I’m going into town tomorrow and talking with a body shop about having all the dents fixed on my truck and having it repainted white this spring. Aside from the dents how much should I ballpark for an estimate on the paint before I go in? I don’t want to feel the sticker shock effect, he’s reputable and I’ve seen his work and it’s amazing. He’s fair priced I’ve heard but I don’t even know what fair is. We’ve had tractors repainted but close to 20 years ago now and so that number wouldn’t even get me close to an idea. Figured I might as well have him pull the body and paint the frame and I can have new bushings put on at the same time. It’s a roller right now since I don’t wanna have to put the engine in twice I’m hiring it hauled over by a friend with a roll back. I’m very excited to get it done. It’s been on the back burner and I’m hoping to have an all 79 themed family photo taken with it this fall since I have a lot of farm equipment that’s from 1979 and orange and white.

 

Paint prices have gone up quite a bit since pandemic, at least that's what I've been told. I recently had another car painted and it cost around $1400/gallon for PPG Deltron, but it also had a fair amount of flake/pearl in the color.
I know that probably doesn't help too much , but just giving you a ballpark.

 

That's a pretty clean truck you have there.
I was told $5-7000 to paint mine.

 

If you're talking pull the body and paint the frame, that's gotta be like 20g or more. Paint depends on the type, single stage white should be pretty cheap but it's not just materials cost.

 

I’m doing a frame off right now and even with me doing the disassembly, sanding it down to bare metal, and bringing them each individual component separately I’m going to be close to 20k by the time it’s done. Your truck looks like the body might be in a little better shape than mine though, so maybe a little less. I needed cab corners and a few patch panels in the bed. I also had significant hail damage on the roof and hood so that cost me as well.

 

agree w/ aldridgec...
if you're having him pull the body, prep and paint the frame as well....budget will shoot way up.
I was able to do my own cab mounts without removing the cab. Just jack up one corner at a time.
I'm redoing the bed and pulled the front clip off to remove/replace the engine so that gave me access to clean up the front and rear frames and repaint parts.
trust me, there are going to be a lot of "while I'm there..." situations and budget can quickly be thrown out of the window if you're not careful...ask me how I know.
If you're going for a show truck, you'll need to do it all, but I might recommend just buffing the paint a bit and shooting w/ clear to keep the patina look.

 

I priced out just the paint for mine fairly recently and it was $750+ just for the primer, color, clear coat, and reducer. Mine is a metallic, so it a bit more per gallon for the color, but I was going kind of conservative on the quantity too. I fully expect the bill to be around $1K when I actually order. Once you add in the supplies for the prep- sandpaper is NOT cheap anymore, body filler, masking materials, surface cleaners, etc. I bet I will be in it about $1500+ in materials alone not including the body work I plan to do. I'm guessing add about $100/ hour for shop labor. Even a clean looking truck like yours is going to be 20+ hours. Plus, add any environmental fees, taxes, etc. They also have to figure in profit margin somewhere. I bet Kenny is pretty close with the $5-7K.

BTW, love the Corgi photo bomber.

 

This is why the patina look is popular!!!

 

The labor on my bed alone was 60 hours. Like I mentioned, a few patch panels and I had all of the trim holes welded up, plus the front panel of the bed was bowed out so it needed to be pulled and straightened. With that said, I bet the labor time is going to be a lot more than 20 hours. The OP did say he has a few dents that are going to need to be dealt with and I guarantee they are going to find other unseen items that need to be addressed. I don't think there's any way you can get out of a shop with a full paint job that's done right for less than 12K. Of course, things may be cheaper in other areas of the country so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

 

Totally agree. 20 is just rough up existing paint plus Bondo any small dents and shoot color. Go to bare metal or have any body work? That is what the plus was for.

 

Yeah, the are so many variables and each truck is it's own little unique universe. It's very difficult to give out any type of estimate over the internet and I hate to perhaps scare someone away with astronomical figures, but it's just the reality of the situation these days. Everything is up in price but this runaway inflation is hitting the auto industry even harder. I looked up a bunch of parts that I bought for our resto just two years ago and they were all up between 15 and 25%. As was mentioned, paint is insane and simple supporting items like sandpaper have almost doubled from a few years ago. It's driving a lot of people away from our hobby and stealing yet another great American past time from middle class, hardworking guys. Such a shame. I'm trying to finish this project up this year before things get even worse. I saw this morning that the year to year price index for December was up 3%. It doesn't show any sign of stopping soon either. I don't know about y'all, but I'm not getting raises three times a year to keep up with this nonsense.

Anyway, to the OP, just take the truck over to your guy. You say he's a reputable dude and has a good reputation, so I'd say trust what he says until he gives you a reason not to. Let us know what he comes back with.

 

Since it looks like original paint and rust free that makes an estimate much easier. if you can get it painted to nice driver quality for under 10k that's a deal in today's world.

For a show quality job 30k is normal and there are guys charging 60k or more and have a waiting list.

 

A frame is a very labor intensive project, everything needs to be antiseptically cleaned. They are hard to paint since it takes so much work to get in all the places. You would have to talk to the body shop on how high of a quality are you expecting. Women think nothing of $10 for a bottle of nail polish, if it were a gallon it would be over $5000. Besure to let the body shop/painter get his own paint unless he says otherwise.

 

If we're just talking material prices that depends on what you want. either use Urethane or base/clear. white is as cheap as it gets, red is the highest. Talk to your painter if he wants to use single stage or base clear but if he wants to use enamel find another painter.

Buy a quality paint, I like RM the best, it's direct competition for PPG which is also great.. Napa's paint is made by Sherwin Williams and they're a top supplier to the auto manufacturers. it's probably the best value but it's not PPG or RM quality.

I just bought a gallon and a half of base, 2 gallons of glamor clear and the hardeners and thinners from RM a month ago for my GTO and it was $2400 if that gives you an idea of cost. and don't forget primers and abrasives, probably another $1000. don't use cheap primer or you'll regret it when the shrink back starts showing.

 

Thanks, we call her our sassy tater. I stopped in and I think I’m going to have the dents pulled and hire it buffed up and maybe clear coat it because the quote for paint was 5k+ for materials alone. The stripes on the side I’m going back and forth on. I could have new put on it or leave them be. Since they are a sticker would clear go over it okay or would they need removed for the clear to go on nicely?