Chevy Nova Forum banner

WHY does body work and paint cost so much

18K views 29 replies 19 participants last post by  Noviac 
#1 ·
i never had body or paint work done. i always poured money into performance. i am the president of the A.G.N.S. car club (all go no show). when i was younger i felt it was cool to have the crappy lookin car that never lost. now as i get older i want something that looks good and performs well. so just for fun i start callin body and restoration shops and my god you got to be kiddin me i'm gettin quotes from 3000-4000 and UP what the hell is going on was it always like this??????:eek::confused:
 
#4 ·
Bodywork and paint is a pretty expensive step on a car. Usually one of the most expensive. I am currently restoring a 74 Gran Torino "Starsky and Hutch" clone for a guy. Started out to be about a 5500 - 6000. restore but here we are now into almost 14,000.00 Why did it go up so High? Car was media blasted and every outer panel except the hood and roof had to be replaced. Noone makes aftermarket parts to fit this veh. So basically we had to go used. Labor can be very intensive and usually is. Depending on the body's shape and condition. Materials are not cheap if you are using name brands materials. The better the quality of the restore, The higher the price will be. Around here, 3000.00 to 4000.00 will get you a basic straighten and repaint with moderate R+I's of trim and accessories. To completely dissasemble a car down to shell, restore and reassemble, usually start around 15,000.00 around here for a quality job.
 
#5 ·
obviously you've never done any body work or paint yourself.:no: It is very labor intensive and time consuming. also, paint is very expensive. to paint my nova it cost 1300.00 just in paint:yes: plus primer, filler, patch panels and all the labor. A lot of work for sure. It sucks!:yes: If you do a car right from start to finish you will understand.
 
#6 ·
If you can get a good complete body and paint job for 4k then do it. Most complete paint jobs on 40 year old cars run around 10K give or take. I have been given quotes as high as 15K. I have seen cars with 25K paint jobs:eek:
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
thanx

thanx guys i dont have a show car here. it will be a daily driver, and street racer .i will do everything i can myself. i was always a firm beliver in. if u want to save money. and u want it done right. figure it out, and do it yourself. i will more than likely will let the guy do all the painting. but i will do all the body work. sanding, cutting, grinding. hotroding to me means. you do as much as u humanly can. im not sayin these guys dont do good work. they do fantastic work. ha ha if u got a show queen. but i didnt spend all this go fast money on my car for it to sit around in a garage. or on a trailer. s**t i even plan on breaking it. or oh maybe even drive it in the RAIN
 
#11 ·
Body work will be the VERY last thing I do after everything else on the car is exactly the way I want it. We've had discussions like this before, once you start you basically ride around in what looks like a beater. Unless you have the patience to start, tear it all down, be dedicated, put the car up, and finish all in one shot.

Body work to me is all about patience, nothing can be "good enough" it has to be perfect or it will show under the paint. When you get to a point where you start saying that, it's time to have a beer and stop for a while.

One thing about it though, it's a hell of a workout even with power tools, sometimes there's just no substitute for hand sanding and feeling your way. Hence why it can get so expensive, the amount of physical labor is ridiculous.
 
#14 ·
I used to feel the same way you did, THEN. . . .

I painted my own car. Now I'm much more sympathetic to the prices these shops charge for body and paint work. I'll grant you, there are a lot of shady guys out there that are taking advantage of folks, but the shops that are reliable and do good work are usually worth the money.

Keep in mind, if you're talking to professional shops, that these guys feed their kids, pay their bills, and (most likely) pay the mortgage on their business with the labor costs they charge you. It takes a lot of money to make a living painting old cars, and that's why so few guys are out there doing it.

For the most part, it's just simple math. When I was going through paint/body on my 77, I loosely kept track of the hours I was spending. We VERY CONSERVATIVELY estimated just shy of 230 hours from first sheet of sandpaper to completion. The shops in my area with good reputations charge between $50-65 and hour (most are closer to $65 than $50):

230 hours X $50/hour = $11,500.00

My materials cost right at $2100.00, so total cost would have been, roughly, $13,600.00 had I shopped the car out. I will tell you this number is consistent with the three estimates I got on the car before I decided to paint it myself. Truth is, I seriously doubt I could have gotten the job done on my car for $13,600.00 at a professional shop. We did a lot of work on the car that I didn't account for in my estimated hours (TOTAL hours are quickly approaching 550).

