You can check with Aworks here on the CF, he has a body shop in CT and his cars are excellant.

 

Thanks for the tip, will definitely do that!

 

If you are not in a hurry you may be able to find a shop that will work with you. I had mine completely stripped and repainted with House of Colors paint in Candy Apple Red over a Gold base, then Cleared. The agreement we made was that I was not in a hurry and they could work on it in between other work. They are a very high quality shop, but their main bread and butter is collision repair. They trued all the seams, repaired any defects in the fiberglass and the car look great and wins trophies.

It wasn't cheap at between 5-6K, but nowhere near the 8-10K range.

 

wow, that's some good news!
that's an idea I should have thought of!

thanks!

 

Thats a very good idea ! Also If you were to remove the paint yourself , would that help lower the price too ?

 

yes it would save me a lot of money, but with the time I have availible to me, it would take all year to strip one headlight.

wish I had more time to spend with my vette this summer, especially since I just finished putting the motor back in.

 

OK - I just had to chime in here. Having completely sanded all layers of paint and primer off of my old '71 (a previous project 4 cars ago taht had three(!!) re-paints), and having done it ALL by hand with an electric sander and a respirator, I will say that if anyone sands THROUGH the fiberglass, they have to be completely obvlivious to what they are doing. You can definitely sand low spots if you're not careful, but through it? And easily? I don't think so.

Now here's the other thing. If I can find at least two guys in Tuscaloos, Alabama that paint on the side and do super-top-notch work for about $2,000-$3,000 plus materials, CERTAINLY in the most populous metropolitan area in America (where I used to work by the way), you can find one. You just need to take the time, put out the feelers, follow up on the them and search, search, search. There are LOTS of quite talented painters out there for whatever reason are doing their art on the side and not within the cost confines of a major body shop. You just have to really dig. BTW, my guy, was a master painter for two different car companies - now he does environmental work. He does paint and restoration on the side. He did my first one for a case of beer, the second one for $500 plus materials, the third one (a Cobra with stripes) for $3,000 all in. And the next one is going to be $3,000 plus materials. And he deserves the escalation.

You just have to be willing to put in the effort in searching for the right guy and probably doing a good bit of the prep on your own.

 

Looks like a wide variety of price experiences here. I had my last Corvette painted, it was $3K to the painter. BUT, I agreed to take the car apart and put it back together, AND, I agreed to straighten out any alignment issues (really only the doors) myself.

If you are looking for someone to take your car apart, strip, sand, prep, primer, paint, polish, correct any panel alignment issues you may have, and put it back together delivering to you a high quality finished product without you lifting a finger, I don't think you are going to get that done for $3K. Here in the NY metro area, I doubt you could get a real high quality job done for $5K. Everyone here has to bill at least $60/hour for labor. If someone thinks they can do what I outlined above in 50 hours or less, I would pay a couple of cases of beer for the priviledge of watching them work for a day. I know I am slow at working on cars, but to do the above in less than 100 hours boggles my mind, there is no way I could do it in under 200. Also, it has been years since I have priced paint, but IIRC it was hundreds of dollars to buy the paint, and I didn't even pick a pricey brand/type.

Bottom line: if you want the high quality job without lifting a finger, I think $8K-$10K is probably a good guess. Of course it does depend somewhat on the present condition of the body of your car.

 

PM Road-Race Vette he is a forum member and has a body shop & paint, look at this link:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...t-is-pics.html
I wish I was close to him.
Avner

 

yeah, I have talked to him numerous time, not about paint though.

I'm planning on riding up and seeing his shop some day!

 

For what it's worth, my car is in the paint booth as we speak. Here's the deal I made:

I'm using Dupont Chroma-base and Chroma Premier clear.

For three Quarts of the base colour mix, one pint of the strip mix, one gallon of clear and all the activator products my bill at the paint shop came in at just over $1000.

My painter works at a reputable body shop Monday to Friday and paints specialty cars on the weekend.

I will be paying him $100 for the booth rental, $100 for the sealer and $350 to mask and shoot the car.

All of the prep work was done in my garage with the help of a retired body man who was paid by the hour.

The prep work included, stripping the car, repairing a few cracks, replacing the front bumper, closing up the door gaps, painting the door jambs and blocking the surface down to 1000 grit.

Although I didn't accurately track the costs of the prep work, I estimate my spending for materials and labour at approximately 3 grand.
My time is free and does not enter into the above.

So, for the DIY prepwork and professional paint application I'm in the $3500 - $4000 range.

I'll post a few shots next week when the car comes home.

 

strip the car your self with a razor blade. I work 60-70 hour weeks and found time to do it and it is easy to learn. took me around 12-16 hours to do the entire car. then i used 80 grit to sand off the remaining primer. if i can do it.............

 

i will definitely try it once i get closer to the time of being painted!

 

make sure to grind off the corners of the blade and use a good blade holder to avoid blistered fingers. ask me how i know

 

2500 for my primed/custom base/pearl/clear/some body work(not much since i had it all molded/feathered/etc)

find a guy that works out of his garage or can rent a booth.......with the way the economy is now, i bet you could figure it out.... do all the prep work yourself also.

b