How Much Does it Cost?

[atomicmecha]

Figured several of you have probably done bumper to bumper repaints, color changes, and body repairs and can help me out here. I'm currently saving up on the side to have the whole typhoon repainted and redone. It's probably gonna take me all year to save up enough for it, but whatever.

I had a local shop that "specializes in collector cars" say that it'd cost about $9000 for him to restore it. :shocked!:

Thats a bumper to bumper repaint plus new quarter panels on both sides, two new front fenders, and "patching up the rust everywhere else" (aka under the doors, around the rockers, over the back glass, etc) plus painting the cladding whatever color I want.

Is it me or does that sound awefully high? My blazer had a rear quarter plus both front fenders done several years ago for $2000 flat. Wasn't a full repaint, just the new parts. Which is why it looks a little funny right now with faded paint everywhere but those parts of the car. :rotf: But that's why I feel $9k is on the steep side. Most of that $2k was labor in cutting the quarter off and welding the new one in. I feel like this dude i went to is just jacking the price up because he knows he can since he works with old cars only.


Anyway, I'm just curious if that sounds high to others? And if you can share a ball park figure on how much it took you to get the body work done, that'd be helpful. Once my typhoon is road worthy again I have a few other place's I'm taking it to get some estimates done. I may end up doing it all in phases. Cladding first then body. We'll see.

 

[pearl91chevy]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

In my opinion that doesn't sound horribly bad. When I worked at a bodyshop "one of the high end places in town that actually does amazing work", they charged a couple 11g to do just a full repaint on a 2dr Camry, was painted same color and all they just wanted a new paint job since old one was faded. That was also no rust fixing either since car was from south. Im not sure if the water based paint that just came out at time had anything to do with price though.

 

[atkonkler]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

There's members here on the forum that I'm sure will chime in and tell you prices... It seems very high a friend of mine who does it says he'll do the same for $3500 full repaint and fix some damage. Get some estimates then go from there... That's what I'd do and see some of their work in person if possble..that s what I did and I'll tell you what ... Seeing it first hand is best and talking to the owner abput likes and dislikes if there was any..lmk what you find buddy! Merry Christmas!

 

[DanenGraham]

That's about what a really nice job will cost. It may be a little on the high side but I don't think it's is unreasonable depending on the amount of rust they have to fix. Also for that price, it should be guaranteed that there will be no flaws. Make sure you and the shop have a clear understanding of the quality that is expected for whatever price you plan on.

If they are taking the cladding off the truck and painting it as well, that is where a lot of the price will be. It's a lot more work than a normal car. And make sure they don't damage or break any and maybe have them run beads of epoxy on every single tab on the cladding as well.

I would say depending on the shop you go to $5-10k is where a decent job will fall. It's the quality and amount of flaws and if they will repaint any areas if they do have bad runs/dust/bugs/scratches.

 

[atkonkler]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

Exactly.... But I've seen shit jobs that are 10k and awesome jobs at 3k I think it depends if you have someone who cares about your truck as much as you do or just say f*&k it , it's not my truck and just half ass it. IMO

 

[Snoman002]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

Sounds reasonable, but there are some high expectations with that price. That's not show car quality paint, but it better be perfect.

In reality most of the expensive stuff you could do yourself. Rust repair is a pita, and time consuming, but easily within the range of a backyard mechanic. Just expect to trade that $2k in rust repair for $500 in welding equipment and parts.

Best bet, replace the fenders yourself with some clean junk yard pieces. Pull the cladding and repair it yourself (best bet anyways). And weld in some patch panels yourself. Buy yourself a HVLP gun from harbor freight and primer it yourself (epoxy primer can be left exposed, cheap primer cannot!). Then when you have saved enough spend a weekend blocking and sanding the truck yourself. After that you can drop it off for paint, they can do a final block, and you can get a $9k paint job for $2k, plus your expenditures, and it will look amazing and save you money. If your dropping a truck and cladding off for a quick block and spray your basically paying for materials and the labor you can't do yourself, and that's MUCH cheaper.

 

[JSM]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

Body work is very much you get what you pay for AND most important how much research you have done on whoever is doing the work.

I do all my own body work and enjoy it for myself, but I refuse to do it for others.

Bare minimum paint supplies for a truck will be $1k, probably $1500. That is just paint, no sandpaper, etc.

Now someone that has a skill to do this type of work, what would you want to get paid. $10/hr I doubt, probably $30/hr + then add in some overhead and $40/hr min. So 25hours is $1k.

