How much will it cost to paint my car? Due to the rising frequency of these threads, and the lack of the search button ITS EVEN A BIRGHT ORANGE! I have decided to answer the question for all of you people… Painting a car, is not like buying a bottle of milk from the milkbar, you don’t just walk into a panel shop and grab paint or press a button and its all done at the price that is on the fridge window (like the milk bar) ever called a mechanic and said “my car is broken down, how much to fix it”? No! Why? Because like painting a car, there are lots of factors! Have you ever seen people advertising them “cheap” paintjobs? There is a multi coloured wagon near sandown raceway on the princess highway (vic) with a price, its like 799 for a full spray job, get up close to it, and it says FROM! The normal person cannot answer what it will cost to paint a car, why? Because it needs to be seen by the person that is going to paint it, every little dint, crows feet, scratches, rust, they all take careful consideration of the spray painter, how s/he will tackle the job, how to repair it, what needs to be done, what panels need to be taken off, your budget, materials how far down to sand the car, what needs to be replaced, price of masking tape, stikaflex, then there is the primers, undercoats paint, clear, metallic, pearl…. There is a lot there. Again… Dints will need to be pulled out, have the skin pulled off the door (on one edge) and stretched out, sanded back, bogged, primed, sanded. Scratches will need the pane to be brought back far, smoothed out with filler primed Rust will need to be cleaned, then rust is a large area, cut out, treated, new panel put in, new panel MADE and welded in, then filled bogged and all Crows feet need to be taken back to bare metal There are things I have missed…. Oh, that’s only the repairs Panels (bumpers chrome strips, moulds window glass) need all to be removed and put back in The car needs to fully be sanded, many hours of work here, dusty dirty environment, then prepared, undercoat, sanded underco0at, sand, give a good wipedown top coat saned between coats, clear, then polished, then put back together without scratching the new paint, line upthe panels and all. if your pedantic like me, you wnat it all perfect, and its a calais, or even a normal with grey bumpers, they have to be pulled off, and put back on, more expense, but its a better job in my eyes Now, the normal person cannot answer them questions, the BEST and ONLY way to get a answer (apart from stupid answers, if that’s what you want, post away) is to spend half a day or a day, researching, what panels shops you would like to do your job, and just enjoy your drive around to them, and talk to them, see what they say it will cost you to paint your car, usually you have a budget, so its going to be that and a little bit more! ALWAYS! by the way, my Calais is getting a fully respray this summer, quick rundown of what I have to get… and budgeted for sand paper $50 fillers (bog, fiberglass, metalmenad, spot putty) 200 other various things, rubbing blocks, tack cloth, 50 prepwash thinners, paint gun cleaner 100 paint gun 200 primer 150 paint 500 or so… roughly 1200 Mods, sticky this, may help these usless “how much will it cost to paint my car….” should have been in the bodywork section... please move and dont delete, i spent a while thinking of this and should answer that question edit, added the calais mould bit

Thanks for that it has put alot a things into persperctive for me. Cheers.

good write up , worthy of a sticky i think

how much to get my vl painted, its a calais JKS Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

yea well done im spraying well prepin my carolla atmo not as easy as first thought but well worth it to see wat u have to go through

Quote: Originally Posted by [FLY-BYE] how much to get my vl painted, its a calais JKS actually, thats a great question... again, depends on how money... if you dont really care, you would leave the lower moulds on the car, tape them up and spary around them, but if your like me, you will take them off, get a good colour under the moulds and then spray them off the car and then put them on the car with double sided tape and stikaflex reason why i am doing it this way, is that it was done the "quick lazy" way, and you can see wehre they didnt tape up properly and all but there, see, that will add more of a price to your final job, as there is more time taking them off, they have to sand more of the car, and prime more blah blah... Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

There is actually a bit of philosophy in this, take the plastic out of the money and process it into plastic that goes on the car - <aaarrggh> we are turning into unpaid agents for the transformation of plastic - must be an alien plot Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

definetely has to be a sticky!

this is my qoute im stripping the car and my mate is painting it in his own time as im a mate of the owner this is very cheap and bare metal which im helping paint strip and any extras i have to do and pay for any parts i have to get myself to pay for this job 2 be done all at the shop was about 10,000 so ive saved myself alot of money Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Quote: Originally Posted by MaD_WoG actually, thats a great question... again, depends on how money... if you dont really care, you would leave the lower moulds on the car, tape them up and spary around them, but if your like me, you will take them off, get a good colour under the moulds and then spray them off the car and then put them on the car with double sided tape and stikaflex reason why i am doing it this way, is that it was done the "quick lazy" way, and you can see wehre they didnt tape up properly and all but there, see, that will add more of a price to your final job, as there is more time taking them off, they have to sand more of the car, and prime more blah blah... oh yeh i get ya, doesnt bother me coz mine is getting done right the 1st time, as my mate is doing it, him and i are taking EVERYTHING OFF pretty much (except the carpet n ****) were doing in the doors etc taking the skirts off all that crap is comming off when it gets painted, also people need to look into the price of how much time it will take and what it will cost to get there engine removed, or majority of the **** around the block removed before painting, i have seen blocks left in and wrapped up but all the other **** needs to come out if a full colour change is happening