All right, everyone here has been telling me that a good paint job cost money, and i mean good money. They arn't telling the truth. I have to agree that prep in the most of it. But the more it is, it doesn't always mean its gonna be better. People may remember me from other post, like "how much is a paint job," and other, but i went to a place called SprayGlo. They arn't at all like Maaco, these people do quality work for an everyone affordable price. I've read articles on here on how to make a maaco job good but its not worth it.

At this place if you do your own prep its not warenteed anymore. And strictly stick to it, no prep work done by yourself if you goto sprayglo. The more you do the more it cost, trust me on that one because i did all the prep and they said they couldn't warentee it anymore and they would have to take it all off. Originally it was gonna cost me $400, but my prep made the job $745. Now see the difference. If i left all the nicks it would of been a lot less.

Now let me tell you guys, that cost is including very good quality paints he said. Polyurethane hardener is added(its kinda taking the place of a clear cote." And if you have a bird or any decals what they do is take their figernail and if some of it comes off you dead becuase it all has to come off, becuase they can mask it off but the paint will make the adhesive loose grip to the decal. So my bird had tio come off and that was an extra $75, plus the little sticker that goes all over the GFX was another $150, i'm telling ya if you wanna take off stickers, do it and thats all, cause more you do the more they get concious about it.

If ya wanna save money, if you got a good adhesive remover try it on a small part first, if it dont work dont spend a dime, let them do it becuase he said they have a trick where they take a heat gun and a blade to take the decal and the glue off all in one which makes it ten time easier and alot cheaper than them getting the adhesive off. I was dumb and took the strip off and left the adhesive (lots more money).

Now if your smart act like you dont have enough money then they ask for because they will put your car on a kinda thing where it takes more time only. He said when they're slow they'll work on mine and all the difference will be is it will take longer. SO i get mine, after i drop it off today about an hour ago, it'll be done late next week. Now that shaved off $250 for me. It woulda been $1000 but $750 was the magic number for me. Now the prep work i did was all that made it that much, if i sanded and thats it it woulda been a lot less around $400.

I'll keep ya guys posted on everything and how the job comes out, with pics also, so just have some patience on this, late next week.

 

whatever floats your boat dude. Just keep in mind that even Maaco looks good the same day it's sprayed. The true test of a quality paint job (prep work not withstanding) is its durability.

I have a friend whose father owns a body shop (as does my father). Every 3 or 4 years he gets his car repainted because by the end of that span his car is so oxidized that it's pink instead of red... and that's with a clearcoat paint job.

There's a POS van driving around town that my father painted back in 1995. The van has never been waxed, and likely never washed. it's still shiny and has no oxidation.

The quality of the paint makes a world of difference. You get what you pay for no matter how badly you may want to believe otherwise.

When I painted my GTA, the paint ALONE cost me $900. That's just the base coat, mid coat, clear coat, and all applicable addatives. $900. What sort of quality materials do you think you're getting when they are charging you less than that including labor?

 

well i'm not disagreeing with you but, if you want your car painted you might as well do it right i know, but my car was in such bad shape, i mean no rust or anything it just didn't shine at all. Coming froma acouple of people i know with their paint job they do very good work, and even with their waratees it makes sence, they warentee their stuff for a minimum of 2 years, which has a fading warentee. Now there are ways to make these cheap old jobs look good even in another 16 years, its called waxing them, like maybe 6 coats of wax all the time will make it last. If you have the time but not enough money then you just wax the car d00d.

 

is that their spelling or yours if its theirs, well I wouldnt do it

Jim85IROC is right 900.00 for materials is what it cost, plain and simple. When it come to a quaility paint job expect 4k as a min

 

Yeah, paint guys can tell quality prep work a mile away too. They can also tell rattle can primer apart from the rest... That's when your own prep work costs extra... If you get to know the shop, prep work cuts the cost down a TON!

Good luck with your current paint. Got any pics?

 

pics will be coming as soon as it gets back, which is, like i said, late next week. If you wanna see it as it is currently goto http://www.cardomain.com/id/kidrcth .

