If you did prep, $120 painting expectations on a removed front fender

[holdover]

got some thoughts on the subject; although the price seems less that what one might expect, look at it from this angle the guy does this for a living you are doing the prep, he has some left over black base and clear and hardener also, all or us that paint have stuff laying around. He has a dust free spray booth at work and an arrangement to use the facilities to do side work. He might block the fenders with some 600 or 1000 to really smooth them out, then paints them. At work he most likely has a quality gun and everything else he needs provided so his expenses are low. you wouldn't think twice about bringing your 50K vehicle for him to work on, why assume that he is going to hose up the fenders. When I was doing this for a living I made a lot of money doing side jobs like this especially painting motorcycle parts. Now I hope it works out like I wrote it for you.. maybe you can ask to see examples of his work.

now this one is a different story "There is a old Mexican guy here. That will paint a car for 500 bucks. You buy the paint and do the body work. He does real good work. And does it at his house under his car port. He is hard to deal with." 500 to spray only, no booth, WOW.. had a friend that painted cars at the local Earl Schrib (SP) They paid him very good and was the best gun man that I have ever seen in the 50+ years I have been around bodywork and paint. When he sprayed your car it was flawless. no runs, sags or errors..back in the 80s-90s they were swamped with work because of his ability, then like the rest of us he got old and retired

[bart78]

That old MexicN man does a better job than the flunkys they have working in the body shops around here. The body shops around here don't do to many restorations. Just late model stuff. That they try to get in and out as fast as they can. They might have a booth and some fancy things that the old guy does not have. But he will out paint any of them. Here if you want a real good paint job. You have to do it yourself. If you know how. Or take your car up to the Ft Worth area.

[Brother Hesekiel]

You lost me at "clear coat" . . .

[pooch]

The dude is getting a 400 rubbed fender, ready to paint with nothing more than a wipe over with prepsol.

Paint outside only .

Each coat takes one minute.

3 coats of black, maybe 2 if it covers well, then 3 coats of clear, again maybe 2 seeing he is not going to buff it .

That is 6 minutes of work on the actual job in question disregarding the couple of minutes to prepsol it. .

Say this dude sprays black and clear every day or sometimes during the week.

To place the fender on a stand and blow it over as you do other work in booth , that is about $20.00 a minute.

Not bad cream .

Does Obama earn that ?

Even if he had to put paint in the gun and wash up, still pretty good.

[ronn]

For that money, I would go to MAACO and have them shot. 240. will get you an alright job of driver quality and no, it wont be a show winner, but will be an alright job that you should be content with.

Many knock Maaco, but for the $, they are acceptable for a lower end job and if willing to spend 3 grand on a car, they can come out pretty damn good.

[Ted Duke]

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Would they look as good as Henry's guys did?

Ted

[Bob Bidonde]

I had four rough original fenders restored including the metal work and paint for $2000. The shop would not guarantee any paint that was over existing paint and filler, so my fenders were stripped to bare metal.

[holdover]

"You lost me at "clear coat" . on 2 stage paint you lay down the base coal, which is a flat color with no gloss, then you spray clear on top which give the shine.. On a lot of new cars when you see the paint looking dull in areas, that is where the clear coat came off.. back in the days when metal flake first came out, early 60's, you would put clear over the base coat to cover the flake and give it a deep look. After awhile Detroit started using 2 stage.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

I scuffed the R/F plastic fender flare on my BLACK Dodge Kadota! Wuz gonna' pop it off & have my body shop paint it.
I have spray cans of AUTOMOTIVE QUALITY Lacquer primer & BLACK Lacquer paint, (DON'T ASK ME WHERE I GOT IT!)----------I think I'll just do it myself!!
Bill W.

[Quigley1930]

I had MAACO do the fenders on a fordor. I cannot remember the price but it was within my budget and they came out very, very satisfactory.
Sewall Tyler

[Brother Hesekiel]

Originally Posted by holdover

"You lost me at "clear coat" . on 2 stage paint you lay down the base coal, which is a flat color with no gloss, then you spray clear on top which give the shine.. On a lot of new cars when you see the paint looking dull in areas, that is where the clear coat came off.. back in the days when metal flake first came out, early 60's, you would put clear over the base coat to cover the flake and give it a deep look. After awhile Detroit started using 2 stage.

To me, clear coat on a car that came with single stage is like prying open my jar and peeing down my throat. It's like kicking me in the balls while I'm down and when I lift my head in pain, kicking me in the face. I would not touch a classic car that has clear coat on it, whether it's a Model T, Porsche, or Duesenberg, and I owned over a thousand such cars over the years.

