Repainting car cost questions Options

[GaroldShaffer]

I know the cost of a paint job depends on a lot of things. But I just want to get and idea of what people have paid.

My car is 70 Signal Orange, with small dents here and there, chips, no rust on body panels, will not need any longitude work and was repainted by some PO with what looks like VW orange over the Signal Orange. I will need rust repair done to the front trunk seal channel by the headlights but that is it. Also need to replace the trunk seals and the seal at the door around small side windows. Also the chrome on the small side windows looks like $hit.

I was thinking of removing the sail panel vinyl and the chrome tirm there and either painting black or just leave it off and paint the same color of the car.
I don't want a macco job but then again this will not be a concourse car either. Its a nice solid driver that needs to have cosmetics address. So what are your thougts. Can a quality job be done for $2K is that high, low??? I'm saving my pennies so hopefully I can get this done during the winter season here.

Anyone know of a quality shop in the Chicagoland area?

- Garold

[MattR]

I am in a similar position. I dont really want a cheapo 300 dollar tv job, but I cant afford to shell out 4-5 grand. I am going to do most of the prep work and just get it sprayed, but I need to find a place that will do it. I talked to a shop in my area that does mostly insurance claims and they casually quoted me like 4 grand, but they strip the car, take out glass, and do a really good job. But, my 914 wont be worth 4 grand... so its not worth it. I want to find a 1g paint job or so where they will do the last coat of primer, smooth it out, and paint a good quality finish, but it seems like nobody wants to work for that much... So, it seems like now days, paint shops are either maaco (3-500) or insurance claim shops (3-5000). Im still looking for a median!

[seanery]

I know of some folks who've had Maaco jobs that were pretty decent. I'd say do all of the prep work yourself before delivering it to them and you should be fine. I'm actually considering this route myself.

[tat2dphreak]

there are better paint jobs from maaco that aren't part of their 299 special... good, quality from what I've seen

[GaroldShaffer]

they casually quoted me like 4 grand, but they strip the car, take out glass, and do a really good job.

I guess that is what I would like to have done. I plan to keep my car for a LONG time, it is very solid with no major rust issues. I paid $5500 for this car and I know after a $4k paint job it would be worth $5500 - $6500, but to me that price for that kind of paint job from a "quality shop" also gives me peace of mind.

I think we all know by now that the prep work for any project is the key to quality job. I can understand why a shop wouldn't want to spray a car if they didn't do the prep work also. I am not saying you guys don't know what you are doing, its me that doesn't. For me the ideal situation would be to find a shop that would let me work with them so I can learn the process and also make sure areas I feel need attention get it. But I don't think I would find any shops that would do that. Maybe I need to have a paint prep work party at my house (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

- Garold

[Jenny]

I just got a quote from Maaco for single stage paint $625. Not including body work.

Jenny

[brant]

As a relative painting novice... let me add my $.02...

After having done a black car with a lot of prep work... I wouldn't paint someone elses car for less than 4K... Its a ton of work.

Of course, I'm a cheap skate too.. and I'm painting a 2nd 914 right now... and its a lot of work too.... and I'm not willing to spend the 6K it would take to do the quality of job that I want.. so I'm doing it for myself (again)...

but don't kid your self.. It takes me 4-6 months of weekends to really do the prep work that I wanted on the car.... I'll never offer to do a friends car, because my time is worth more to me than I could possibly charge in prep time...

my recommendation would be to do your own prep if your anal like me and want it to come out right.. then have maaco or someone shoot it for you... I couldn't follow my own advice because there is no maaco nearby.. but I still may pay a hired hand to just shoot this 2nd car when I get ready..

brant

[jarbuthnot]

Garold, I'm glad you asked this. I also have minor chips and dings and minor rust in the battery area. When my engine comes back, I will take it in to a local shop (no Maaco or anything similar here). Now I won't faint when he tells me how much it will be (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif) .

[biosurfer1]

i gotta say, there is a guy who lives in Sacramento near me who got a macco job on his 914, not the 299 but was about 800 i think, and it came out better than i ever thought it could. my friend and i didnt believe him, he said he had to take it back for some touch-up work they didnt want to do, but he said if you're persistent, they'll fix any errors and it turns out pretty damn good.

[tat2dphreak]

biosurfer, did he do his own prep work? or did they do it?

[echocanyons]

Macco lost one of my eyebrows/blinds, painted over dirt, painted over rubber seals not just ovespray either.

oh yeah the paint match specialists painted my alaskan blue 914 dark teal.

and all for 1000 bucks what a bargain (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[GaroldShaffer]

I think I will do a some shopping around and see what can get for prices. So what about driving your car while doing prep work. I see cars all the time running around with primer on them. Bad idea? The more I think about it the more I know I can a lot of the basic body work myself.

