rebbie23

what would be an average price to have my car re-painted.

i'd like to paint it a very glossy black with motion strips on the L88 hood.
i'm thinking maybe 3 coats of clear.

car would need to be stripped, sanded and painted.

what should i expect to pay?
and any recommendations for a good place in Connecticut?

vettebuyer6369

$8-$10k.

greg75vette

I'm not all that far from you (Long Island), but a good shop told me last year to expect to pay $10k and over for a good start to finish job. That includes new trim, bumper covers (mine are shot) and misc. The big hitter is the labor involved stripping the car and treating the fiberglass. You can't just whip out a power sander and sand the paint off, you can easily go through the fiberglass! My shop told me if I wanted it done cheaper, try stripping the body myself and then take it from there. He wouldn't say what that would run because who knows what I would uncover, or what damage I could have caused. Hope this helps.

rebbie23

perfect, thank you very much!

rebbie23

yeah, that's what i figured. I don't trust myself enough with stripping the paint. and really, with work, I don't have very much time to learn and do it myself.

greg75vette

That's the same boat I'm in. I'm willing to tackle just about anything mechanical in the car, but bodywork intimidates me...

pbcanney

you can take a lot of classes and buy a lot of equipment with 10k.

TERRY CLARK

For $8000 to $10,000 it best be the slickest one in the county ! With that kind of cash you could buy all the equipment, compressor and a semester in the local Junior college ! To each his own !

rebbie23

haha, well thank god i'm done with school already.

i would buy everything and do it myself, but i don't see me having time to learn and do it myself anytime soon.
i wish i could...

Sportsdude

That's what I was told as well.

Glass Act

Bottom line, you get what you pay for.

21boy

If the paints falling off already you can chip it away, at least that's my plan. Fiberglass repair isn't out of grasp if you can chip an entire car of its paint in my opinion.

Attfay Elleybay

Where's that link for the $50 Rustoleum paint job?

vettebuyer6369

Or, just the professional ones.

79L48

New bumpers (fiberglass), strip, body work (including a little door gap reworking), build primer, block, prime and paint with base clear was quoted to me at 8-10k 5 years ago. Hence, she sits with original paint. I may get adventurous and pull the paint, trim, lights and bumpers off myself over the winter if it's milder than last winter and see if I can knock a couple grand off that.

mrvette

Go to your local DuPont paint store, YP lookup, and talk to them, if i'ts a olde OEM GM lacquer paint, you MAY have a problem, I not sure, but I just put the primer on my '72 after sanding with a Milwaukee finish sander, same one I used for wood cabinets...flat rubber pad with 1/2 sheet of sandpaper....I used 100-120 grit takes about 2 days of getting used to it and being very careful...stay away from the corners, as you can grind them off in a second....use a hard rubber sanding block with same paper....

do not be scared of the scratches, my old Urethane job was on there so hard it would not even hardly scratch...took a bit....but that glaze has to disappear for the primer to adhere properly....

I used DuPont Nason light gray primer...did tons of body mods, but nothing to matter for this discussion....you do need strip all the chrome, and interior, for ease of painting....

I am being very cautious with this job, first time I have EVER painted a whole car...so am putting wheels back on and going to drive it for a couple months so see how bad and where the body stress cracks are, and then maybe fix them or just go ahead and shoot paint anyway....ALL vettes that are actually driven will have/show stress cracks, part of the game, especially with old ones....show cars off a trailer, maybe not so bad.....mine is a street machine, DD if you will....

total cost of DIY, assuming you have NOTHING is about 350 for a compressor, 150 for a top loader gun, 50 for a water separator, another 50 for hose/connectors....need a 220 line for the compressor.....and of course a garage and a week's time to strip the car down to the point of shooting primer....

honestly, I wonder about taking it to Macco at this point, and let them shoot it....

rebbie23

well, the main reason I want to repaint it is because the previous owner had it painted at Maaco...

looks horrible, they didn't even paint under the mirrors, in the door jams, or even bother taking things like the license plate off.

and it the roof has bubbles all over it.

Mad Vette

One thing to think about is how much do you want to have in to you're car. People are quoting you $8000 to $10000 for a paint job and if I had someone do it for me I could have easily spent that much. I have a 71 and painted it myself but I spent $3000 on the material alone; it's a very hard to match pearl paint. If if its ever scratched or a fender has to be repaired it will cost me a least $900 in material. Now I am wondering why I used such expensive paint and I am worried to death that I will scratch it, and I have more than the third of the cars value tied up in paint and body cost. If you have a chrome bumper matching numbers big block car it may be worth it too spend 8 to 10 on a paint job. If its a high mileage 77 L48 you might want to consider how much you want to spend to have straight car with shinny paint. Just something to think about I would probably do it differently next time.

lock-n-load

Had to look and ask around a bit ..but found a shop that would do a little bit of body work , paint the car original color and add a clear coat for around 2K ....
Its not a trophy winner ..but.. for cruisin on weekends its perfect ..and still turns a head or two ...

Skunkvette

Like this?



$5 K three years ago. No major body work.