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I'm told Maaco uses Sherwin-Williams automotive paints and primers. I was also informed by a local automotive paint dealer that Sherwin-Williams is the oldest auto paint manufacturer in the US....never even knew they made car paint.
Sherwin Williams now owns Valspar, which sells House of Color auto paint
Last edited by Chummy85623; 06-08-2018 at 06:38 PM.
I think I paid my buddy $250 in 1975 to strip to glass, remove trim, bumpers, etc. and paint it in his two car garage with Acrylic Lacquer.
This is a recent picture. Car hadn't been washed in several years nor waxed in many in the photo. No dirt, no runs/sags, no thin spots. Way better than the factory paint.\
Inflation calculator says $250 in 1975 is $1200 today.
Not $12,000, not twice $12,000/$25,000.
Just goes to show it's very doable to get a quality job outside these high dollar shops in Calif. and Florida.
Both places have very bad gasoline and high dollar paint jobs it seems.
Bad gasoline, high dollar paint jobs, and really crappy politics. And to top it off, no Mike M, either. Lots not to like here!
Hey if thats your thing go for it. Its your cash spend it as you see fit.
For me? Unless insurance is footing the bill I would never sign off on a 20K paint job.
I scratched that "perfect car" itch decades ago
Speaking strictly for myself it ruins the fun of driving by thinking about rock chips, car doors hitting it, kids touching etc etc.
I see a lot $xxx/gallon when people talk about paint. How many gallons does it take to completely re-coat a car? Is it different for clear? I know nothing about body work, just trying to put $xxx/gallon in context.
I have a 73 Camaro "project" in Auburn,WA needing a very good paint job..........
All original GM Metal. No Rust No Collision Damage
Already in Epoxy Primer
Anybody in Western Wash have any MAACO advice or other suggestions.
Sidebar question. What was/is your process for cataloging bolts and location etc? How are you able to know what goes where and in what sequence with which bolts?
I see a lot $xxx/gallon when people talk about paint. How many gallons does it take to completely re-coat a car? Is it different for clear? I know nothing about body work, just trying to put $xxx/gallon in context.
Thanks,
Z
The amount of paint greatly depends on the car size and extent of coverage (full rotisserie paint, under hood, under car vs just outer, topside surfaces. The last car I painted was a small Cobra replica in PPG single stage and I think I put about 1-1/2 gallons on it - 5 coats. It's been 7 or 8 years so I may be off a little. I painted my Corvette with lacquer a long time ago and went through over 2 gallons but you thin lacquer quite a bit and put a lot of coats on with lacquer and sand a number of them back off.
A good quality base coat/clear coat paint job usually seems to center around 2 coats of base and 3 coats of clear - but it can vary. I expect the normal, production single stage re-paint that a MAACO would sell is two coats. No idea on a BC/CC production job. If I were having MACCO paint a car for me I would check into having them apply an extra coat or coats so that I could cut and buff it at least lightly.
Paint has gotten expensive and I haven't checked on it in a number of years - seems the PPG Concept Black was close to $400/gallon - but that may have been with reducer and hardener too. It's probably higher now. I know back then reds were over $1000/gallon but I don't know now.
Last edited by DansYellow66; 06-08-2018 at 04:07 PM.
The amount of paint greatly depends on the car size and extent of coverage (full rotisserie paint, under hood, under car vs just outer, topside surfaces. The last car I painted was a small Cobra replica in PPG single stage and I think I put about 1-1/2 gallons on it - 5 coats. It's been 7 or 8 years so I may be off a little. I painted my Corvette with lacquer a long time ago and went through over 2 gallons but you thin lacquer quite a bit and put a lot of coats on with lacquer and sand a number of them back off.
A good quality base coat/clear coat paint job usually seems to center around 2 coats of base and 3 coats of clear - but it can vary. I expect the normal, production single stage re-paint that a MAACO would sell is two coats. No idea on a BC/CC production job. If I were having MACCO paint a car for me I would check into having them apply an extra coat or coats so that I could cut and buff it at least lightly.
Paint has gotten expensive and I haven't checked on it in a number of years - seems the PPG Concept Black was close to $400/gallon - but that may have been with reducer and hardener too. It's probably higher now. I know back then reds were over $1000/gallon but I don't know now.
The cost of just top shelf materials will approach what many CLAIM to pay for a decent paint job. Ask ptsk (Pat) what he paid for the good stuff recently. Or DUB or other people that know what they’re talking about
Auto painting is an area where I don't even qualify as an amateur - but from what I've been told - most "good" pro painters tend to hate to do the prep work on cars (and as numerous other posters have said - poor prep = poor paint job).
So - if you can do the majority of the prep yourself, and then pay for good paint, and for a guy who knows what he's doing with a spray gun - it shouldn't have to cost a fortune for a re-paint.
IMHO - I would think that more than 3 coats of clear would be preferred - you'll want some real film thickness as you can easily cut through a fair amount with a watersand and with cutting compound on a rotary buffer. The clear is really the protection - so I would probably go with more than 3 coats.
So - let's do some math here.... Say the shop is charging the painters time out at $100/hour, and let's say each coat takes a total of 90 minutes. If you do the majority of the prep work yourself, let's say the shop has to do a couple of hours of additional prep. Then 2 coats of color and 4 coats of clear. 6 coats @ 90 min each * $100 hour = $1,200 in labor. Now - let's look at paint cost. You can get House of Color from a place like Jegs or Eastwood for less than $150/gallon. I don't know how "good" that is - but it seems fairly commonly used. So let's say 2 gallons of color and another 2 gallons of clear. I see around $600. A few gallons of solvent, tape, masking paper etc. etc. etc. should run another few hundred dollars..... So - around $2,000 doesn't seem un reasonable....
