How many coats of base/clear?

[sflrainmaker01]

I am going to a paint/body shop tomorrow that was referred to me by a friend. He just had a 68 Chevy truck painted there and is very happy with their work. They said they would paint my whole car using DuPont base/clear for $999, plus any body work. Also, they said that includes 1 coat sealer, 3 coats color and 3 coats clear and give a 7 year warranty (in SW Florida weather :up:).

Question, is that enough sealer/color/clear? :confused:

[fastblackmerc]

Ask to see other cars that they have done.

[lifespeed]

Sounds too good to be true? You might want to ask about specifics like will the mirrors, trim and door handles be removed or just masked? Will the entire car be prepped by wet sanding (this is a hand job, lots of labor)?

Paint is very labor-intensive and you get what you pay for. Alternatively, you can do things like wet sanding yourself and possibly save some $$.

[sflrainmaker01]

Sounds too good to be true? You might want to ask about specifics like will the mirrors, trim and door handles be removed or just masked? Will the entire car be prepped by wet sanding (this is a hand job, lots of labor)?

Paint is very labor-intensive and you get what you pay for. Alternatively, you can do things like wet sanding yourself and possibly save some $$.

Yeah, it's a special they are doing till the end of the month. Of course, Jan 1, season starts. So, all the shops are busy after that! :rolleyes:

I am going to stop by there tomorrow am and see some of the stuff they have done (other than my buddies truck). The rear bumper, tail lights and fascia will be removed so they can refinish and install my Marauder parts! :woohoo: Either I, or they will remove headlights and marker lights. Aside from that, I guess the mirrors and door code panel will be taped off, unless it's not to expensive to remove them. I could remove all the stuff, but then I would have to have it towed there. It wouldn't be legal to drive. So, it depends on how much the tow costs vs them removing stuff.

[justbob]

Be careful, a cheap paint job can turn out far worse then it was originally.


Self proclaimed Builder Of Badassery.

Buy it, Break it, Build it BETTER.
"Since 2004"

[Curless]

Be careful, a cheap paint job can turn out far worse then it was originally.


Self proclaimed Builder Of Badassery.

Buy it, Break it, Build it BETTER.
"Since 2004"


AMEN to that Justbob....NO WAY would I have my mirrors and security pad taped off....NO WAY.

[Bigdogjim]

All items should be removed, door handles ect., if not the paint will bubble at some point. The factory uses more than 3 coats of paint. My marauder was repainted back on '05(?) took a few weeks and the Dealers paint man put 11 coats on it:) :up:

Of course the price was way north of yours but it was a warranty job.

Still $1,000. seams low?

The devil is in the details. It takes a while to take the car apart then put it back together again.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[ajdereicup]

That seems insanely low.

Sealer isn't terribly expensive.

A gallon of paint from DuPont is around $200+ on the low end IIRC depending on what color it is and if it's metallic if your a shop VS private buyer what line of theirs you go with and all that nonsense. And then you need to buy the crap to mix with it.

And then you need the clear and crap to mix with that and it's not cheap either.

And that doesn't include all the hours of labor (or materials needed for) sanding, buffing, taping, etc.

3 coats can be enough depending on certain factors. Your not changing the color so that's not really a problem (unless you are). If you don't have major body work and the paint that was on it wasn't all completely shot you should be ok. It won't be as nice as if you shot more paint and clear onto it but still.

So like others have said be careful. Maybe they are willing to do it for that cheap if they're really slow and have nothing else to do for at least some sort of income but just be careful with it. Like they said look over other stuff they've finished and not just the top of the line show car paint jobs they may have done (and try and see some of the things they're working on in their shop just to see how much attention to detail they put into the work, where they place the tape etc)

[sflrainmaker01]

Thanks for the tips! I went there this morning and the $999 job turned into a heck of a lot more. So, I didn't even bother. I don't have $2500+ to sink into a paint job now. My main goal was to get the Marauder bumper, fascia and spoiler painted and installed as well as do some minor body work on the rear. I know that there is NO way the paint will match after that job gets done. And since the car has been repainted before (not the best job either), I feel like it would be wise just to re-shoot the whole car. So, I have visited another shop that looks like will get my business in a week or two. I saw a two black cars and a dark gray truck they recently did (one was just coming out of the paint booth). I am happy with the way they turned out. Wish me luck! I will save the extra $$ for an Eaton Swap! :burnout:

[justbob]

$2,500 is way too cheap as well. In my area I have gathered quotes from $6-12,000. Only change was going with a true black, and no body work needed besides a crapload of prep.

These were all decent local body shops that friends or myself have used and trust, not custom/restoration businesses. Of course, prices vary geographically, sometimes drastically.