The only exception is metallic, where the single stage paints used in the day simply sucked. On solid colors, single stage paint will age with dignity, gets thinner as you polish it, decades later the primer will shine through. It's like you favorite baseball glove. Priceless, in the true meaning of the term. Patina only time can create.

In contrast, a base/clear coat paint will not be able to age. The clear will peel eventually, as the FACTORY paint on my Mercedes did, and it will look like -- forgive my French -- SHIT and require stripping down to the metal and a repaint. Most of you have seen those beautiful Dodge Neons on the roads, not too may moons ago, paint peeling. As you probably can tell, I'm very emotional about this subject. Like it or not, don't matter to me.

I wrote this 5 years ago. Check out the paint on that Jag:

http://www.californiaclassix.com/buy...de/guide9.html

Had this car been painted with base/clear, you'd now be vomiting over your computer. I can put up with powdercoat, a swastika airbrushed on the hood, or a dildo as a shift lever, but the buck stops at clear coat on a Classic!
Like totally.

Let the war begin . . .

[ronn]

Ted, they would look better.
Henry's boys never had the quality of todays show winners. Paints weren't as good back then-ask the Duponts........
Many things are over restored today-standards have come up in some areas like paint and down in other areas like.................. (you fill in the blank).

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Originally Posted by ronn

Ted, they would look better.
Henry's boys never had the quality of todays show winners. Paints weren't as good back then-ask the Duponts........
Many things are over restored today-standards have come up in some areas like paint and down in other areas like.................. (you fill in the blank).

To a certain extent, your comment is accurate however I am restoring a fine-point car out of Texas where the body is being painted in Lacquer. The reason is we can duplicate in exacting detail what the color and texture was originally.

Now I realize some initial thoughts are there are better quality paints out there so why use Lacquer however look at it from this perspective. Most lacquer jobs fail due to poor body working methods & materials. In my shop we have this under control using little substrates due to better sheetmetal work, and using top quality 2k substrates. Second, most restored Model-As have a very pampered life now living inside a garage away from harsh climates and elements. There are Model-As that were painted in Lacquer at the factory some 80 years ago that still have nice paint. I think the trend in restoring 'show cars' is getting back to authenticity on finishes & aesthetics too, ...and over-restoration of a component will likely receive a deduction just like an incorrect part will.

[theHIGHLANDER]

Originally Posted by Brother Hesekiel

To me, clear coat on a car that came with single stage is like prying open my jar and peeing down my throat. It's like kicking me in the balls while I'm down and when I lift my head in pain, kicking me in the face. I would not touch a classic car that has clear coat on it, whether it's a Model T, Porsche, or Duesenberg, and I owned over a thousand such cars over the years.

The only exception is metallic, where the single stage paints used in the day simply sucked. On solid colors, single stage paint will age with dignity, gets thinner as you polish it, decades later the primer will shine through. It's like you favorite baseball glove. Priceless, in the true meaning of the term. Patina only time can create.

In contrast, a base/clear coat paint will not be able to age. The clear will peel eventually, as the FACTORY paint on my Mercedes did, and it will look like -- forgive my French -- SHIT and require stripping down to the metal and a repaint. Most of you have seen those beautiful Dodge Neons on the roads, not too may moons ago, paint peeling. As you probably can tell, I'm very emotional about this subject. Like it or not, don't matter to me.

I wrote this 5 years ago. Check out the paint on that Jag:

http://www.californiaclassix.com/buy...de/guide9.html

Had this car been painted with base/clear, you'd now be vomiting over your computer. I can put up with powdercoat, a swastika airbrushed on the hood, or a dildo as a shift lever, but the buck stops at clear coat on a Classic!
Like totally.

Let the war begin . . .

With nearly 140 significant awards in the hands of my clients I'd have to say your opinions are more of a pet peeve than reality. The cost of labor and materials is very high these days, and frankly we'll not have many of the refinish materials available back then for much longer, and those that are? Does $800/gal seem reasonable when you need a minimum of 2? What makes a cleared car seem so distasteful is how it's done. Just wad it all on and you have permanent cellulite on the panels. It takes a lot of work to make it look right and last. Using clear as the "end-all do-all" is when the work is buggered. Like anything it's all perspective, and like most cleared cars I can see where your peeve comes from. I have some cleared cars out there over 20yrs old and have aged very well, most still scoring 1st place numbers in shows that count, shows that build provenance. I'm firing in your war from the same line on metallic colors. There's not now, nor has ever been a way to keep them up. Aluminum doesn't like weather, good or bad (the "dust" in metallics).

[ronn]

Brent, I agree with you 110%

but for the "other" 98% of us............................ who aren't in on fine points competition..........................

[C26Pinelake]

Just don't expect perfection because at that price it is highly unlikely.
Wayne