Chevrolet might have spent $50 to paint a new C2. Paint, material and labor.
Some of those factory jobs were so bad, the dealers repainted many of them due to customer complaints.
Why in the world, if you are just wanting one to look close to the way it left St. Louis would you pay $20-$30K and expect it to look close to correct? I understand "the club" makes deductions for being too shiny. Probably not enough deducts but I hear they make some tick marks in the points column.
I've seen some of those really shiny, smooth cars at car shows. They stick out like a hussied up hooker on the prowl on a Friday night in the red light district!
Morbid, even.
Now, back to the subject of how much a decent job cost?
Sidebar question. What was/is your process for cataloging bolts and location etc? How are you able to know what goes where and in what sequence with which bolts?
Simply by paying attention and writing things down...or taking photos.
Now...I read this entire thread and I can say that I am not the type that just has to do nothing but 20K paint jobs. But I DO have my limit on how low I will go on an overall paint job.
When it comes to the amount of paint. What is often times not discussed is how SOME paints are really weak in their strength...so they do not cover very well. Thus...more paint needs to be applied. BUT...the same exact color from another paint manufacturer will cover much quicker...thus...you do not need to buy a butt-load of paint. THIS is where many people use what is suggested or well known and NOT try to use products that are not so well known....even though many of these 'new' paint manufactures have the chemists that were the chemists from BIG paint companies who branched out on their own. FACT...Not my opinion.
I agree that PREP is where it matters ...but then also applying the products is just as important.
What often times effects if whether or not a shop wants to paint Corvette or not is the fact that they may have in the past ...and they had to deal with a person who wanted a 20K paint job for 5K. There are people out there that have really unrealistic expectations and yet do not want to pay for them. Kinda like....they want a 5 carat PERFECT diamond but only want to give you what they would pay for a one carat diamond.
Lastly what seems to not have been really touched on is the shops reputation. Some shops or individuals covet their reputation very much and it has taken them a long time to get it that way. And if they start to put out work that may satisfy the customer willing to pay for a basic paint job. That shop or person still has to live with the outcome.
Think of it like a hamburger you would get at a fast food drive though in five minutes...and that if a hamburger you would get at a cook out at Gordon Ramsey's house. Because I could basically guarantee that the burger at Gordons cook out would still be on a level greater than fast food drive through.
No matter what...those of us who do this work or have done it in the past...their still is a level of what WE can live with. And lowering a standard is just not worth it....because there are other people who will or can do it for less....but you just can not expect it to always have th same end result.
TIME is MONEY. The more money I get..the more time I can spend on it and really fine tune 'things'. And I also will put more time into project free of charge due to I know who I am doing it for will really appreciate it and I am actuality really ENJOYING what I am doing and it does not seem like work at all. The pay off will be the expression on the customers face when they pick it up. And for me...that is priceless.
So...for me it does not matter WHO a person chooses to paint their car and how much they pay for a paint job. If they are happy with it and it seems to last ...then they got their moneys worth.
I had my 1960 painted last year so I'll give some materials input. The painter purchased: 2 gal. primer reducer/hardener; gal and a half of black; quart of silver; gallon and a half of clear. All ppg. Total cost was $1475. I went with old school solvent based paint, water borne would have been $800 more.
Now...I read this entire thread and I can say that I am not the type that just has to do nothing but 20K paint jobs. But I DO have my limit on how low I will go on an overall paint job.
When it comes to the amount of paint. What is often times not discussed is how SOME paints are really weak in their strength...so they do not cover very well. Thus...more paint needs to be applied. BUT...the same exact color from another paint manufacturer will cover much quicker...thus...you do not need to buy a butt-load of paint. THIS is where many people use what is suggested or well known and NOT try to use products that are not so well known....even though many of these 'new' paint manufactures have the chemists that were the chemists from BIG paint companies who branched out on their own. FACT...Not my opinion.
I agree that PREP is where it matters ...but then also applying the products is just as important.
What often times effects if whether or not a shop wants to paint Corvette or not is the fact that they may have in the past ...and they had to deal with a person who wanted a 20K paint job for 5K. There are people out there that have really unrealistic expectations and yet do not want to pay for them. Kinda like....they want a 5 carat PERFECT diamond but only want to give you what they would pay for a one carat diamond.
Lastly what seems to not have been really touched on is the shops reputation. Some shops or individuals covet their reputation very much and it has taken them a long time to get it that way. And if they start to put out work that may satisfy the customer willing to pay for a basic paint job. That shop or person still has to live with the outcome.
Think of it like a hamburger you would get at a fast food drive though in five minutes...and that if a hamburger you would get at a cook out at Gordon Ramsey's house. Because I could basically guarantee that the burger at Gordons cook out would still be on a level greater than fast food drive through.
No matter what...those of us who do this work or have done it in the past...their still is a level of what WE can live with. And lowering a standard is just not worth it....because there are other people who will or can do it for less....but you just can not expect it to always have th same end result.
TIME is MONEY. The more money I get..the more time I can spend on it and really fine tune 'things'. And I also will put more time into project free of charge due to I know who I am doing it for will really appreciate it and I am actuality really ENJOYING what I am doing and it does not seem like work at all. The pay off will be the expression on the customers face when they pick it up. And for me...that is priceless.
So...for me it does not matter WHO a person chooses to paint their car and how much they pay for a paint job. If they are happy with it and it seems to last ...then they got their moneys worth.
DUB
In the other thread, the $20K paint thread I answered the question simply with, "it depends".
06-08-2018, 10:58 AM
