steve40th

Whats fair for a real nice, not show, quality paint job, matching paint and wet sanding to match rest of body?

GKK

About $3500.

It's about a 40-45 hour job @ $78 hr. labor rate or whatever labor rate they charge in Hawaii plus materials about $400 (primer sealer, paint, clear reducer, hardener). It' can be done a little cheaper but, the body shop will have to cut corners by not removing the bumper cover to remove the fog lights, not removing the headlight assembly, not removing gills etc...

Also, the shop can match the existing paint by blending the new paint onto the doors (more labor) or they can closely color match (about 2 hours labor) the new paint to the existing 16 year old paint.

A good quality paint shop can still produce a good finish even while cutting corners on the labor.

steve40th

Callaway painted it back in NOV 99, and it was 4800 for the whole car. Its amazing how prices have gone up.

M.J.L.

My fathers friend of 40 years owns a body shop...To paint a vette at presentable quality, it's about 8500. He said things have gone up sky high and he is loosing business. He is a honest man and tries to have the best prices and guarantees their work.

cam355aro

Paint it yourself. When you do it yourself you're only going to spend about 500ish. For your job, even less paint required.

pologreen1

you can try it 2-3 times yourself and still come out ahead.

GKK

Then you can take it to the professionals and have them remove what you did and do the job right.

Painting a vehicle is a highly skilled profession which can't be learned in a short period of time without the help from an experienced body prep/painter.

Firevette

Thats more than than my car is worth. Hell thats more than the car would be worth with brand new paint. Id never pay that.

GKK

In Northern California, the cost to Completely paint any vehicle is around $10,000. It's a very labor intensive job, if it was easy and cheap everybody would be doing it.

15 years ago, my friend that owns a body shop completely restored a 69 Camaro from the frame up which cost the owner $25,000. He said if he were to do the same job today, it would cost $90,000.

That's why a lot of older vehicles are Totaled from just a minor front or rear end collision.

steve40th

Doom and Gloom!
8500 for the front!!
Its cheaper to buy a 93 in excelllent conditiion than to paint.

samsonb

I talked to the Chevy dealer a couple of years ago about the price to paint my 89, he said a few years before, they painted one like mine for $2,500.

I know some local body shops had quoted me $5k and $7k.

I may just take body shop class at the local tech school and strip and paint it myself in class.

Corvette Chris

Actually, unless you're looking for a really show stopping job, its not that difficult. Base/clear is pretty forgiving if you do a little homework and prep on the front end.

Pwnage1337

its pretty retarded that you can buy a new car for the price of a paint job.

If it cost 8500 to paint a front bumper, it should look like glass for years to come.

steve40th

It wont cost 8500 to doa bumper and hood. Thats EXTREME. This place here will probably do mine. He did the rear, with removal and wet sanding etc for 950 a couple years ago.
I am thinking 2500 bucks. And his cars go to Barret Jackson etc. Top quality painting. He STARTS with 5000 for entire C4, thats base price 2 years ago.
http://www.corvettecenterltd.com/

M.J.L.

8500 to do a entire car including stripping it down, priming, painting, clear coat.....8500 for a bumper. Id let the damn thing fall off before I paid 8500 for that little bit.

For a hood/bumper sector I would estimate 1500-2000 for a nice paintjob depending on the body shop...

91Original

I just did this work with the exception of the gills - just the bumper and bonnet. It took about 8 hours at $46 but I found a local specialist to do the work and I live in Kansas which might be a lower cost area.

GKK

It is a difficult job, if it wasn't everbody would be doing it. Why do you think most of the cost is labor.

steve40th

We all agree its difficult. But, with practice, it can be benficial to you with the costs involved with labor etc. One thing you have to have is patience.
With the C4, why not read, study hard, get lots of advice, and practice on your buddies Vette, or get a SMC panel and practice, practice, practice.
Then again, a clamshell hood and overcoming overspray issues, come with experience.

M.J.L.

GKK

What does "STARTS" with mean?

A Basic repaint is Labor+materials+tax. The shop probably charges extra for color matching, blending and color sanding all of which is standard labor to any Quality paint repair.

Terms like, "Show Quality" and "Barret Jackson" are very subjective when describing paint quality. There are a lot of "Show" vehicles that I've seen that did not have a quality paint job to me.

I've painted and repaired many vehicles and was taught by a very gifted painter who has done many frame off restorations and there are a lot of terms he taught me such as "Wavy Panels", "Blotchy Paint", "Uneven Metallic", "Dry Spray" etc... These are blemishes that are found in a lot of paint repairs by inexperienced painters and also, many repair shops.

They get away with it because the customers don't know what to look for. As long as it's shiny the customer thinks it looks good, look at it with the sun behind you and it's a different story.