Just out of interest whats a really good paint job worth in the States -My son is looking at painting my Alpine which he ""inherited ""(ie stole) when I brought the Tiger . He's looking at prices equivalent to $7000 US.
He's talked about doing the prep himself but most painters prefer to do it themselves it seems .
$7000 barely buys materials... quality ones anyway. I have a Mk1 in the shop that is Carnival red. The color, catalyst and reducer will cost about $4K for 2 gallons. (depends on color, black is cheap, red is the most expensive) Primers, seam sealer and undercoat materials will add at least $1500-2000. Then there is paint removal (blasting or dipping) rust repair, bodywork and all of the prep.. Last one out of here was near $15K.
I use only PPG materials... Concept for single stage solid colors and PPG's basecoat/clearcoat system for metallics. It's even more work to do something in base/clear as you are essentially painting the car 4 times.
I just painted my own Mk2 in polar white. The color, catalyst and reducer was right at $3K. As it's mine, I didn't count all my labor, and I had the primer (hi build and epoxy) on hand... so these were donated as well. Undercoat was $300 for the type I use. I had my car dipped ($4K plus), just had one sandblasted... that I should have probably dipped and it was $1500.
I won't paint a car someone else has prepped... Nothing personal, but as a painter I cannot know how skilled the owner is/was.. If the paint falls off the car... Who gets the blame? Proper prep is 90% of refinishing a car.
Painting a car properly is NOT cheap, period. I have had people say to me, "Geez, I could have Maaco paint it for $800". I tell them... "if you can't tell the difference, take it there".
I simply do not have the time to continually explain why quality products and quality work costs more.
