Anyone know a good paint guy in Denver area? I went to a hot rod shop today and got a 25K bid...of course they wanted to take it down to original fiberglass.....but this is just a driver car and want some good looking color on it.

 

Try emailing Lars Grimsrud in Lafayette, v8fastcars@msn.com

 

I am assuming they just didnt want to do it.

 

What is everyone's experience on range of paint job prices....from show quality to driving quality jobs?

 

As far as pricing....
there is a fair difference in material pricing... but I don't know many shops that do a decent job that use the cheap stuff....

as far as a show quality job vs a driver job...

when you say... "i want a driver job" that tells the paint shop that you are cheap and don't want to spend the money. I would never accept a job like that becasue you still are gonna spend 5-10k and when it is finished, you will not be happy with your car..... GUARANTEED.
It will be wavy and full of orange peel.

You might as well take it to Maaco and only spend 300.00

For an honest paint job, the time it takes to prep a car for paint is the same whether it is a show car or a driver...

the difference is in the blocking of the primer, ( and of course if any body work needs to be done) and whether or not they sand and rub the finish when the paint is cured.

any competent paint shop would likely sand and rub the car out anyway, which takes the same no matter what.


This work is incredibly time consuming and most shops would rather do routine bump work as they can make a whole lot more money doing 15 fender repairs a week as opposed to a complete which will take months....


i'm repainting my L76 right now.... you might have seen the website I did for that... there is a post on this C2 forum with the link.

I've had 2 or 3 people ask me how much I'd charge to re paint a car and i'm quoting about 500-750 per panel... assuming it only needs a scuff and shoot... that seems outrageous , but when you consider after it is painted... i have about 4-5 hours alone in wet sanding and polishing. Not to mention the cost of materials.

if it needs body work, or needs a prime and blocking... add another 250-500.

However the difference is that I"m working out of my garage... not a shop with overhead and employees


But when its finished, it looks incredible.

Thanks

A

 

Well, any good paint job needs to go down to fiberglas, unless the original paint was essentailly perfect, and you just wanted a color change.

Now, are you talking about driving the car in, dropping it off and having them remove all the chrome, windshield, interior, and reinstalliing same after restoration of those items, including new weather strip, carpet, etc? if so, perhaps $25K isn't far off.

If I R&R all that chrome,windshield, etc, I have been quoted $5-10K for strip, fiberglas repair,and show quaility straight body and paint. I have also been quoted $10-$12K for the same work, and another outfit told me $60-$70K (I won't use them....)

And of course, that $5-$10K doesn't include new parts, dash pad, carpet, weather strip, rechrome windshield, polish and flash chrome stainless, etc, so there is probably another $8K in all that
Doug

 

Best musclecar and Vette paint place in Denver is SVE in Broomfield. 303-466-6717. Talk to Butch and let him know Lars referred you.
Lars

 

"It will be wavy and full of orange peel."

It'll look like it did when it was new

 

well, I can attest that it sure doesn't take $25k to paint a vette!

I had my '65 done in 2004/2005. My painter specializes in older vettes and rarely touches other cars other than C1's, C2's and chrome bumper C3's.
He will at times have a Chevelle, or GTO or such in there and currently is also working on a '67 Olds 442 and just finished up on a Jag XK150 but mostly only handles Vettes.
He is the known "go-to" guy around here if you want your vette done. He's slow but very good.

He stripped my car down to the bare fiberglass, ended up doing a LOT of bodywork neither of us expected him to have to do until we saw the car with the paint gone, removed the doors, all the glass, etc. He did the job right, no cutting corners.
He also used the better quality PPG paints, not the economy line.

Total price was $5,000 plus another $800 or so I spent on new weather stripping, some new trim moldings, windshield and rear window gaskets, etc.

As you can see from the pics every step of the job is documented and shows it was a high quality job, no cutting corners.
That price also included wetsanding and buffing that a lot of shops around here quote prices without.
in fact, he did a wetsand and buff than told me to bring it back a few months later and he would do it again once the paint cured more and he could do a better job without worrying about burning thru the fresh paint as much.

http://lbfun.com/Corvette/65Vette/Paintjob/pjintro.html

getting a really nice paint job doesn't have to cost half the value of the car if you find the right shop.

BTW, i've gotten MANY compliments about the paint job and even won awards at shows because of it.