rorrapalooza

Im doing research into finding a place to get my c4s paint redone. The paint is very deteriorated, but I want to keep the color, light blue. I was wondering what would be considered a competitive price for a decent paint job, maybe not quite as good as the factory, but i want it to look good...

A local owner of a beautiful 71 ls6 recommended a place called auto elite collision center here in Norfolk Virginia, where im from. They have a 1 year waiting list, which doesnt bother me too much, and i still need to take the car in for them to give me a quote.

The thing is, it makes no sense to pay $10,000 for a paintjob on a car which is worth like $8000. Ideally i could get a great paintjob for $2-3000, is that unrealistic? What would be realistic?

Thanks for your input

DMITTZ

A good quality paint job takes a lot of labor. Thus it is going to be quite expensive if you want paint done the right way and you also want to just drop your car off and pick it up when its done.

Sure you can get a paint job for less and it will look ok for a while, but a high quality paint job costs money because they usually strip off the old paint, make any body repairs and have to disassemble + reassemble all the trim etc.. as well as do the actual painting.

I would suggest you consider doing the prep work yourself and reassemble etc... and have a quality shop spray the car, that way you can get good quality at a reasonable cost.

JMHO.

BacknBlack

Depends on the amount of prep work. If the car has few to no defects(chips, scratches, fiberglass damage, bad prep work from previous paint job), I would expect something in the realm of 2500-3000. The more seasoned and experienced paint shops will want to take the bumpers off, blast them and paint them off the car. Reason being the bumpers require a different level of prep. Then your looking at $3500+.

rorrapalooza

Seems like good advice, and im not afraid of a few dozen hours of labor.

Not all body panels come off a C4 though, so i cant just take the pieces individually to the shop... are you saying i should drive a car that only has primer and no trim to the shop? That would look pretty funny

rorrapalooza

All of the paint is factory origonal, except the nose which was redone in 88 and still looks more or less new, so it hasnt been ruined by any paint shops yet. The clear coat is gone in some patches, the base coat is worn in some patches and the paint flakes off the roof, but the fiberglass seems to be in good shape from what I can see.

JrRifleCoach

The clear coat needs to be completely removed.
4-5K

DMITTZ

If your doing the prep yourself I would suggest having a flat bed take it to the shop rather than driving it.

BacknBlack

Plastic and fiberglass require different levels of prep. You would not want to block sand the plastic trim, bumpers or louvers on the front sides. And you most certainly would not want to get paint stripping gel on the plastic( if going that route). Shops would blast the plastic to get the old paint off. The plastic trim that works its way around the roof panel needs to come off before painting the roof. Too many times do I see roof panels painted with the trim still in tact. Then a year down the road the paint splits in between the trim and the panel allowing moisture to seep in. Then the paint begins to bubble.

Most shops will paint anything you give them but results will widely vary. Taking the time to prep the little things will be the difference between a flawed paint job and a really decent one.

Dt86

You have an early C4. All C4's are labor intensive with parts removal but early cars are worse because of the body moldings. To paint these cars properly you have to remove the moldings and that requires removing the bumpers and getting into the doors. The nuts that hold the moldings on tend to rust in place and then require being cut off which adds even more labor time. Both bumpers are big jobs to remove (especially the front) and then to replace and align properly. Then all lights need to come out. There is a lot of labor involved before they even get started on body prep. The other option is to just mask everything and paint the car assembled. This will be cheaper but in the future you will get paint lifting around moldings and lights. You can check out my "teardown" thread to get an idea of the work involved.

hcbph

To the original posters request, I had the opportunity to talk to a Corvette shop the other year on what it would cost to prep and paint my 86 convertible. He said if I dropped it off, they did the work and then I picked it up to expect the cost to be around $13K. They do beautiful work but I'm in the same boat as the requestor, it makes little sense to spend more on a paint job than the car is worth.

awches

Hmmmmmmmmm guess my 95 that was white and is now black with some defects in the paint work is just going to have to stay like it is. Can't see putting even 3K into a fair condition car worth perhaps with about 6 to 7 K.

rfn026

Paint prices are hitting the big numbers.

I've been asking around about my '58. The paint alone is at $3,500. Then we have the cost of all the abrasives.

A really good (not just decent) paint job is roughly $20,000 today.

A number of people have been using MAACO lately. The theory is that you go to the high end - or you go to the low end. Just stay away from the middle.

The cost is really in the prep time. If you do the prep properly then MAACO can do a good (decent) job.

Richard Newton
Aligning a C4

Renfield

Define "decent".

1. You'll not get another paint job like the factory. You can't even buy the paint formulas they use.

2. Why does $10-13K seem unreasonable for quality work? It isn't.

C4s are a real bargain (for now), but everything on them is falling apart. They're not Hondas. They are the anti-Hondas. Do you pay your mechanic based upon the value of the car?!?

I only bought a 21 year old GM product because I can turn a wrench. I can prep and paint too.

You could unload it and buy a new C7. Then that paint job price will seem like the bargain that it truly is.

Or just go to Maaco. Every two years.

Weck86

Sorry for the long post. TLDR version: No cheap paint jobs for C4's, too labor intensive. Better off buy car with good paint first, if not shop wisely for paint shop and avoid paint shop hell.


To the OP, I think you are getting some good thoughts and advice on 'paint jobs'. There really aren't any good or decent (by any definition) $2-3K paint jobs on a C4.

The C4 is labor intensive just to take apart and get ready to start the actual prep work. You really should go thru Dt86's tear down thread for how much work is required. All those hours at around $100/hr shop time. Then comes the actual prep time of sanding, blocking and sanding and blocking again....