Self proclaimed Builder Of Badassery.

Buy it, Break it, Build it BETTER.
"Since 2004"

[lji372]

6-12 for paint on a car that's not going to the show circuit :eek:

Rattle rattle spray...repeat :lol:

[sflrainmaker01]

6-12 for paint on a car that's not going to the show circuit :eek:

Rattle rattle spray...repeat :lol:

Then, give the savings to the Eaton Swap guys! :food:

[lifespeed]

I have yet to paint any car I've owned, but have rebuilt everything else. I guess the high price of a paint job really is an obstacle.

If you're willing to do much of the less-skilled work yourself to save money you can get great results by doing the labor-intensive prep yourself. When I was 16 I dented my mom's '72 suburban. She did the bodywork to repair it, then we both wet-sanded it. It's a lot of work! We paid a pro to paint it and the results were beautiful.

But if you don't do all that work, yeah, at least $6K for a good paint job. And a bad job is just more work to clean off later.

[Spectragod]

$2,500 is way too cheap as well. In my area I have gathered quotes from $6-12,000. Only change was going with a true black, and no body work needed besides a crapload of prep.

Self proclaimed Builder Of Badassery.

Buy it, Break it, Build it BETTER.
"Since 2004"

^^^^This^^^^ if you can do the prep work to make a black car straight, you are capable of painting it yourself.

Check around your area, find a shop that will rent you their paint booth, maybe a bay in their shop. Do the work yourself, save 5-10k. For good materials, you will have 1k- 1500 out of pocket.

[Richy04]

Being that the Marauder paint is the worst I've ever seen, the old adage "The paint on top will only be as good as the paint on the bottom" stands true. You have to remove all of the old paint and old primer and start from scratch and thats way more than 999 dollars.

Anyway, 3 and 3 is more than enough. I shoot my own paint in my garage, I just finished up some bumper work on an 01 Mustang I got for my wife and it looks great. The key is the gun itself. I looked at SATA and some other high end guns and ended up with a Devilbiss Teckna Prolite quick clean and its by far the best gun I've ever owned. I can lay most paints and clears with the same tip and it comes out factory.

[sflrainmaker01]

Being that the Marauder paint is the worst I've ever seen, the old adage "The paint on top will only be as good as the paint on the bottom" stands true. You have to remove all of the old paint and old primer and start from scratch and thats way more than 999 dollars.

Anyway, 3 and 3 is more than enough. I shoot my own paint in my garage, I just finished up some bumper work on an 01 Mustang I got for my wife and it looks great. The key is the gun itself. I looked at SATA and some other high end guns and ended up with a Devilbiss Teckna Prolite quick clean and its by far the best gun I've ever owned. I can lay most paints and clears with the same tip and it comes out factory.

Wished you were closer, we could test out that gun on a Marauder bumper! ;)

[ajdereicup]

If your going to go out and get a gun to use you don't need some insanely priced gun just need to look for HVLP (high volume low pressure) to keep it from spraying all the paint into the air VS right where your aiming and to make sure you adjust it properly. I know people turning out show quality paint with Harbor Freight guns you just need to be careful with them because I forget what part but it has a plastic part that's prone to disintegrate if you leave it in the gun cleaning chemicals for too long. Think it's like $15. (Don't get the small one that's just for small details)

I have a cheap Husky that's almost the same as the HF one that I've used for years now. Only problems I've had is when I've had others borrow it and they didn't clean it well enough or when the paint was old as hell and all thick. Paints almost all off the body on it and the cup has tons of different colors on it from all the use but it's trustworthy.


And for the painting in the Booth. Not really needed if you do it yourself. You can do it in a garage easy if you can keep it clean and ventilate it. You run a couple fans to draw in fresh air and blow the bad air out (not pointing near where your painting for the ones blowing it in and the ones blowing it in isn't as important as the ones blowing out getting the crap possibly floating in the air out instead of in the lungs, in the paint job, dusting up the whole garage, etc.) You sweep it out REALLY good and cover anything you cant get out or don't want to move really good because it may get dusty if you don't blow the bad air out well enough. Also can dampen the floor a little bit before you start painting it helps keep any dust on the ground down. Make sure you have an air filter and air drier on the air line to keep it from getting crap into the paint your spraying on it.


Bodywork isn't brain surgery. It's just time consuming

[tbone]

Being that the Marauder paint is the worst I've ever seen, the old adage "The paint on top will only be as good as the paint on the bottom" stands true. You have to remove all of the old paint and old primer and start from scratch and thats way more than 999 dollars.


^^^^ X a googleplex

Ask me how I know. :censor: