Thread: Body Shop Revenue...

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Ahhh. My first post...

Recently it has come to my attention that body shops charge quite a vast array of prices. Now because it's been awhile since I've sent a car into paint I was sticker shocked upon invoice signing...

Where are the prices these dayz on body/paint?

I've seen as low as $300 here in South Texas and as high as $30k last week (yes $30k for a 69 Charger)!!! Of course I talked him into a deal he couldn't refuse @ about 40% under that but geeze...$30k!!???!!!

Can anyone beat $30k? Is this truely where paint and body is going? This guy isn't Foose so what gives?

Background filler: This car is a General Lee restoration for a client of ours. One-color, minimal amount of clear, General Lee decals, clear coated over decals...extra time to keep the paint straight. ...and yes this body shop has quite the resume of nice cars, but $30k? I can see $15 or 20...but $30? Yikes

I agree $30,000 is at the high end, but you can't just say all paint jobs are the same except for price.

Is it painted in side and out, top to bottom?

Did the guy want show quality? (it is different)

I doubt if they used "decals" on a nice custom. No doubt the graphics are painted on.

What condition was the bodywork in?

Did they have to make body modifications to make it authentic.

Who did the work? (famous people often charge more...because they can!)

Here in Tucson, a good solid color repaint requires a minimum of $1500 in materials, and a minimum of $3500 in labor. It goes up from there, depending on many, many things.

Hotrodpaint....
Let's see....at earl's a gallon of paint and one sheet of sandpaper costs???? How much does a really cheap gallon of paint cost these days?.....I mean really cheap automotive paint that you wouldnt put on a car going to the crusher......got any idea?

There's some single stage stuff on the market at $35.00 a gallon..........

As far as the price on a paint job, depends on how much work the car needs, and the quality of finish desired like Hotrodpaint said.

The price of materials and labor both keep going up. For a body shop, just the cost of keeping up with the laws governing them is a huge expense. Quality work at cheap prices is pretty much a thing of the past.

HOTRODPAINT and Dave Severson are right. There are just too many variables in prepping and painting to get a reasonable idea of cost here. I did my first complete paint job in 1966 and a gallon of '66 Corvette Nassau Blue acrylic lacquer (DuPont Lucite) cost 12 dollars a gallon. That same gallon of lacquer, if it's not already illegal in your area, will cost well over $200 now. Labor is the real killer in show-quality work, however. To make a finish truly show worthy is very labor-intensive.
Still, $30,000 seems outrageous unless they are taking the car apart, painting every piece, and then reassembling. The next question would be if the car is worth it. Unless that car is unusually rare (like an original Hemi with numbers-matching parts) it's probably not worth $30,000 finished...

i did a comparison of labor rates a while back. when i got to 54.00 an hr for lawnmower repairs i stopped. paint and body is hard work and takes a terrible toll on your body. running an air file 8 hrs a day does wonders for arthritis. 30k? not around here. a quality job is 6500. simple repaint at about 3900. these rates are paid by insurance companies so they must not be too far out of line. bottom line is would you want a 3k paint job on a 40k car?at the same time there are folks that just caint afford that kind of money and will compromise on quality a little. it's called giving back a little. i've shot cars for people who did their prep and will do their buffing. with the cost of materials today it's tuff to stay on top of it.

Robot, I've heard discussion here of paint that costs about $38 a gallon! Nothing I buy is $38 a gallon.....except gasoline! :-)

I want mine to last 10-20 years, and still look new, so I use quality materials.

"one sheet of sandpaper"....that's funny!

To many people see Maaco ads and think thats what a paint job should cost. The paint alone on my car with sealers, primers, and clear, was over $1,500 add to that the labor if someone else had to prepare the car, by the way every car that comes into the shop for paint only needs a "little work" and then add the actual paint time,masking, demasking, color sanding, cleaning, reassembley the price climbs through the roof. then if theres a color change with jams, inside deck lid, and hood it just keeps getting higher $30,000.00 may be high but with air brushed graphics, that day is not far away Carlg

I can remember going into the paint store a lot more than once buying a gallon of enamel, hardner, reducer, lacquer thinner, tack rags etc, basically everything to shoot one car and coming out with change from a $100 bill.

