Dear Dan;
Walt is right!
You MUST 'go shopping' and price is not a judge of quality.
First thing is; what's on your vehicle now??
If the paint is not cracked or peeling It's probably best left alone. A vehicle does not have to be 'stripped' to get a good paint job.
'High end' shops in California get $6-8,000 for a Hot Rod. More if you want flames, pearl or something fancy. "Whatever the traffic will bear".
Way to much in my view.
We painted cars & pickup trucks for $12-1,500.00 all day long, in the 80s and made good money. The customers loved us and I had a waiting list till the owner got greedy & I had to quit.
Anyway; today that would be around $2,300 because of the higher cost of materials and government extortion.
In fact I did one of mine for under $800 last year. It was about $250.00 in material and $400 for my helper, taking one week. There's about $200 worth of work left before we can us it in the film.
This work is 'labor intensive' in the preparation, so get a lot of estimates.
'Key word' here is "rod shop". They probably sub-contract all the actual work and just 'detail' it for 3K (profit).
Do your homework like he said and don't get cheated.
PS: Don't confuse paint labor and body work as they are totally separate/different.