I'm not defending every shop out there because some of them really are outrageous, but the truth is that really good body/paint guys are hard to find and they're in high demand. Blame it on Rides, Barret Jackson, or just all the baby-boomers burning through 401ks. The truth is, there are more guys out there wanting to "restore" old cars than there are good body men. The result? Higher demand and higher prices for the guys who do know what they're doing.

You're best bet is to do the car yourself if you have the time, patience, skill, location, and tools to do the job right. If not, just keep in mind that paint and body work, like most things, operates under the old addage "You get what you pay for". If the price seems to good to be true, you can be sure it probably is. . . .

J
 
#15 ·
Good point Perple,

Sometimes you go to shops also and they don't even want to touch an older car. There's just no money in it for them. Why would they want to spend hours upon hours on an older car prepping and painting it when they can make the same money in a couple hours on a newer car insurance job popping brand new panels on something? Blend the paint and they're done, money in the bank. This opposed to entirely stripping an old rod and starting from scratch. There's a shop around me that does some pretty good work but they try to keep their work to Mercedes, BMW stuff like that where the profit is really high compared to the work.
 
#17 ·
That is exactly why alot of shops do not restore cars. Some wont even do a complete paint job. Why?? No money in doing it. I work in the Insurance business. Used to be a body guy for many many years. I worked at over 12 body shops and I will say out of all of them, only 3 did restore/completes. None of the other shops would even think of doing it. I do them on the side for some guys but I tell them in advance "This is a part time gig for me" If they want there cars done in weeks. They are talking to the wrong guy. I have been restoring the Torino for about 2 years for the guy. Some of the time was spent searching for all the panels but lets just say, every body line on the car will be straight and true and the car will be straight as an arrow. The car is being based and striped together and clear coated apart and then will be completely assembled. He has bought all new mldgs, weatherstrips and glass.
 
#21 ·
im not looking for a full restoration!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i will do that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i want a paint job!!!!!!!!!!!!! not someone to do the work for me:mad::mad:
Have you considered Maaco, Earl Scheib, or one of these "in & out" places that paint cars on the cheap? Our local Maaco has been known to let you do all the bodywork and then spray the car for you. I've known local guys that have gotten that done for well south of $2 grand. Some of the Maacos will even use your materials if you provide them. I'm pretty sure that Maaco does not advertise this service openly for obvious reasons, and some may not even do it, but one of our local ones definitely does (after hours, maybe?).

Of course, they'll also make you sign your life away in regards to any guarantees on the car. If the paint starts falling off after the 1st car wash, you're on your own. Maaco jobs also tend to be decent "20 footers", but inside of that you may not like what you see or get. (Get what you pay for, I think I might have mentioned that once before:D)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that you go this route. If you're desperate to get some paint on the car, though, and are either unwilling or unskilled at robbing banks, it's an option to consider. You might be surprised how many guys out there have Maaco paintjobs on their cars and keep tight-lipped about it. :yes:

J
 
#20 ·
Have to teach yourself, do the work, then build a booth and spray it :)

That's what I'm doing on mine - course I have an inside line, as my dad was a body man, but not since the 70s.

Has all the tools and all though, so we're ahead of the game .

Take some local classes, most trade schools or community colleges have body classes, I took two at a local trade school, nights.

Good luck

~ AL
 
#22 ·
Paint....

Earl Scheib has a Diamond Service... If you do all the body work they will spray it. Base Coat/Clear Coat ....Includes wetsanding... Lifetime warranty...$1100.00 Choice of 16 colors I believe. Give them a couple weeks and it should look good. Get to know the owner and the sprayer!!!! A little tip (beer/cash) on the side will go a long way....
 
#23 ·
Just food for thought here. I have built several cars. I do it for a pass time. My real job is electronics. I actually like doing body work, mind boggling at times but I find it fun. I have built a 1970 chevelle, a 1969 Chevelle that I just recently sold and own a 1970 Nova. Here is a breakdown on the Chevelle, It took me 1486 hours to do a full frame on resto. Lets see a 40 hour work week. That would be 1486/40=37 weeks. 4 weeks a month, that would be 37/4=9.25 Months. If someone would have paid me say a modest 15 dollars per hour that would have been $22,290 just for labor. That doesn't include all the materials for body parts, welding, sanding, primers, filler, ect, the list goes on. I have a paint booth here and have painted a few cars for friends. Even though they say they have done all the prep and prime and all I have to do is spray, I find that after applying a little guide coat and checking their work they are not even close to Being flat. If I would have just sprayed the car especially a dark color it would have looked like a wash board. Then they would say that I done a crappy job. So I find myself blocking and building and blocking for about a 80 hours to get it smooth so it looks good after painting. Lets see 80 times 15 per hour =$1200 for labor. before paint is even sprayed. Oh and don't forget taping and papering. That doesn't include materials like sand paper etc. Then 4 to 8 hours of booth time. Depending on paint single stage or BC/CC or Candy Color. Then you use good paint I use Sherwin Williams Ultra 7000 series. Then most of them want me to wet sand the paint to a nice finish then buff it down which also takes time. About 60 Hours to do it right 60 times 15 per hour is $900 more dollars. After all if you are going to do it you want it right not orange pealed. But with the right conditions in the booth you can lay down a pretty smooth paint job. I will spray usually 3 sometimes 4 base coats and 5 coats clear. We will wet sand and buff almost 2 coats off. Add that up and your talking for a quality paint job $850 materials +$1200 smoothing prep + $900 Wet sanding and buffing =$2950.00. If you want a cheap paint job there's always MACCO $300.00 Spray and Go Job.

