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I'm looking at a 37 Touring Sedan that was painted 10+ years ago and has been a driver. There are a number of scratches and some surface rust spots that need to be addressed.

What is a ballpark number for an exterior paint job of the same color? The 'interior' (under hood/inside trunk lid, etc.)is fine. Not looking for a show car just a driver.

Thanks

What might be a fair price for a paint job in one area of the country might not be the same as compared to other sections of the country.

Only you alone can decide what is a fair price. Take your car to some body shops in your area and get some prices and references.

John F. Shireman

About 6 years back a friend had a $650 paint job by the chain MAACO on a 52 Dodge sedan. It was a fair job, acrylic enamel, very limited choice of colors, and no body work or removal of trim, just a "spritz". I'd call it a "15 footer", serviceable, not much more. If you do the prep work you could get a better result, but I doubt the price is that low anymore. From there you can work your way upwards; you might think in the range of $12-20K or so for a superior job including some bodywork in single stage urethane. At least that's the picture here in New Jersey.

Have you considered doing it yourself - acrylic lacquer (similar to the original paint) is very forgiving of the amateur painter; you might be able to borrow the equipment and some skilled friends to help and advise?

I had a front fender on my 115C repainted and a scratch on a door touched-up. The job required removal of the fender, sanding, priming, and painting. The door repair was done touching-up the scratch and then buffing the door. The paint was a single stage acrylic urethane. The price for all labor, materials, and taxes was $1,000. It was a first class job. I live in Austin, Texas.

My two cents,

Do you know anybody that works at a shop, or a friend of a friend?

I went to a local shop in Portland a while back when I got the thing and they estimated in the range of 7grand for my patrician.

Went back after I told them I "knew a guy" and they told me in the range of 1500 to 2500.

It's always good to know a guy. Heh

If the paint is Laquer then touch up is real ez. But u will need to know the paint number used or find a GOOD EXPERIENCED paint store to mix the lacquer to match.

Owen gives good advice to paint it yourself with laquer, preferably acrylic lacquer if u can find it.

Spraying lacquer is almost fool proof. Superb touch up ability. Just make sure u have the right temp range for the reducer.

Down side of lacquer????? The SLIGHTLEST metal finishing imperfections will show up like a dead whore.

Calims that lacquer is less durable than other paints is complete nonsence.

The problem is that lacquer is becomming nearly impossible to have custom mixed and difficult to find in factory pack.

A common misconception or claim by the "professionals" is that lacquer can not be sprayed over enamel. To apply over enamel just spray about 3 very lite coats and allow to dry about 5 minutes between each coat. Then u can lay on all of the lacquer as heavy as the gun will spray without running.

Another nice thing about laquer is that the highest of show quality results can obtain even using the cheapest of spray equipment and even under adverse weather conditions. MUST HAVE A dryer in the air line.

DOWN SIDE is that metal finishing must be perfect.

I believe both acrylic and even nitrocellulose lacquers are still quite readily available in almost any color they were originally, just that you don't get them anymore from the front-line paint manufacturers but from folks that have them custom-mixed, like Bill Hirsch and Hibernia for two examples.

And as PackardV8 says, these paints can give the very highest of quality paint jobs and some very top-dollar restorations for the likes of Pebble Beach are still done in lacquer. The perfect paint for first-timers; if you botch it, wait a half-hour, sand it down, and shoot it again.

The major cost of a paint job comes down to two parts:

Labor for body work and surface prep
Materials.

The actually spraying of the paint, and masking labor is the cheap part.

Rusty metal is going to have to be taken to bare metal and properly treated. Minor dings are going to look very obvious on with new shiny paint over it. All of this takes labor to correct.

A paint job longevity is only as good as the prep and materials. Don't cheap out on the materials. I watch the kids at the college that just spent 40 hours straightening dents, and smoothing out imperfections, and then they use rattle-can primer over it cause they don't want to spend the money on correct stuff. Then they wonder a year later why the paint is failing in that area, or the paint "alligatored" when they sprayed it over the rattle-can primer. If the materials you are using are not catalyzed (two-part), then dont use it.

To give you some perspective the DTM (direct to metal) primer I am using works out to be about $175 a gallon with reducer and activator. Expensive yes, but I know it is better than anything you will get out of a spray can, or that a national quickie chain would use. The DTM goes right down on bare metal. No chemical etch needed. It is a epoxy hybrid so it does not absorb moisture like other primers do. So I can leave the out in the elements if I needed to (unlike cheap primer). It provides superior coverage and bled-thru, and sands very well. Also you can over reduce it and it makes it's own sealer. So all that alone makes the $175 not that expensive in the long run.

Paint is going to run you about $150-$200 a gallon for a quality single stage urethane. To do an entire car of our size, you may need up to 2 gallons.

So right there you are up to about $500-600 in primer and paint alone. Not counting sandpaper, tools, masking supplies, etc.

I think you could find a good quality paint job for less than $2000 if you shop around. The more work you do yourself, the cheaper it will be. Also you local community college is a great place to learn how to do a lot of the work yourself, and learn something in the process.

I am doing all the body work, primer, and painting the jams myself, and then will take it to a friends shop where we will shoot the color. In the process I will save a few thousand dollars, but that savings is in sweat equity. But I have the pride that I did it myself, rather than just paid someone to do it. Teach a man to fish vs. give a man a fish.

Just my

The timing of this question is remarkable since I'm in the middle of repainting our Mayfair. I have had GOOD results with our local MAACO shop. I do the body prep and they just spray. They are professional and have great equipment to do a good job. They can keep the price down with their volume of work, but seem to take their time with the old classics. They use S-W paint and have had no trouble matching old color codes. But thats just my experience with the local guys I know. I'm repainting the Mayfair because "a guy someone knew" painted it nine years ago and I've never been happy. You don't always get what you pay for . . . sometimes, but not always.
I did find a great source for matching old paint codes if anyone is in the need. They will mix lacquer and even put it into rattle cans too! Go to:expresspaint.com/index.asp
They will try to match your code if you give them the info.

If you want rattle cans of PPG or other name-brand acrylic lacquer or enamel mixed to most all OEM colors, you can also try Tower Paint, I've had them mix one of the hardest of all the 50s colors, Roman Copper Metallic (56 Caribbean) and the match was perfect. They advertise regularly in Hemmings and no doubt have a website.