robertlevine

I'm just about to purchase a '71 454 coupe - my first corvette, and I'm very excited about it. Car looks and drives solid, but needs a new paint job (and replaced leather/carpet). I'm in the New York area and am looking for a shop that will do a good paint job (Mille Miglia). I'm not looking for a perfect show car, but something that shows well and I'd be proud to cruise on weekends/etc.

Anyone have any suggestions?

540 vette

What part of NY.

robertlevine

I live in Westchester - but can certainly travel for good paint at a decent price.

MRANT212

Yeah, NY is pretty large. Are you in the NYC area, upstate. Also paint ain't cheap if it's done right on these cars. Prep work and materials are big $$$. I had my 71 done @6 yrs ago. Still looks great! 71 454 4spd Coupe. Welcome to the club!

robertlevine

I'm in Westchester, NY - but will travel for a good paint job at a decent price. So yes, NYC area... or at least about 30 minutes north of NYC.

The body of the car is in great shape - the paint is just dull and has 100's of white flecks where the paint looks missing, but no real scratches, bubbles, or anything else.

Torqued Off

Harborvette in Erie. Excellent work.

Prostreeter1

Another recommendation for Harborvette. Brad did the paint and body 8 years ago on my 68 and did an absolutely fantastic job and looks just as pretty today as when the paint was sprayed.

robertlevine

I'll give them a look, for sure. Any ideas on pricing there?

Alan 71

Hi rl,
From your description of the paint it sounds like a responsible painter will want to remove all the existing paint and primers.
This labor and what he finds will affect the cost of the paint job.
VERY FEW cars require NO work on the body before they're painted.
Regards,
Alan

robertlevine

Agreed. What I don't want to get into, however, is a 10k paintjob on a $24k car. Was hoping to keep paint in the 5k range.

people have mentioned harborvette for paint, but their website is down. Will need to see if they're still in business.... and they're a good 7 hour drive from my house.

MuskieAL

Just had my 72 painted. The materials alone were over 3K.

MelWff

contact the membership of this club to see where they go

https://www.westchestercorvettes.com/

62corvette

About the only chance of getting a quality $5k paint job is doing it yourself. Figure a minimum of $2500 for materials. Even if you pay someone only $50/hour for labor (and good luck on that), that allows only 50 hours for all the prep work of getting a decent surface to spray on, masking, spraying, sanding, and buffing.
I am not trying to rain on your parade, but if you paid $24k for a car, you want it to look decent for a period of time. You don't need to overpay, but you need to do it right. Don't be taken by any concern that would do it for $5k and get it in right away. There is a very good reason they aren't busy!

Torqued Off

You can forget Harvorvette if you want a cheap paint job. If you are paying them to strip it, fix all the issues, and paint it with modern paint, you are above $10K easy. In fact, any good paint shop is going to cost that much. Its simply labor rate time hours required.....anyone who thinks you can do it any other way is wrong, unless you do the work yourself, or your find some "professional" who is doing as a hobby.

This subject comes up many times. Here is fact.....it does not matter how much you want to have in your car, or how much it is worth if you want to sell it......the cost of a professional paint job does not care about that. And you get what you pay for. I have over $14,000 in my paint job, and supposedly my 77 is not worth $10,000 according to the "experts".

ignatz

Ditto on materials, mine came to about $3500, did all the labor myself.

As "IWas.." was saying, this subject has come up over and over, you just can't get around the inherent materials+labor equation. Look here for more

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...paint-job.html

What you can do is make sure the labor you are paying for is competent.

oldgto

The Hot Rod Grille

Reminds me of the old saying:

You want it good, fast and cheap! Sorry, but you only get two of those!

If it good and fast, it won't be cheap.
If it is good and cheap, it won't be fast.
If it is fast and cheap, it won't be good.

ajrothm

Good luck on that....

Painting a vette is CRAZY money...especially stripping it to the glass and going from there. I'm going through all of this right now. Average quotes for drive in/drive out are $15-18k here in Houston.

The shop I'm using quoted me $22-26k, but they are a proven product...

Its crazy to spend that kind of money on a car that isn't even worth that much but.... If you want it nice, you're gonna pay.


Honestly, knowing what I know now, I would NEVER buy a corvette that needs paint...

Mr D.

Let me be Debbie Downer here, you are not going to get a paint job for $5K that equals anywhere near a top quality paint job so why pay $5K. What you need to do assuming you have no fiberglass damage is let Maco spray it (mow and a blow). You will have paint that shows well and still be proud to cruise on weekends/etc.