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Re: full body repaint Posted by Larry West [Email]  (#1140)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Larry West) on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:55:17
In Reply to: full body repaint, blue saab, Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:51:11 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
I know this thread is a bit long in the tooth, but I thought I'd add my observations.
How good a paint job is on any car is directly proportional to the amount of prep that is done on the car. You see lots of ads around for painting cars for under $1,000, but that's just for the PAINT part of the job. The prep labor will almost always be extra. And if they're not charging you for prep, well, you get what you pay for!
The cost of a good paint job will be about 90% prep (labor time, mostly), and 10% materials. The better a paint job is, the higher percentage the materials cost is. Note that does NOT mean the cost of the labor is going down! There are many grades of paint out there, and you can spend anyplace from $1,000 and up just for the paint to paint your car.
About 10 years back, I restored the body of a 1980 99. The paint materials I bought cost me $500 for a solid color Metallics will be more.
The absolute best paint job you can do would require the complete stripping of the body of all interior, exterior, engine and chassis bits. Possibly even with an acid bath to etch the old paint and/or strip some or all of it off. Obviously, this will cost big bucks.
The next best would be a "rolling chassis". The car is stripped until little more than the rolling chassis is left, with a seat so someone can ride the brakes when it's being moved. In order to do the engine bay right, the motor has to be out. There's no way around that.
Next would be a rolling restoration. like what I did on my 1980 99. The car was kept legal and driveable as I went to a local Vo-Tech and sanded, ground, filled and sanded some more the whole body two nights a week for most of a year. But, I was repainting it the same color as it was, and it wasn't really a "restoration", so I didn't need to paint in all the nooks and crannies.
The last would be to keep the car primarily as-is, only prep the outer surfaces, and tape anything you don't want to paint, rather than remove it. But, on your white car, if you painted it a different color, everyone would know that it was white...
Now, you can - if you wanted to - do a great percentage of the prep work yourself, in your garage. Let's face it, do you want to be paying $60-$100 per hour for somebody to be unbolting seats, trim, headliner? And later putting it all back? Heck, no! You can save 50% or more by doing all that yourself.
If you wanted to invest in an air compressor, and some basic body working air tools (Orbital sander, grinder & pads, etc. for them), you can rough up the old paint, and even fill in areas yourself. You should be able to get the surfaces up to the ready-for-paint stage in your garage.
Don't think, though, that you can do all this and not expect to pay for some prep at the paint shop. You surely will, and that's for your benefit (and the shop's!) so that the paint stays on the car.
You might want to look for a local vo-tech school and see if they offer evening classes. The classes I took were classes in name only. Basically, for a low price, you got access to a shop with air tools, compressor, all the filler and sanding pads your car could eat two nights a week for 3 hours each night. And, you even had access to folks who could do other stuff, like weld (see my gallery at the link below). Then, when it was time for paint, I bought the paint materials myself at the auto paint supply, and the instructor shot the car in the professional booth with heat to speed the drying.
Good luck!
_______________________________________ Current: 2002 9-5 Aero Kombi Cosmic Blue 2000 9-5 SE sedan, Imola Red 1990 900S Rose Quartz, Auto Past: 1999 9-5 LPT Combi 1999 9-5 LPT sedan 2002 9-5 Arc 1990 900 5-speed 1986 900 turbo Convertible 1991 9000 turbo 1980 99 GLi 1986 900 turbo 1986 900 S 1991 900 turbo 1984 900 turbo 1976 99 GL
, Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:55:17 <-- Viewing This Message
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