Mustang needs paint
Ever since I have owned my Mustang, I have wanted to get it painted. Originally, it was because the paint job looked poor, and by poor I mean Maaco. As time has passed, despite being inside most of its life, the paint has gotten worse. The two biggest issues i have with it now are a small rust spot on the bottom of the door, and a chunk of paint missing off of the hood. The rust spot has pretty much always been there, and the hood happened when I lived in Las Cruces. I had the hood off when I was pulling the transmission, and a large gust of wind blew it over and messed up the paint. I have since purchased a new fiberglass hood, but have not had a chance to get it fitted and painted. I also have a new shaker scoop, which I got for Christmas from my parents, that will go on once the hood is replaced.
Monday I took the car around to local shops, and found one place that I really trust with it to do the paint. To paint the car the way I want it, which is similar to this pic (except it wont say BOSS 302, the strip will be solid there) it will be $5,088. This includes the 2 colors, fixing the rust spots, fitting the new hood, and all of the other work that goes into it. This is a bit more than I was hoping to spend, so I will be going back to see how much it would cost to just have the hood done for now, so that at least the glaring paint chip on the hood is dealt with.
I did, however, recently acquire another roommate, which will help with the income to get the car painted. Hopefully by the end of the year I can get it done.
posted by Justin Short at 11:52 PM
4 Comments:
The vast, vast majority of the cost in painting an automobile is in the prep work. Similarly, most of the quality of the final finish is tied directly to the quality of the preparation done.
I'm not sure whether your $5k quote included sanding and body work, but if it did, don't expect to get a good paint job. Typically you'll pay around $5k for all of the prep work, and another $5k in paint an application. Single-color show-quality finishes (like the one in the picture) will typically run between $10k and $20k for prep, paint, and finish. Just the paint alone will cost you nearly $1500 once you total up the number of coats you want (typically about a dozen between base, primer, and clear), and all of the additives you'll need mixed in.
Despite how much it sucks, I strongly encourage you to do all of the prep yourself. I did my Talon completely by hand, but if you get a random orbital sander, you can cut the time down significantly.
3/18/2007 01:15:00 AM
Thanks for the input. I did talk to one shop that wanted to do an show quality paint job on it, and htey wanted $15-20k, and wanted to keep the car for a year. The shop I want to use will strip the paint, and replace any rusted areas with patch panels rather than filler, and they are offering me more of an OEM paint job than a show paint job, which is what I want. The cost did include me removing all of the trim, bumpers, engine, etc., but not actually doing any sandng. If I were to do the sanding, I would be really, really worried about putting swirls in the metal. Now you have me thinking about giving it a shot, any tips on sanding?
3/18/2007 08:18:00 AM
Hojillions of tips. Remember that any damage (e.g. swirls) you put in the metal can be taken right out with a skim coat of filler and more sanding.
3/18/2007 10:36:00 AM
hit it with an orbital 80 200 and then 500. wet sand by hand at 1000 and save yourself $1k in prep work. Half the reason why that shit is so expencive is because of that macoo paint youve got on there.
3/26/2007 05:45:00 PM
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