My interior is really nice as is but its gonna get better, every original part will stay just maybe different colors. Notice the silver door plates and radio plates, even went to the detail of the small vents too.

 

Are you going back with the factory stock colors? Nice color combination BTW!

 

nah its gonna be chrysler platinum, look at the link to see what it looks like on a 89 trans am.

http://www.cardomain.com/id/flyinlow89

he took every rubber guard off and everything, so did I. i love that color and how that look came out, mine gonna be like it.

oh yeah and if you look closely to my interior, you can see that beside the guages there is silver also.

 

Yeah, I looked at your other pictures and saw the silver accents. Looks decent on some of the parts, but the vents and speaker grills were a step to far in my opinion.

The Chrysler platinum looks nice too. It is my choice for paint as well and it would have already been painted that color if it weren't for the roof needing new shingles earlier this year. I had to settle for a rattle can touch up this time until I can put aside enough for a full repaint again...

 

yeah we were hping a huricane wouldhit our house this year so insurance would pay for the repairs to the roof, seems that in 1 or 2 years we will have to get it redone. watch though soon after its put on a huricane hits and knocks it off.

yeah i really likes that platinum color, the silver interior thing was my idea, i first did the radio plate and thought woah that is too cool looking, then came all the rest.

 

i just saw your signature bnoon and you car looks exactly like mine did exceopt for the wheels

 

i'm just confused as to why it cost so much just to remove those decals?? I worked at a body ship this summer before coming back to school and had to take off tons of decals sicne we did a lot of the work on our local police cars. all it involved was a heat gun and a razor, doesn't have to come off in one piece, cuz its not like you can use the decal again anyways. even if you don't haev a heat gun a really hot hair dryer could even do the trick it would just take longer.

 

well it took so much money becuase they charge by the hours and it was quoted for 4.5 hours just for the stripe around the car. I took the strip ioff already and the adhesive was left behind, which means that they have to sit there with a rag and just swirl it off with adhesive remover.

 

I agree with kidrcth. For a daily driver a 400 dollar paint job is a good idea( heck I'm lucky if my car is all one color.). As for a 4,000 dollar paint job. I can't see paying for a paint job that's more then what I bougth the car for in the first place, unless it's a show car. just my 2 cents.

 

exactly, a $400 paint job every 10 years will still be less than a $4000 paint job every 40 years. As long as you wax those cheap paint jobs they'll stay looking very nice.

You know, this is cool this'll be the first person who has agreed with me the entire time i've been on the boards. It seems like everything else i do is controversial

 

Unless your car is trailered or is a showcar,a $4k paint job for a daily driver is stupid,even 2k is a waste of money.Then again if you can afford a 4k p.job then more power to ya.:lala:

 

yeah if you can afford a 4k apint job, then why do you have a thirdgen, get a viper or somthing. Why add a paintjob to your mortgage.

 

i'm only 16 and i could afford that paint job only becuase my dad got his taxes and gave them to me and i got my b-day money.

 

Well thats because everything you say is wrong!!! .........j/k honestly i really hope youre right with the paint job. The problem being two things, one you get what you pay for....if you look at your car by its self itll look good but if you put it beside a car that has a true quality job youll seriously notice the difference. Also a 400 dollar quality paint job seems too good to be true as far as im concerned....and from my experience when something seems too good to be true it usually is. Best of luck to ya!

 

well i'm tired of arguing with people on here but sometimes i have to disagree. the only thing that makes them job so more expensive is that they sand down evetrything very far, and they use the highest quality paint which almost nobody needs. They use stuff better than what you get stock on a car.

to be truthful a quality job is almost more expensive than learning everything yourself and doinging yourself.

 

and and also guys my paint job neared $1000, only was cheaper because of a discount. So it must be atleast something of a good job.

 

People argue with you because you say stupid things
[QUOTE]Originally posted by kidrcth
well i'm tired of arguing with people on here but sometimes i have to disagree. the only thing that makes them job so more expensive is that they sand down evetrything very far, and they use the highest quality paint which almost nobody needs.
Sanding=prep work and prep is everything
how can you say its better paint then anyone needs? Better paint looks better!