I will see if I can get prices for complete jobs vs just spray and see what happens.

- Garold

[brant]

garold,

regarding driving around in primer.... Most primers are porus, meaning that any moisture or condensation on the car is actually able to seep through and make contact directly on the metal...
then what happens is that the metal starts to flash rust or surface rust from underneath where it is not readily visible....

this damages the adhesion and 2years down the road the paint goes to crap, loosens up, or bubles...
the answer is NO.. don't do it.

There is an epoxy primer which is actually water proof and you could get away with this... but most of the cars you see in primer are that way because someone is not taking the time or caring enough to do it right....

brant

[GaroldShaffer]

Sounds like prep work is a great winter project. I have a heated garage (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif) so I would just need some guidance from my fellow 914 guru's and find a shop that would spray it. Of course that means I have to finish ALL of my honey-do list before winter (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

- Garold

[BIGKAT_83]

I think if you do the prep work on the car Macco can do a excellent paint job. I had a VW done at a facto-Bake about twenty years ago. I preped the body and removed all of the chrome and rubber. This left very little masking for them. It still looks good.

I saw a Chevy astro van that macco had done with the $800 paint and this was taking it down to bare metal because of the factory paint pealing. This was a GREAT job.

Trust me some of the guys at these fast paint job shops can really paint. They have alot more experiance painting than most because of the volume they do.

[Jenny]

I'd hesitate about maaco if my car wasn't already in pieces. There's almost no rubber on it except for what's around the rims. No chrome either. They can shoot the hell out of it for all I care. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Jen

[TROJANMAN]

i had one of those "better" maaco paint jobs before. all "better" means is that they mask off a few more items. my paint started to fade in year 2. (it was a dark green metallic). it wasn't a 914 , but the paint is the same. this was about 2 years ago. the car looked "great" but the paint did eventually start to fade. i think it was their $499 special.

[Ferg]

I have a friend that works for a local high end body shop. I was originally going to take my car there for it's respray, and (ugly) stripe removal. He and I talked it over, and he said the best thing I could do is to go to this other shop. It was a cheeper quality shop, but according to my friend they had the best "gun" in town. I went there, talked to the manager and painter personally, showed them the car, and asked how much if I brought them the car stripped of all trim. 1550 was the price. base coat clear coat. They color matched the hood and around the windshield, the only parts of the car not painted, as the previous owner had spent over 7k for the "ugly" custom job, And no one can tell. Also, better quality job than 95% of new cars I see. I had a couple of days of trim removal but it was worth it.
moral of the story, is talk to the actual people touching your car, find someone you are comfortable with, and do the leg work yourself.
Ferg. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[JohnB]

One of the locals here in the DC area got his 914 painted by Maaco. His looks fabulous but like everyone else said it all depends on prep. He did his own prep work. And Maaco's are all franchises so there's no guaranty of consistency from one shop to the next.

I've been to several places for quotes including Maaco but the one I went to didn't seem to be too good so I threw that estimate out. One of the guys that does only restorations (no insurance work) quoted $12k and possibly more if he found problems. That was to completely strip and paint the car. Outrageous.

Best offer to date in my area is $3-6k for the same work, single stage paint only in two colors for my LE including all 5 wheels (remember the spare?). The guy is highly recommended by the vintage Detroit Iron fab 50's Chevy crowd around here.

I agree, it's tough to find exactly what you're willing to pay, shops want to do work the way they want to do it and not the way you want it done. On the Pelican BBS there was some talk of shops in Tijuana that did excellent work if that's a feasible option for you to consider. Ferg's right! Find a shop you're comfortable with and work with them on a price vs quality discussion.

[LvSteveH]

There are so many aspects to a good paint job that you really have to decide what you want. Quality materials can be had starting at around $300, for something basic and up from there.

The big money is in the prep and attention to detail. It's true that the high dollar shops usually have very talanted painters, and it's a safe bet, but not cheap if you have them do additional work at $60hr. Even the very expensive shops can do just the paint for a reasonable price. If you want to consider macco or any shop for that matter, just talk to the manager and especially the guy that's going to paint your car. Then, most importantly, go look at the cars that are in the shop that they painted recently. Do they have:

Orange Peel
Over Spray
Sanding Marks
Waves
Etc.

I'm with Brant on the labor aspect, you can literally spend months preping a car for a high end paint job, but then you also get to be somewhat paranoid about protecting it, so it just depends what you want. If it is a daily driver, there is no way you want the stress of driving behind a gravel truck on a regular basis when you have perfect paint.

The guys that are painting my car right now have a $150k street rod in the booth, so I'm not too worried.