Budgeting for a paint job

[Geotrash]

Hi All, the paint on our 07 Yukon XL Denali is currently in excellent shape, with great gloss and no sun damage. That said, it's starting to chip and flake more easily and my touchups are becoming more frequent accordingly. I fear that the time is coming when it will need a complete repaint in original factory white. Since I like to save for such events ahead of time, I'd like to know if anyone has recent experience with what it might cost to have a body shop do a proper paint job with high-quality paint and clear coat on a Yukon XL Denali with no rust or other body damage - not even a door ding.

 

[petethepug]

It’s big $ because ALL the clear has to be removed and a lot of prep has to be done. That with the size of the panels for paint & supplies makes it close to $5k+ here in Cali.

It’s one of the reasons I spent $2.5k on the hood & roof, had the rest color sanded and professionally prepared for resale. Trading for a metallic paint paid off as well as all the other do dads.

 

[blackelky]

If you want to save some money look into painting the whole thing in raptor liner. There's all types of colors. Either that or maaco just be prepared to get it wet sanded and buffed afterwards

 

[Geotrash]

It’s big $ because ALL the clear has to be removed and a lot of prep has to be done. That with the size of the panels for paint & supplies makes it close to $5k+ here in Cali.

It’s one of the reasons I spent $2.5k on the hood & roof, had the rest color sanded and professionally prepared for resale. Trading for a metallic paint paid off as well as all the other do dads.

Thanks, Michael. That's actually not as bad as I thought it might be. I do know the guy that manages the paint shop at a large local dealer chain, through camping, so I may give his office a call.

If you want to save some money look into painting the whole thing in raptor liner. There's all types of colors. Either that or maaco just be prepared to get it wet sanded and buffed afterwards

Thanks for that. My wife drives it most and she'd probably punch me in the face if I took the Raptor Liner route. Lol. I had Maaco do a car for me once about 10 years ago and the finish lasted a few years and started peeling off. I'm willing to pay a good price to have it done right and just wondered what others' experience has been with it.

 

[tooleyondeck]

If you're keeping it the same color you won't need to remove the clearcoat. With no body work needed that's what we would call a "scuff-n-shoot" and would involve scuffing the entire truck then blending in all of the faded or chipped areas then new clear on the whole truck. Depending on your location, paint code, and if you go with PPG, I would say $4-5K range with supplies and labor.

 

[adventurenali92]

It’s big $ because ALL the clear has to be removed and a lot of prep has to be done. That with the size of the panels for paint & supplies makes it close to $5k+ here in Cali.

It’s one of the reasons I spent $2.5k on the hood & roof, had the rest color sanded and professionally prepared for resale. Trading for a metallic paint paid off as well as all the other do dads.

I’d say that’s unrealistic. Body shop that I trust and know does professional work quoted me $8600 to repaint my Yukon xl Denali in 2020. And that’s here in Southern California.

 

[petethepug]

It’s a longer reach from $5k, but that +\plus still applies, even up to $10k.

The price just keeps climbing when you get into the details. Pulling the windshield, trims and ancillaries like roof racks.

I’ve always timed my major resprays around insurance mishaps. The only deal I’ve ever been able to strike is when the vehicle is already in the shop for other covered body work. The difference between ins repainting 1/2 the vehicle and you doing the other half is much less than footing the bill for the entire car.

It’s a he’ll of a lot easier and less costly to totally respray a vehicle that’s already prep’d for a 1/2 respray. I even went as far on one vehicle to turn in a separate, but simultaneous claim on an already cracked windshield to coordinate the glass being pulled at the cost of the Ins deductible.

When you’ve got a vehicle you really like, a total respray gets the pop from new paint & brite work. It’s exciting to drive and other people really appreciate it because it’s nice to look at.

 

[adventurenali92]

It’s a longer reach from $5k, but that +\plus still applies, even up to $10k.

The price just keeps climbing when you get into the details. Pulling the windshield, trims and ancillaries like roof racks.

I’ve always timed my major resprays around insurance mishaps. The only deal I’ve ever been able to strike is when the vehicle is already in the shop for other covered body work. The difference between ins repainting 1/2 the vehicle and you doing the other half is much less than footing the bill for the entire car.

It’s a he’ll of a lot easier and less costly to totally respray a vehicle that’s already prep’d for a 1/2 respray. I even went as far on one vehicle to turn in a separate, but simultaneous claim on an already cracked windshield to coordinate the glass being pulled at the cost of the Ins deductible.

When you’ve got a vehicle you really like, a total respray gets the pop from new paint & brite work. It’s exciting to drive and other people really appreciate it because it’s nice to look at.

