do it yourself runs around 750, to take the car in and have it done is 2000 - 3000 around here. The blue 914 looks nice.

[Robnxious]

I had mine wrapped because I plan on taking the body kit off at some point and going with gt flares. When I do that all I have to do is have the new parts wrapped. To do the whole car was 1500.00 and had it back in three days.

Wow, that looks fantastic! I am pretty much sold now on wrapping it and holding off on paint for a year or so.

Is that a matte finish on it?

[Mitox]

Had to chime in since I just finished painting my car. If I'm honest , I spent close to $5k just doing it myself. That is including all the tools (except the compressor) and supplies that I used. At home in my garage over a 3+ year period. I won't count all the rust repair work but will count installing the flares. I had 2 quotes. Both had the car being delivered to them on a rotisserie totally stripped including wiring removed. both quotes were for full paint trunks, engine bay , underside of decks and bottom. Neither quote included the price of paint which I already had. First quote $12k for narrow body. Second was to install flares and full paint $19500. Since I didn't have the $$ and wanted it nice, I went ahead myself.
So here's a bit of a breakdown to give you an idea. I used all PPG paint products, Deltron clear, Shop line color (custom mix) dp90 expoxy primer and PPg satin clear on the bumpers. rockers and roof. 3M sand paper. I also used a 20% discount at our local supplier because of my school affiliation.
I believe in buying good tool and product. My inexperience was enough of a handicap. I didn't need cheap tools or product messing me up. So here goes

1) $2200 for 4) 60 hour semesters of body shop classes. Got to do everything first with supervision before I tried it at home
2) $1400 for color, clear and special clear for bumpers. Keep in mind the bumper were painted three times before they were good. The outer shell twice and the front deck three times. After I had stripped it down to primer
3) $500 paint guns . Devilbiss starter kit primer/finish $189 and a divilbiss GTI finish gun for $320
4) $300 for paint booth
5) $400/500 for sandpaper, solvents, sanding blocks, tape, masking paper and plastic.

I couldn't have afforded the quality of job that I have. There are minor flaws because I'm a rookie. Nothing glaring. Friends who've had cars done in the last few years have either paid dearly or been disappointed with the results. I can always repair or redo if the need arises. That being said, I probably won't do another one.

914dave
Looks great! Very impressive.

[JP3]

[quote name='Robnxious' date='Jan 20 2017, 09:35 PM' post='2446273']
[quote name='JP3' post='2446116' date='Jan 20 2017, 02:15 PM']
I had mine wrapped because I plan on taking the body kit off at some point and going with gt flares. When I do that all I have to do is have the new parts wrapped. To do the whole car was 1500.00 and had it back in three days.[/quote]

Wow, that looks fantastic! I am pretty much sold now on wrapping it and holding off on paint for a year or so.

Is that a matte finish on it?
[/quote


Thanks. It is a matte finish and the black stripe is a satin finish. I like the fact that I can change colors a few times before coming close to a cheap paint job.

[stugray]

Or, you could go the route I did.
~$400 in materials, 2 days work, no paint booth or fumes, repairs are simple.
This was my first attempt at vinyl with no experience other than watching some youtube videos:


My plan was to verify that I liked the color before shelling out the $4-6k for real paint.

But now I like the vinyl so much I don't know why I would want paint ever again.


I painted the car with primer in a DIY paint booth, and all the black.
But all of the green was 3m 1080 vinyl.
The $400 in materials left me with enough spare to do the rear trunk (again) and any one body panel.
So I would have had enough to do the front trunk as well if I hadn't opted for the black.

I think this may be the route I go, at least until I decide to finally break down and paint it. My question is, how much did you buy? (40 ft? 50 ft? 60 ft?). I plan on buying a bit more than needed, just so I can "re-do" parts as I learn.

Thanks in advance

I used less than 40 linear feet of 3M 1080 Matte Apple Green.

I found it at:
http://www.metrorestyling.com/3M-1080-M196...tte1080m196.htm

40 linear feet for $360

I have enough left to do the front hood maybe twice

[mepstein]

Fellers.com is a huge company for vinyl. You have to create an account to get pricing but they have selection.

[zach914v8]

I had mine wrapped because I plan on taking the body kit off at some point and going with gt flares. When I do that all I have to do is have the new parts wrapped. To do the whole car was 1500.00 and had it back in three days.

Your car looks cool, I dig it.

[My 914]

I like the wrap as well. How durable is it? How easy is it to remove once on the car?

[JP3]

I like the wrap as well. How durable is it? How easy is it to remove once on the car?

The wrap is pretty durable. I have had things fall against it and did not have any scratches or rips. I have not tried taking it off yet but the installer said it is not to difficult. The main problem is if your existing paint is not very good there is a chance of pulling it up with the wrap. In my case I did not care if that happens. Most people are surprised when I tell them it is a wrap but I know where to look to see the problem areas. Slight wrinkles around tight curves and where I did not fix imperfections before wrapping. It will show any scratch or chip that was there before.

[JP3]

Close up view of the back. You can see small wrinkles around the lights.

[euro911]

Today, a friend showed me the Dodge Ram P/U that he had shot with Plasti-Dip back in November. His is matte-black, but he said they company has a bunch of colors they can spray ... and it cost him $800.

He also said that it will peel off when needed and doesn't damage the paint underneath, although he said they sprayed something else on the original paint before applying the Plasti-Dip.

It looked pretty good for a matte-finish.

I'm going to call the company to see what they charge to do a small car (914) ...

[flat4guy]

Painted the trim on my son's car in Plasti Dip, love it. A friend did his polished HRE wheels, peeled it off a year later and they look brand new still. Great product.

[My 914]

A lot of the cars I've seen with vinyl wrap have a matte finish. Has anyone done a car with a gloss finish. Wondering how the look compares to paint. Also wondering if small creases in corners as mentioned in other posts would show up more with gloss.

[Robnxious]

[/quote]

Wow, that looks fantastic! I am pretty much sold now on wrapping it and holding off on paint for a year or so.

Is that a matte finish on it?
[/quote


Thanks. It is a matte finish and the black stripe is a satin finish. I like the fact that I can change colors a few times before coming close to a cheap paint job.
[/quote]

Looks really nice, I am going to go with a darker blue matte, since the car is originally Alaska Blue and I want to see what it will look like finished with the first wrap I do. And I agree, at the price of wrap vinyl, it allows you to change paint colors on a whim!