Cost of a paint job
 

What are your best guesstimates for the cost of a complete paint job? Same color but paint everywhere, ie, door jambs, under trunk lid, etc.
And should the old paint be stripped first?
Thanks

I aint shitting in tall cotton like some people. I did it all myself. It cost me a couple grand in supplies. After years and years of bodywork and I already put together a good compressor.

Depends on how much body work it needs...how bad is the old paint.
To do it right it needs striped to bare metal.
When i painted mine just the base coat was in the $800.00 per gallon range.
In a pro shop...figure between 8 and 12 grand for a decent job with good materials.
If you do it yourself...2-3k in supplies not including a good 60 gallon 5hp compressor.

Ya, 8-10 for a decent job is about right around here. You want high end, well the price goes up.

I have a huge compressor and we even cobbled together a makeshift booth for a buddy to paint his Jeep. It came out pretty bad. I’m talking embarrassing.
I then tried the hood on my 66 because it was new and black. Made the Jeep job look like a Ridler Award contestant.
I appear to have what it takes (equipment wise) but lack the talent. Maybe a I’ll get everything ready and hire a pro to pull the trigger and wave the gun around.

Buy plastic and put it up right before you do it. The static electric attracts the overspray and it sticks to it.

Go to....Autobody 101 forum....read all the stickies.

We built the spray booth out of heavy plastic hanging from the underside of the mezzanine in my shop. We even put brass grommets in the plastic so we could reuse the booth over and over. The booth was up for a couple days before we sprayed the Jeep. We wet the floor prior to spraying.
Dust was not the issue. Skill with the gun, getting the pressure and spray pattern correct, etc were the issues.
With the cost of materials it’s hard to “practice” on a whole car.
I was kidding when I mentioned getting everything ready and then having a pro come in and do the actual spraying but maybe hiring someone for a couple hours to show how to achieve a good pattern from the gun, etc, would be worth it.
But for the Chevelle, which is driven everyday rain or shine and left in grocery store parking lots, etc, I don’t want to spend 10k.

I found a retired body guy to do my car. The guys who paint cars even at the cheap shops are usually looking for a few side jobs. They know how to paint.