$20k paint jobs

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SR99

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Watching the Mecum auction today and the commentators mention several cars with $6k, $10k, even $20k paint jobs.

The $20k paint job they mentioned "House of Colors" paint.

What exactly goes into a paint job this pricey? While I'm sure there are many layers and a few grand in labor, can the paint itself (just materials) be $10k or more? Are there extermely expensive clearcoats as well?
 
I'm no painting expert but I did work under a guy who did world class paint jobs on some really unique vehicles. While some paints can be very expensive, the labor in doing an overall color change or just a complete no tape paint job can take a staggering amount of hours. I'm talking complete removal of all trim, glass, all interior and all under hood items before the cleaning even begins let alone the sanding and other preparation steps. A job of this caliber could never be had for just a "few thousand dollars". Were talking several months of prep before extremely expensive paint is applied then cured then sanded and cut then swirls removed then finish polishing etc. etc. There's a lot more than just paint when considering costly supplies too to do such a job.
 
Tuscarora Dave's got it pretty well wrapped up.

Buddy of mine has a Chevelle that has been a work in progress for over two years now as a nut and bolt resto-mod. Frame, engine, suspension, brakes and most of the interior have all be done for a while. The shell has been on a rotisserie with countless hours of rust removal, welding, grinding, shaving, solder-filling (no bondo), straightening, tweaking, and all sorts of other terms that are above my pay grade. If he weren't doing a lot of the work himself, he'd probably be into the tens of thousands on prep work alone.

Remember, kiddo's, to a painter, the base and clear are like the LSP of the bodyman's world. House of Kolor, BASF, Sherwin Williams, or PPG to them are brands just like Zymol, Swissvax, Dodo Juice, Pinnacle, Wolfgang or Blackfire to us. The saying we pass around, "the prep makes the pop" easily translates into their area of expertise.
 
I was at the auction today and you can definantly tell a difference in the expensive paint jobs versus the not so expensive ones.

Like was mentioned above the hundreds of hours that go into prep make all of the difference.
 
I knew a guy when I owned a supra who had a crazy supra with bodykit and he said his was over 15k. They took the whole shell off and stripped it clean and dipped it in something then they painted it with a ton of coats of paint and clear plus they added on a wild body kit from japan.
 
I believe that expensive paint jobs are not only the "just the paint" but in the amount of prep work that is done before, during, and after the paint is applied, eg: how many hours is spent on block sanding and color sanding.

novaman
 
Divine Details said:
I was at the auction today and you can definantly tell a difference in the expensive paint jobs versus the not so expensive ones.

Like was mentioned above the hundreds of hours that go into prep make all of the difference.
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+1.

My Trans Am recently was the recipient of a restoration. Drivetrain was already completed to my liking (LS3/TR6060/MWC 9"), but I pulled everything and sent the chassis to a friends body shop. Every panel was removed, prepped, painted, and cleared. Total cost was just under $4300, and while it does look fantastic, it's obviously not a show car. I race this car a few times each month and spending more than what I did seemed like a waste in my opinion. It's finally back in the garage waiting for the paint to properly cure so it can be prepped for Opti Guard.

One must also take into consideration, I did not have the color of the car changed (although it was tempting), and I chose PPG paint, which to my understanding is a solid paint for the price, but by no means an over the top product.
 
tuscarora dave said:
I'm no painting expert but I did work under a guy who did world class paint jobs on some really unique vehicles. While some paints can be very expensive, the labor in doing an overall color change or just a complete no tape paint job can take a staggering amount of hours. I'm talking complete removal of all trim, glass, all interior and all under hood items before the cleaning even begins let alone the sanding and other preparation steps. A job of this caliber could never be had for just a "few thousand dollars". Were talking several months of prep before extremely expensive paint is applied then cured then sanded and cut then swirls removed then finish polishing etc. etc. There's a lot more than just paint when considering costly supplies too to do such a job.
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The car in my avatar was painted like this in my garage about 1985. The car was completely stripped to bare metal, fenders,doors, trunk lid, hood, dash etc were all painted seperately hanging from the trusses and then the car was reassembled, wet sanded and polished. All windows were removed along with the mechanism's to operate them. Every part of that car including the engine was removed and painted seperately. As tuscarora dave stated it is a lengthy job. If I remember right it took me about 3 months from start to finish working on it every day after work and every weekend. The pay off was a lot of 1st place trophies including "The world of wheels" modified division in 86. But the best part was knowing I could turn out a vehicle like that. Back then that Red was $65.00 a gallon. I priced it recently and is now $450.00 a gallon.
I use to tell everyone that my Wife would slide dinner under the garage door like a prison because I would not stop working to eat.


Dave
 
SR99 said:
Watching the Mecum auction today and the commentators mention several cars with $6k, $10k, even $20k paint jobs.

The $20k paint job they mentioned "House of Colors" paint.

What exactly goes into a paint job this pricey?
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is house of kolor if i remember right.
i had a motorcycle painted with their stuff.
they use all kind of catalyst to dry faster and harder the paint , is same as "epoxy" where you mix stuff.
as paint... is expensive probably because it may be custom paint , kandy or custom art work on it. also you can get all kind of effects in the final paint job , like multiple colors , rainbow mixed , chameleon , marble effect etc

i would say you can`t match a kandy paint or is very difficult , each layer adds a shade in the final color.
 
I recently watched an episode of "Overhaulin" and Chip Foose made custom paint containing something like 18 shades(?) of pearl which ended up costing $2000 a gallon which was applied to a 1960's VW bug. Yowsa!
 
I had my 2008 Cadillac DTS painted a different color a few months ago. It was just short of a "full" paint job. The interior wasn't stripped or the engine pulled. But everything else was taken apart. Doors, hood, trunk, windows, bumpers and lights, etc pulled off for a complete job. I told the body shop owner that during daily use and pulling parts off that I do not want to see that the car had ever been black. So no taping and shooting. They used Spies-Hecker paint and the job came out spectacular. But it cost a fortune due to expensive paint and a ton of labor. Just shy of $8500. Labor and the amount of paint steps is what costs the most. My paint was three stage but some are four and five and so on. $$$$$$$$$$$$

Don
 
Like everyone has said, bulk of the money comes with the body and metal work and not the paint. I just got done redoing my chevelle last winter. My dad and me did everything but spray the color and clear. It was dropped off in pieces ready to be sprayed and we put it back together. Took us right at a year to take the car down to bare metal and pretty much replace everything from the doors back metal wise. We also put everything in epoxy and did mutiple coats of build primer along with any filler work. Take for example full quarters like we did. Typical body shop in my area would charge for 20 hrs per quarter at about 70/hr. Thats $1400 to hang 1 quarter and that doesnt count doing the body work to it to get it dead straight or the cost of the quarter which in my case was around $600. If I would have just dropped off the chevelle and had a good body shop do everything that we did plus the paint, it would have easily been $20,000.
Chevelle at a local show
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