TheSamba.com :: View topic

Fri Apr 17, 2015 2:09 pm

Wanted to start a thread on paint and body work cost. I know they will very but if you dont mind sharing I'm sure it will help people who are contemplating getting there type 3 painted. I will start with my 68 square that is in the paint shop now. First I took it down to paint shop striped down. No windows no interior no motor and they are painting everything inside and out. So the shell has been blasted to bear metal using some kind of plastic media. This is completed. The cost $700.00 I thought it was fair. Next they put the whole car in etched primer. Then they went over the whole body with some kind of glove circling every wave and imperfections threw out the car. estimate to fix all the minor waves and I'm perfections $3300.00. I thought this was high since the car has never been in a accident! Last but not least the base coat clear coat paint at $1500.00. Thanks for playing. Build thred coming soon. Leo

Fri Apr 17, 2015 2:22 pm

My friend is at about $6500 in paint, clear, reducer, filler, sticks, strainers, sand paper etc - no labor cost as a club member has a body shop and they are trading labor. Good isn't cheap and cheap isn't good

Fri Apr 17, 2015 2:24 pm

Leo:

I don't think those prices are really out of line at all.

First- cost of paints has doubled or better in the last five years- same with associated materials. Every time I buy stuff I am shaking my head at the price increases.

Second- it can sometimes take 100 hours or better to properly de- dent, straighten, align, block, and sand an older car If it's being painted black or another dark color it's critical. Even if it's not it still pays to do it right because what's the point in paying half that and being unsatisfied?

Fri Apr 17, 2015 2:27 pm

Also- base/ clear to me is over- restored unless you're going with a metallic paint. I'm a confirmed single- stage guy. That said, a lot of modern body shop guys will not do single stage because they claim base/ clear saves them time and a lot of them seem to be unfamiliar with it besides.

Fri Apr 17, 2015 2:43 pm

I also agree with Tram on this one. To paint my fastback and body work from a reputable shop I ended up paying $2800 for it all including door jambs and dash. Expensive but I can say it was worth it all since I can't stop staring at it.

Fri Apr 17, 2015 3:11 pm

I paid $7,000 to have my square disassembled, blocked, rust areas fixed, painted (single stage), re assembled and also have a new headliner installed.

When I say disassembled, I mean removal of the glass, all rubber, fenders...I took the interior apart for them and some of the items they weren't sure on how to remove.

If I did the disassemble/reassemble and installation of all the rubber / windows myself, it probably would have ran me around 4,500 or so.

Fri Apr 17, 2015 3:57 pm

We do not use single stage paint. Environmental issues force us to use water base/clear coat paint. The truck shop I was at used single stage with no issues.
You can rack up some serious hours block sanding out minor imperfections. I guess you need to figure out how nice you want it to look with how much money you have.

Fri Apr 17, 2015 7:22 pm

I could never have afforded that . In 85 I took the fenders off my 73 removed the pushed in rear apron and had a new one wire welded in .

I did it at work at a small ford shop I worked at then . I sanded what needed to be . The original yellow paint was not bad . I primed it and used one step black lacquer and got a good full sized spray gun and the paint and primer . I dusted the gray primer and block sanded by hand then painted it.

Today I have no idea what all this costs even if I did it myself.

Fri Apr 17, 2015 9:24 pm

I just paid $480 for two gallons of pearl white paint and a gallon of primer. Since doing this I have decided to take lots more time to do the bodywork right

Fri Apr 17, 2015 9:29 pm

ibjack wrote: I just paid $480 for two gallons of pearl white paint and a gallon of primer. Since doing this I have decided to take lots more time to do the bodywork right

Amazing. That's double what I paid for two gallons of Classic White (the MB version of Pearl) two years ago... that was PPG Delstar.

Sat Apr 18, 2015 6:21 am

Tram wrote: ibjack wrote: I just paid $480 for two gallons of pearl white paint and a gallon of primer. Since doing this I have decided to take lots more time to do the bodywork right

Amazing. That's double what I paid for two gallons of Classic White (the MB version of Pearl) two years ago... that was PPG Delstar.