They use stuff better than what you get stock on a car.
need to be reminded the GM paint on our cars from one of the factories likes to peel off???

to be truthful a quality job is almost more expensive than learning everything yourself and doinging yourself.
Doing things your self is almost always cheaper....
[/QUOTE

AND btw stop double posting over and over what are you tring to get your post count up there??? Just so you know no one gives a damn about your post count....if you have something to add just hit edit.

 

nah i dont care about post counts, i dont even know what that is. Is that the thing that counts how many pists you've dont becuase i have a lot of them and it wouldn't matter. I dont know why i double post i just come up with new things to say right after i've said them.

 

get your paintjob, come back in a couple years and then we'll criticize. but for the first couple years i'm sure your paintjob will look great but like i said, come back in a few years and then we'll see

 

d00d i got one question, hows your thirdgen look, do you have one of these thousand dollar paint jobs? If you dont i bet the treason is not enough money.
Well i dont have that much money either and a job for $400 isn't much; and then what i do is wax it very often, keep 4-6 coats of wax on the car all the time, the paint will last just as long as a $3k one would with no wax, ok. We all know that a $3k will be better but we are talking about is just satisfactiory for a few years. As long as we keep our paint jobs nice and waxed they'll last very long. If your smart you'll put it under a roof almost all the time so it wont fade.

 

d00d

 

It doesn't pay off to try and save money on a paint job. For a first timer doing the prep work yourself, don't think it will be perfect. There will be more than a few imperfections that will show up with the paint. Don't get me wrong....I hope it comes out great, but don't get your hopes up. The only real way to end up with a good job is to save up the cash and take it do a reputable shop to have it done. Not to mention that when you do your own work the shop will be reluctant to warranty the paint. Let us know what happens!!

 

"d00d" I hope your paint job looks good and all thats a pretty good price for one, but why are you coming on a board that contains mildly obsessive third genners ,bragging about how good your cheap paint job is that you havent even gotten yet. My first maro had gotten a $1400 paint job just before I got it it looked great if your looking straight at it but if you got down and looked at the sides at an angle it look like scat. When it comes to services you always get what you pay for, unless you decide to pay a little extra just to make sure its done right.

 

well alrihgt let this thread rest until i get the car back, i'll make a new thread with all the pics, because too soon this thread got too long. so i'll talk to you guys about this shizz next week

 

Dude i think ur gettin a new hole ripped by this paint shop, becuz top quality paint would cost more then your paint job twice. second if there charging you to re-prep your car, then i wouldnt trust them for anything.

i painted my car 3 yrs ago at skool, i paid in cash $335 for PPG concept Black paint (1 gallon), primer, reducer, and hardener. I did 90% of the prep work myself (the other 10% was my friend showing me how to fix things). we sprayed my car and the paint is still holding up great. only bad things about it was that we didnt have enuff time to wet sand the car after words and the paint booth wasnt working right for some reason so theres alittle bit more orange-peel in more spots then others.

For the stickers, use a heat gun and a scraper, go get some quick prep or thinner and clean off the residue left from the stickers. so there isnt a trick to get it off in one shot, ive removed stickers before with a heat gun and theres always glue residue after words.

this sounds like a macco shop, where after the 2 yr warrenty the paint will fade, chip off and all the other fun stuff.

 

ok, you're definately getting ripped there. 4.5 hours to remove a stripe around a car? also, i agree with jim about the paint. i spent like $70 to paint my engine bay, you expect a shop to put in hours of prep work, including 4.5 hours of removing a stripe and somewhat quality paint? i would rather buy a paint gun, and pay double that in paint supplies and do it myself (fortunately i don't have to cuz i have a friend who is a painter)
you don't deserve a third gen for making a comment like that. the people on this board drive third gen's because that's what they like, not because they can't afford something better.

 

Now I never had a Maaco paint job, but I had a cheapy one...and it worked out just fine. I had no chips or runs or whatever.

Back when I was in my early 20's, I was passing a car that had stopped at a community-type mailbox. The driver made a left turn from the right curb and I hit them with my r/f corner (my fault). Within a month, my (then) mother-in-law backed from her garage and hit the l/f corner of my car (not my fault).

