What can I expect to pay for this paint/body work?

[Oldblue98]

Just as a example, my 98 SWB reg cab was in good shape body wise. It had the typical dings and chips here and there. The sides looked good still (Original Paint) but the roof and hood was showing some blistering in the clear coat.
I had the whole truck stripped and done in BC/CC Urethane , the guy did a excellent job and had my truck about three weeks. It was color sanded and buffed and slick as glass when done. It was done about a year ago, $ 2400.00.
Other places had quoted 4K - 6K for the same job. I found this guy through the grapevine at car shows. No complaints at all with his work. My Father in law however decided to take his 1960 T-Bird to the Shark and got way less quality with orange peel.
I am not saying all Shark franchises are bad, and his car looked ok after he wet sanded and three staged it.

 

[upper_tanker]

I will add one more thing. If the estimate a shop gives you sounds low or even just a little too reasonable, there's a good chance they might half-ass the work. I went to a cheaper shop one time with my Suburban (Even though I had used the good expensive shop before and should have known better) for similar stuff. Rocker rust, minor roof rust and minor hood rust. They re-painted just where it was absolutely necessary. That cost me about two grand and about a year later the rust was coming back in the exact same places. Next time I'm going back to the shop that gave me the higher estimate because I know from experience that their work will stand up to the test of time. Once burnt, lesson learn't. I'm sure not all the cheaper shops are scam artists but buyer beware.

For the record, here's my Suburban as it sits now with the worst rust damage displayed. It's not a great picture but if you zoom in under the rear door and around the rocker you can see the nastiness. It looked better than this years ago when I got that $7K estimate. For the sake of the regional price difference discussion this is in Missouri.

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Someday I'll bring myself to spend the cash or learn body work...



You might want to crawl under the truck and have a good look to confirm that. I thought the same thing when the rockers on my Suburban first started to go but the rust was actually working its way through from the back side of the panel.

I completely understand your statement. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't want to spend $6000 for a crappy job, but I also don't want to spend $2k and end up with a crappy job. I have no issues paying for good work, I just don't want to get screwed again. Body shops, like me, are like mechanics. It's really hard to find good ones that do honest work for a fair price, and when you do, usually you pay for them.

Sounds like its time to take some leave and drag gramps to the shop for a hands on lesson. sure he can't paint, but maybe he would be willing to teach?

The paint booth is in need of work. Most of the lights don't work anymore, and it has something going on with the venting system. Besides, I feel like his way of doing things may be a little dated. Not knocking him, he has done great work. I'm sure that these days there are different chemicals and materials that work better and last longer (as far as the body work goes).

Just as a example, my 98 SWB reg cab was in good shape body wise. It had the typical dings and chips here and there. The sides looked good still (Original Paint) but the roof and hood was showing some blistering in the clear coat.
I had the whole truck stripped and done in BC/CC Urethane , the guy did a excellent job and had my truck about three weeks. It was color sanded and buffed and slick as glass when done. It was done about a year ago, $ 2400.00.
Other places had quoted 4K - 6K for the same job. I found this guy through the grapevine at car shows. No complaints at all with his work. My Father in law however decided to take his 1960 T-Bird to the Shark and got way less quality with orange peel.
I am not saying all Shark franchises are bad, and his car looked ok after he wet sanded and three staged it.

This is what I'm talking about. I, like literally EVERYBODY else who is in need or want of a skilled service, want's to pay less for more. I'd LOVE to find a guy who does this on the side or as a hobby/side money while being retired. However, I'm very leery when it comes to spending this much money. I, also like most other people I imagine, would rather pay more to have it done right the first time since it is cheaper in the long run than to have it done over again.

After thinking about it some more, I do plan on stopping at the guys' shop that I was talking about. The welder and his son were telling me that he's painted quite a few Autorama (just a Detroit thing? not sure) and show quality pieces. I have no clue what the guy is like, but these two sure do praise him. He's at least worth checking out.

 

[df2x4]

I completely understand your statement. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't want to spend $6000 for a crappy job, but I also don't want to spend $2k and end up with a crappy job. I have no issues paying for good work, I just don't want to get screwed again. Body shops, like me, are like mechanics. It's really hard to find good ones that do honest work for a fair price, and when you do, usually you pay for them.

Agreed. Word of mouth is a big thing with either one as well. I'd start by asking everyone you can think of locally who does the best work. The good place that gave me my $7K estimate has been in the same little building here since the 60's. You see anything from beautiful old muscle cars to brand new Maseratis in the parking lot regularly. Sounds like you may be on the right track with the recommendation you have already but I'd ask as many people as you can, preferably people who actually own some nice cars with work done.

 

[upper_tanker]

Solid advice from all of you guys. Thanks for the input. I'll try to remember to post back here after I talk to him in the spring.

 

[c1500deathtrap]

The paint booth is in need of work. Most of the lights don't work anymore, and it has something going on with the venting system. Besides, I feel like his way of doing things may be a little dated. Not knocking him, he has done great work. I'm sure that these days there are different chemicals and materials that work better and last longer (as far as the body work goes).

