cost for a paint job?

[whocarez]

I own a black 02 accord which has been parked outside all this time, and I have a few dings from incosiderate neighbors, as well as a 2 inch ding in the hood from a piece of wood that flew off a truck.

I was thinking of getting my car repainted, and wanted some input as to how much it will cost, and if you guys have any places you would recommend in the s. california.

I was told to stay away from places like macco and earl schieb, but their prices are sooo tempting.

any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks in advance

[rammsteinmatt]

you should bring your car by a wed night at the meguiars garage, i bet they'd save you a ton of money by saving you from a repaint. or at least they'd try

basically, see what you can do with products before you jump to the last resort - the repaint.

[the other pc]

A paint job can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to many thousands depending on a the quality you want and how much body repair is involved.

Like rammsteinmatt said, bring it on down and have a go a improving what you’ve already got. You may find you don’t really need new paint.


PC.

[nick1897]

Does macco really do bad paint jobs? I'm looking to repaint for my sakes, I have a white car, and would love a much darker car.. Its a daily driver, and I have no intentions on spending a thousand dollars on a paint job.

Would it be better to take it to a more independent place, rather than a franchised store?

[the other pc]

There are many things that determine the quality of a paint job.

First and foremost is craftsmanship. Painting and prep are very hands-on, labor intensive processes. The skill and dedication of the guys doing the work will be the biggest factor in determining if the finish is great or awful.

There's huge variation in quality from one shop to another and even from one crew to another within a given shop. Your best bet is to get to know who would be doing your car and closely examine examples of their work.

The business of high volume/low cost shops is to "get it out the door" fast. That's not to say that you can't get tolerable work done in a high volume shop, only that the odds are against you. You'd need to do your homework and keep your expectations realistic.

Material quality also comes into play both in both initial quality and long term performance. It's not uncommon for high volume shops to charge less for a whole paint job than a custom painter pays just for the paint, primer, abrasives and other materials. You get what you pay for and something's got to give.

If you want to change the color of your car you now also have to contend with the door jambs, trunk, engine bay and other secondary areas. Painting them adds to the complexity and ultimately to the cost of the job. Leaving them in original paint is usually very unattractive, especially if the color change is substantial.

I've seen some successful low cost paint jobs. In these cases the owners did large amounts of prep work themselves, bodywork, removing parts, sanding and masking. Again, you get what you pay for and in these cases they only had to pay the painter for the shoot so all that money went into getting the paint on the car.


PC.

[whocarez]

looks like i'm going to be making drive down to the shop =)

I've been wanting to g.o to meguairs for a long time. Summer vacation is comming up, hopefully the open garage on wednesdays will still be around in july.

thanks for all the help.

[nick1897]

Thanks for the reply "PC"

Good heads up, and what to expect when I get around to doing it.

[Tom Claessens]

and while you're at it, you might also consider shops that use "House of Kolor" paints as I've seen some of their shades and it's absolutely stunning. (ofcourse, it's not just the paint but the skill of the painter).

I'd guess that you couldn't go wrong with painters that work on lowriders and such but then ofcourse, you'll know what you pay ($2000 - $4000) but you'll get top-quality work.

[hawaiibrad]

Dont do cheap.... you get what you pay for. The use cheap enamles for paint. It simila to Rusolium. It does not tolerate laquer on it. Im also not talkeing about expencive two part Acrylic Enamel base with Urethane or epoxy Clear that a good paint shop will give you. For macos this would be tomuch trouble you can only mix what you can spray in about 5 min or it will set in the gun hard as a rock.

As for damage what does the rest of the pain look like is it in top shape. If it is you may want to look for a detail shop that konws how to do small repair to do the work or a good paint shop to do the spray and a detailer to do the roatry work to blend the CC out. It is possible to do... as far as matching paint that not a problem as long as it has not ben repainted most autoparts store or body shop(ones that have there one pain) can match it from the orig. formulas and will garantee that its a match or give you anotehr can to try.

Last of all lets see some pic and we can understand what were talking about here.

brad

[hawaiibrad]

Oh and one other thing. Qualty paint alone.

1 Gal Base...........................$200
1 Gal CC..............................$200
Stablizer(To thin you base).$100
Hardner(Other half of CC)...$100
Half Gal Primer....................$100
Prep Supplies .....................$200
Cleanup Supplies................$100

Total in Mats for a full car: $1100

Thies are rought figures Coverage may vary from type of paint. It usual takes about a littel over half a gallon of base (2 coats) and a whole gallon of CC(3-4 coats) if it orange peels badly as some of thies paint do your going to add a couple of extra coats and to make up for the thin in the vallies becues youll be sanding them out later.

I guess the guy doing the blowing aint geting as much as you thougth he was is he