So I had a little free time this afternoon, and on a whim, took the car to three different paint shops to get an estimate on getting the exterior repainted. Man was I NOT prepared for the estimates! Can you believe between $5K to $6K for a fricking paint job?! WTF, over?! This isn't Gas Monkey Garage, Counting Cars, Unique Whips, or Bitchin' Rides for chrissakes! I'm thinking more like Wheeler Dealer! Maybe I should've told them this is not for a PCA Concourse event, or to take out the liquid gold in the paint mix. There's NO WAY I'm paying that much for a fricking paint job.

I was straddling the fence as to whether to keep this car or not, guess I know which way I'm going now...

This is well within the prices I've heard of.

There is always Maaco if your looking for something cheap

You right those shops would have charged you 20 grand...........

Dude it's 2017!! Your not get a decent paint job for under 5k period.That's actually great price.

It all depends on what your looking for....a $5-$6K is for a decent driver quality job. The paint materials alone are expensive. An excellent /show quality paint job can cost $8-$10K.....a concours job can run a lot higher.

I paid 6K for my paint job on my 914-6, I took it completely apart and reassembled on my own. Did not paint the door jams or trunks had an old timer (45 years of painting) do it on the side for me with his son. If a shop did it at same quality would have been double. You get what you pay for.





Click to view attachment

even Maaco will be $2k if you include door jambs and some extras.
Paint cost money, labor cost money, staying in business cost money then add in some for profit.

Best color ever on a 914 Mike! Fantastic!

T

Click to view attachment

Body shops are like any other industry dominated by insurance work. The Ins Cos want discounts, but because they are the majority of the work have to be the "retail" price, so outsiders get the published "retail" prices which are close to double.

Paid $600 to repair a large scratch on a door a few years back. Priced out paint materials in the $1,000 range to do my own respray on my green car, let alone sanding materials and other prep materials. Paint is not cheap...

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.

$7K for the paint job, that included epoxy primer, block sanding the car, painting it, then blocking it and buffing it. I thought it ended up being a great deal.
Click to view attachment

5-6 is on the low to low average in a shop.

I think at these prices I'll paint mine myself. I have 2 914's and a '70 VW hardtop Westy to get painted.

I painted my 1st 914 myself. Removed all of the trim, bumpers, lights, glass, etc., and shot it. I did not re-paint the jambs, trunks or engine compartment. I kept the factory color. The car was easy to shoot and then I color sanded and polished it myself. Car looked beautiful when I was done. But when I was growing up I worked in a body shop and was painting cars pretty regularly. That was a long time ago - late 60's and early 70's. So it is completely doable if you have the time, patience and desire to do it yourself. But with today's paints and paint booths, (and my age) I would rather let a professional like Scotty do it.

Tape, sand paper, buffing compounds, masking, etc all cost more than you think not to mention the paints, primer, sealer, paint with the solvents and catalyst s, are expensive, add the man hours to do the job. 4 to 5 is a good deal. I wouldn't do it for that. I did most of my car, all but the final spray, and I spent more.

Mine was 10,000. but did enclude trunks, engine bay, door jams and bottom and inner fenders. Car went to painter stripped on a dolly. Best, MarkClick to view attachment

What about a vinyl wrap?

I had bodywork/paint sticker shock a few years back, not having needed that type of work for well over a decade. Given the fact that 3 local shops were that close in price should tell you something. I'd be lucky to find three quality shops within 50 miles of me to get quotes.

Honestly with a 914, I might also use it as a starting point because who knows what they will find when they strip your car down.
If they are quality shops, I'm guessing they also told you there was a fairly decent wait to get the work done.

There is a difference between collision shops, mixed shops, and purely restoration shops. Seems pretty conservative for a glass out full respray, buff out reinstall.

I'm going to get a quote at PDX Wraps down the street in Sherwood. I don't have time to work on my own car. But I'd like it to look as nice as it drives. So I'm hoping to fix 3 or 4 rust issues, prime the repairs and have it wrapped before WCR 2017.
That should make me happy and get me by for a few years.

I'll report back I get an estimate.

For many of us, I believe its a challenge to rationalize the cost of a "decent" paint job as compared to the cars value. Most 914's are not worth in-total what the job costs...classic conundrum of maintaining and restoring cars. You can pour tens of thousands into something that has a quarter of the costs value.

A "real-six" is more far easier to rationalize the associated build costs - its inherent value are multiples of a 1.8/4 - in any condition but especially the typical driver/beater. The cost of an excellent paint job for both will be the same - I feel for the OP - I get it. If you are not committed to the "914" then I would suggest selling as you mentioned.

All the best!