I used the money from the 2nd accident to pay for a used front cover, r/f and l/f fenders. My friend and I installed them and lined them up pretty good.

For under $500, the shop lined up the fenders better (not perfect) and repainted the whole car so it would all match.

I kept the car clean and washed. I waxed only occasionally.

Even parking my car next to a stock painted car - it looked fine.

Sure, if you parked it next to a $4k show car, mine would not have compared...but why would it? I didn't pay $4k for it.

Even a couple years after the repaint, it looked fine. No chips showing the original fender colors or anything.

When I build up my '73, it will be a daily driver...therefore it will get a daily-driver type paintjob. I'd **** myself if I came out of the store and found door dings in my car a month after dropping $4k on paint/bodywork.

Good luck with your decision.

 

mildly? lol, thats funny. kidrcth, i agree with everyone here. I have a 1966 mustang that we took to MAACO for paint. 2 weeks after paying for the $900 paint job, it had some minor rust and a few dents, the damn thing started cracking. 1 month later, the paint looked like a tortoise shell if you looked at it real close. It was my mistake for fooling myself into thinking i'd get anymore than i got. The car still looks good, it's still a head turner, but it looks like **** if you have a discriminating eye and your within 3 or 4 feet. Just remember that.

Don't be so damn stubborn. You yourself said you are 16 which translates into meaning 'you dont know !@#*' How many cars have you had painted? Not as many as these guys have had. Don't post a question and then get pissed when you get the answer. If so many people are giving you the same answer, then you should be able to figure out they're not bull----ing you. We're not telling you this to **** you off. We're telling you this so you dont have to go through the aggravation of seeing your paint job start crapping out 1 year after you get it done.

rant over...

 

d00d i never got pissed at anyone, i'm not gonna get pissed at anyone, its just a simple proving of facts versus facts. One fact is expensive paint jobs are better, but one fact is if you get a cheap paint job every 5 years you'll still have saved money even after 15 years, which might be more than you've had the car.

And once my step-dad's t-top blew up on his 97 trans am and he was goign 70mph down the highway and the glass ruined the back of his car. We have no idea why the T-top just blew up like that but when we got it painted at a place like Maaco for $300, it looked nice for the next 4 years and prolly still does, we sold it to buy a Dodge Ram 2500 with a V-10.

 

d00d

 

what is up wioth people posting messages only sayiong d00d

 

I'd rather pay 8000$ and get a good paint job once, and have it look better then any car painted by maaco 3 times over a 10 year period. My buddy is better at it then me, but people who know paint can tell a 500$ paintjob from a 5000$, and they can tell a 5000$ one from a 20000$. To the average observer a maaco job looks fine....get what you can afford. At the same time, you get what you pay for. Any decent paintjob looks the same from 20 feet, it's when your 6 inches from your car and your scrutinizing every little area that you find imperfections.....if you take pride in your car, and want a nice looking car, a 500$ maaco job just isn't going to be good enough for many people.

 

alright ok, so what will be the difference, will i be able too look at my mom's 2002 Grand Prix' paint and see that its better than mine? Or will mine be better? Everyone here says you cant tell the difference up front but later you can when the paint starts to chip and everything. I mean where there were chips will i see a difference in level or what? I need to see the differences up front to think of whats expected, cause if thats whats the difference then i already expected such a thing.

 

A good autobody guy can minimize imperfections in paint, to say, less chance of actual faults in the paint that you may not see unless you look very closely. You could get a bad job, and have really nasty orange peel, fisheyes, runs etc etc. Any good shop, no matter the price, should at least paint your car the right way. That is the general thing about paint, that the actual painting of the car is not the issue. Its what goes on before and after the painting process that affects the final outcome and durability. For a good paintjob you spend about 1500-2000$ on materials alone, thats from what I've read and been told. So if your getting your car painted for less then that you already know your not using the best materials.

