I'm thinking about getting my car painted...not right now...but possibly sometime in the future. Except that I know nothing about that. Like what's the price range, are there certains types/brands of paint that are specifically known as good/bad, anything I need to be sure to ask for when and if I get this done? Anything you can tell me. I know nothing and I'm just trying to do some research. I LOVE my sunburst orange, but there are just getting to be too many of them driving around, not to mention the fact that this factory paint sucks to begin with. Can anyone help me out?

 

I was talking to a friend who does custom paint jobs. I'm looking upwards to 6k for a two tone paint job with some kind of graphic to break up the tones. Here is a examples of his work. I do believe he uses House of Colors paint.

 

That hood on the mitsu is sweet but weird too...hmmm

 

Yes, there are different grades of paint as well as different types ie. one stage, two stage etc. From what i've heard, if you do the prep work yourself, you'll save a lot of money. When my dad was getting ready to paint our 65 cutlass convertible I convinced him into sanding it all down and just prepping the metal and finding all the flaws. This alone saved us in the 1k range.

I personally don't think that the stock paint sucks all that badly, although my black SS could use some color sanding, the orange peel is a little too much for my tastes.

 

if your talking whole car painted... atleast $1500. for a really nice single color +3g... now that includes good prep, taking off all the molding, doing door sills, motor bay, everything, and paint is expensive, atleast good paint is... house of kolor has lots of cool showcar type paints, dupont is another good brand. If its a reputable shop im sure they will use good stuff... just dont got to like macco or some shotty place that has the $300 paint special

 

but if you do the prep work wrong then any flaws would be your fault... and really a car should be wet sanded just before painting so its nice and clean... but yes doing the prep work, if you know how, can save you alot of $$

 

I have no idea how to do any of the prep work, so I guess I can add that extra grand onto my total. I'd really like to have a deep deep dark metallic purple. I want my car to scream "I'm a girl!!!!!!" WITHOUT having all the fairies/butterflies/flowers/hearts/printed seat covers that most girls have. Plus I just like to be different.
So the general consensus is in the $3k+ range? If I find someone who says they can do it for $1k then I should assume they're cutting corners somewhere?

 

im paying about 1600 for a two-tone. the bottom will stay sunburst orange metallic but the top from the body line up will be a shade of black. they arent painting much into the bays or doors.

 

maybe not, just ask if you can see any of there cars... not pics, the actual cars and go around it w/ a fine tooth comb, truck lid, door sills, underhood, engine bay, all that stuff... and check all that stuff and then decide... ask badg1rl about hers

 

When I'm going over their work "with a fine toothed comb" what are some of the things I should look for? I mean, I can obviously tell if it's aesthetically pleasing or not, but how can I tell if they actually did a GOOD job? For example, my factory paint looked GREAT when I bought the car, but it's chipped to hell now due to the paint being too thin or whatever. I understand that some of that is just normal wear and tear. What I'm saying is, I don't want to pay $3k for a paint job and then have it chipping just as bad as the factory paint after a year.

 

ask badg1rl what color she used...shes got the same car color that your lookin for.

 

I've seen the pics of Donna's car, I'm not a big fan of the color at all. Maybe the pictures are deceiving, but it looks like it has a bit too much pink in it for me. And the purple isn't nearly as dark as what I'm looking for.

 

Basically a really good paint job has a glass like finish with no bumps. You want the paint to look smooth, not like the skin on an orange. Also look for drips in paint. Take a look at the edges of trunks, doors, hoods and see if there is any part that looks thin or wore through. If you're doing a color change, make sure all parts are painted. If I were to change teh color of my car, I'd personally make sure that each bolt, if not meant to be painted, wasn't painted. I haven't looked close enough at my car so I'm not sure how GM handles that peice. Also look for "fisheyes" which are little bubbles in the paint as well as finger-print sized spots that also look a bit "bubbled".

Oh, also check down low on the car. I've looked at many classic cars at shows that look perfect and then once you kneel down you notice how bad the paint job is towards the bottom of the doors and rocker panels.

Also PPG has some good paint.

VW made a really dark purple metallic on their corrados in the '92 era. A beautiful color. I also remember some Cavi's have a dark purple color but don't quite remember.