painting the opel

[jak133]

hey, saw on a thread that people were getting their cars painted for 1200-4000 dollars i had 3 estimates that were roughly 8-10 grand. can you sand seal, prime and paint over the old lacquer or do you need to media blast. any info from someone who had their car painted would be appreciated.

[opelgt73]

Just had my Honda CRX repainted. $1500 out the door base coat clear coat including dent removal, sanding and filling any and all imperfections. It actually turned out a lot better than I thought it would, my only complaint is I did not have him remove the windows. I just got a GT on eBay (should be here this week) and I am taking it to the same guy to paint.

8-10K sounds like a pro shop doing extensive rust repair and body work. Try to find a small shop with 1-3 employees that has low overhead.

[opelgt73]

Originally Posted by jak133 hey, saw on a thread that people were getting their cars painted for 1200-4000 dollars i had 3 estimates that were roughly 8-10 grand. can you sand seal, prime and paint over the old lacquer or do you need to media blast. any info from someone who had their car painted would be appreciated.

BTW - Yes you can paint over it, it would be best if you sanded it completely down but that shouldn't add thousands.

[charlie1966]

Like most things you get what you pay for, but ultimately it is down to what you can afford. If you are happy with the job you got then go for it. But if you are spending $8-$10,000 on a paint job you should expect them to spend a lot more time on the work and it will show in the finish. With this sort of finish you should have a very nice show car.

Good luck with the new GT

[driftmagic1]

I think that the 8-10 grand range is for something like a show car like previously stated but you got to remeber the nicer and more you put into it the less you will want to do anything with it in fear of messing it up. Im doing a complete build on a 73 nova for a guy and hes going to be looking at about 12k when i get done at a 25.00hr rate (its a side project)

[namba209]

I had a local, small shop, do Willit? The two things I found that helped a bunch is, I stripped the car and gave them a rolling shell, plus, there was no hurry, I told them, "all I want is a good job done right". Now to put this in perspective, there were major rusted out areas, but not too severe as to compromise structual integrity. The shop owner, his brother, a mech and painter, was the whole shop crew, and they took an interest in doing a different looking car, that was going to get international internet interest, and did their best. All their work is somewhere in my Willit? Update thread. It took over 90 days and my total cost was just a shade under $5000., Sometimes smaller is better.

[grslightng02]

If you're going to pay $10,000-12,000 for a stock paint job...then I've got some great ENRON stock I'd love to sell you!

The only people who should be paying that much for a paint job is someone who wants their car meticulously restored above and beyond factory original, or those who need paint and a lot of repair and restoration, or someone who wants an out of this world custom paint and graphics.

Barring extensive rust and extensive body work, a basic good quality paint job to restore your car back to original, or slightly better shouldn't go for more than $2,000.

When you get into sand or soda blasting, multiple coats of primer, multiple base coats, multiple clear coats, color sanding and buffing, candy and pearl colors, custom graphics... that's when you start adding the dollar signs on.

People are hurting for business in these economic times. Put an ad on craigslist with a pic of your car and let them email you back. Ask them how long they've done the work, where did they train, and do they have a portfolio of recent work. Do they have a license? What is their satisfaction guarantee. Maybe pay for the cost of materials upfront, but NEVER pay for the work until it's done and you are pleased!

[grslightng02]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, are you just wanting the exterior repainted? Or do you want the engine bay, under the hood, door and window jams, interior, and floorpan repainted?

A car can be "repainted" at various different levels, the further you go and the more prep work they have to do to get you there (ie tear down and reassemble) the more cost to you.

[opelgt73]

Originally Posted by driftmagic1 I think that the 8-10 grand range is for something like a show car like previously stated but you got to remeber the nicer and more you put into it the less you will want to do anything with it in fear of messing it up.

The other problem is recurring rust. I would NEVER spend 8-10K on a paint job if I didn't know the car was 100% rust free.

[Dennis Texas]

Originally Posted by jak133 hey, saw on a thread that people were getting their cars painted for 1200-4000 dollars i had 3 estimates that were roughly 8-10 grand. can you sand seal, prime and paint over the old lacquer or do you need to media blast. any info from someone who had their car painted would be appreciated.