I full paint job will easily have 150 hours by time you do it right, remove glass, cladding, etc.

Maaco will paint it for $200 on special, just be glad if they get the windows tapped off and dirt washed off the car.

 

[Josh Young]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

Even at these prices most body shops want to stay away from all overs. We get request for them all the time, even use to do a few every once in a while. They are a headache, especially if rust is involved. We do far better with collision work. How much money you gonna make in parts on a paint job?? There are people out there who specialize in this type of work only. Your best bet is to get someone good that does it on the side. Maybe someone who has a small shop at their house, less overhead that way. Dave is right, you can buy nice examples for what a restoration cost. It's sad that these trucks are not worth the kind of quality paint job they deserve.:2cents:

 

[ajt86]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

To do a nice job yourself... primer, base, clear, chemicals, sand paper mask and tape... your prolly looking at 2500. An average job in my area to get a full paint job is 8k for a nice professional factory style job. Show quality 1 single color goes for atleast 15k and the skys the limit. It seems like the guy makes alot on it but even at 8-10k theres not alot of profit in it, thats why its so hard to find a legitament body shop to do a full car. And most of the time you find a guy who can do it for 3000 in his home made spray booth it ends up sitting in his yard for a year till you realize its never getting done

some guys get lucky and find a guy who cares about his work and can shoot a full car for 3 or 4k... but they are few and far between.

 

[dgoodhue]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

I would want to see some exampmes of the body shop's work if I was going to spend $9k. I would personally would do lot of research on your local body shops. Try to find body shop references from owners at car show and meets.

 

[2500avalanche]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

Mine was around 4500, but I knew the shop (4th vehicle done from them), and I had the truck completely apart when they took it. I put everything on it myself, and had the windows put in myself too. Would have easily been a 8k job with all the labor.
I even took some painting classes and wleding classes, bought a nice welder to weld the roof rack. The issue with painting is laws and where you live. I was worried about epa laws and then if I f'ed it up, I would need to pay someone anyways. It took me 3 years total.
Trust me, take is somewhere, pay the 9k, and be happy with it. Your time is $, and time is precious. I have been there, and people talked me out of it, and thank god I listened!
Before I settled on them, I had qoutes from 3k to 15k! Yikes!

 

[MadMike]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

Not all paint jobs are equal. I mean a re spray vs a panel off strip n restore.

It seems like you asked for the full monty... seems expensive for a re spray with some dent and rust repair. You really need to cover the details before you have work started.

Most scuff n shoots don't last long (that's ur cheap jobs) and are a waste of money unless ur flipping something cheap.

You have time to shop around when u save the 9k. With cladding work and rust repair I think that's what a up in the air quote for an actual good job would be.

Money talks n bullshit walks... show up with the money for a real quote and I bet it'll be cheaper. But in the end you get what u pay pay for if you are clear n do do the research.

 

[Snoman002]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

Bottom line is that DaveP made an excellent point. Don't put more into paint than the truck is worth. You could put $9k into a paint job and still have a $8k truck the day you pull it out of the shop. Just because you put $XX into one aspect doesn't make the entire truck even worth that much. Heck, drop a $10k motor in the thing and at least you can sell the motor, you can't sell paint after the fact. Put a $20k paint job on a rust bucket 88 Camaro V6 and its still only a $5k car.

Look at the overall value of your truck, what its REALLY going to be worth after the fact, and figure out how much to spend. And if you have rust, you have rust everywhere, IMO immediately its not worth over $5k or so in paint, even if the rest of the truck is near perfect (and we know yours isn't, lol sorry).

 

[Norm]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

You will probably find theat a "specialist shop" as you called it is going to be higher than a regular shop. There are tons of fly by night shops out there that will give you a less than expected job. Didn't know that gm still had 1/4 panels kicking around. So your probably getting a offshore panel that the fit/stamping isn't going to be as crisp as the gm original ones were. I'd be looking at a rust free ty instead of spending 9k on work on the one you owned, then you could always sell yours for less to recoup some of the cost of a nicer one. The final decision is yours of course, but 9k is kind of high, unless your really needds that much done to it.

 

[DanenGraham]

Bottom line is that DaveP made an excellent point. Don't put more into paint than the truck is worth. You could put $9k into a paint job and still have a $8k truck the day you pull it out of the shop. Just because you put $XX into one aspect doesn't make the entire truck even worth that much. Heck, drop a $10k motor in the thing and at least you can sell the motor, you can't sell paint after the fact. Put a $20k paint job on a rust bucket 88 Camaro V6 and its still only a $5k car.

