Cost of a daily driver paint job? | FerrariChat

Cost of a daily driver paint job?

Discussion in 'Ferrari Discussion (not model specific)' started by need4speed, Dec 2, 2003.

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  1. need4speed

    need4speed Formula 3

    Nov 3, 2003
    1,616
    Pacific Palisades
    Hi All,

    I'm relatively new to Fchat as postings go. But I've been enjoying the threads and especially the images and the video links.

    I'm in the midst of a Dino 246GTS restoration. The body had some rust repairs done and all the paint has been stripped. I am at the paint stage and I'd like to get a feel for what a paint job should cost. I'm not looking for a show stopping paint job. I want to drive my car daily. The shop that's doing the body work said the paint would be in the $10K to $14K range. That sounds extremely high for a daily driver paint job. Doesn't it? And I've chosen Fly Yellow...not even a metallic color.

    Or is that just the going rate for painting a Ferrari just because it's a Ferrari?

    Also, any recommendations on paint shops that I might get my own quotes?

    I'm in Santa Monica.

    thanks,

    Manny
     
  2. Sean F.

    Sean F. F1 Rookie

    Feb 4, 2003
    3,059
    Kansas
    Full Name:
    Sean F
    If the paint has already been stripped then anything over $10K is way to much. You could expect to pay about that much if it still needed to be stripped and painted.

    Someone posted a web site that has a complete bare metal respray of a 308 and it was ~$10k. A good portion of that cost was labor to the strip the car.

    For paint and labor it should be closer to $4-6k. If it's already stripped, most of the hard stuff has been done already.
     
  3. Kds

    Kds F1 World Champ

    I have absolutely no experience with what US autobody facilities charge to do this, but up here in Canada $6,000 CDN gets you a first class total repaint that the untrained eye would not catch......and you could probably fool more than a few dealers as well.....myself included. I could have any high end car done perfectly for that price....and in fact I have.

    At 1.33 USD that works out to $4,500 USD more or less.

    Sounds like the F-car factor coming into play again. I just sent a 360 spider down to Arizona.........the freight company asked what kind of car it was and I said a 4 wheeled one that is 15' long..........what else do you need to know ? It fits on your standard truck and does not require special handling. $850 USD door to door "undamaged and insured" versus $2,300 US door to door.
     
  4. MarkPDX

    MarkPDX F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa

    Apr 21, 2003
    15,111
    Gulf Coast
  5. Artherd

    Artherd F1 Veteran

    Jun 19, 2002
    6,588
    Bay Area, CA
    Full Name:
    Ben Cannon
    Most of the work on an older F-car is in prep (filler, etc. it needs LOTS!)

    All that said, $6-7k should buy you a first-class driver paint job that is factory quality.
     
  6. Mojo

    Mojo Formula 3

    Sep 24, 2002
    1,293
    Washington St.
    Full Name:
    Joseph
    Bodyshops see a ferrari, the price doubles. To bad but its true.
    How would the paint job be any different than a subaru?
    Same job, twice the cost. :(
     
  7. NYJETSFAN

    NYJETSFAN Formula 3

    May 11, 2001
    1,096
    Kalifornia
    Full Name:
    Jr
    Well being in the bizz! stripping the paint sometimes is the easy part, depending on how it was stripped. the time spend is removing and installing mouldings/handles/trim/glass/doors/fenders and so on,
    then fixing any rust and doing bodywork as needed, then prime and block sand and sand some more, then spraying the jams first then the outside, colorsand and rubbing the car, the hours can add up very fast. paint materials can very on price any where from a couple of hundred to thousands, check out the local auto paint supply shop and see.
    you can put 100 hours in a paint job with no problem.
    100 hours x 65.00 = $6500.00 with no paint materials and stripping the car. that can run around $600.00 to $1000.00

    the best thing is to shop around and get referrals......

    good luck, ARIE
     
  8. Chiaro_Slag

    Chiaro_Slag F1 Veteran

    Oct 31, 2003
    7,789
    CA
    Full Name:
    Jerry
    Read the above article that was posted & you can then answer your own question.

    http://www.ferraris-online.com/Articles/SCM_0006.html
     
  9. Russ Birch

    Russ Birch Formula Junior

    Oct 31, 2003
    437
    Clearwater, FL
    Full Name:
    Russ Birch
    A friend of mine just finished a "from the ground up" 1966 Mustang rag top. It took two years and $38,000. He did all the work himself except the paint and the alignment. The car was featured on the cover of a national Mustang magazine and has won every show he's put it in.

    The paint is amazing. Smooth and clear of any texture, it looks like it's wet. The cost for the entire paint job including prep and primer was $4200. Candy apple red with clearcoat.

    Russ
     
  10. F328 BobD

    F328 BobD Formula 3

    Mar 17, 2001
    2,327
    Southlake, TX
    Full Name:
    BobD
    Mojo, unfortunately you are 100% correct... I've even been told that by a good body shop.

    Need4speed, your paint question is really vague. You can get an Earl Scheib paint job for $500 if that's what you're looking for. But if you want all the windows and trim removed (rather than masked) and the doors and hoods removed, it's going to cost much more. Also, if you don't want the car color sanded following the paint job, that will reduce the price as well but you'll have much more of an orange peel finish. Even stripping the car of paint is relative... outside only or doorjams, hoodjams, etc.?

