Motor City Vette

I'm looking for some help in getting a "rough" idea for the cost for painting a C3. My knowledge on the mechanical side of cars is much greater than the body & paint portion of cars. To be honest, I'm not even sure what kind of questions to ask regarding painting a C3, so here goes nothing...

I found a Vette that I'd like to purchase (1972), it has everything I want (especially the price!) except the paint needs help. It checks out mechanically very nicely. The only thing wrong with the car is that the paint is original so it is in dire need of a paint job. I live in Detroit and I plan on calling around to a few different Corvette body shops in the area to get an idea for repainting the car, but what kind of questions should I ask? All of the places I'll be calling specialize in Vettes. Is it possible to get a "decent" paint job for $1,200? A friend was telling me I'd have to spend at least $2,500. If I have to go that high in price, the deal on the car suddenly doesn't look that good.

Thanks for all your help.

Chris@VetteFinders

You are going to get a lot of varying opinions here because prices vary depending on where you live and how good people think a "good" paint job is. I would consider $2500 the bare minimum for a good paint job with prep, disassembly and reassembly

daniel77350

mine ran $2,500 and my area seems to be one of the cheapest for having a vette repainted.

Just ask questions about their prep work. Find out how far they take the car down before the prime/paint. If they mention gel coat, tell him to have a nice day, and call another shop(especally if your looking for origionality, or ability to repaint it later because gel coat is very tough). If you plan to change the color, ask them about removing the doors to get the jambs(the correct way). ask them if they remove the bumpers(for a chrome bumper shark they probably will no matter what, but for a rubber bumper shark that becomes more important). Ask them about removing the hood, etc. My shop didn't do a good job of cleaning up after themselves, so I had to vacuum 'glass shards and paint chips out of my car, and the engine bay looks just as bad with paint chips etc. So ask about their clean up. Oh and ask what kind of paint they use.

Thats all I can think of.

Daniel

VETDRMS

mine was $6500 give or take a couple. I had a fair amount of fiberglass work done, fixing stress fractures, a few cracks around the front of the hood, and the rear pillars were kind of cracked. They also reshaped a warped panel.
I would say that is high, the paint looks good though :D :cool:

Dalannex

I painted mine myself and spent real close to $1000 on materials. I also have around 150 hours of labor into it. It does look good, but I don't see any way a shop can paint a car for under a few grand. Shops around here get $30 an hour and up, so that comes to $5500 for my paint job if I were to take it to a shop.

C3 Shark Tank

Where in Detroit are you, the city or the burbs? I know a guy off of Hayes and Utica Roads that used to do all the concept cars for Dodge, he's the one that did most of the work on the T-Rex truck for them, quality work but it might cost a bit more. He did my brothers frame off 70 Duster, you could shave while using the paint as a mirror it came out so nice. I've seen a bunch of other cars he's done, the guy is an absolute genius. The big 3 still send their privately owned collection cars to him when they need them done.

Paul 75 L82

I agree with Dalannex, $1,000 for materials and 150 hours.

Motor City Vette

QUOTE]Where in Detroit are you, the city or the burbs? I know a guy off of Hayes and Utica Roads that used to do all the concept cars for Dodge, he's the one that did most of the work on the T-Rex truck for them, quality work but it might cost a bit more. He did my brothers frame off 70 Duster, you could shave while using the paint as a mirror it came out so nice. I've seen a bunch of other cars he's done, the guy is an absolute genius. The big 3 still send their privately owned collection cars to him when they need them done.[/QUOTE]

C3 Shark Tank,
I'm in the northern burbs, Rochester Hills. I know right where your talking about, Hayes and Utica...I used to drive by there at least once a week while coming home from my golf league.[

ZORA_RULES

I spent over $1000 for paint and material....Gal of Torch Red was almost $400 by itself! No way you get a good quality job for less than $2500 in my oppinion, and after doing one, $2500 is a very good price. Maybe you could get by better if you go back to original color, and don't pull the doors and shoot the jambs. But if you want to change colors, you really need to pull off everything possible to get a complete color change.

One last thought. If the body is straight, you can do a lot of prep work yourself...its not really hard, just very time consuming. And just have someone shoot it with color/clear and buff it out for you, then you re-assemble it. Several guys on here have taken that route and got good quality jobs w/o breaking their bank + you learn a ton. I got a quote for a similar thing here in Dallas, but the guy wanted 1000 to shoot and buff. He's known for high quality work, but after spending that much of my own time, I really wanted to try the whole thing myself.

Good Luck

Sounds like a nice car....if paint is the only thing, I'd do it.

ZORA_RULES

Paul Car Looks awesom......great job