Here is a couple pix of the 1969 Chevelle Build that I was just talking about and my paint work.







 
#25 ·
I'm glad I read this because I'm on the look out for what it would cost to paint some stuff.

How much do you guys figure it would cost to sand down a Hood with a fiberglass scoop, the cowl, and trunk lid, all with white pearl stripes, and repaint it?

I figure I'm not going to be happy at the cost, but it's just redoing three parts, no the whole car.
 
#26 ·
Let me see if I got your Question correct because there is two answers. The way I'm understanding it is that you want to remove the pearls strips on the car. Or are you saying that you want to add pearl stripes to your car? What color do you want? And what type of paint is your car single stage, BC/CC, etc.
If you are trying to remove painted stripes are they on the roof of the car? Or I'm assuming that these are parts that you have purchased to redo your project and you need them painted. Sorry for all the questions but it is important to know so I can give you a close idea of what it should cost. Also do you have a paint code of the car so it can be matched or do we need to color shoot it to get the match. That takes time and wastes a little expensive paint to do test shoots on test plates to get the right mix of color and metallic. I shot a fender touch up on some flame job that had rock chips in it and he had a custom paint mix and the previous painter never wrote down the mix. I Like to never got that to match even the 3M color gun couldn't get it close.
 
#28 ·
Oh, sorry for not explaining it enough. I already have White Pearl Rally style stripes on just the hood, cowl, and trunk lid.
The rest of the car is Ford's Candy Apple Red, not true candy apply. This was just Ford's regular red from the 70's or 80's... Cant really recall.

The hood is pretty much a stock hood with a fiberglass snorkle hood scoop thats intergraded into the hood's lines. The problem I'm having is rust that just recently started coming up through the white pearl on all three parts. The stripes started off looking like a busted egg shell out of nowhere then bubbles up. now it's starting to flake off showing the rust to the world.

What I want to do is restore the three parts repainting it just as it was before the rust.
 
#27 ·
One thing to make sure you do is take your time, especially if you are doing your own body work. A $4000 paint job will still look like crap if the body work is poor. I have seen a lot of so-so paint jobs done on great body work, and the car looks pretty good. I've been doing all of my own body and paint work since the late 80's, and have definately made some mistakes. But, dig in and try it. With a little patience, you'll get the product you want without breaking the bank!
 
#29 · (Edited)
I guess I am pretty lucky. My buddy works at a body shop but does custom paint jobs and he owns a pro street chevelle and his paint jobs have been in mags. The body shop doesnt do custom paint jobs however they allow him to rent their booths for the weekend to paint his cars. He does all the body work at home and then takes them in one weekend to prime and then the next weekend to paint. He does as good as work as anyone too. My uncle also does some great paint jobs. Not show queen quality but great for street drivers and race cars if you want something simple like stripes, 2 tone, or solid color.









 
#30 ·
After your explanation, I would make a template of the stripes that you have with all the measurements so I could duplicate the proper stripe spacing and location as to match the hood don't want them off by no means. LOL. I would estimate about 20 hours to strip and repair any rust issue then epoxy the hood. Then Glaze any abnormalities. High build prim & block seal it then paint. About 30 hours total I do this stuff in the evening for a pass time. I would charge ruffly 30 Times 15 per hour= $450 labor and about $130 for materials Total of $580. Keep in mind I don't do this for a living just enjoy the hobby.

Here is a couple pics of a Monte Carlo Pace Car that I put a flame job on. 5 coats of clear wet sanded and buffed. Look close and you will see the clouds in the sky that of coarse is not in the paint, just sweet reflection.:yes::D



 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top