I don't get Paint

[knockmacool]

Today the NYT has a review of the auction frenzy in Arizona and there is a nice picture of a Speedster with an $80,000.00 paint job. (Separate subject; Speedster for $330,000.00 vs the $100,000.00 Pagoda, discuss). Barry Ritholtz posted this
http://drivesteady.com/restore-an-old-car-on-a-budget
which shows materials costing $50.00 for the DIY enthusiast. So where is the extra $79,950.00 spent and where in this range is reasonable?

[stickandrudderman]

Paint is not just paint.
$50 buys you enough emulsion to brush paint the car.
Proper paint can be more than £200 per litre!!
However, $70000 is a bit strong.

[mdsalemi]

I have not read the article.

But I can tell you this--good paint costs money.  That's an indisputable fact.

$50 would not buy enough Rust Oleum or Krylon at Home Depot to paint a Wheel Barrow, much less a car--so if that's what is written in the article consider the author has not a clue.

Yes, there are YouTube videos of people painting cars on the cheap, and we all laugh--but nobody I know would really want to own one like that.  Would you?

Go to any auto paint store, or talk to any good body man, and they'll tell you what good paint costs.  I distinctly remember the paint materials (paint, reducer, etc.) to paint my 113 were well over $1,000 back in 2001.  I suspect they might cost a bit more today.

One of the things that separates a great paint job from others, is the amount of time spent in prep prior to painting, and post-painting work such as rubbing.  Time=money.  In addition, a good paint job will have everything removed--and I mean everything--down to the body shell.  Count on a few extra hours for disassembly and reassembly...

[twistedtree]

Yes, it has nothing to do with the cost of paint -  it's all the labor.  But talking about the cost of the paint makes for a more memorable article.  After all, we're talking about it, right?

[mdsalemi]

Yes, it has nothing to do with the cost of paint -  it's all the labor.  But talking about the cost of the paint makes for a more memorable article.  After all, we're talking about it, right?

Revisit my first post in this thread, and take a look at the paint job cost: http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=15765.0

[twistedtree]

Wow, $150k for paint.  That's serious stuff - or silly stuff depending on how you look at it.  Some of this is getting to be like Yachts.  For select slivers of the car market, money just isn't a consideration for owners.  A shop that does the very best work and has garnered a reputation can charge pretty much whatever they want, and there are enough people out there who will pay and everyone walks away happy.

I visited Gernold at SLTech a few weeks ago and he said materials are currently $1000/gal for correct paint for our cars, and a full paint job on a dissembled shell (just the prep and painting, not the disassembly) is around $20k.  A bargain in comparison, I guess.  That's still 200 hrs @$100/hr, which seems like a lot of time, but I'm not a body guy and not a good judge.

[Cees Klumper]

I've had several cars painted and, believe me, painting a car does not need to cost more than $2,000. I bought last year 150 gallons of what not so long ago was the Rolls Royce of car paints (Sikkens) that my wife uses to make paintings, for $80 a gallon.
I just picked up the 'Earl Camino' from having some body work done; the shop in Geneva wanted $7,000 for the work, I had it done in France for $1,800. Of course, if you want to spend $80,000 on a paint job, there will be peope who will take it and do a great job. But it can also be done for $2,000 in such a way that 95% of us could not tell the difference nor would particularly care.

[George Des]

If originality is what you are looking for on these cars, I would submit that the super glossy, wet look finish with all the orange peel color sanded out is not it. Our cars were originally painted with synthetic enamel. It was an alkyd based paint that was shot on and then baked to flow it out.  Unlike the urethanes and polyurethanes used today it did not have a cross-linking, polyisocyanate hardener that allowed it to be color sanded. As a result, all of the original paint jobs have/had some degree of orange peel in them. Lacquer jobs were done on a special order basis. Todays paints by comparison to alkyd enamel and lacquer are fairly high tech. They require a whole system of compatible reducers/thinners, additives, cross-linking hardners, etc for not only the top coats but also the layers of the "sandwich" that make up the finish. Shops make hugh investments in high tech spray booths, spray equipment and fresh air breathing systems for the operators. Enviornmental restrictions place additional burdens on the shop as far as the allowable VOCs the paint products can contain and how the shop exhausts the paint fumes. All of this gets thrown into the cost formula and adds up to the expensive paint jobs of today. Anyone interested in more information on paint and autobody work would find a wealth of information on Len Stuart's autobody website.

[dseretakis]

I wonder if the 80K included assembly/disassembly, panel straightening, metal fabrication/ rust repair. If that's the case 80K may not be all that unreasonable but still on the high side if you ask me.

[knockmacool]

I wonder if the 80K included assembly/disassembly,

How much time do you reckon that takes a professional mechanic/restorer on our cars?

[thelews]

How much time do you reckon that takes a professional mechanic/restorer on our cars?

Depends on the condition of the car and the level of finish the buyer wants.  Very wide spread.

[Raymond]

Have you looked at the paint jobs on new Mercedes?  Orange peel is standard issue.

[dseretakis]

How much time do you reckon that takes a professional mechanic/restorer on our cars?

I would guess 1500-2000 hrs for a complete concours quality restoration.