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I am trying to figure out what would a full body paint cost for a 1975 C3 . I know no one can give me the exact amount specially not without looking at the car. I am looking for a range.
The body is in good shape, no rust, and no cracks. There are some cracks on the paint though. The current paint is not in good condition. The previous owner did it on their own and some places the paint is a little bubbly.
I am trying to get an idea of how much would it cost to do a car like that. All out side, and the door jams too. bumps off, emblems off, lights out. The paint done right is what I am talking about.
If you have time, a garage, decent neighbors, and 1 or 2 friends that can lend a hand, consider painting it yourself. Buy a book, find a mentor or get advice from the paint section on this forum to guide you through the process. I’ve taught many people how to paint in the last 50 years. The prep is pretty straight forward and by the time you’ve applied all the necessary primer, you should have enough practice to shoot the top coats successfully. Even after you buy the compressor, spray gun, and materials, you are going to save a bundle and you’ll be able to say you did it yourself.
Materials to restore a car are usually a drop in the bucket compared to the labor cost to do it right.
I started a club 25 years ago and we restore cars from the ground-up for people who don’t know how to do the work. The newbie puts sweat equity into the current project and then we do the newbies car. It has snowballed from just me to a steady crew of 7 guys. We work every Saturday for breakfast and lunch at the owners home, never any charge for labor. The owner does homework during the week to stay on schedule. All of the newbies have amazing talent after all these projects.
By doing the work yourself, you are in charge of quality, you can raise the bar on quality substantially since is no labor cost involved. From a paint standpoint, the quality of of the prep work and materials determines the life of the paint.
Some before and after pics of what can be done in a home garage.
It's the prep work that will run hours and hours. Expensive unless you do it yourself. Big job.
If you're looking at just a dirver 10-20 ft paint job then that can be cheap.
But first you got to face up to the prep work,
Many variables, as you really don't know what is under the paint until you strip it. Paint color and brand also varies (red for example is one of the more expensive paints) plus labor of removing everything, stripping/sanding, prep work, painting, then wet sanding/polishing and finally reinstallation of everything.
a safe bet is $10,000 +/- and goes up from there., location also varies as well.
Last edited by Corey_68; Feb 22, 2021 at 03:51 PM.
I am interested too, but to spend that $$ is tough, as well as selling the benefit to my wife... :-(
My 1979 Red Beauty was repainted years ago I suspect, and with a clearcoat. The clearcoat has spider-cracking in it, but it is a 10-ft paint job. Having it clay-barred and detailed last summer made it a 6-ft paint job, but it bothers me still.
Wrapping sounds good, but when you tire of that, there's no other option to repaint. and by then, inflation will cause paint jobs to be more. Still like this car though...
BEFORE I'd consider putting $3000+++ into a paint job, I'd be taking a HARD look at the condition of the "birdcage". I'm not being sarcastic, but as we all know, or should know, GM didn't make those 'cages in the most robust fashion, and with 40+ year old cars, they have been know to rot out badly, and they ARE the foundation of the car's body.
Semper5 there is nothing wrong with owning a 1979 used Chevy with a 6' paint job. I would leave it alone, enjoy the car and take the wife out to dinner.
....The current paint is not in good condition. The previous owner did it on their own and some places the paint is a little bubbly....
It will have to be completely stripped. I had good paint that needed to be sanded down, no stripper or razor blades or anything like that, did the job myself and materials and equipment alone cost almost $5K. And I already owned a big *** compressor which you will need along with purification equipment.
We don't know where you live, but environmental considerations here considerably add to shop rates. If you do it yourself (and can do it without getting arrested) you are looking at months of part-time labor. You really better love the car or really want a spanking shiny bright new color.
But there's a bright side too, I carefully did it myself and it's brilliant! Every time I look at it I am proud of the accomplishment.
I can tell you what I paid here in West Monroe, La last year for mine. It was completely stripped down, doors were removed
and a complete repaint in original classic white. Primer, color and two clear coats with block sanding between them. They also
replaced new exterior door felts, door handles and new badging that I supplied. I paid $11,000.00 for everything.
It looks better than when I got it new in 72.
This is after the paint:
I can tell you what I paid here in West Monroe, La last year for mine. It was completely stripped down, doors were removed
and a complete repaint in original classic white. Primer, color and two clear coats with block sanding between them. They also
replaced new exterior door felts, door handles and new badging that I supplied. I paid $11,000.00 for everything.
It looks better than when I got it new in 72.
This is after the paint:
One thought for the OP...........preparation is the key to a good paint job. If you have the time, patience, and skills to at least strip 100% of your existing paint from your car, that would go a LONG way to cutting the overall cost of the job. After all, contracting out the job to a body shop, where the stripping is part of the deal, means you're paying "shop rate" which is most likely near $90-100/hour, for someone to perform a tedious, but low skilled job. The cost adds up quickly!!
Now don't laugh at my next comment, but it HAS been discussed, several times, here in the C-3 section, about the merits of a Maaco paint job. The overriding comment is that most of the Maaco guys that spray the paint, are pretty proficient at it, since that's what they do, most of the time. It's also been stated that if you step up to the "deluxe" Maaco job, they use decent materials, and will put out a pretty good looking job, especially if all you want is a nice looking, "driver" quality paint job. It's something to consider, but I will add, that stripping is not for the faint of heart.
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How much does a full body paint cost?
