It might be helpful to have very low expectations about what kind of paint job you're going to end up with if the most you have to spend on a new finish is a several hundred dollars.
I'm not in the paint business (yet) but a very good friend is and has been for a long time having painted over 4000 vehicles and we've talked many times about opening our own shop. I'm not sure how anyone gets a good paint job for $800. Just the materials for a good paint job (factory quality or better) is going to be at least $1000 (Dupont, PPG, Sikkens, etc). Once you add in the labor it takes to properly prep the car, remove or fill any dings/dents/superficial rust, detrim, mask, paint (three coats), clear (two or three coats), cure, wet sand any orange peel, polish, and put it all back together you can EASILY add another $3K-6K. And that's not going to get you a concourse finish mind you.
Don't discount color matching capabilities of various manufacturers either unless you don't really care whether or not your car's new paint matches the old paint or, if you are doing a color change, if it accurately matches the intended color. Good luck rolling into Maaco and having them match your original diamond schwarz metallic.
Frankly, for $800 I would expect a 20ft paint job. Or I would expect you did ALL the prep work and reassembly work and that price is for the painter to roll your car into his booth and shoot it with a middle of the road base/clear - nothing more.
I have an '89 E30 with a cheap paint job. Looks fine at 20 feet. Standing next to it, it looks like shit - maybe worse to me because I know what to look for. I also have an '06 E46 M3 that took a bunch of pea gravel to the front end (thanks dump truck). I can assure you there is absolutely no chance I'm going to try to get the front clip repainted for a few hundred bucks because all I would be doing is ruining the car's value.
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i'll let someone else be the guinea pig. i'll have to see an e30 done first before i hop on board.Leave a comment:
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ok well we got the shop it needs to be cleaned up a little but the booth is in there the lift is in there so within the next week we are a go... contact me on here or text me 717-579-6177 should be about $800 for a 30. between everyone theres is like 30 years of painting experience and like 20 years of mechanical, we can make manifolds roll cages what ever...Leave a comment:
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if you have a gt2, $20k probably does not mean a whole lot.
it's like us replacing our is lip.
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lol im sure. but he is not pressed for business.
he just had a gt2 in there that needed a new front bumper cover. it cracked when he went into a pothole. the car is very low. that new bumper cost $20k. and he paid out of pocket. the unpainted bumper cost the body shop $6k and another $3k in trim pieces. it was really sexy though. half cage inside. owner tracks it too.Leave a comment:
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comming soon to central pa ill update with more info as soon as our shop opensLeave a comment:
I know, stupid internet does not convey sarcasm well. And 20k, psh. I'da just zip tied that baby up and kept on rolling.
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