How much does a paint job cost where you live?

ert01

Adventurer
Looking to get my E350 EB repainted due to some flaking paint and very minor surface rust forming around the wheel wells.. I want to repaint the whole van and then do bedliner on the highwear areas (roof and gutters, and lower quarter panels/wheel wells) and the quotes in my area range from $5000-8000.

How much is it where you live? I'm trying to decide if I should bite the bullet and get it done locally or if I should make a vacation out of it and get it done somewhere else and have some fun at the same time...
 

RyanUsesThis

Observer
I brought my '99 RB in to have some minor body work priced out at Abra Auto around Denver. They told me if it were an insurance claim it'd be a total loss, and they wouldn't touch it due to the amount of paint they'd have to redo :p I'm guessing that means a paint job there would be around the range you mentioned. That being said, I haven't gone out looking for a paint job specifically. I'll be watching this thread closely.
 

goodtimes

Expedition Poseur
It all depends on how much time they are going to spend on prep work, & what color you are painting it.

Red & blue paints are expensive relative to say, white.

Prep work is the killer though. If you're looking for a quick "wet sand and spray" kind of deal, shouldn't be a problem to get it under a grand. If you want someone to actually do body work (fill dents, align panels, remove rust, etc), you're paying by the hour. Last time I had body work done, it was $50/hour in Tucson. To replace one bed side (with OEM parts), paint it to match, & replace a broken ABS sensor (all part of an insurance job), my insurance company payed out just north of $3,300.
 

mikracer

Adventurer
I don't think theres a need to repaint the whole van if you're going to spray bedliner over the roof, gutters, and other areas. If you don't have big dents to fill or any rust to fix, and you're keeping it the same color, I would think it would cost less than $3,000 to fill minor dings and spray the body. When they spray the bedliner, they have to sand the paint anyways, so thats why you don't need to get that painted. The bedliner on the roof, lower trim panels, and around the wheel wells might cost upwards of $1,500 depending on the shop though.
 
Colorado:

Paid $500 for materials(quality PPG) & commissioned local guy with shop & equipment to prep and spray - $1,500 - orange peel not show quality, but awesome from 3-feet. So, $2,000 total... not super quality, but lasted 5 years before hooker crashed into it.



 

peneumbra

Explorer
Well, when it comes to restoring classic cars, this is the way it works:

BODY PREP: $10,000 (ka-CHING!)
PAINT: $10,000 (ka-CHING!)
REWIRE: $10,000 (ka-CHING!)
UPHOLSTERY: $10,000 (ka-CHING!)

Etc., etc. If the car in question is particularly rare (custom-bodied, unusual marque such as Pierce-Arrow, Auburn, Locomobile, etc., all figures are TRIPLED.
 

Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
I had Maaco do the old ambo. Color change and no body work plus I removed all the trim etc. Fair job or as we would call it in Oz "a five footer" (i.e. 5 feet before you could really notice the imperfections). Cost was either $1680 or $1860 (its a bugger being a dyslexic with old timers)
From this
i-qWdNL47-M.jpg


To this
Painted-3-L.jpg
 

Abe Froman

Adventurer
Maybe get MAACO to do it.
How nice does a van half covered with bedliner need to be?
Anything covered in bedliner looks homemade, so might as well save the cash on the paint part.
If it is going off-road, it shouldn't be that nice anyway.
Both the gold dodge and the ambulance above look fine.
Properly Fix the rust before you paint or bedliner it tho......it will come back.
 

tgreening

Expedition Leader
I'm doing mine myself. But I was curious on prices to see if it was worth it.


Anybody with a functioning brainstem can paint. Now body work, that's a different story. One part metal worker, one part sculpter, and bunch of parts of other stuff. Thats the hard part and if that part isnt right it doesnt matter how good you can shoot paint.

Only half joking on the first sentence. :)
 

Johnrunberg

Adventurer
We're doing a VW Vanagon and all told are looking at something around $7,500. That includes dents, seam (rust/prep/seal), welding a few holes / rust repairs and a full re-spray in the stock color. I did all the disassembly and will be putting it back together again. Cost is LOW compared to other, similar, options but I'm paying for it in time – it's been in the shop for 6mo and I'll be happy if I get it back before spring ends. They do mostly insurance work but like to have a project on the side to take up slack time. Good work, good price, slow pace.

BTW of that $7,500 budget I'm looking at almost 40/50% in supplies (metal, prime, paint, etc.) so think about that. Vans are big and multiple coats take a lot of material. We aren't going show quality (which would be 2x or more) but don't want to mess with this again for a few decades...
 

Christian P.

Expedition Leader
Staff member
I have a Westfalia at the paint shop right now (in Fremont, CA). I got quotes all over the place, from $1000 to $10000.

I finally found a place to it for $2500 but it's a single stage paint, not high quality clear coat. That would have been another $1000+.
That includes fixing up several dents and filling some holes (no rust though).

http://www.autobodyfremont.com/p/home-page.html

Really nice guys.
 

Gravity

Observer
Well, just got an estimate to have the hood and 2 front fenders repainted/clearcoated to address the lovely FoMoCo clear coat peeling issue. Came to just under 800.00

What are the thoughts on getting a full Plasti-Dip job? I know it isn't a lifetime but for 3-4 yrs+ it could be an option. Any idea what are the going rates are for a full PlastiDip job? would love to do my silver rig in a Matte grey...
 

Stroverlander

Adventurer
What are the thoughts on getting a full Plasti-Dip job? I know it isn't a lifetime but for 3-4 yrs+ it could be an option. Any idea what are the going rates are for a full PlastiDip job? would love to do my silver rig in a Matte grey...

I'd consider a wrap before that.
 

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