Look at the overall value of your truck, what its REALLY going to be worth after the fact, and figure out how much to spend. And if you have rust, you have rust everywhere, IMO immediately its not worth over $5k or so in paint, even if the rest of the truck is near perfect (and we know yours isn't, lol sorry).

So what your saying is, don't dump money into old crapy trucks.

Your on the wrong forum.

 

[Adam#0213]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

I would try to do alot of the work myself to save some money.it's amazing how much money we can throw at these trucks .At the end of the day the decision to fix the truck up is up to you best of luck.

 

[GAShan]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

Down here a quality, not show paint job starts at $10K before the panel replacement and rust repair. Color change is extra, although that does include the jambs and engine compartment.

 

[Snoman002]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

So what your saying is, don't dump money into old crapy trucks.

Your on the wrong forum.

I'm saying don't throw $10k into paint on a piece of junk. $30k into a Sy/Ty doesn't bother me, heck its the same as buying a new car and a whole lot cooler. But putting a $10k paint job on a $6k truck isn't the best way ahead. Heck, putting a $3k paint job on a $6k truck isn't a good idea unless you have a clear plan (and money) to turn that $6k truck into a $15k truck.

In this case, a rusty truck, already a fair amount of mechanical problems, an old motor with blowby, some damaged cladding, etc isn't a good candidate to put a high end paint job on, not at this point anyways.

Now, if you have a budget, you know exactly what your going to buy and how much your going to spend and this is your "project' car then sure, I can see a $10k paint job. Because you know next year its getting a $4k transmission, the following year a $10k motor, etc. You have the money to burn and you know what it is going to get. But a work-in-progress, plan to fix it when I can afford to, starting out with lots of problems, "I'm going to do this over the next 10 years", sort of truck isn't the best place to start putting a paint job that cost more than the purchase price of the vehicle.



My recommendation to the OP at this point is to start doing (you or someone else) rust repair as you have time/money. Paint the thing in epoxy primer (it looks decent enough) for now as it makes spots being touched easier. And then do something cheap to make it "good enough" for the next few years. After you have fixed the problems and made it the truck you know you can live with for the next 10+ years then go ahead and spring for that good quality paint job. A great paint job on a truck on jack stands because you can't afford to fix it is just a waste of money.

 

[atomicmecha]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

Some interesting feed back. and seems this is a hot topic to bring up.

I will start off by saying I have seriously considered selling my typhoon for $4-5k and just getting another one that is in better shape body wise. Body work is the one thing I can't do on my own. Well, not major body work. I can replace a fender, and such. Just not cutting and welding. and when I got that 9k estimate, i figured that was the end of it for me. Even put a for sale sign in the back for a while. And tried ebay as well.


I've since changed my mind about selling it and I for now will keep fixing it as I can. For now the bad rust is the fenders. The quarters only have a few spots. Drivers side has some bad rust under the clading. Cant see it unless you're under the truck.


I'm definitely going to get some more estimates on it. And I do plan on doing as much of the work as possible myself. For starters, I'll take the cladding off myself and put it back on. And as for the front fenders, I'll replace those myself as well.


I knew when buying this thing that it was going to be a lot of work. But it was only $4k and I could drive it home. I happen to have $4k that I could loose atm and I've always wanted a typhoon.


Reason for me asking if 9k sounded high is because i've only ever dealt with common cars and maaco and places like that. I wasn't sure if this guy was trying to take advantage of me or what.

And the day I stopped by to get the estimate he had a 69 charger sitting out front that he just finished and it looked like it just came off the train from detroit inside and out. So he does good work, from what i've seen.

 

[crariley]

Re: How Much Does it Cost?

I just got my Typhoon repainted this year after a deer T-boned the drive's side. I took advantage of the fact insurance paid for most of it. But I had the body shop replace both fenders, remove the luggage rack and paint the cladding the same color (red) as the truck in addition to replacing the drivers door, driver's fender cladding and repairing a small dent on the hood from the deer's face. Also had them put the clear bra material between the cladding and the body in hopes it will resist rubbing the paint away where they touch. Total cost was just over 8k from D+V Autobody in Dulles, VA. They try to mask as little as possible so they removed all the cladding, windows, trim, etc before spraying the truck. They are a high end body shop but I wanted it to be a good paint job and their reputation is impeccable. So 9k is alot but not out of the ball park from a reputable body shop.