$1150.00 to paint my 90 ford f150 regular cab 4x4. ITs red and grey 2 tone. Using a single stage
acrylyc enamel. NO body work just sanding and painting.

Does that sound fair? It sounds kind of expensive but i dont know the last paint job on my car i did myself.

 

Sounds like a bit too low for me, actually.

How much prep work are they doing?

 

Well, since you have painted a car yourself, you know that the cost is primarily in the labor, and most of the labor is in surface preparation. Labor rates vary from location to location, so a good deal in one area might be expensive for another. Surface prep can take an hour, or it can take a few days, depending on how meticulous the shop is, and what you want the finished product to look like. There may also be some labor involved in buffing the finish post-application. You might ask the shop how many hours of labor are going into the project - then you'll be able to decide whether it's a good deal. 15 hours of labor at $50 per hour is $750. Add $200 to $300 for materials, and the shop gets a reasonable margin of $100 to $200. On the other hand, if they are planning to spend 3 hours of surface prep, 1 hour to apply the finish, and no buffing afterward; then the shop margin is over $600. Another aspect to labor is whether or not they are going to paint the door jambs, under hood, and inside the bed. Also, are they going to remove trim and badging, or mask around it. These obviously take more time. It never hurts to ask for a reference; not a vehicle they painted last week, but one they painted for a comparable price 3 years ago. That will tell you more about whether this is a good deal than anything else. You can also look at work in progress on other vehicles in the shop to get an indication of the level of surface prep. Good luck!

Andy

 

well said, akstraw

 

Well no buffing he said single stage acrylic enamel is not buffed. No body work. Just merely sanding the shiny off i guess and priming any needed areas and spraying. I just asked a few more detailed questions of him i will await a reply. I am not sure if this is someone thats doing this on the side or in a shop. Is the acrylic enamel good enough or is there other stuff out there better suited? ITs def not a show piece.

 

I think I would get a second or maybe even a third opinion.

Scott

 

Yes it seems a little pricey i can get maaco to do that with a urethane for cheaper.

 

Maaaco painted my truck about six mounths ago with single stage urethane for 1200.00...Back the same color did all the sanding & lots of little dings that could of put an extra 6hrs easy...

 

Way too high. Maaco is doing it right now in our area with the same paint for $150. They do this every winter. I guess business drops off big time in the winter. The regular price for one of these Maaco paint jobs is something like $500-600. I had it done to my 98 Taurus two years ago and I've been real happy.

I thought you could get a factory base/clear paint job for that kind of money.

 

I got ya. I am going to explore some other options definately.

 

..A 150 bucks?? I think the paint costs more than that.They wanted 800 for the paint discounted it to 600. The rest was labor.There was a lot of extra sanding & prep because of the fiberglass parts we had on the truck..Plus the body work..

 

I bought a pint of this stuff a few months ago because my kid dinged a fender and I had a buddy paint it. The pint was only $30 and I still have half of it left. When I called the paint store the guy started by price me some base/clear prices and when I said it had been painted by Maaco with the Presidential package, he said "Oh, you need the single stage acrylic." It was much cheaper.

Anyway, Maaco has numerous packages. If you were paying $800 for paint alone, then you were probably getting a better paint package. Either that or your were getting hosed. Single stage acrylic isn't that much, unless you were putting on 20 coats. Always wait til winter to have Maaco paint your car. They cut their prices in half.

Single stage means that the color and the clear are mixed and painted on at the same time. When the color is painted on first followed by a clear coat, that's not single stage.

 

Sounds like a cheap re-spray to me!
Just get some references and if they sound good, go for it!
Maaco jobs are cheap, but the quality is cheap too.

 

If you have maaco do it check out the work they've done before cause that's where i got mine done and i got totally screwed over that deal. my 2 cents

Kyle

 

and trust me on the early years they had a primer issue-my 88 had to completely stripped to bare metal -and my 1990 f150 if flaking just like my 88 did! if they are going to prep it right the price don't seem all that bad-not sure if the reds had the bad flaking like the blues/ silvers or not?