Tony

Another reason to do the work yourself. You will spend $1500 pretty easily in materials, and have 150 hours into it. But you have to ask how fast do you want the job done. If you can stretch it out over 6 months or so, and have the free time great. You will also know that all the parts are put back on correctly.

My guess is $2500-3k. Wrap installs are time consuming and they only last like 5 or so years depending on exposure to elements.

I have walked away from many so called deals because the seller would not factor in what it would cost me to have the car painted. I guess the flip-side is also beware of a pig with bright lipstick.

2 K for vinyl.....I might get in on my truck. Thinking about doing it in "stainless".

Yes, painting is expensive!! My paint restoration was done in 1997 and it cost me about $7K using German Sikkens, base coat clear coat "chrome Yellow" a long time ago. I did all the diss-assembly and grunt work to get it ready for a 2-year completion. It was done in the back yard of a 1-1/2 car garage by a rather strange perfectionist OCD guy. One day I went to look at the car & he was laying in the trunk sanding up under the rear window. I asked him what he was doing & he said I just want it to be perfect. Painters are strange people , I went through many moment of stress with him, but it was almost perfect. Today it would be a $20K+ job. The secrete is doing as much work as possible & leave the painting to the expert to save costs.
Tom

Regarding painters being "strange people"...I've always said "they've been around the fumes too long!".

T

How about the guy that spends all that money on materials, does a marginal job, because he never has painted a car before, and as a huge negative bonus he permanently damages his health because he doesn't have the right safety equipment?

Don't do it yourself if you don't have the proper safety equipment. That's a great point!

I'd be happy with 5+ years. It would bide me some time till I can give it a complete bare metal restoration.

Yeah, I'm not going to spend $5K - $6K on a frickin paint job, when I only paid $7K for the car in the first place. If I did spend that kind of money, I'd get pissed off every time I set foot in the car. So it doesn't look like it's going to get a paint job, at least with me being the current owner. I never should've bought this car...

Lots of ways to look at it. If you have a fairly nice car with the exception of faded paint and some minor repairs needed to bring the car up to a very nice car it is likely worth doing. With the rising values 5-6k is not a serious consideration.

Yes you can try it yourself, effit up and turn your 5-6k paint job into a 7k repair when the shop has to strip off your mistake. Or set the value back when you try to sell it and the guy looking say's I need you to knock off 3k so I can afford to have the paint fixed.

Not everyone is a natural painter. It takes lots on practice and lots of expensive lessons when even the shops effsit up sometimes. The paint department is always the lowest producing profit center in the shop. I went through several painters over the 18 years I was in the collision business. Some good some average a few didn't make past the first week.

Remember, this is your hobby. It's your disposable income. If you look at as an investment you may as well join a bridge club or take up knitting. Very few guys ever really make a stack on a restoration. The shop is a service not your buddy. If they don't make money they end up flippin burgers and a truck stop somewhere.

So enjoy your car. Start a Christmas saving account. By December you'll have the cash to get it done right. There is a saying we used at the shop to remind us of the importance of stopping to check it over for the last time before paint.

You always have the time to do it right the second time.

Let's see it!

Yea and as a DIY auto painter who has already nailed nice work in my garage, with practice and patience even you not so "Strange" guys can do an amazing job if you even tried to. Buy a decent spray gun and have at it!

Yup. I paid $6.5k a couple summers ago to a shop in Long Island...and he was a buddy, cutting me a deal. And while it was a very good job, it wasn't a "concourse" job. Between materials, time, paying the guys to block the car, not to mention expenses to meet EPA regulations (among others)...I'm grateful to have gotten that deal.

$5-6k is cheap. Sounds like you have sticker shock. Shop rates are usually over $100 per hour and prep is very time consuming. Doing a quality job your self is not easy. But is is easy to fuch it up. I just had my Charger painted. I sanded it myself. It took 6 weekends to get it ready for paint. Luckily I did not need any body work. I had it professionally painted because I did not want dust in the paint and I wanted an expert to shoot it.

Painting is a ton of work to get right, but actually isn't all that hard, you just need to learn each step. It really helps to have someone to walk you through the basics, i.e., refurbishing, preparation and gun control/coating, then go for it.

The easiest way to learn is to practice all 3 or 4 steps with other metal material that you have.

If you're using single stage paint you can always color sand out any runs, with two stage it actually easier as you put the first stage on, then correct any errors, then finish up with the top coat.

I like two stage as you don't need much material for the color coat. If you screw something up, then just sand it out and recoat.

Practice and your will find a way.

I'm going to paint the DSR when it's ready. Going to follow the pattern in the second photo below, but use BRG as the base coat and silver for the front.

Here's an example of final product that I didn't even need to color sand once I learned how to float final coats.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

To my original point...teeners are not for everyone - they are for special people.

