The Ford Barn

mike in tucson · 01-03-2015, 01:43 PM

We did some work for one of the 3 major automotive paint suppliers a few years ago. I asked one of the engineers about Maaco paint vs. paint you buy at an auto body supply.....he said very few things were common.... the maaco paint was designed to a price point and had very little UV stabilizers in it. It is specifically designed to be easily sprayed and to look shiney when you pick up your car. That's it.....nothing else. However, if you keep your car in a garage and it doesnt get exposed to a lot of UV (like sitting in the parking lot at work), you probably can get a decent service life.... just like several posters have said. Red and silver would go really fast. IF they are painting a car for $400, the paint has to cost perhaps $35 and the 1/2 sheet of sandpaper $1. Some masking paper and tape probably add $14 so they have $50 in materials and maybe twice that in labor. A fast taper can do a car in probably less than an hour. Scuff the paint takes another 1/2 hour or so. Shooting it maybe 3/4 hour including cleanup. Untaping and detailing adds another 30 minutes for a labor total of maybe 2.75 hours. Around here, they may pay their gun operator $20, rest of them, $15. Without overhead, the labor should cost $45-50 total so they have $100 in the paint job.....give them the benefit of the doubt and say $150 in material and labor. Overhead adds 100%, leaving a profit of $100 per car.

01-03-2015, 01:43 PM	#24
mike in tucson Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 178	Re: maaco paint job. We did some work for one of the 3 major automotive paint suppliers a few years ago. I asked one of the engineers about Maaco paint vs. paint you buy at an auto body supply.....he said very few things were common.... the maaco paint was designed to a price point and had very little UV stabilizers in it. It is specifically designed to be easily sprayed and to look shiney when you pick up your car. That's it.....nothing else. However, if you keep your car in a garage and it doesnt get exposed to a lot of UV (like sitting in the parking lot at work), you probably can get a decent service life.... just like several posters have said. Red and silver would go really fast. IF they are painting a car for $400, the paint has to cost perhaps $35 and the 1/2 sheet of sandpaper $1. Some masking paper and tape probably add $14 so they have $50 in materials and maybe twice that in labor. A fast taper can do a car in probably less than an hour. Scuff the paint takes another 1/2 hour or so. Shooting it maybe 3/4 hour including cleanup. Untaping and detailing adds another 30 minutes for a labor total of maybe 2.75 hours. Around here, they may pay their gun operator $20, rest of them, $15. Without overhead, the labor should cost $45-50 total so they have $100 in the paint job.....give them the benefit of the doubt and say $150 in material and labor. Overhead adds 100%, leaving a profit of $100 per car.