Gang.. I have a '70 convertible 983 Cortez Silver. I have made an inquiry or two about a strip and re-paint of same color and am curious if there are any recommendations out there for a quality shop to do a quality paint job at a reasonable cost. I have been told as high as $25k and if that is what I have to do I may well gut up and do so. Just seems to me to be a bit over the top on price. SO.. Does anyone have a recommendation from their personal experience or that of a friend of a high quality paint shop and ballpark of what cost should be preferably relatively close to Dallas?

Thanks for any good info.

 

These folks may be able to help.
https://www.ncrstexas.org/

 

I currently have Tom Ames painting my 70 Convertible back to its original Cortez Silver. He is well known within the NCRS and teaches a lot of the paint judging classes for the NCRS. He is not far from you in Longview, Texas. I went from the north side of Houston up to him to have him paint my car. His company is Automotive Specialties and his phone number is 903-663-2727. He is currently in Italy so you might not be able to get ahold of him until next week. If you have any questions, shoot me a PM or email.

Good luck,
Allen

 

$25,000??!!!??? Hell no. Even half that is too much. Unless of course your body needs a ton of prep work.

 

I hear what you are saying and those were my exact thoughts coming into the process. I have taken the car to one reputable corvette shop here in the Dallas area and that is right about what the quote was to strip, prep and paint a quality high end paint job on the car. After gasping they said that is a common reaction till guys pick their cars back up. The reviews are very strong for the shop and I saw a couple finished products that looked better than they possibly could have looked brand new in their year of production. Granted I understand that is a lot of money to invest in paint on a C3 and is what brought about my inquiry here on the forum. I am however now having others tell me that ballpark is actually not outside of their own experiences and costs. To be fair and better represent the quote I should disclose that on the driver door there is an actual 'hole' through the body about the size of a pea so filling that will take a bit of work and was included in the $25k... But it is minimal.

 

 

No argument... My goal is obviously to get a quality job for a more fair price. Will check out more areas as suggested. Thanks....

 

mention word corvette and price doubles every time,
The only reasonable price, I found was me doing the prepping and painting.
and honestly I am very glad i did, you as the owner will massage all minor issues not perfect.
everyone else will just spray new paint over bad gaps, and trashy panel fitment.
Start your learning curve! good luck.

 

Depends on what you intend for the car, if you want a consistent show winner and have a sealed safe to keep it in, fine.....if that is what boosts your ego.....

BUT if you at all intend to enjoy the car, and not necessary every day either, but 2-3x/week maybe, you better off getting a decent job from an outfit like Macco, and get over with it....AND if you picky about all the possible stress cracks from plain time, much less use....maybe get a GOOD glass shop to fix them first....or DIY.....

My '72 is a 10-10 car, ten' away and ten mph, looks grand...SHOW car, hell NO, it's a totally non stock car, see pix below.....

 

No ego involved here, I don't enter my various cars into any shows and I do enjoy it and just want a more quality paint than what I would get at a Maaco shop and I am not going to pretend to be able to do it myself... (assuming 'DIY' above)......

 

Here is just food for though.
This is a super hard situation with no blanket one size fits all right answer.
For my 69 a driver restomod it will have driver quailty paint meaning about compariable to what it had new in 69, my car is also Cortez silver and its a super nice color but im going black.
And it makes zero difference if i prep and shoot it or hire it done it wont be over double what i have in the car.

In 89 i had a 8k paint job on my 81 wide body a show quailty good as it gets job, stunning, took all the fun out of the car for me i felt like one of the guys scared at a show something or someone might get within a few feet of her, it sucked out loud for me.

Some people and its not meant to be insulting do enjoy the bragging rights and ego boost of a museum showpiece paint job and unlike me have the nervious system to deal with it. so they have the ordeal of who to go to, finding a great shop with a great rep, portfolios, feedbacks etc can do this top end job for a lot less than 25k but not when the "Corvette" tax enters in, then the corvetre shop tax then to shops owners ego taxes etc,l.
If i was in the market for a best of the best paint job corvette specially shops would be my last stop,
I would hit a few local shows and ask people with stunning jobs, who painted their car and go from there.

 

While certainly not close to Dallas Bayside Auto in Nags Head NC does excellent work. A light pole crushed the top, hood and windshield of my jeep Patriot. They did an excellent job of repairing it. The owner is also a Vette fan as he had a pristine c-4 convertible and was restoring a late c-3 when my car was there. this was in february 2017.

 

Yeh, I hear you, the paint is not purrfect, but in fact, every time I go out with the car, it gets noticed, and complimented....general public, but I unsure about why.....the paint is nothing special, but the modifications are extensive, the color can be seen from backside of the moon on a dark night though....

see pix below....

 

$25K would be a crazy price to spend on a car that may only be worth that much.

Austin Corvette recently quoted a buddy's '73 C3 $10-12K for paint.

I still think that is high, shop around, you should be able to get a quality paint job for $6-8K [depending on the amount of bodywork]

 

Going to continue to do just that.... Many seem to agree there are good alternatives out there... My mistake may have been feeling, for whatever reason, I needed to go to a corvette specialty location.

Thanks to all for ideas/comments!

 

If you don't need to strip the car down to bare glass than don't, price really depends on how much past body work was performed incorrectly. A near perfect body with failing paint can get buy with a mow and a blow and look just a good as a $25K full strip and paint.

 

AND if you spend $25K on just the paint-

THEN you will never drive it...

What about the chrome? bumpers-door handles- parking lights- license plate trim- emblems- your not going to put those on if they are the slightest bit patina-ed....a couple $Ks more....OH -new top and windshield....just sayin

 

sell your car and buy another for the money you get out of your car plus 25K.. same amount of money spent.....
just think what you can buy for that! and you won't be massively upside down on the car..

 

I would think a high end shop providing such a quote would be giving the 25K figure expecting that some significant need for bodywork is going to be uncovered when the paint is removed, or at least that's how I'd provide quotes if I was running a body shop.

If you're talking a "state of the art", to maximum current professional standards with all panel gaps perfect and all panels perfectly aligned and symetrical, I could see it costing 25K to do in a lot of cases. I was quoted 10-12K Canadian to paint my 79 and that was without stripping it, just smoothing and painting over the existing paint job.

 

Wow, didn't know Maaco paint jobs were that expensive up north.