So I have a 79 Coupe and i am thinking of painting it soon.
The issue i have here in Ontario Canada is no one will touch it for less then $5000. I am not looking for a custom job, Its not gonna be a show car, Its just a driver and i want a driver quality Base.Clear paint.

I am hearing that its much cheaper in certain States.
Can anyone provide some input or recommendations?

I am not above driving to the US and sticking around for a week to get her painted and save a few thousand $.
Has any Canadian had any experience with this ?

 

It cost me around $8000 when I had mine done a year or two ago, but then I had him totally strip it and repaint it.

Dave

 

short of doing it yourself its tough, guys quote low then there comes the body work add-ond, Oh we found this add on and you are around 5K anyway

 

I know there has been many improvements in materials and skills in the paint industry. I hate to say this but we used to paint a vehicle, not a Corvette but a car for $1250.00. That was a chrome strip, sand, prime, seal and acrylic enamal. Mind you that was 1984 but it still was a lot of labor.

As this got more expensive the price worked up to $2250 for base coat/clear. This was 20 years ago.

Thinking about it to put it in perspective, most shop rates are $100.00 bucks an hour. Material maybe included but to capture my point I will illustrate how that money is allocated.

$5,000.00 for a paint job at $100.00 dollars an hour equates to 'basic calculation' of 50 hours of work. This maybe less as the material is priced in. So if I hyperthetically removed $500.00 for paint/material/other etc, that would only leave maybe 45 hours of work.

To put that again in perspective the shop would start on a typical Monday, wash, clean and remove all of the trim and get ready for sanding. Any imperfections would be included, any discovered body work would be extra. They should be final prepped, masked, all loose parts prepped and ready to go in the booth Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning. Hammer the paint and let dry to put the car all back together again on Friday, detailed, polished and totally clean for the client to pick up at 12:00 PM Saturday.

I am only trying to 'paint a picture' of the amount of hours that goes into painting a car let alone a complicated body shape like a Corvette. I fully understand the OP's comment about seeking more reasonable prices, $5,000.00 bucks is a lotta of cash. If there is anything I could suggest it would be to find a shop that you can work with in regards you strip the car of the trim and put it back together.

Keep looking for solutions. You will find the right combination for a successful paint job.

 

Not really. You're paying for shop time (preparation) and the painter's expertise (color coats). If you do most of the prep yourself, you can often reduce overall costs.

You may not be able to get the car delivered, prepped, painted, and back on the road in a week.

 

You're not likely to find a price much lower than that for a Corvette. I'm poking around the idea of painting my 70 in the future and I expect to spend around 7k or so easily...I don't expect a "show car" job either. They're just expensive to paint properly.

 

If you're at all handy, have a decent air compressor, a garage, and feel brave you can do it yourself with great results. There's a PDF floating around that provides very detailed instructions specific to corvettes on how to prep and paint. It tells you what materials to buy as well.

 

I would really love a copy of that PDF !

 

here you go:
http://www.corvette-restoration.com/...Tech_Paper.pdf

 

Awesome....thank you for taking the time to find this for us!