That is gonna depend on the condition of your car and what you consider a good paint job. It also depends on the going rate around where you live. All things being equal, I would guess a decent, not high end paint job would cost somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000.
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Scott Halliday
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1992 Red 347 Automatic Limited Edition Convertible
1991 Red 5.0L 5-Speed Hatchback
1989 Black 5.0L 5-Speed Coupe
paint it yourself. go buy a 100 dollar devilbis starter set, comes with 2 hvlp paint guns. do the body work, all the prep, and then paint that bad boy the way YOU want to. you can build a paintbooth out of wood and plastic sheeting and a box fan. it works VERY well.
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1965 Mustang Coupe Project: 1965 Mustang Inline 6 (For Now) Coupe, New Floors, New Quarters | Ford 9 Inch Rear, 11" Rear Disc Brakes, 3.50:1 Gears | Control Freak Front U/L Control Arms, Global West Adj. Strut Rods | KYB Gas-A-Justs, Grab-A-Trak 620 Coils & Mid-Eye 5-Leafs | Global West Tubular Subframe Connectors | Addco 1-1/8 Front Swaybar Kit
I did all the body work and sanding and primer myself. My paint is a Porsche pearl, which is premium cost. My objective was show car, so I knew I needed a professional paint job. (I have painted cars myself in a plastic sheet "bubble" and you WILL get dust bunny bumps and defects ) I found a local paint shop with a good reputation and visited the owner a couple of times, with my photo book. Got him interested, because I told him I'd advertise his shop, when I show the car. He charged me $2,400, but took his time getting it done - the price for eccentricity (mine ). Paint Shop owner said he would have wanted $4,500, if I hadn't done the "prep". See the 18 photos at my profile, which partially chronicle the build-up.
A few questions:
1. What will be your use - drag car, show car, daily driver, weekend warrior?
2. Are you going to change color or keep it the same matching white?
3. Do you want to re-paint the engine compartment? the inside areas of door and trunk/hatch? the door jamb area (body)?
Answers will dictate cost. You get the picture....
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88GT, paint: 2003 Porsche Lapis Blue Pearl Metallic, Calif. factory MAF, new 302 long block, heavily ported stock heads & intake, 70mm TB, 73mm C&L MAF, E303 cam, no pollution equip. exc. O2 sensors, equal shorty hdrs, Magnaflows, new W/C T-5, TriAx shifter, K Cobra clutch, alum. driveshaft, BBK springs, new stock brakes, 3 row rad, 180 deg, 2-sp. el. fan, Hotchkiss Rear C-arms ____________________________________ dyno: 258hp+327rwt with ported E7s!!!!!
The changing color paint is about $400 a pint .
It's O.K. for accents or flames , not whole paint jobs .IMO
You need to paint the car black before using it .
I've seen a $6,000 paint job that looked terrible .
The shop I go to has informed me that a whole car paint job is a minimum of $4000 and can go up to $8000 very easily. Places like Maaco, Earl Schibes, and Miracle auto will paint an entire car for $250-$750 (depending on their specials of the month), but I know no one who has gone to any of the three and been totally satisfied with their paint jobs.
I agree also with the prep work. The prep work is what detemines a quality paint job. If you can do most of the prep work, you will save $$$$. Some things to think of in regards to prepping...remove parts that wont be painted (i.e. chrome parts, taillights, headlights, etc), taping off parts that are not easily removeable. If possible and depending on the quality of paint, you may want to strip as much of the old paint as possible and maybe remove body parts (i.e. hoods, trunk, fenders, etc) for a thorough paint job.
Hello. A lot depends on how much body work and prep the car needs and just how nice you want it to be when it's done. If all you need is a basic 'scuff and shoot' base coat/ clear coat paint job with some orange peel that isn't too bad, and minimal crud stuck in the paint, that would start out at about 1500. I know that there are places that do it for less, but when you actually start looking at it you'll start finding stuff like they didn't clear coat the p/s door jamb, there's some dusty looking stuff stuck in the clear of the trunk lid, etc... Also, on the cheaper paint jobs, they use about a 400 grit to do the finish sanding before they start spraying. It looks ok for a few weeks, but as the paint continues to cure, as it does, it also shrinks up a bit and all of a sudden you can see all of that rough sanding.It looks like scratches that have been painted over, which is exactly what it is. The actual painting of a car is a very simple matter. With a stalk of bananas and a catlle prod I could have an orangutan that paints cars in a couple of weeks. The hard part is the before and after. That's the difference between a $500 dollar Maaco paint job and a $50,000 Pebble Beach quality paint job. The bottom line would be that you can expect to pay something in the 3500 to 4000 dollar range for a paint job with quality materials and workmanship that will look like a wet red pond to anyone that looks at it except for other skilled painters. They would pick up on tiny little flaws that most people wouldn't see if you pointed it out to them. Hope that helps.
nice paint job How much? 
) I found a local paint shop with a good reputation and visited the owner a couple of times, with my photo book. Got him interested, because I told him I'd advertise his shop, when I show the car. He charged me $2,400, but took his time getting it done - the price for eccentricity (mine
). Paint Shop owner said he would have wanted $4,500, if I hadn't done the "prep". See the 18 photos at my profile, which partially chronicle the build-up.
88GT, paint: 2003 Porsche Lapis Blue Pearl Metallic, Calif. factory MAF, new 302 long block, heavily ported stock heads & intake, 70mm TB, 73mm C&L MAF, E303 cam, no pollution equip. exc. O2 sensors, equal shorty hdrs, Magnaflows, new W/C T-5, TriAx shifter, K Cobra clutch, alum. driveshaft, BBK springs, new stock brakes, 3 row rad, 180 deg, 2-sp. el. fan, Hotchkiss Rear C-arms 
The actual painting of a car is a very simple matter. With a stalk of bananas and a catlle prod I could have an orangutan that paints cars in a couple of weeks. The hard part is the before and after. That's the difference between a $500 dollar Maaco paint job and a $50,000 Pebble Beach quality paint job. The bottom line would be that you can expect to pay something in the 3500 to 4000 dollar range for a paint job with quality materials and workmanship that will look like a wet red pond to anyone that looks at it except for other skilled painters. They would pick up on tiny little flaws that most people wouldn't see if you pointed it out to them. Hope that helps.