From there you have to guess that the prep work is done hastily, but correctly. The big thing would definately be the final work done after the car is painted and clearcoated. Wetsanding, compounded, and buffing will all help give you a better higher quality paintjob. Sure, any new paintjob should look the same from 10-20ft no matter the price (assuming the guy sprays correctly). But it's when you really inspect the paint that you see a difference. The final quality and clarity of the paint, consistency, and most importantly, durability.

If a car could be painted anywhere near the quality required for a good-verygood paintjob for 1000$, then it would be done. There is a reason why people pay 5000$-50,000$ to get a car painted, because it looks better. If you know anybody who works in the industry they would probably show you the difference. Let you look at two cars, you probably wouldn't see the difference, until they started pointing things out. The average person doesn't know what to look for, and thats why places can paint a car for 799$ and make people happy, because those people don't know what they are looking at. They say "wow it looks great" with no idea what a paintjob should look like. It would be like someone buying a used car, the car is only 1000$, runs, looks fine. They have no idea what an engine should and should not sound like. They can't hear slight pinging, they don't know that slight blue smoke means oil leak. To them the car is cheap and runs, I get friends(mostly girls) all the time (I'm 18) telling me they found a great car for 500$, that it runs perfect, has no problems. I feel bad because I know that a good car costs more then 500$. Something has to be wrong unless it's a close friend/family member doing a favor.

 

alright, thats good info but you never really pointed anything i asked out, what is the visual difference. Are there like wrincles in the paint like from the sanding beneith, are there like high/low spots, come on this is the info i needed.

d00d please tell me the info i need to know so as i can look and point it out to them once i get the car. I'm smart and i'll make them fix it. My step-dad went to a maaco place for his '97 trans am that i told you about, they got paint on his muffler and all sorts of oplaces it shouldn't have been. He made them pay for 2 new wheels and some other stuff, no lawsuits or anything, if i need to i'll do the same about imperfections.

 

ok thats not at all true. My step-dad owned his own repair shop up in maine, he quit and left it to his best employee when he went into the navy. That place has grown to 3 locations up there in that city. Alright, he bought a car for $750, an '87 Accord, with only 125,000mi on it. The car ran perfectly, only rust in the wheel weels and thats becuase it was up in maine where they use salt on the roads. Not a thing is/was wrong with it, the interior was like brand new, the exterior plastic bumpers were faded a lot but thats it. Cars can be bought for cheap prices.

 

This post amazes me. I have seen alot of smart and dumb things said on both sides.

1. True if you pay more for a paint job you will (should) get a better overall job done, both in original quality of paint and better prep and post painting effort. The post painting is a big area the $1000 and under jobs don't touch your paint after its sprayed (most of the time).

2. A few of you said that people who know paint can tell the difference right away from close up. So what! Those 80% of us who aren't paint experts are happy if it looks good to us, and if its not a show piece and is daily driven thats good enough for most of us.

3. My GTA is worth about $3500 bucks. Now if I had enormous amounts of money to blow yeah maybe I would put more into paint than the car is worth currently because I Love my car the way most of you do and have no intentions of selling it ever. Fact is I don't have that much to spend right now on paint alone so I am quite happy with my cheap paint job because it looks better than it did before I got a six year warranty and by then maybe I will have more funds for better paint. Right now that extra cash can go into engine and suspension mods.

4. KIDRTCH is 16 and without current income he borrowed the money to paint his car from his mom, everyone knows you get what you pay for but nobody ever thought of telling this kid that something is better than nothing. I always get annoyed on these boards when someone says "I don't have much money but I want to do such and such can anyone give me info?" Then some of you who can't quite put yourself in the "no money" situation will come back and tell them how to do it the best way which he already said they can't afford to do.

5. KIDRTCH people keep posting d00d and nothing else because it annoying to say it all the time and especially the way you spell it with 0's in almost every response.

6. KIDRTCH good job in trying to take care of your car the best way you can, that $900 job will look alot better than the faded hillbilly looking third gen it was before.

7. Sorry so long my post are usually much shorter just wanted to get that off my chest! Heres what my $600 on sale paint job looks like, I would say its better than the faded stock paint and will get me by a few years.