Well yeah but that’s only if you have an accident or some other mishap resulting in damage. Something I’m trying to avoid at all costs right now because I can’t afford insurance going up. So it might benefit to do it that way it doesn’t always work out so easily unfortunately.

 

[petethepug]

The old scuff n shoot didn’t work but on the hood of our 08 YXL. The clear product GM originally used was activated by applying new product on top of it. It was gorgeous paint that was peeling like a bad sunburn.

The hood had to be removed again and painfully stripped all the way to bare, then built back up from primer. It was an expensive lesson for the shop to learn about GM’s tatty clear coat used on their 2 step paints. The product on the three step metallic paints are far more resilient.

 

[Tonyrodz]

You can also save some money by removing alot of the trim yourself--windshield trim, headlights, taillights etc. That'll some some $$ on labor. But make sure you talk to them 1st before doing it.

 

[TahoeRestore]

I had my "03 Tahoe painted about a year ago. I removed all trim, bumpers, lights, badges (left them off), etc. Total was around $6K. See the link below for work in progress and pics. https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/new-to-forum-fixing-up-my-03-tahoe.131033/

 

[91RS]

If you want it to actually look good when you’re done, $10k-$15k. All the trim, mirrors, door handles, fascia’s, roof antenna, etc. will need to be removed and masked off which is a huge amount of work. I spent $5k getting the hood and roof repainted which required sanding down to bare metal, blending and clearing the front fenders, and painting a new front fascia. I took off all the trim pieces, headlights, etc. myself and swapped everything over to the new fascia and installed myself. That saved me about $1k in labor.

 

[petethepug]

Back in Black. That’s the color to do a respray. I did a 66 Mustang in my teens from yellow to black and removed all the trim. The pop you get after replacing the trim against perfect paint is such an amazing contrast.

The black paint on your Tahoe is amazing. I had our 08 YXL Denali color sanded, polished, respray on the hood and the nose of the roof. Paint was $1.3k and full color sand details and exterior resto was $8h.

Most of the paint was paper thin after the polish but it was flawless all around to the new owner who got the truck detailed to insanity.

 

[ivin74]

For a good paint job expect to spend at least 10k.

 

[ivin74]

I would say $4-5K range with supplies and labor.

Just the paint materials will be around 2k, not sure what kind of prep and spray he will be getting for the remaining 3k.

 

[Rocket Man]

I was looking at 10k plus for my 08 Silverado. This is from a friend who owns a body shop. He said he couldn’t give me any great deal because he could make way more doing 6-8 smaller insurance jobs. A full repaint takes up so much shop time most won’t even do it.

 

[91RS]

I was looking at 10k plus for my 08 Silverado. This is from a friend who owns a body shop. He said he couldn’t give me any great deal because he could make way more doing 6-8 smaller insurance jobs. A full repaint takes up so much shop time most won’t even do it.

Yeah, most places won’t do a full paint job. I wanted to get a price on doing the entire truck since I figured the doors wouldn’t be far behind and no one I called would do it.

I decided to put clear bra on the tops of the doors to block the UV since that’s where it’ll start and I use a ceramic spray coating (Technician's Choice) at every single wash, which is weekly now that I’ve switched to rinseless. Hopefully that will get me many years down the road but I figured I could get one side painted at a time if it comes to it and it wouldn’t hurt too bad. But, since GM is discontinuing all the parts to keep the truck on the road, it may not even matter. Just another reason the GM’s I have are likely my last.

 

[MrMonte]

To repaint my Suburban with no body damage, good clearcoat & same color was $11,400. Only reason for repaint was the county road crew got yellow all over the front & side.

 

[tooleyondeck]

Just the paint materials will be around 2k, not sure what kind of prep and spray he will be getting for the remaining 3k.

Unless you're doing a full restoration or there is serious paint damage across the whole car (industrial fallout for example) you rarely need to do a full repaint. OP said he has some faded and chipped spots. 99% of body shops will just respray/blend those areas and re-clear the whole truck, if requested. In most cases, you wouldn't need to re-clear everything; the rest of the car can be paint corrected to make it look close to new without a full respray. It's very location dependent and from reading a lot of people's experience here I'm guessing where I live has pretty good going rates by comparison.

 

[strutaeng]

Geez, no wonder people drive around with vehicles with faded/worn paint, LOL.

I've painted a hood/fender and turned out "okay". Not showroom quality but better than driving a truck with mismatched color panels.

My 99 Silverado has started to peel on the clearcoat on the roof. My 06 Suburban has some nasty door dings from the PO. I think it may be better to just repaint the entire truck to fix door dings, etc that accumulate over the years of daily driving it on both trucks. I wouldn't see myself spending $10k on a truck that's only worth $5k in my case. Just doesn't make sense to me. But I understand folks have different points of view.