Materials may change, and the requirments of those materials may change, but the underlying basis of good bodywork is always the same. Hard work, and attention to detail. The instructions on the cans will tell you everything else you need to know.

 

[88monteSS]

Sounds like you've got your game plan figured out, but I'll still throw the pics up since I mentioned it earlier.

I don't have a before picture of the door to show just how small the spot was, but it was roughly quarter sized right on the body line above the handle. Here's how it sits now, it's probably 30' good, closer than that & it's obvious that patch work was done since we didn't get the color exact & couldn't do a proper blend (basically it was do what we did or end up painting the entire door).

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We also hit the edge of the front fenders, they blended better since they'd were replaced at some point when the PO hit a deer, but it's still noticeable up close (I'd say it's 15' good). Those I do have a before picture for, it was taken a few months before we patched it, but the spot hadn't grown much.

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Since it wasn't OE paint it didn't delam as we sanded it, so we didn't have to go as far back before getting solid paint. We could've gone a little further & made it less noticeable, but to be clear, this was a "****, I've got bare metal & it's starting to get surface rust." type of paint job. We did a decent job & the paints not going to come off or anything, but it's not the quality level that'd go out on a paying job. Also I plan on repainting the entire truck when I swap beds, so that factored into the decision as well.

I figured as much. I just figured that if the new tailgate only needs paint, the only thing that would need to be painted (along with the bodywork to fix rust and replace rockers) would be the entire rear right side quarter panel and hood (no bodywork to hood)
Body work meaning no rust repair.

The problem with only painting the quarter is that unless the shop mixes their own paint & spends time tweaking the mix to get it the exact shade (damn near impossible given you've got 21 years of fading to factor in) the fresh paint is going to stick out like a sore thumb without blending.

Sounds like its time to take some leave and drag gramps to the shop for a hands on lesson. sure he can't paint, but maybe he would be willing to teach?

Exactly what I was going to say. It'd be a great way to spend some time together & learn a new skill.

The paint booth is in need of work. Most of the lights don't work anymore, and it has something going on with the venting system. Besides, I feel like his way of doing things may be a little dated. Not knocking him, he has done great work. I'm sure that these days there are different chemicals and materials that work better and last longer (as far as the body work goes).

LED strip lights are cheap. We still have to do the overhead ones & another coat of new paint, but just replacing the side lights made a world of difference. These are the only booth shots I've got that are from approximately the same angle, pictures really don't do the improvement justice.

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Also, just gonna throw this out there...paint booths also make nice detailing booths, so even if you don't want to do the work it might be worth spending a little bit on lights to have that option available to you.

Materials may change, and the requirments of those materials may change, but the underlying basis of good bodywork is always the same. Hard work, and attention to detail. The instructions on the cans will tell you everything else you need to know.

^x2. Just because some of his methods might be dated doesn't mean the new ways are better.

 

[upper_tanker]

Thanks for the input, Monte. I'm sure blending the paint and getting it to match perfectly is a pain in the ass, that's why I'm pretty much expecting the entire qp where that rust is will have to be painted. The only downside to that, is if THAT's not perfect, it will look like the rear half of the truck is a different color than the first.

The paint booth is in another small connected shop behind my dads main shop. it's one structure, with 4 separate partitions. My dad rents three of them. We have often thought about, again, trying to find a retired person or a hobbyist to actually come and use it, just so he could make some extra money. It's literally only being used to store my dads 86 k10 right now, so we figured he may as well try to make at least a little money off of it.... or even if a guy wants to come and use it in trade to do rockers, cab corners, and other miscellaneous paint/bodywork to his fleet of 13 vehicles in trade for use of the booth. 8 of them are gmt400 plow trucks, so you already know that they all need something.

I have no clue how much paint booth maintenance/repairs cost, but I'd guess there's probably at least $2-$3k of work that would need to get it up to *****. As far as detailing goes, I usually just use his main shop. He's got a few hoists that make it really easy and saves the knees and back. However, you're right....the really bright lights would be nice.

 

[letitsnow]

If you do use your paint booth to do detailing... Most painters would hit you with a bat if they see you using something like armor all in their paint booth...

 

[upper_tanker]

If you do use your paint booth to do detailing... Most painters would hit you with a bat if they see you using something like armor all in their paint booth...

Anybody using armor all period should be hit with a bat. LOL

It'd be nice for doing paint correction. The lights in there would be perfect for that.

 

[TechNova]

The instruction are not on the cans of any good paint products. Go to the manufacturers website and print out the tech sheets and follow them exactly.
Armor All is banned from all my properties, my wife knows it's instant divorce of she brings any around. She sometimes teases me that she bought some to try on my truck.
Clean your booth and use it for final mask and paint only. Serious painters will string you up if they catch you doing anything else in there. Less serious painters will appreciate the cleaner jobs they get by keeping the other jobs put of the booth.