 

thanks, thats what i should of said the entire time, something is better than nothin. I've been wondering too, what jobs do you people who can afford them paint job work at? I meanyou guys most likely arn't making $100k a year so how the hell can you do so?

 

I feel pretty safe in saying that most 750$ cars are not in the greatest condition. In general, if someone says they are selling a car for 500$ in perfect condition something is wrong. If you can spot a few good cars that are cheap more power to you...but for the person who doesn't even know how to change oil it isn't the smartest thing to do. Again, if the person only has 500$, and wants a car, then thats what they'll have to settle for. Those types of cars will generally nickel and dime you to death. Again, there exceptions.

If a 900$ paintjob is what you can afford and you are willing to accept what you are getting there is nothing wrong with it. I think by now we've established the differences....nobody said anything was wrong with doing what hes doing....as long as he understands what he is and isn't going to get.

Kidrcth, I can't explain it that well, but a better paintjob looks better (duh). Better clarity, it just looks better. Not necessarily something prep work will effect. Prep work will more effect durability, as the car is prepped with better care and the materials used are much higher quality to ensure a good bond. That won't show for a some time AFTER the car is painted. Maybe not from 10 feet, but with close examination you just have a better looking paintjob. It's the result of more post paint work and higher quality products. Two things you most likely won't get with a cheaper paintjob. For instance, wetstanding, cutting compound, and buffing will give you a nicer finish, and can in many instances get rid of orange peel. The body shop isn't responsible for the paint not looking perfect, simply put, they'll most likely tell you if you want a nicer finish, you can pay more for the aforementioned work to be done. They're cutting steps out of the painting process. Most paints come with a warranty from fading etc, I think dupont has a 10 year warranty, ONLY if the paint is applied in the EXACT way they specify for the warranty to be valid. If you didn't follow those steps (say, because the shop is cutting out certain things to save $$ so they can charge u less) then that warranty won't apply. To get it done in a way that the warranty applies will mean a higher cost to you. You can tell them what you want the paintjob to look like, and they're going to quote you a price for that kind of work.

I'm 18, I work at an engineering firm.

 

get a maaco or another generic paint shop to spray ur car, brag about how it came out and in a year or so post some more pics of it bubbling up and flakin off. also dont be suprised if u find some rot holes or lots of filler in old dents if u let them do the body work tooo.

 

I agree with both sides, but I am going to get a cheap paint job... I mean I know plenty of people that got a cheapy paint job, then threw 5 coats of zaino on it and keep up on it, and it looks fine.. plus around here most cheap places will warranty it for 3-5 years against cracking, fading, etc.... so yea it may only last a few years, but i wouldnt put 2500+ into a 10-20 year old 3rdgen unless I planned on trailering it around.. just not worth it imo.

so more power to kidrcth, post up pics when its done.

 

This thread has grown quite a bit...and I'm gonna add to it =) I don't think kidrcth necessarily wanted anything answered he just came on and said what was being done to his car....he was getting a good paintjob for cheap. I think the keyword is good. He never said best, show quality, great and etcetera paintjob. Just good....and I believe that is what he'll get the way he described it. Perhaps in his eyes he saw his painjtjob as being on par with more expensive painjtjobs but I think a lot of peole made it clear that there is a difference between a $4000 and a $750 one. There is nothing wrong with a $750 paintjob if that is what you can afford and if it will make your car look a whole lot better than what it was. I myself have a cheap paintjob, got it done for $800, its a basecoat, clearcoat paintjob with Dupont paints. I got it for that price partly because someone owed my dad a favor, so I got some more decent materials...and I know its an $800 paintjob and if you look you can tell, but I'm happy for the moment and it will last until I'm ready to retire my car as a daily driver so I can really save up for a nice paintjob.




if you'd only seen the car before, it was horrible it was originally silver, but the luster had completely gone so it looked like grey primer and it had a few rust spots.

 

you know what guys if you can remember kidrcth, then call me Shane.

 

I think I can sum it up pretty well:

$5,000 in go-fast mods and $500 in paint > $5000 in paint and $500 in go-fast mods

 

Spoken like a true carcrafter, make it run, handle, and stop then worry about that show quality shine.