Budgeting for a paint job

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Rocket Man

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Shady dealers don't even spend Maaco money--they spend less then that.
First thing I do when looking at a used car is evidence of a ****** paint job because that’s usually hiding something. Maaco has ruined a lot of used cars because once they get overspray on everything because they don’t believe in removing trim the car is pretty much shot. It doesn’t matter if it wasn’t even messed up when Maaco got it- sometimes they take a car that needs a bit of paint and a blend from a decent bodyshop and instead they spray the entire car with the least amount of prep possible in order to maximize profits. Sell paint=$$$ Sell labor = $$$. Screw customer = priceless,they don’t need return customers. There’s a sucker born every minute, that's what PT Barnum said! :p
 

JPS0284

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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.
They don’t strip it down to the base coat, they’ll 320/600 the truck spray the base then giver a couple coats of clear then sender down the road. I’m no expert but started learning automotive finishing from a buddy’s dad when I was a teenager. I have a compressor setup with a desiccant dryer in the garage for touch ups.
 

JPS0284

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First thing I do when looking at a used car is evidence of a ****** paint job because that’s usually hiding something. Maaco has ruined a lot of used cars because once they get overspray on everything because they don’t believe in removing trim the car is pretty much shot. It doesn’t matter if it wasn’t even messed up when Maaco got it- sometimes they take a car that needs a bit of paint and a blend from a decent bodyshop and instead they spray the entire car with the least amount of prep possible in order to maximize profits. Sell paint=$$$ Sell labor = $$$. Screw customer = priceless,they don’t need return customers. There’s a sucker born every minute, that's what PT Barnum said! :p
That place was terrible..you could do a better job with a case of duplicolor base and some 1k clear of the shelf from autozone
 

JPS0284

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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.

I have a new pre primed bumper cover coming this weekend. Do you need to hit it with adhesion promoter before spraying base?
 

JPS0284

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I’d say that’s unrealistic. Body shop that I trust and know does professional work quoted me $8600 to repaint my Yukon xl Denali in 2020. And that’s here in Southern California.
That’s nuts there’s probably less than 6-700$ in materials to paint a full size suv. I just picked up a pint of ppg for like 40$ish , base is 1:1 color to reducer in most cases
 

Tonyrodz

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They don’t strip it down to the base coat, they’ll 320/600 the truck spray the base then giver a couple coats of clear then sender down the road. I’m no expert but started learning automotive finishing from a buddy’s dad when I was a teenager. I have a compressor setup with a desiccant dryer in the garage for touch ups.
Scuff and spray. Taking the old paint down is more money. I've seen some shops paint over dirt--actual dirt.
 

adventurenali92

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That’s nuts there’s probably less than 6-700$ in materials to paint a full size suv. I just picked up a pint of ppg for like 40$ish , base is 1:1 color to reducer in most cases
Not to sound rude but obviously the cost of materials is not the only factor in how much it would cost to repaint a vehicle of this size….. and also not to sound rude but I highly doubt a pint of paint would repaint a vehicle of this size, at least not to the standards that this body shop does work to.
 

Rocket Man

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That’s nuts there’s probably less than 6-700$ in materials to paint a full size suv. I just picked up a pint of ppg for like 40$ish , base is 1:1 color to reducer in most cases
No way. I just had a friend spray a hood- it was $300-400 in materials at his cost ( body shop). For the hood.
 

JPS0284

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All about the overhead. PPG is good paint.

Not to sound rude but obviously the cost of materials is not the only factor in how much it would cost to repaint a vehicle of this size….. and also not to sound rude but I highly doubt a pint of paint would repaint a vehicle of this size, at least not to the standards that this body shop does work to.
Nope that because I bought enough to do 2 fenders and a bumper cover. A gal would probably do it though, 2 gals sprayible should cover a full size SUV a few times
 

adventurenali92

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No way. I just had a friend spray a hood- it was $300-400 in materials at his cost ( body shop). For the hood.
This definitely sounds more accurate. I think when I brought a hood to the old guy that owned the shop that did paint for me, it was somewhere around $500 for him to spray the hood. So $300-400 in materials would line up with that I’d guess. Unfortunately that was either in 2017 or 2018, can’t remember which, and said painted hood has HUGE strips of bad clearcoat growing all over it. I’m so annoyed. Anyways…. lol
 

JPS0284

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No way. I just had a friend spray a hood- it was $300-400 in materials at his cost ( body shop). For the hood.
Maybe that’s with the cost of the hood, I never bought more than a pint at a time. Last time I checked it was a little over 200 a gal for WA8555 onyx black. Clear is expensive because it requires a cocktail of reducers and activator
 
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adventurenali92

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Maybe that’s with the cost of the hood, I never bought more than a pint at a time. Last time I checked it was a little over 200 a gal for WA8555 onyx black. Clear is expensive because it requires a cocktail of reducers and activator
Wasn’t for me. I bought the hood first, and brought it to him to paint and it still ran me $500 for his supplies and his labor.
 

petethepug

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In regards to “scuff n spray” … There was never any mention this technique doesn’t ever work. It was stated that in the case of GM’s clear coat failure scenario, scuff n spray left the hood looking like a bad peeling sunburn using PPG products.

Every situation is not the same. Internet diagnosis is mostly speculation unless all the facts are presented. In my trucks scenario, scuff n spray was a failure. All the original and new product had to be removed. Is this the case for all peeling clear coat? Don’t know.

There was never a dog put in a fight proposing auto paint doctrine. Info was shared from beginning to end and hope someone gains experience and saves capital from avoiding my body shops missteps.
 

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