Cost of full re-paint?
 

This is a loaded, generic question i know. I'm need to get my super re-painted and i'll tell you I'm very frustrated right now. I live in the CA Bay Area and I've been to quite a few body shops (maaco to top-shelf types) and no one seems to want to paint my bug for under $8000. Typically they say $8-20K. Even then they are very negative and don't seem to want my business. They all give me the brush off. I have good $$ to spend, and I'm willing to do as much prep as possible.

I'm a smart guy, and I've done a lot of homework when it comes to how to paint a car, so I understand the theory and all the basics and why it can cost so much. The issues i find are that:

1) re-painting is not that profitable, especially in this area compared to collision repair
2) No one seems to care about a vw bug as much as I do here.

Can any of you recommend a body shop/paint place in and around the California Bay Area? Maybe one that loves bugs as much as we all do? :confused:

How much did you spend on average for your paint jobs? If you can please list:

- brand of paint
- type of paint (enamel/urethane, etc)
- single stage, 2-stage (color/clear) or tri-stage (pearl, etc)
- pan-off or on?
- wet-sanding of clear? (or color)

I'll post a pic to give you an idea of what i'm working with. The body is straight, stripped down of all exterior and interior parts and has been steam cleaned. The car was re-painted is seems not longer than 10-years ago, but there are some slight rust issues.

A few pics of my super vw project now dubbed the "Black Plague" due to all the responses I've gotten from auto-body shops. :bawling:
I personally don't think it's that bad, i'm trying to get someone to come in in person to take a look and give me a real opinion.

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have you tried like, muscle car shops? the one near me quoted me a price of around $2500 to paint my convertible, but i'm not at that point yet. they're not as interested in quick turnover and big insurance checks as much as making cool cars.

then there's always the local friend who'll do it in his free time. that's cheap!

I wish i had a local friend who would do it in his spare time! Most of the quotes that were higher than $10K were from muscle car/hot rod places. I'm still looking around and will start to focus on these shops and see if i can get a reasonable estimate. I would like a really good paint job. Just paint can cost easily $2k for a re-paint.

I'm not looking for a miracle el-cheapo job, i'm looking for something much better. With that said there has to be something in-between the $2K and $20K paint jobs.

Anyone else? Please list out how much you shelled out for a paintjob. I'm curious of the average.

I can relate. I spent the better part of a year searching for someone to paint my car. Stay away from the larger production body shops. They're after the quick turn insurance work. Focus on the smaller, independent guys, especially in the rural areas and negotiate it a "filler" work -- but be prepared for it to take longer. I found a small shop 30 miles outside the city and they were 1/2 the price others were quoting me. They even picked up the body and returned it so I could work on the pan. Six coats (three each) of Dupont Chroma Premier base/clear. I ended up paying ~$5K and over 6 months, but it was worth it...

http://www.kafertek.com/gallery/project/Dsc00827.jpg
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Nice paint Mike.

For me I went out and bought 3 paint guns, All around the $150, range most on sale , and am going to give this Duplicolor "Shop paint" a try. They say that there is no flash time between coats so you can start and stop at your own schedule. I'll let you know how it turns out. JR

Hell! If it were up to me I would say bring it up to sac and we can get it painted! (we have 3 cars in the slot for paint, but it can take forever because this is sunday only stuff...Must be out!....got bit in the ars by a friend too).


You can find somebody local! just keep looking!


Yes autobody shops like to rape.. You prep, $500-700 for paint, and maybe 10hrs max for labor....

the best advice is probably to prep the car yourself , bodyshops tend to quote on a whole job prep etc , just a top coat and laquer i doubt will be a fortune , if you are paying for a top dollar paint job nearly all the cash will be on prep work because without the groundwork the paint will look cr**p .
So cheap gun and filler primer are the way to go :D

Honestly, i think prepping it myself (including primer) would be impractical and possibly illegal here in CA. It's also unwise unless you really know what you are doing. 90% of a great paintjob is in the prep. Plus you'd need to use a compatible primer for the paint system your shop guy will be using. Example, if it's PPG then you'd need to go to a paint place that uses that specific PPG paint system. Otherwise you will run into trouble. Good paint places typically recommend you do not do extensive prep yourself.

My garage is way to small to get sanding dust everywhere and dirty to paint in. In addition, purchasing quality tools including an air compressor will cost too much. My garage is in the middle of the suburbs. If it were a more rural location, then having space for tools and might be less of a burden.

I have found one place called the spot shop in San jose that will do it for an estimated $6k. They actually came out and took a look. They were also talking about a new "paint blasting" method using baking soda. Apparently this works quite well without any warping damage, and will not hurt things like chrome.

I am still looking around. I also found evil-wheels.com, a custom body shop in Santa cruz. I'm going to give them call and see what's up.

Well if you mean in the last 10 yrs. yeah soda blasting is kind-of new. Is it me or dose $6000 still sound high? but if you are talking stripping and paint I guess that fair. What work dose the quotes include? JR

Yes, we are talking stripping and painting. You actually bring up a very good point. I did not get a paper quote, only a verbal regarding the ballpark of how much it'll cost to paint the car after the guys looked it over.

No specific work was mentioned, although they saw and commented that some welding, rust removal and minor body work needed to me done. I told them i wanted the outside and inside painted. The interior i have not thought through fully yet. Will I do with a stripped down race interior, or bare bones including carpet, headliner and door panels. Option 2 sounds better right now and they will not need to put more paint into the interior. That could knock off $1k.

Downside is these guys will not do a pan off because they have no rotissiere. I assume you could paint the body without one, but what do I know.

They also kept talking about how red is the most expensive color; the one with the most pigments. Ferrari red (rosso corsa) is what i'd like my car to be.

Well, I for one can tell you that it IS possible to paint a shell, off the chassis, without a rotisserie. I have done it at my old work. It sure isnt all that easy, but then again it is not THAT hard either. A rotisserie just makes it easy getting 'under' the car. :agree:

Yep. The body shop prepped mine on a large flat dolly and painted it on saw horses...

http://www.kafertek.com/gallery/project/Dsc01288.jpg