When you go to get your car painted, what exactly is done? I realize that lights and sidemarkers are taken out to be sprayed, but what about door jams, under the hood, etc? For example I have a red car. I want to take it in and get it painted forest green with heritage stripes. (I dont want to do this, just an example) Most of my car, under the carpet, door jams, under the weatherstripping, underbody, the whole body is all red. How much of this gets painted the new color? How much red is left showing after its all done? What about the stripes, how does that work? Do you just paint the whole area white, then mask off the shape of the stripes and paint the green over it? Or do you paint it green then paint the white stripes over it? Or are the stripes a decal? What about the already existing paint, is it all sanded off or is it generally acceptable to paint over old paint? What may be done in an EXPENSIVE paint job that seperates it from a $200 Maaco job?

I'm trying to decide if its worth painting my car a color other than red. If it will look like crap I would be more than glad to stay with red, but if its easy enough to make the new color look "factory" then I may lean towards another color.

 

I would just get a re-paint to keep it from rusting.

Honestly I would spend 200-400$ at maaco until i had 6k to toss into a "real" paint job... instead of spending 2k on a "almost real" paintjob and down the road spend another 6k on a "real" paintjob.

This is just an example of course. But maaco i assume chemically takes off, or uses a sand gun to strip off, the paint off of your car. Then just sprays it on and puts on a top coat... Usually this is the outside only.

On a real job, they take the panels off of your car and sand them down to smooth etc etc and primer it, paint it a few times and top coat it... and if you want the body done too (ie: under carpet, in engine bay) expect a LOT of labor hours, unless you bring them a rolling chasis w/ all of your parts taken out and put somewhere safe.

 

Alot of it depends on what kind or quality you want. Heck Maaco does not even use a top coat on there cheap jobs. You can get a decent quality job from them if you pay for it, like a base coat/clear coat job, that will allow you to wet sand and buff to really make it look alot better than it cost. You can use the original patint as a primer, but the crappy stuff that came on our cars peal and flake so bad because of the factory primer that I think about taking it to the metal and have them reprime and seal the car. Personally I would try to find a good local body shop that would be willing to do this and maybe offer to help. If you want do a quality color change will cost a pretty good bit more. You could do like the engine compartment, but like door jams and trim out takes a while. The biggest cost in a good quality is PREP,PREP AND MORE PREP. I would just try to talk to some people get some quotes for what you want done and then try and save up. In the mean time ask some of them maybe what you could do to help save yourself some money, like remove some trim, sand etc. Good luck.

 

It depends on what you're willing to pay.

You can take it to Maaco and they'll spray the whole car for $200 and hand you a razor blade to scrape the paint off the windows so you can drive it home. Oh, you wanted that masked? That costs more. Oh, you wanted it sanded before we painted? That costs more. Oh, you wanted the dents removed? That costs more.

So on and so forth.

On one end of the spectrum you've got your $200 Maaco paint job, and at the other end, the sky is the limit. If you want all visible surfaces painted (a must if you change the color), it's going to cost you a lot more money because they have to take apart a lot of stuff, and they have a lot more prep work to do. If you don't want masking lines, then more stuff has to be removed too. If you want the engine bay or undercarrage to match, now you've got huge expenses. If you want it wetsanded and buffed to a mirror-like finish, that's going to add a lot more expense. If you want it color sanded (wetsand the basecoat before applying the clearcoat), it's a lot more money.

I'd say that $1500 should get you a good quality paint job that includes urethane paint, minor body smoothing (i.e. taking out one or 2 tiny dents), and masking of all items. This is a good baseline for a driver that you want done right, but don't need a show quality paint job on.

 

If you want a quality paint job but dont have the cash, Sand the car smooth your self then get a 600-800 maaco paint job and it will look pretty good, You MUST BE VERRY SPECIFIC with maaco, tell them exzactly what you want and look at other paint jobs they have done, ask around to custumers to see if they ever had a paint job done their before.

Go around and get some quotes from local maaco's boddy shops and other places, I know their are some paint places around here that are like maacos just with out the name. do the same as above with all places. color changes are a pain in the but maaco painted my door jams for an extra $60

 

I would stay with the original color, my car was orig. red but it was repainted silver and the engine bay under the carpet and a thin line around the weatherstriping is all red.

 

I have a 92 rs that i went from red to yellow allot of work. i took it apart had it painted and put it back together my self total color change with ghost flames and pearl under 5 grand check out my pix still workin on interior

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2384362

 

For a body shop to do an all over and paint the door jams, not engine bay* for prep, metallic paint and clear, would be in the range of 6k to 8k.

i'ts mainly depends on how much prep work is needed.

if your smart stick with a shade of red. it doesnt have to be exact.

 

ie you get what you pay for...unless you have a friend in the bussiness.....if you want a nice job it costs $$$ time=$$$ to change the color and fix all imperfections and use a decent base\clear paint....I'd say a about $5-6K....stick with the original color..have a good body guy and spray it single stage nasson paint about $1500