Those days are long gone The last car I shot myself (about 9 months ago) ran in the $400 ran for materials; eurethane, hardner, reducer etc and that does not include the primer fillers and stuff to prep the car.

My Plaza is currently in the body shop and they assure me I'll see it again someday . It's getting stripped to bare metal, the body straightened (its solid with no rust, but there's not a pannel on it that doesn't need some straightening)primed and painted a 2 tone paint scheme with a eurethane (no clear coat) to include the jams fire wall etc.

The car went in stripped of all trim, glass, interior etc and I will be doing the assembly. Out the door cost will in the $5000 area, and that does not include buffing it out if it needs it. Now this is for a nice driver quality paint job, not even close to what it would need to be for an all out show quality job.

When I tell non-car people what the paint and body is going to run there general reaction is that it's way too high. Having done some paint and body work, I KNOW what is going to be involved and as far as I'm concerned it's a bargin.

I always tell customers that the materials will run 1200-1500 on most jobs. Can you buy cheaper materials?...yes. Will I buy them?...no! Customers always expect miracles, and if I use cheap materials, it will be a miracle if it looks good 5 years from now.

YOU GET EXACTLY WHAT YOU PAY FOR, AND NO MORE, so remember that if it's a $100 paintjob, that is what it will look like.

I live in Utah and have had to deal with some of the cheapest people you will ever see. These are the types that want it for nothing and complain when they get it. I have learned that If someone comes into my shop and wants to negotiate the price, they will usually be the ones that complain the most. They are also the ones that will go around and bad mouth your shop and forget about the great deal they just got. I would rather turn them down than take the work. Let them find another sucker...

tofer, I agree completely! There is a "good job", and a "cheap job". I want to be a "good" painter!

I'm not getting rich, but I am able to pay my bills. When I get a "price shopper", I just tell them that custom work takes a lot of man-hours, and I have trouble painting when the power company turns the electricity off.

If they don't choose to put the kind of money into a job that it takes to do it right, I try to help them figure out the best way to get it done for the budget they have, and warn them about what to expect. I figure if I leave them on friendly terms, they may send a friend, or call me when they want something a little nicer. Life is too short to offend people just because you don't agree.

I'm reminded of when I had the shop. Several times a year someone would come through the door and ask to see if we could do something about their paint. Invariably it was a Maaco, Sheib, whatever cheapy and looked like it. Once done the people realized they'd bought a crappy job. I'd smile, make a sympathetic comment or two and tell them that a good paint job would be even more work (meaning expense) now that there was another layer of material to correct.

Even with people who think they're half bright and "know" that those chain paint stores don't do that good a job, they still can't make the transition. They think if they double the cost of the "deluxe" paint job from $499, that's still only $1000. Okay, custom should be TRIPPLE the chain deluxe, still only $1500. So, obviously anything higher than that is a ripoff!! BTW, if you talk to Maaco, the average ticket in their store is closer to $2000. Some of that is collision work, but some of it is the up-sell..........................."Oh, you want the windows masked before we spray? That costs extra!"

Originally posted by HOTRODPAINT


I'm not getting rich, but I am able to pay my bills. When I get a "price shopper", I just tell them that custom work takes a lot of man-hours, and I have trouble painting when the power company turns the electricity off.

Exactly.

It goes for other parts of the industry as well. Not everyone can afford top-dollar paint jobs, engines, or even chassis work but if you at least shed some light in their direction as to what may benefit them more I believe you have just made a client for life.

I am really impressed by some of the responses I've seen here thus far. Kuddos to those who care.

~Ty

My wife has seen the weeks or months that can go into painting a nice rod.

She clips out coupons from Maaco or One Day Auto Painting, and gives them to me for that really "frugal" customer, who knows how to squeeze a dollar. (I haven't had the nerve to give anyone a coupon yet.) :-)~