bg725

I took my 65 coupe to a shop that specializes in older Corvettes for an estimate on a paint job, mine has some blistering and mottled here and there. I was told $20,000 and would be without it for a year, in order to do my car justice he felt it should be taken apart and stripped. I love my car but honestly don't see the value in spending $20k on a paint job, let alone tie it up for a year. Think I'll drive it till the paint falls off.

boxster99t

I don't think I'd trust a Chevy dealership to repaint a C2 or really any car (even a run of the mill grocery getter)--dealership body shops are typically pretty poor in my experience. And don't expect a Chevy dealership to know how to properly prep, restore and paint a C2. Even when I owned a C4 and C7, I never liked a Chevy dealership working on the cars for mechanical things after warranty. Makes me shiver at the thought.

I hope and pray to never need to have paintwork done, frankly. Where I'm at, I'd probably have it done by Carr Campbell's shop in Plano Texas (which is about 140 miles West of me), likely wouldn't see my car back for years and yeah, it would cost who knows what. Mine's just an NOM with a nice two stage clear coat paint job that was done back in the 90's--has a few cracks and spiders but presentable and will likely outlive me, fingers crossed and knocking wood feverishly, provided it's not wrecked.

The advice I was given in 2010 when I was hunting a C2 and eventually bought the 67 convertible I have, is find one with decent paint that was done years ago, because you don't know what a newish paint job will look like a few years later, painting one of these is brutally expensive, so try to find one in the condition paint and mechanically, you can live with. And that's what I bought.

Tiger Joe

$20k is the going rate for a good paint job with labor. I can understand if you dont want to spend that, but honestly what you said about the shop it sounds fair.

most good shops dont want to spray new paint over old. because anything under the surface can come back to bite you in the *** and ruin your finish later. Also sheer cost of supplies is insane right now. I'm painting a chevelle this week. basecoat is costing me $400/gal. clear is $600/gal with activator. clear 12 months ago was only $450. I'll have $2000 in just the paint, not to mention primers, sealers, fillers- I probably have $10k into the paint job and all of my free labor doing body work for last year. around here the going rate for body shops is $100/hr. $10k doesnt buy much labor at $100/hr

henry63

I've had my car for 15 or so years. The paint was really a 20 footer. I've have enjoyed driving it whenever and where ever I wanted to with little worry. As far as I'm concerned, that's the best way to have a classic car. Having said that, because my corvette was damaged in a recent tornado, and the insurance company is paying for some repairs, I've decided that a complete strip and repaint is justified in my case. It's going to cost a good bit out of pocket, but with the help from insurance, probably the only way I could have justified it. The "while I'm at it's" are the only thing that I'm going to have to watch. I'm excited to see the finished product, and afraid that I won't drive it like I used to.

Railroadman

I paid less than that for my project '64. When it's drivable, it's going on the road with the paint as is. If someone doesn't like it as a 20-footer, I'll just suggest they back up another 20, and repeat until it looks good!

Rick67

20 k for paint is not unrealistic.
my 63 impala is getting painted right now.I have nos fenders doors and quarters.So the panels are very straight.Body work,2 coats of high build primer,sealer coat,2 coats of color,and 2 coats of clear is 28k.Prices are crazy right now.

MarvBarrish

I'm in the process of getting my 63 project ready for paint. It's body off and I'm doing all of the paint stripping and body work. Priming and blocking. I can certainly see why the cost of a good paint job is so expensive. Just the labor involved is intensive and then add in the material costs and it's very easy to blow thru 20K. I would say that's a bargain.

Dan Hampton

Even in the warrens of rural Minnesota, $20K will not buy you much in the way of quality paint. Aside from birdcage and rust issues, it is the most important variable when buying a C1/C2. Having to repaint a car will put you so far under that you will not see financial daylight for a long time.

jasonsamara

I have a friend who has a 66 vert that had the typical bubbles around the upper surround. It’s a no hit car and he took it to a highly reputable shop. No question this place would make it right. However, they told him they would cut the upper surround off and replace it because they felt his was contaminated and would come back. He just couldn’t bare to cut up his no hot car so he just lived with it.

I told him about an old guy that lived in a trailer park and had a cramped 2 car garage, but I knew he could paint very well. I told him about him and where to find him and he found him.

The old guy converts his garage with plastic walls, fans etc when he paints. So he stripped my friends car, put some type of sealer over tue bubble areas and changed it back to the original color. It turned out great! I think it cost about $7k total and was about 5 years ago. So far no bubbles have returned and his car looks great! The problem is the old man passed on so I surely can’t use him in the future.

ptjsk

Yea...a lot of discussion over paint and body costs.

I do know that around my area, 20k wouldn't get your foot in the door. Maybe 4, or 5 years ago, but definitely not today.

