Thread: Help Locating Good Paint Shop.

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Looking for a paint shop in NE Texas, some where close to DFW. Want to stay away from all the MACCO'S of the world, does anyone have a suggestion? Lookin to spend around 3-5K, and is that to much for a quality show paint job? Afterall, the paint and wheels package can make or break a car's looks.

3-5 grand? Seems a little much I think. Go look around at shops and look at their work. See who does good and doesn't do good. You either will have a flake do the job or a pro. So you got professional paint jobs or a crappy paint job, nothing in between.
Talk to the guys first, ask them all for their prices, how long it will take, what and how they plan to paint it (brand paint, etc).
That is all I can think of right now and sorry but I don't know any places around there. Try a google search for "Paint Shops in Texas" or such.

Depending on how much body work the car needs, 5K might be a bit light for a show quality paint job. To me a show quality job includes painting the firewall, dash, fenderwells, inside the trunk, the inside of the hood, all the door jambs, etc. A show quality job should include removing all the windows, replacing all the weather stripping and wind lace, etc. Maybe it's just a question of definition.

Oh... I didn't even see the show quality thing. Yeah a show quality is just what Dave said but more. To me it's everything Dave said but also having the frame painted the same color and everything. If they have to strip it all the way down to bare metal inside and out, paint the inside, have everything completely off, get all the jams, etc etc then yeah 5,000 would be cheap. I am betting someone would charge something around 8-10 grand. Spraytech is the pro on this, I bet he would know.

Dave is right on the concept of a SHOW quality paint job. Every Item on the car is left untouched.
There for you better have deep pockets to have a GOOD shop do the paint work.
Me, I quit doing custom show quality paint jobs years ago , as every one wants an excellent job , but they think it can be done for a few thousand dollars, Not on my dime it wont ! Hell the material bill alone for a show car is around 2-5 grand, that is if they use top notch products ! and higher when Kandys and pearls are involved.
Thats no labor involved to get it on the vehicle.

I'm not saying it cant be done for 3-5 grand , but with todays labor costs its pretty hard . You need to hit local shows and ask around your area who does show quality paint jobs , these guys should give you some hints on whos good and who to stay away from.
When your spending your hard earned dollars you want it spent wizely.
Do your home work and all should be good
SprayTech

I really appreciate the help, I am just a rookie at this. Thanks Guys.

Maybe I can offer a little help. My 1930 ford coupe just went to the body shop 3 weeks ago, I had 4 different body shop owners come to my garage to give estimates since january. The first guy came to estimate, but said he does alot of insurance work on other cars and said my car may be there up to a year. It was one of those "I'll work on it when I can between insurance jobs,so don't get in a hurry for it." His estimate was 4000.00 without stripping it to bare metal. My second estimate was from a guy who I was told turned out some of the best custom body work around. It was going good until he told me "I've never worked on anything this old before." Besides he was working out of his garage and my insurance agent strongly recommended I didn't take my car there because he didn't have business insurance. If his garage burned down while my car was over there I was screwed. His estimate was 1800.00 WOW. The third guy was Jim Pulskamp he has one of the most reputable body and custom shops in the area. He specializes in 1953-1956 F-100 Ford pickups. He just turned one out that had..........60,000.00 worth of custom and body work, that one will be a trailer queen. Any way I was feeling real good about him being there to give an estimate and I was ready for him to go to work on it. That is until he told me the damage...........12,000.00 to 15,000.00. That is for strip and repaint, there is no rot, rust, bondo, or body damage on the car. So basically I was wondering where is all of that money going to be applied. I told him I would get back with him. The 4th body shop owner Gary was the needle in the hay stack I was looking for. He met me at my garage friday after work, and brought his paint man with him. He was there for about 45 minutes looking around it, running his hands back and forth over the car feeling stuff the untrained eye like mine couldn't see. He did a magnet test on a few parts of the body down around the bottom reveals looking for filler.......none found. So after 45 minutes of questions and answers he said he would like to do it. He is also currently doing a 47 ford tudor in his shop, and I was impressed with the work. The damage was 5,500.00 that is for total strip and paint. I saw the materials he was using on my first inspection of the car. He is using some kind of poly filler in areas where needed. The poly filler is the latest and greatest in body technology. It expands and contracts better with the metal, not like the old bondo or the short grain fiberglass fillers. Also he will using PPG products on the sealer primer and paint. I have been over to see the car 2 times in the last 3 weeks, he had the car totally stripped to bare metal on the first visit. I have owned 3 model A's in the last 19 years so I know what I'm looking for, and what he has accomplished on the car in 3 weeks is outstanding. I hope some of these tips will lead you in the right direction on your car. Oh yeah and by the way I was in Sachse TX. last spring on a vacation and I stopped in at the Sachse Rod Shop for a tour the owner is Mike Milsap. Really good people, I bought some stuff for the rod while I was there........anyway they do paint and body. They were painting a 48 Chevy Fleetmaster while I was there ......good work. And as you know Sachse is a suburb of D/FW. Good Luck and hope I could help.

On most cars, the time and materials to do the actual painting is minimal (think BIG picture). The large cost is in the prep work to make sure the panels are perfectly straight. This is more time consuming than it sounds. Even on cars that have been well preserved there can be a LOT of little high and low spots that can't be seen until the car is being sanded.

On the insurance side, just a good solid complete repaint can be $3000 to $5000 with a standard two-stage. Now in this case, that would include stripping the trim off the car and typical panel prep. It will depend a great deal on how much work the body shop has to do to make it right.