Can $800 do a good car repaint job?
I was working at my garage to rip the existing paint off a 93 Camry to repaint it myself (about 2 cars painting experience). A neighbor came by and told me he owned a body shop and can paint the car for $800 which includes interior, exterior and materials. Of course, I already removed the old paint down to metal at the time. I checked with several shops before, all quoted around $2000 from removed existing paint, paint it over with different color. Is this neighbor too cheap? or the shop quoted $2000 is over priced? This neighbor does say, his paint materials cost would be around $200. (epoxy, primer, base and clear).
Comments
That $800 sounds cheap. Maybe you are getting a neighbor discount. I would let him do it. He will want to do a good job because he will have to look at it everyday too.
Is this a reputable shop in business for a while? Any way to see any of his previous work?
It might be doable: a lot of the cost of a good job is prep . . . you've stripped-off the paint: if there isn't any body work to be done & if you aren't changing the color (so the trunk, under hood, door jams don't have to be painted) . . . . he might be giving you an "off the books deal". If you decide to go with him, spec it out: make sure he knows exactly what level of quality you want.....tell him not to skimp even if he raises his bid a bit.
$800 sounds about right for the materials. $200 materials is pretty cheap paint, unless he has some left over from another job. Good quality paint is not cheap.
He's probably going to take your car to Maaco or Earl Shieb and claim the paint job his own with a profit on top of it.
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