That would be a paint job to sit and look at not drive in my opinion. I paint my cars because of that reason I drive them I just want them to look great not show room quality, you would not pay for a formula one racer to drive on the highway it's way overkill for posted speed limits of 70 but it is worth every penny of the cost in the right applications. the materials for a standard paint job will run somewhere between 300 to 500 depending on paints and consumables (sand paper, wire wheels, bondo etc etc . Paint alone, talking acrylic, no specialty paints, between 38 to 100 a gallon (reds and yellows being the higher end cost) then reducers additives and time. If you could feel accomplished in doing the basic sanding and filling actual painting cost would not be that high. It's time over money, when you use professionals on a working mans budget you have to be prudent and pay just for what you can't do, professional labor is expensive. My blue 72 Iamb painting now in my shop, it is acrylic enamel, metallic Blue, with hardener and wet look additives added also got clear coat specially for acrylics since couldn't find it locally, the fee was 135.00 over the net for gallon of metallic blue, gallon of clear coat for acrylic, hardener (quart of reducer since I already have some left from another car), and wet look additives, that also included shipping. Heres a sample of it no clear on it and only the first coat have some stenciling to do yet. I'll have better pictures when it is completed this next month. Need specifics or better pictures email me.
Anyway thats the basic material cost finding someone to apply it and get the body ready to paint your going to have to shop around for. I never painted over lacquer but people do it, it's the reverse lacquer over enamel that bubbles the paint from what I understand about it (when in doubt spray a small test sample in out of the way area), if thats what your refereing to..

[saxybiker]

The builder that built Octavia (I assisted and learned a lot!), said to me that if you don't want to have any surprises after you're done, it's always best to strip the body of all old paint and filler. That way when you're prepping it, you know the condition of what you're painting over. It's just like when the road crew resurfaces a road, the best job is always when they strip off the old asphalt, rebuild the enderlayment, then repave the top coats, rather than just smoothing off the top coat and laying down a new surface, hoping for the best. Another good analogy an old body guy told me once, is think of getting dental work done. Would you really want the dentist to fill a cavity without the proper prep work to make sure that all the deteriorated tooth is gone first, or just slather some material in there and smooth it off so that it looks good?

For anyone that has ever done a repaint/restoration the "right" way, they'll tell you there really is a ton of work involved. I guess it really is what you want the outcome to be and how long you plan to keep the car.

Allen Gage

[KN6VV]

Dennis, looking at the front of your engine looks very nice! How did you get the metal to look so clean? Did you sand blast/glass bead the parts?

Originally Posted by Dennis Texas That would be a paint job to sit and look at not drive in my opinion. I paint my cars because of that reason I drive them I just want them to look great not show room quality, you would not pay for a formula one racer to drive on the highway it's way overkill for posted speed limits of 70 but it is worth every penny of the cost in the right applications. the materials for a standard paint job will run somewhere between 300 to 500 depending on paints and consumables (sand paper, wire wheels, bondo etc etc . Paint alone, talking acrylic, no specialty paints, between 38 to 100 a gallon (reds and yellows being the higher end cost) then reducers additives and time. If you could feel accomplished in doing the basic sanding and filling actual painting cost would not be that high. It's time over money, when you use professionals on a working mans budget you have to be prudent and pay just for what you can't do, professional labor is expensive. My blue 72 Iamb painting now in my shop, it is acrylic enamel, metallic Blue, with hardener and wet look additives added also got clear coat specially for acrylics since couldn't find it locally, the fee was 135.00 over the net for gallon of metallic blue, gallon of clear coat for acrylic, hardener (quart of reducer since I already have some left from another car), and wet look additives, that also included shipping. Heres a sample of it no clear on it and only the first coat have some stenciling to do yet. I'll have better pictures when it is completed this next month. Need specifics or better pictures email me. Anyway thats the basic material cost finding someone to apply it and get the body ready to paint your going to have to shop around for. I never painted over lacquer but people do it, it's the reverse lacquer over enamel that bubbles the paint from what I understand about it (when in doubt spray a small test sample in out of the way area), if thats what your refereing to..

[Dennis Texas]

Originally Posted by KN6VV Dennis, looking at the front of your engine looks very nice! How did you get the metal to look so clean? Did you sand blast/glass bead the parts?

It was sandblasted then painted with several coats of hi Temp silver paint...it is very dusty in the picture it has sat around for least 5 years in my garage. Sandblasting in my experience gives a great initial look but grease and grim soon take it toll and it is very hard to get clean so I paint it to fill the blasting media imperfections left and try to seal the metal to some point.

[Jeepsbeme]

Materials for my future daily driver ran around $1,300 when we bought them over the counter at a local body & paint supply shop. The 2-stage paint alone (2009 Ford paint code GQ - Amber Gold) was $432 a gallon with a 10% company discount. There are many different levels of surfacer, reducer, paint, clearcoat, etc, so you could get by for much less - or pay much more. I went with the mid-grage supplies.

My body guy put in around 140 hours in just prep work even after the small rust holes had already been patched with sheet metal. So at around $15/hour labor....

The key to a quality paint job is mostly in the prep work. The end result is a direct reflection (pardon the pun) on the quality of work performed prior to shooting the paint.