Pat

nutt

Not sure what shops charge now, but I'd be certain it's hovering around $100 per hr. shop rate at a minimum and you've only baked in 200 hrs labor. That's nothing for a complete. If it's 20k all inclusive, you've just knocked off 3k from the 20, for material costs. It certainly is a chunk of change, but well justified. Twice that can easily be justified. AND, there's absolutely no shame in driving a non-perfect early vette, in fact, I love to see them.

carl3989

Where is Earl Scheib when you need him?

walleyfisher

I am in the process of doing a complete strip and paint on a '63 roadster
My thread: (Saving a 63 roadster (sort of))

WE have up to date about $1,600.00 dollars in just materials (Dupont stuff BTW) in stripping, primer,sealer paint,clear, hardner and sanding pads. My father had a quote last summer for this car from a local Corvette / boat paint shop and they quoted us $12,000.00 (but I don't think it included the door jams).

Anyways my point is if you are able to do the stripping and preping by yourself, You can find a shop to finish the painting.

We have from time to time paid the aboved mention shop to just spray the car (due to the matallic or color) my buddie and myself are confidant on solid colors having no strips when done.

The shop charged us on our last car (mettalic silver) $1,500.00 to mask off, Spray and bake in their oven (we supplied the paint and clear). So if you do the math and you and your friends do the prep work you can have a show stopper of a paint job for under $3,500.00

We started the strippin back in November and we would work on the car a couple of hours at nigh for about 8 hours each week (16 total for both of us) no weekends except when we actually was painting (needed the daylight) we just finished sanding and are completing the cutting and buffing so we have a little more tha six months and about 228 hours between the 2 of us from start to now finish


Here is a '77 we just finished



Both paint jobs are 100% bettter than factory, are they Ridler ready hell no, but we did not spend $20,000 on either paint job
The paint on my '74 is almost 21 years old it did not sit for 50 some days for the solvents to dry out and still looks like it was painted yesterday and yes it wins shows

Full roller mtr, number matching, gull winging doors, ccustomer's paint with ZL-1 stripes, full frame off resto 20 yrs ago

Big-K

First let me say the body work must be done right for it to last, any short cut or inferior work will show up in a couple years or less! I think 25-30K is the todays price for quality lasting workmanship for a complete on a C2. Before you make a commitment for the said work, make sure you get inspection privilege to check in person the quality of work they have performed in each of the major steps. This is why classic cars that are ready to sell cost so much now days! It's been 27 years since I owned Kenny's Quality A/B. I did it all from rust work to body-offs for 20 years, stood behind my work, was an insurance estimator and have seen the good -bad and ugly. I just bought a pint of rally red for my 66......B/S cost was 280.00, Eye popping to me! A quart of the new reducer for this paint was 80.00 and has a opened shelf life in days after opened. I did some touch up repair work with an air brush, no more than a once or too was mixed and all was done. That 80.00 can of reducer is wasted if not used after opening it. This is a new twist for materials to go bad so Quickley. If I would have known before, I bought it I would have bummed some from a B/S friend! It was still cheaper than paying a shop to do it. I will say the air brush did a wonderful job of fine touch up work. The work came out invisible. Big-K

watson

I had my TR4 painted as part of an insurance claim with Hagerty. The issue was that the car was painted in lacquer and you can't use that in The Newsom Republic of California. The job consisted of disassembling the car, sanding and sealing the paint, and applying new base coat clear coat paint. The shop charges $120 per hour and that is on the low side around here. The job took two months and cost $25,000. These days, it is hard to find a body shop that will even consider a complete paint job on a car. You pretty much have to go to a restoration shop. If you want a quality job, you will also need to plan on being without your car for a while. Even new paints and primers shrink over time and you need to let them cure between coats. The guy who painted my 67 was a well known C2 restorer and he insisted that the car sit in the sun for 21 days between coats of primer. The car was painted 17 years ago and it still looks great. With paint, you really do get what you pay for. If you are going to sell the car in the near future and you don't mind a few imperfections, you can get good short term results for less that $20,000. If you are going to keep the car and you want it to look really nice, the estimate your shop gave you is more than fair. If you want a show quality paint job, you can easily more than double what they quoted you. Quality materials and quality work are not cheap.

craig1952

Thank the EPA for the crazy materials cost..

Railroadman

I know fairly little about the painting process. The 21 days is new to me - is that fairly common, or just something that guy did? That was BC/CC?

Tiger Joe

i think its body shop voodoo they sell customers because jobs take so long. I've heard a few ppl say shops have made claims like this about things needing to sit for X amount of time. every product has a spec sheet which will clearly tell you dry times, i can guarantee you none of them are weeks. a good collision shop can primer a car in the morning, and bake it and paint it that afternoon. most of the primer i use a a hobbyist i let sit till the next day and block sand. never once has it not been dry 24 hrs later.

Roger Walling

It's time to get out the roller and a quart of implement paint!...$42.95 (Be sure to wash off the bird droppings first)

nutt

Primer offers 0 protection to uv so setting it outside is only recommended for a day to flash those solvents. 21 days is good for inside cure.