Holy crap is paint and bodywork expensive

I've been working on a 66 Mustang for a customer for ...well, lets just say its been wayyyy too long. It started out to that we would freshen the engine, do floorpans and quarter panels, seal it up, stick it together and he'd drive it. That sort of started to look stupid, when you realize that you have to do the sheet metal, put it all together, then pull it apart later for paint, after the new metal hasn't been properly protected, then the chrome stuff starts to look shabby... Anyway, it became a full restoration.

I found a couple of young bodymen, who I hired to come into my shop after hours and weekends to do the bondo/prep/paint after I had done the rust repairs, and I paid them $20 per hour, supplied all the product, and paid a bodyshop owner for the use of his shop for the final paint. The car is straight as an arrow, shiny as hell, good panel gaps, and it cost me right around $11,000, parts, labour, paint and product.

Its way better than I would want on one of my own cars, because I'll cry when the first bug hits it, but Jeez...

Paint is relatively cheap and so is the equipment to do it. Most of the cost in it is being lazy and not wanting to do your own body work. Or people that are scared of a paint gun.

I used to work with a guy that would have people do the body work and buy the paint then drop it off at his house. He would shoot it for them for 100 bucks. Granted he was good at it. However if you had him do the bodywork he would start at 1k minimum.

I paint and do the bodywork myself now. It's just a matter of doing it. My paint jobs cost the cost of paint and materials be they (lead, bondo, flap disks...) I'm just not the more money makes it better type, also If I make a big mistake I can carry on, if someone else makes a small mistake when i paid them hard earned money,I hulk out.

No kidding. Paint done right has always been incredibly labor intensive.

FranktheTank wrote: Paint is relatively cheap and so is the equipment to do it. Most of the cost in it is being lazy and not wanting to do your own body work. Or people that are scared of a paint gun.

It's not the paint gun that scares me, its the stuff modern paint is made of that scares the bejesus out of me.

Priced some body work on my Jetta and it was about $850 to paint the roof, hood and fix and paint the left rear door... At a "cheap" shop where I sort of "know" people... It is a skill that not everyone can do... But you don't know till you try.

BTW, i bet the Mustang looks great... But did you fix the area under the cowl that rusts out and lets water in to puddle on the floor?

FranktheTank wrote: Paint is relatively cheap and so is the equipment to do it.

Paint is no longer cheap. I just painted a friends MGB GT and the gallon of single stage urethane in BRG was $500. Not including reducers and catalyst. I used to be able to do a complete base/clear urethane job for $500 in high quality materials and that included sandpaper and cleanup materials.

And my SATA-Jet HVLP spray gun was more than that.

noddaz wrote: It is a skill that not everyone can do...

Not just the "skill" part. How am I going to do my own bodywork with on-street parking? I can do mechanical stuff by borrowing someone's driveway, but you're not going to do any kind of reasonable paint work (besides a rattlecan job that would look worse than what you're trying to hide) in the space of a couple hours.

noddaz wrote: BTW, i bet the Mustang looks great... But did you fix the area under the cowl that rusts out and lets water in to puddle on the floor?

That area was surprisingly fine. The car was actually pretty good, other than floors and quarters, and the quarters had had panels spotwelded overtop of the originals sometime in the 70's, which made stuff a bit more interesting.

paint is one of those things I am surprisingly bad at. After several attempts, I gave up and now farm it out

In reply to Chris_V:

Relatively cheap... I don't consider 1k in materials expensive at all compared to a 10k dollar farmed out paint job. So yes materials are still relatively cheap.

I bought a rough hardtop that need some work for my 90 Miata for $450. The paint work to make it look like a top was $550, and that was dealer discounted. With the cost of professional paint booths and materials, you just have to charge to make it worthwhile.

I would love to pics of this flawless mustang :)