Brought my 2000 Camaro SS to a auto body shop today for an estimate to get it painted. The job is to repaint a black car black again. So no need to paint the frame/doorjamb or remove any of the interior. I did tell the guy that I wanted a high quality paint job with multiple layers of clearcoat. Some light body work also required to fix a few parking lot door dings. He quoted me $4.5K. I think this is high. What do you all think?

 

That seems a little steep but we will see what others say.

 

For a reputable shop to do the job right that sounds about right. Hard to say just from your description though and without actually seeing the car and how much labor the body work labor is actually involved. A lot of the time it is harder and more labor intense to repaint a car that has half decent paint on it already, then one that has no paint; as all of it has to be equally sanded/stripped to the same level for perfect paint. Show quality jobs can cost upwards of $10,000 for one color. Not in any way an expert here but I have had many vehicles painted and have two years of auto refinishing school under my belt. You could certainly get it done cheaper but you get what you pay for. I would also find out as much as you could about the shop and its customers before you commit. Also keep in mind a quote is just that....a quote. It could end up being slightly more or less then they anticipate once they get into it and see what it really needs.

 

a good quality paint job where they use middle shelf or top shelf materials will run over $3,000 just for a repaint.

Ask if they will use Sherwin Williams material and if so to price it with that.

Your car may also require more prep/body work than you imagine and they might also have sized you up as a person that they will need to color sand the car as a final stage in order to please you.

I just resprayed my 4th gen and to sand, prime, sand, spray, clear, sand/cut/polish the materials alone for everything including paper and tape was over $500 closer to $550

cutting paste and polish isn't cheap and even with a discount the base/clear was $275 as the roof is a different color than the body so i needed 2 colors.

The primer was $100

that is just for materials and my cost which is discounted.

 

To the OP, that is what I was quoted to paint one of my cars. The (very good) shop told me it was a good deal and, checking around, the price of material has become insane. They showed me some high end paint for a BMW - $900 for a gallon. Nuts. And the price for labor adds up quickly too. Body work is time consuming.
See the MAACO/Earl Scheib low prices? You truly do get what you pay for.

 

Just had a discussion on this over on another forum.... Long story short.... the guy was getting quotes like yours and was thinking they were high.... Alot of guys told him it was about the going rate. He found a "guy" to do the job for "only $2000. including materials. He went with that. A week later he posts up pics of his car with little bubbles all over it..... Most people were cool and didnt give him an "I told ya so"..... but he knows he should have listened. The "painter" agreed to fix it, but we shall see....

Just pay the price and have a pro do the job. Saves allot of grief in the end.

 

that's called orange peel and even with the best booths, the best equipment and the best supplies you can still get it. it needs to be color sanded.

I hate painting but am cheap cheap cheap thus I do it in my garage. All it takes is what happened to me. I got the hose caught and couldn't move the gun for a second and run run run did the clear coat. A sneeze resulted in some orange peel.

So, you complete the job, let it dry and since you are doing one section, you may as well sand/cut/polish the whole car and make it sparkle.


This is why every single time someone posts a "is this a good deal" asking about a car and goes off about the bolt ons, the cam etc I simply ask how is the exterior and interior because that is where the big bucks cost. Sure, we can live with a car with primer vs a spun bearing but when you want to fix the interior or exterior...........open that wallet real wide

 

Paint it yoself

 

Tape the hood off real nice and do that first. Piece by piece, so if u give up it won't be thst bad

 

As soon as you say a nice or high quality paint job you open a door for interpretation. One shop may consider high quality paint “as good as” a factory job. To another shop the factory paint is complete crap and only the prime underneath can be salvaged.
Let’s see if I can define that a little better. I have one friend that does do show car paint jobs. What he uses to determine if a paint job is good is he takes a fluorescent light and from 12 inches away he wants to be able to read the text on the bulb in the paint. That level of paint can easily take 50 hours just to block sand a car that needs no repairs. At about $55 an hour for a sand monkey and $1000 in material add in some profit, you do the math. There is a saying in the show car circuit, “It is easy to get a good paint job you just have to rub the car with 100 dollar bills”

If as good as factory is good enough then say that. Most higher end guys know that means a lot less prep work then a “show” job and they will work with on the price. If you want the Show paint job there is no way to get it for cheap.

You can paint it yourself but to even get back to a factory level job you are going to need to learn a lot and a decent spray gun and clean dry air source for the gun plus some way to keep dirt out of the drying paint.