Great, I feel so much better hearing that. Remember I live in the Republic of California.

Sat Apr 18, 2015 8:00 am

Awesome guys, keep it coming. I feel better about my $5500.00 paint job. This guy has multiple best paint trophies and has been in the same location for 30 years. I went yesterday to check on the progress. It's moving slow but moving none the less.
Tram I want you to know the notch is still moving fwd just took a back seat for a little. When I bought the square from my buddy Kris I dove in head first and haven't stopped. MY goal is to have the square and notch ready for the 2016 invasion.
Leo

Had planned on driving the notch down to Denver today to Painters Grinding a Great VW shop is having it's show today. But with 3 feet of fresh snow on the ground in Bailey I think I will be driving the 4 runner.

Sat Apr 18, 2015 8:58 am

You can almost see the notch buried in snow just past Ryan's (my son) square back and my next project after my square and notch are done.

Sat Apr 18, 2015 9:33 am

Great topic. I've been wondering about this for a while. Somebody please chime in about an ISP West job. They do great work but I wonder what it costs.

Sat Apr 18, 2015 9:52 am

Dave, I heard it was in the $11-$14k range but they are the most knowledgable guys in the game

Sat Apr 18, 2015 10:10 am

ibjack wrote: Tram wrote: ibjack wrote: I just paid $480 for two gallons of pearl white paint and a gallon of primer. Since doing this I have decided to take lots more time to do the bodywork right

Amazing. That's double what I paid for two gallons of Classic White (the MB version of Pearl) two years ago... that was PPG Delstar.

Great, I feel so much better hearing that. Remember I live in the Republic of California.

Prices have doubled here too- you are not alone. Every time I buy any body/ paint stuff I am just shaking my head at the price increase...

Sat Apr 18, 2015 10:17 am

Wow.

You guys have all been getting off SO cheap! :shock:

I went and bought the supplies to paint my car.
This was Epoxy, Primer filler, A gallon of paint, some sandpaper, the associated hardeners, and a cheap $90 paint gun.

This cost right about $2K.

This was just mid-grade DuPont (Axalta) single-stage, too.
Not Glasurit, Sikkens or some such high-end products,
That would have easily doubled the price.

I still am likely to need another gallon of paint and probably some more epoxy, too.
This will cost another $1K by the time I got more paper, some filters for my mask, etc.

These cars have 30+ (40?) years of bumps and bruises to straighten out by now,
And that time/labor is almost always likely to cost more than the materials.
Often 2-3-4x the cost of materials..

So you can do the math...

Yes, you can drive your car to Maaco or Earl Shieb and pay $300 to have all of the dents and rust sprayed with some cheap crappy paint.

Or, better yet, you can brush on some house paint.

Like a lot of hard things in life, there ain't likely to be a cheap way around this one...

Sat Apr 18, 2015 10:52 am

Maybe my painter is going to kill me, but I only paid him $4000 for metal stripping, bodywork and single stage Glasurit. He even buffed my paint as I do not like orange peel. This was inside and outside of the fenders. BTW, he doesn't want to paint old cars anymore. His insurance jobs pay more.

Sat Apr 18, 2015 3:16 pm

Tram wrote: Also- base/ clear to me is over- restored unless you're going with a metallic paint. I'm a confirmed single- stage guy. That said, a lot of modern body shop guys will not do single stage because they claim base/ clear saves them time and a lot of them seem to be unfamiliar with it besides.

I'm a single stage too
I painted my Notchback 1995 in TJ
I use 3 gallons Acrylic Enamel strip to metal too
My total was $2200 includes a 72 TKTs beers for those help to strip to metal

Sat Apr 18, 2015 6:13 pm

I haven't painted the square because the last 2 beetles we had painted were 12K and 14K, complete strip and paint inside and out, very nice, but hard to park somewhere and not worry about it.