What to expect when shopping a new paint job?

There is more then meets the eye when it comes to painting a car.  Most people think "well I painted my bathroom, painting a car shouldn't be too hard".  It's funny when painting a bathroom, there is little or no gloss, brush marks, lint balls and an occasional hair.  But all that is OK on a bathroom wall, why?  I'm not sure, maybe the lack of gloss hides it all, or maybe our DNA is accustom to living in a cave and that's what we compare it too.  Unfortunately a car surface is different, the gloss is different and the surface is smoother, I guess that is the reference point we go by.

In this post we will try to shed some light on the whole car painting subject and give you an idea of what you can expect from body shops and pricing when you look around.

You may or may not have heard the saying "you get what you pay for".  Well its true in this Industry.  What you pay for in a body shop is time, what you ask for when you need an estimate is; estimated time, as in how much time will it take you to paint my car.  Materials are another subject, High quality materials come with a high price and they last longer.  How much money you save should not be considered when getting an estimate, the question should be how much quality.  

Example:  You take your car to a high production, low quality, low price body shop like a Peach, Macco or Econo.  You only spend about $300 a get a fairly decent looking paint job, certainly better then your bathroom wall, but still not as good as the factory.  The cheaper materials that allow them to do the cheaper price, will degrade in about 6 to 8 months.  Then comes the fun part, all your cheep paint starts to come back off or fade in the sun, not to mention all the free paint they put on your widows and moldings.  Now you have a choice, paint again or take it to a higher quality body shop.  Problem 1- now you have cheep synthetic paint all over your car, this cheap paint has to be removed, any body shop worth the salt, will want to remove it, otherwise your new high quality material will suffer.  Problem 2 - you now have to pay double or triple to get it fixed.  Problem 3 - You could get it repainted at the cheep place, but now you have $600 invested in a paint that still lasts only 6-8 months.  The solution -  Its better to save the money and put it towards a high quality paint service.  Get the life time guarantee and never have to paint your car again.  Leave the cheap production paint shops to the used car dealers who dont care whats going to happen in 6 months, the car will be gone anyway.  Also FYI: the cheep places still charge extra for additional body work and higher quality materials.

With our experience in the industry, this is the price break down of quality and price in body shop.  All body shops.

• $150.00 Places like Peach, Econo and back in the day: Earl Scheib-  Lucky if it lasts 6 months and you can count on painted moldings.
• $300 to $400 Same places as above, but they say they will add something to make it last longer.  What do they add?  More synthetic enamel that takes 6 months to dry before it comes off.  Some actually do a decent job at this price level, but no matter the skill of the people, the material will still break down.
• $500 to $700 they will use the same material as everyone else, but usually lack the experience to do it properly because after all, they specialize in the cheap stuff, high volume, low quality  Add a little body work and some additional prep work and your still looking at over $1500 to get a decent job.
• $2500 to $3500 in what we call a high end shop (our shop falls in this category), shops that do some insurance work but are not a DRP or do not have a contract.  These shops are your best bet for a high quality paint service that will last the life of the car.  You have to do the math.  Its almost like your paint is pro rated, the more you pay the longer it will last (in most cases).
• The last type or shop we will list is a shop that is considered DRP (direct repair) and have a contract with the insurance companis.  These shops wont even paint your car all over, they cant, the insurance company wont let them.  In most cases its more profitable to only paint parts of the car.  Most DRP shops turn away a customer if they need the entire car painted.  For them to make money they would have to charge $4500 or more to keep from loosing money off you.  The time it takes them to paint your car, they could do 4 cars by painting only parts of it.  Its a numbers game.
• We have a budget service in the $750 range.  Because we have the experience, we know the short cuts, we know the steps you cant skip (like sanding, you would think this was a no brainer huh).  We provide a higher quality low budget service then all the production shops.  We also use a chemical adhesion promoter to insure your paint doesn't come off,  also use a higher grade clear that will last longer then 5 years.  Add $300 for for a life time clear coat and your will never have to paint your car again.  We also specialize in a OEM style finish, OEM meaning:  A good balance between texture and DOI (distinction of image), like the factory uses, the Original Equipment Manufacturer.

Some of the optional items you can expect to pay extra for?  Additional body work like:  Dents, Lots of chips, cracks in the paint etc.  Wet sanding and polishing to get that mirror like finish, in some case the wet sanding can actually double the price.  Remember its about estimating time.  How long do you think it takes to paint the entire car, then trickle a water hose over your sand paper while you scrub the car with sand paper by hand.  The take a machine with a pad and abrasive compound to bring the gloss back up?


So there you have it.  Probably the best break down of how much it costs to paint a car on the Internet.  If you find a better one, leave the URL in a comment on this posts for our readers.  After all the goal is to educate the consumer.

Now that you have some first hand insider knowledge of pricing for painting your project.  How about materials?  You still need:  Cleaners, Sand Papers, Primers, Fillers, Tape, Masking Paper, Color, Clear and more when its finished to get things cleaned back up (see maintaining your paint for tips on washing).  So we will list basic pricing for these items also, just to let you know what to expect and that the last estimate you thought was so high, was probably 40% materials and very little actually going back to the shop.

• Low Grade Synthetic Enamels - About $50 gets you about 6 months gloss.
• Low Grade Urethane Base Clear - About $200 gets you a decent base coat clear coat that will last a good long time
• Mid Grade Clears - $300 gets you a clear that will hold up well, lays down good and has good gloss.
• High Grade Base Clear - Lasts a life time (provided the prep work was done right) but will hover you around the $500 mark.

Keeping in mind the above prices, you still need sand papers, tapes and all the other materials it takes to paint a car the right way.

Now all you have to do is think "how many hours will it take to do everything needed?".  Then you do the math with a labor rate and you can almost write your own estimate, add a few hours for correcting your mistakes and you should have a clear understanding of the pricing process for painting a car.
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