Tony

Lucky (you are!) I am not closer to you...I would have my DSR "Ranalized"! I do not have nearly enough patience to prep and paint myself - I know my limits and weaknesses. My hats off to all of you who do it yourselves.

A good old friend of mine painted his car himself - it probably rated out about 6 out of 10 - he knew that but loved the fact he did it on his own. That is worth allot in and of itself.

Tony

Ok, my paint is not perfect Here is a magnified photo of a bug that crawled into my new paint job during the last clear coat. Shit happens.

I know it's there, but no one can find it but me.

Tom

You ask for advice, you got honest opinions.

Tractor supply 1gallon of paint ,2 bottles of gloss hardner, 1 gallon of high quality reducer,1 harbor freight respirator,4 roll masking tape, today's newspaper. Total cost! 150.00

I had my car painted last summer. Cost me 10k with minor rust repair. Is my car worth 20k now? I don't know. I don't care. I wouldn't sell it for 30k. Was it worth 10? Every penny!

I've done the Tractor Supply paint jobs before and there results were directly related to 2 things: prep work and gun quality. Helped one friend paint his old Toyota truck with a HF gun and his half-assed prep job and it was a 20ish footer. My dad and I painted my uncle's CJ5 hunting Jeep, prepped well, used the Binks7 and it turned out a 7 footer. I've also bought the $400ish dollar paint at the paint shop and done a Triumph Spitfire with good prep and the Binks and got a good cruise-in/local show quality from the garage. Then again I don't trophy hunt.

I've priced the paint for my 914 and materials alone were about $1000.

It really all depends on what you want. If an original 6 w/ matching numbers fell into my lap, I'd shell out the cash. If I wanted to win carshows, I'd shell out some cash. In my case the car won't be original/perfect, but I'm putting so much time/effort in that I'm going to prep the shit out of it and buy the good paint and hope for a 1-3 footer. My beat up 1970 VW bus with a high light replacement nose and stuff will someday get a good prep Tractor Supply job.

Growing up in the midwest rust belt in the 70's, rust perforation was not uncommon in cars by 3-5 years old. Body work was more affordable then, even factoring in inflation, perhaps it was my low cost location, or perhaps it was the market - large customer base (even I as a high school student working fast food I could afford to have new metal put in my quarter panels), EPA had not declared most of the shop's materials hazardous, shops were numerous, and insurance work wasn't their bread and butter.

A few years back I tried to get surface rust repaired due to a chip on the fender next to a the head light cover. I went to three reputable shops in the area, only one would entertain the thought of performing "rust repair", estimated $1,000 minimum, but ultimately said no. But they all referred me to the one restoration shop we have in the area with a 12+ month backlog. Ultimately I put it on hold for a few months until I found the time to fix it myself - simple repair... Yes, if you look you can see it, but it is a driver's car, not a show car.

3 years ago.. Started looking for a shop to paint my car.
Took a year to convince a place I knew that did good work
to take it.
Had to promise never to call or bother him.
No Rush, Take your time thing, use it as filler work.

A year later I got it back.. I had stripped it as far as I wanted.
They sent it out to get soda blasted. prepped and painted it.

8000.00 CASH.. No paperwork.. I'm happy with it...

still apart though...

,the paint prep and associated labour is what really costs assuming theres not a lot of bodywork it can easily be a DIY job.
Last repaint I had done was at a friends shop,I did all the prep @ home and he visited me and rejected it twice before he was happy,he also insisted that I let the build up primer settle for a few weeks before topcoat.
The end result was amazing,he enjoyed the job also as he said it was great not to have to do the prep work himself,the amount of people doing their own repaints on here and Pelican is certainly on the increase and IMO the results I have seen are stunning.
Its a great feeling when you pull off the masking for the last time and see your own handy work shining back @ you .

It doesn't sound like the car is at fault. Unless you want to fork out lots of money to play the classic car game, it's difficult to play. Happens to lots of guys. They want a beautiful looking car, but don't want or have the funds to buy one that's already done. So they buy something less expensive thinking they'll fix it up and get it painted. Then start down that road only to realize how costly it's going to be to get the car the way they'd like it.

Your despair aside, you might be right. You probably shouldn't have purchased this particular car. I'm not sure what your budget is, but maybe sell the 914 and buy something newer that you can enjoy right away. Miata? BMW Z3? Both two sweaters that should be fun to tool around in, probably wouldn't need paint and working on it would be minimal.

Did it all myself, about $2000 or so in paint and supplies and this is single stage.

Click to view attachment

I have been thinking about your problem all weekend, so I decided I can help you. Me and my buddies will paint your 914 for 500 dollars.......

Here is the last Porsche we painted
Click to view attachment