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What should Body and Paint Cost?  Rate Topic 
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 Posted: 11-16-2006 04:57 am
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Dan Eiland
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I dropped off my car to the body and paint shop today. I stripped the car of all paint myself and left the car on my rotisserie so they can work on the car without the suspension being in the way. I plan to have the entire tub and body painted with an epoxy primer and the finish is being done in a base coat clear coat. Going with a dark blue paint (solid). They are reinforcing the Huffaker flared fenders and front air dam for me and mounting the kit on the car before painting. They will be doing some body repairs and fixing lots of little dings and the kink in the hood. I have no idea what body and paint work costs today. The last car I had done was just a respray on an almost perfect body on my 1966 Sunbeam Tiger. Went back with the same color on the outside of the car including the trunk and engine compartment. That cost me around $2000 in 1999. How much should I expect this car to cost me? I'm not looking for  a show car by any means, but do expect a professional paint job to match what any of the big three would give on a new car. Trying to find a ballpark figure to negotiate from.  Any assistance would be helpful. Any suggestions that could save me some money would also be welcomed.

 

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 Posted: 11-16-2006 12:58 pm
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Mitch Ware
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I'm not sure what the shop rates are of the place you are getting the work done. With that said, at the $48 per hour for spraying and $25 per hour for paint and materials I punched in a Mazda Miata for comparison purposes into my collision prgram here at the shop.

The cost of the respray comes out to $1036.80 (21.6 hours x $48). Bear in mind, that is just the cost of the labor to point the gun at the car and shoot the paint.

Materials comes out to $540.00. Once again, that is just the cost of primer, paint and clearcoat.

The guy painting the car can be Davinci with a spray gun, but if the body isn't prepped properly, the car will not look as good as it should. There is easily 20 hours of body work that was done to the hood of my car getting rid of the bend and prepping it to the point that it could be painted. I don't know how bad your hood is, but mine was pretty rough.

Last summer we did a TR6, stripped it, did all of the body work, painted it polished it to a show car shine and the customer didn't flinch when I charged him $7k for the job.

Also remember, the darker the color, the better the body work has to be, light colors can hide flaws, dark colors will highlight them.

Good luck

 

Mitch Ware

JH5 #19670

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 Posted: 11-16-2006 01:42 pm
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colinw59
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Like Mitch, I to own a Body shop and I agree with him on all points. Without seeing the car in person, so to speek, it's impossible to come up with a price. There are so many things to consider that by description only, you could be of by 50 hours or so just on a collection of what appear to be just small details. Such details make the differance between an average job and a greaty job.  Ballparking it though, expect somewhere between 6k-8k for labor & materials. If  you get quotes for significantly lower than this you are either getting a great deal or a low quality job.

When having this sort of work done Dan, it comes down to having confidence in the shop you've selected. Look at work they have in the shop now as well as work they have already completed. Stay in contact with them throught the process and go and see the car as it progresses. Make absolutely sure you are both on the same page with regards to attention to detail and what your expectations are for the finished job. You should also expect quite a few phone calls regarding the finer details. Because an estimate is just that. A shop can't be expected to quote for things that it can't see or predict. And as a rule there is always more work than appears, not less.

It's a fact of life that dark colors will cost you more. They show up every flaw in surface preperation, and dark blue might just as well be black. As a result the shop will have to spend more time on the preperation, painting and buffing. You will also have to be more carefull during re-assembly, because such a dark color will show up every small scratch or rub mark you put in it and no matter how carefull you are Dan, you, will to some degree, mark the paint. This will require you, or the shop, to maybe re-sand & buff some areas.  

Regaridng the hood kink. I would strongly suggest that you dispense with the original prop, and go for the later GT style available from Delta, as I did on 15851 (there are pics of this in the Gallery). This will avoid the problem of putting stress on the repaired area. I modified Delta's prop, and this was covered in an earlier posting relating to this subject.

Good luck, Colin

http://jhppg.com/gallery/74-Jensen-Healey-15851

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 Posted: 11-16-2006 10:08 pm
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Dan Eiland
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Colin and Mitch, your input is just what I was hoping to get. Greatly appreciated and from people in the business, I couldn't ask for more. Things are much cheaper here on some things and auto body and paint is one of those things. I'll keep in close touch with the shop and I go past their place every day on my way to work and again on my way home. If they will let me I might jump in and help. That may cost me extra!

Dan

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 Posted: 11-17-2006 02:52 pm
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colinw59
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Labor rates do vary across the country by maybe 10-20%, higher in more affluent states. Generaly the west coast and north east have the highest labor rates. Materials however should be a constant. Colin

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