    It depends on what your definition is of "daily driver paint job"... there is a huge range as it relates to painting a car. It's just a question of how many corners you want to cut?
     
  11. need4speed

    need4speed Formula 3

    Nov 3, 2003
    1,616
    Pacific Palisades
    I agree that "daily driver paint job" is vague. The car doesn't have a spot of paint on it right now. I had some rust repaired and it's been stripped to bare metal and is just about ready for paint. Then the shocker of the paint estimate. Which prompted my query.

    I had another car of mine completely customized and painted and the paint was nowhere near $10K!

    By "daily driver", I'm feeling that it's a paint job that you wouldn't worry about when driving spiritedly. Yet still looks decent. I'm not after a garage queen. I believe cars should be driven.

    I've gotten quite a bit of information and I thank you all. It's been very enlightening.
     
  12. vinny

    vinny Karting

    Nov 1, 2003
    167
    R.I.
    Full Name:
    Vincent Pitocco
    Why did you strip the car to bare metal in the first place? Was the paint cracked? Sounds to me this is where you went wrong.By stripping to bare metal you created a labor intensive job well worth the 10K to 14k(start to finsh). if you wanted to spend alot less, you could have eliminated that step and saved alot of money by just sanding the car down and repainting it. It all depends on what you want to spend.
    BTW; Who stripped the car , You, or the shop? If it was the shop they should have explained this to you.
     
  13. vinny

    vinny Karting

    Nov 1, 2003
    167
    R.I.
    Full Name:
    Vincent Pitocco
    Just read that article, soo true. I've been painting cars for 25 years and all it comes down to, is; TIME IS MONEY.
     
  14. Exoticbro

    Exoticbro Karting

    Nov 1, 2003
    203
    St.Louis, MO
    Full Name:
    Chuck Ligon
    Its true, taking the car apart and putting it back together
    are very labor intensive.

    I had my Porsche painted a few years back.
    I took the car apart and put it back together and it was
    a time consuming process.
    The car was delivered to the paintshop strippped and in
    pieces. The cost of the paintwork with a minimal amount
    of body work was $4000 this included door jambs.
    Had I had ALL of the work done by them I would have been
    at the 10k mark.
    Something to keep in mind is a lot of shops have a different
    hourly rate for restoration work versus collision work.
    You won't get priority but you will save a couple $$$$$.
     
  15. racedecknc

    racedecknc Karting

    Nov 24, 2003
    198
    Winston Salem
    Full Name:
    Ed
    Whenever I restored a Corvette, I would disassemble the car, deliver it, and the pieces to the bodyshop and reassemble it myself.

    I have a good friend who is one of the best street rod painters in the biz, and he is very fair to me on price. With NO bodywork, and minimal masking, expect to spend around $2500.

    The price would easily double if he had to remove the moldings, emblems, weatherstrip, lights, door handles, windows, etc.

    The best part was I could control what got overspray on it, and what didn't. I made his job a lot easier and he let me make more money.

    A relationship like that is hard to find and takes years to build. If you do your own bodywork, expect no guarantees on the work, and sometimes you'll pay extra because a good painter will redo the bodywork to make sure it doesn't make his paintwork look bad.

    Ed
     
  16. MarkG

    MarkG Formula Junior

    Nov 3, 2003
    369
    Colorado Springs
    Full Name:
    Mark
    Exact expierence as Exoticbro w/my 911, only my 'top line' guy used two slightly mismatched batches of paint. By the time I realized mistake, he was retired and long gone.

    Took it to local 'ordinariy' shop for respray, got perfect paint job for $500 (I bought the paint). Of course he only had to rough-up surface and spray, no real time consuming prep work or masking involved.

    If your car is already 100% preped and he wants additional $10k just to shoot it, move on. BUT if it still needs a total bondo coat to smooth out the body, it can add up quick (as stated in earlier post, time is money!).
     
  17. vinny

    vinny Karting

    Nov 1, 2003
    167
    R.I.
    Full Name:
    Vincent Pitocco
    The problem with the older ferrari's is, when they were built they used alot of bondo so when you strip them you have to redo it. thats were most of the labor is.
     
  18. Nuvolari

    Nuvolari F1 Veteran
    Owner Silver Subscribed

    Sep 3, 2002
    6,370
    Toronto / SoCal
    Full Name:
    Rob C.
    Stripping to bare metal with an older Ferrari is essential. They were painted in lacqer and the substrate is not very stable. It is much safer to go to metal and start from scratch.

    Comparing paint jobs to Porsches, Mercedes or Mustangs is not really fair because these are higher production cars with infinatly better panels to start off with. Ferrari panels are low production and had a lot of hand finishing from the factory. Original paint on these cars was terrible and to get a good re-paint requires tons of hours of block sanding. A good paint job is all in the prep and a Dino has TONS of prep everywhere.

    I am talking here of a really good paint job. Not a crazy show paint job that is unuseable because of the fear of damaging it.
     

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