Then comes paint. Look at rfn026's post (#12). His paint for his '58 is $3500 alone. That is just paint sitting in cans. Now someone with some talent with a spray gun has to apply it. Then comes the cutting and buffing of the actual paint, all at $100/hr. Now your finally ready to reassemble the car at more $100/hr. So do the math, you ain't getting it done for $2-3K.

Now if you have the patience of Dt86 you can take it apart yourself and if, like Dt86, you have a friend that paints cars on the side you can get a really nice paint job on the cheap. But even Dt86 got caught in what I call 'paint shop hell'. His car was apart and waiting for paint as his painter friend found other things to do other than paint his car.

This 'paint shop hell' is something to be aware of and on the look out for. In my experience most body shops don't want to take on a full repaint. They are labor intensive and take too long. They would rather do the crash cars as they generally replace the damaged panels, paint and blend into the existing panels. Then out the door it goes for the next one. Much faster $$$ for them. So if they take your car during a slow time and take it apart, it will sit in the back if they get busy with crash cars and now your stuck in hell with no work being done on your car and it's apart.

Could also be in hell at a specialty shop, like the one you mentioned. Your car is a plain jane. If the shop get's a collector car or for that matter a 'rush' job from a regular customer or high dollar customer your car will sit.

There are threads here of members getting fantastic results doing all or most of the work themselves. Search out some of those threads and see what it took. Most folks, myself included, have discovered over the years that you are much better off purchasing a car with good paint and a few mechanical issues rather than the other way around. Paint is just too dicey for most of us to do on our own and has been shown to be too expensive for most as well.

It might be interesting of those who have actually had a car painted post their actual cost. I'll start. I had my first gen Camaro done about 10yrs ago. Cost $10K. It needed minimal body work, I had the car completely apart and interior out of the car when I gave it to the shop. The shop put the fenders back on and aligned the hood when paint was complete. I put everything else back on the car. I estimate it would have been an additional $5K if I hadn't done the disassebly and re-assembly myself

Weck86

I stand somewhat corrected. You can get a cheap (or should I say inexpensive) C4 Corvette paint job and here is the video to prove it:

Actually this guy does have some skill if you watch some of his vids, but his 'get 'er done', approach is typical of the inexpensive, cheap, I don't want a show car just a nice paint job approach. These are the type of paint work the buy here, pay here car lots use to prep their little gems.

BrandensBeast

I've watched almost every video on his channel, no filler in the videos, just a hard working guy that does decent work for a decent price, simple as that. I learned a lot from him.

RIC96

I saw a blue vette here that had a nice vinyl wrap. What do those go for?

Weck86

I actually agree with you. I do a lot of my own work, similar to what his videos show, but I'm the only one I have to please

I had a pro shop do my Camaro and while the work and paint is very, very nice, if I had to do over I wouldn't. After you put that much into it the car becomes almost too nice to drive. At least it did for me.

Branden, you've been around long enough to know some on here are very picky/touchy about their paint. Just start a thread on wax or polish and methods to apply such products. Chadwicks or Zaino anyone?

My point has been that everyone wants to be proud of their paint. It's just not that easy or cheap to achieve. Me, I'm good with 3ft to 5ft paint. Most on here would call that hack. To get better than that most folks are going to have to pay and if you want a whole car done for $2K you probably need to be prepared to do ALL the tear down and prep work except for applying the color and clear.

95tealconvert

I had responded before to cost to repaint a Corvette. Copied my response to the previous post.

I have worked in the auto body business for over 30 years and here are a few insights I have when it comes to this topic.

First and foremost you typically get what you pay for. Are there exceptions to this rule yes of course but keep in mind when repainting a car the spraying of the paint is usually the quickest part of the process. It is the preparation that takes the majority of time.

Think about respraying an older house. You can put new color on a house that is peeling and has other issues and for a short time the new paint will look better then what you covered. In short order the new paint will start to shrink back and peel because of lack of preparation. It is no different when dealing with a vehicle except it is even more critical that every process is done correctly since you are dealing with very smooth surfaces and high gloss finishes.

Another thing to take into consideration is not all materials used in a repaint are equal in quality. There is a vast difference in qualities of clear coat material available on the market and a big reason for cost variation in clear coats is ultra violet protection. Think about how much a vehicles finish is put through sitting out at work all day. The sun really is hard on vehicle surfaces. This is why if you visit an area like Vegas you will see first hand how harsh the sun is on vehicle finishes compared to an area of the country like Seattle.

When a car is painted for the first time at the factory all the trim on the vehicle is off. This is critical for proper coverage and to make sure you have no edges against trim that could eventually lift etc. Think of a rubber belt molding that sits at the base of you door glass. This molding will expand and contract at a different rate then the door panel it sits on so if you do not remove all this type of trim you take a high risk of failures in the finish later.

IMHO, be very careful dumping money into a repaint. Does not make a lot of sense to spend say $ 8K to $10K on a good quality repaint for a vehicle that is only worth maybe $ 15K. Usually a car that is in need of a repaint is also in need of work in the interior and dry and shrunk back exterior trim etc. Each situation and vehicles condition is unique so only you can decide what is best for your situation.

As a rule of thumb the more prep work you are able to do yourself can greatly affect the overall cost on repainting a car.

I cannot tell you how many horror stories I have heard over the years of people handing over their older vehicles to a friend of a friend who works out of their home shop being told this job will take 2 months and 6 months later their vehicle is still in pieces with no honest finish date available.

Keep in mind that many times a complete repaint is not needed. Lets say for example you have a clear coat problem on your hood along with rock chips and the rest of the car has light scratches-dull finish etc. May be best to just repaint the hood and headlamp covers, then have the rest of the car polished out.

Sorry for the long winded response but hopefully I have given enough examples to give a good idea of what a repaint can involve. It is just very labor intensive to repaint a complete car correctly so the more prep work you can do yourself the better price you can get.

BrandensBeast

Very true