Yes, Paint costs have gone way high in recent years. Mostly due to EPA regulations. Some shops in the south still get around the rules but not legally.
I'm not promoting the small out of the way body shops, but they do bend the EPA rules for hard cash. Depending where you live, to lightly prep a 2-door car for paint, remove door chips, and add filler for a nice decent (not show quality)look, tape off windows and spray filler primer, it will cost about $1500. To paint, clear, buff and polish, add another $1500-$2500 depending on the paint. Any "extra" detail work like Flames, scallops, or graphics, the costs esculate depending on the quality of the artist. Find customers who have had work done and ask them. I've have had work done by body and paint guys and I would not recommend them. Be up front. If you don't mind doing some grunt work, you can save lots of $$$. For instance, I laid out my flames on my car, taped it off and had it sprayed by the paint shop. Then I wet sanded the front clip, compounded it, then machine buffed it out. The front clip took me 10 hours of gruling hard work. I thought my arms would fall off. It's very repetitive, but I saved about $1500-$2000 by helping out. The paint I used cost $75./pint and it used 2 pints+Clear. It cost me $450. for the paint material and spraying which only took about 2 hours total. If I had to pay someone to layout the flames, tape sand, and polish at $65/hour, it would have cost about an extra $1500-$2000.
Don't be afraid of some hard work. You can say you did it yourself too!
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1940ChoppedChevyCoupe
