Strip the paint, do all the bodywork and prep work yourself, and THEN send it off to the paint shop. Most of the $$ out of the 20K price is in labor hours. Are you willing to save $75 bucks for each hour you work? I sure am

 

I don't see anything about stripping the old paint off. If they want to spray on top of the old paint, walk away. For the money we're talking here it should be taken down to 'glass.

 

i spent less than 700 on paint supplies, confused on materials price

 

One other option is sandblasting,they can remove the layer of paint you see on your car now,down to the org color or blast it down to the gel coat if you want. Paint stippers do a good job but their very toxic and you gotta make sure your clean it up well or it will come back to haunt you after the car is painted. Good luck in what ever you do.

 

Paid about $2500 doing much of the work myself, about $1000 in materials, i.e. primer, sandpaper, basecost, clearcoat and misc.

 

Paul,

Where are you located? I know a couple guys in WI that can do good work.

Mark G

 

Where are you located ? $8,000 - $10,000 in NY gets you the right job & about average price...........without too much body work needed !!
I wouldnt pay $20,000 to paint a FERRARI !!!! nor do I know many 79's appraised at $19,000 either !!!

 

If I had a scanner I would send you the quote for the Vette. I wouldn't be able to sell it for 19Kbut I would expect mid-teens. It is in perfect shape with the exception of the paint.

 

Tip of western Lake Superior

 

 

Maybe he needs to go to his local Chevy Dealership, I ran by mine yesterday and he said if i'd take everything off of it, Locks / door handles stuff like that he'd sand it all down and fix the cracks in the finders and paint everything for $3600. Plus they've got top of the line booth and it will look like it rolled out of the show room, Oh also he's going to polish out the aluminum trim on the bottom of the car to make it look new again also. And that's painted around the doors and Ttops

 

Now we are getting closer to reality!

 

In 1966, the dealer paint job on the 61 fuelie was $100..that included the inside of the truck AND changing from T. black to Ermine white. It didnt have a hard top.

 

Wow, that sounds like a great deal.

I had forgotten I had a huge Corvette enthusiast at my work. He is in another building but he has 7 glass cars 3 Corvettes and 4 from another but the name escapes me. Anyways I am going to discuss with him on Monday. This guy does everything himself (He has incredible skills, he does Blacksmith work) he left me a brief phone message but thought I should be able to not have to do a complete strip down since the car is in such good shape.

I also started doing research on Soda Blasting, which seems like it would save a lot of labor time if I did want to go and had the paint removed.

I think I am making steps forward by possibly doing some of this prep work myself.

How difficult is it to remove the trim and door hardware?


Thx

Paul

 

BINGO!!! The voice of reason. If you were painting a rare, more valuable car, then I would say absolutely strip off the old paint. You have to look at this logically. Personally, I don't think I would spend more than 25% of the value of the car on refinishing costs. I am not ******* your 79, because that is exactly what I have. The paint on mine (except front & rear bumpers) is original and I am fighting to keep it that way. That is why I was recommending trying a detailer first.


That depends on how handy you are working on your own car. If you take your car to a mechanic to get most things done, you might be able to take things off easy enough, but getting everything put back might be a challenge. Remember, nothing is easy on these cars. You might even have trouble getting the emblems off without breaking them and the bumpers are labor intensive. Flat rate labor for a tech to overhaul a rear bumper is 8.0 hours. That's ridiculous time for a bumper. Also remember that some of the people here that say this is easy are very talented restorers. They have been doing this stuff for years and it is easy for them, but maybe not so easy for you.

Sounds like you have a good solid source of information right there where you work, so hopefully he will give you a better idea of what is necessary and what is overkill for your particular car.

 

I would not use any abrasive on fiberglass - its already thin enough

When I saw the fenders off my car I was suprised how weak they were. Once bonded and gel coated its much stronger as a unit.

About $8500 is the average paint price at the shop that did my car and thats as long as you don't need a ton of bodywork

In hindsight I would have stripped the car myself and trailered it to the shop. A lot of corners can be cut on re-assembly. I am finding it out on my car. No one is going to give your car the attention to detail that you would.