Tales of an $800 paint job (or why good isnt cheap and vice versa)

"Checkin' Pockets" (pocketchecka) 09/05/2013 at 11:34 • Filed to: None

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So got my m3 back from respray. Holy defective paint job. If you look at the pic you can see giant drips on the bumper. The reflection of yellow whatever makes it hard to see but suffice to say it should be smooth. Drips on various other places as well. Not to mention stuff stuck in the paint and a complete failure to paint the sunroof as they apparently thought it was glass. I had it back for a week and now am waiting on it to be returned after they fix this mess. Also they weren't supposed to paint the trim but its all cosmo now. Le sigh. I knew it wasn't gonna be 3500 dolla job but dafuq. Maaco woulda been better lol.

Checkin' Pockets > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 11:42

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Another drip shot

Audio Tachometer > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 11:42

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Holy orange peel batman!

Casper > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 11:43

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Looks pretty close to a Maaco job to me. At $800 you didn't even cover the cost of materials to really do it properly let alone labor. I would have been shocked if it was nice, because that means they did A LOT of free work.

Here's an easy method for testing how much a normal average quality paint job will cost. Count the number of panels on your car (basically each fender, hood, roof, trunk lid, etc). On most cars this will be about 9 or 10, maybe more. Take that and assume $200 per panel minimum. That puts you around $2000. Now, sit down to read this part... that's just cheap materials. Not labor, not nice paint, just basic thin cheap paint and primer. That's also not fixing damage.

To paint the average car with a nice paint job done correctly (stripped, filled, blocked, properly primed, etc) will run upwards of $5000 to $10,000 depending on quality of materials and labor involved. Obviously around $10,000 you are entering show quality paint work and around $5,000 you are just getting a decent street paint job without flaws.

Just to do flares on my car this time around cost about $1000 in materials to get them on there... not even the painting afterwards.

Mattbob > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 11:43

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is that "chrome" paint?

kouryuuk > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 11:44

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You would have gotten better results from a rattle can job.

CobraJoe > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 11:48

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Maaco isn't really that good either. I had them paint my '86 Mustang GT back in high school, and they strip sanded everything, including the black chrome door locks, and then they masked everything off after spraying red to get the black accents, and they did a horrible job masking. Long edges were ok, but any corner was clipped or left too much open. Oh, and the door locks ended up looking like octagons.

There were no drips, but it certainly wasn't a good job either.

Party-vi > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 11:50

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With all that orange peel you might need a drink! You need to take it back.

ddavidn > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 11:52

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Yeah... your title sums it up pretty well. It costs a LOT of money to do it right. Sorry your trim got painted. Let's plasti-dip our trim together some time...

Checkin' Pockets > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 12:04

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okay . So. little more info on the situation. It was the stock color re spray so no panel removal or anything. All they had to do was basically re spray the car and she's rust out of a few places and repair it. They did the repairs and the filler and apparently they did that didn't look good. So the owner of the shop stop the mid spray on the final clear coat to have them redo the bondo ay smooth it out more and make it Look like it Should.the owner also has said they will reduce pain and they're going to fix all the issues with the pain and the trips all that stuff the orange peel situation is more I think due to the fact that it only has to go to clear on at this time they didn't actually get to where all the clear on as a stop to repair the places that they f***** up original. I was expecting like I said I show room paint job the paint that was on the car was flaking off and completely shot to s*** so I just wanted to make it look decent but as it sits right now it doesn't look that bad face to face pictures definitely don't do it justice but it's definitely a f***** up job as well so that's the deal. they will definitely be doing a lot of work for free now.

Checkin' Pockets > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 12:06

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sorry guys driving so using Google Voice to Text. That's why the above paragraph or entry is completely hosed. hope you get the point anyway

Checkin' Pockets > CobraJoe 09/05/2013 at 12:08

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oh no I know Mako's not good. That was my point I was hoping to get a better job than I make a job for the money that I had to spend so far it's been a difficult.I'm confident it will work out in the end as I have the word of the owner of the shop otherwise I'd be mIghty pissed

CobraJoe > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 12:14

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Sounds like you have it figured out.

Personally, I'm planning on trying to do a paintjob myself on my project car. I figure I can at least do as good as Maaco for half the price. Besides, the way the paint is now, I can't really make it look any worse.

Checkin' Pockets > CobraJoe 09/05/2013 at 12:18

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yeah exactly. That's really all I wanted for the m3. The paint was in horrible shape. I just thought a nice Reese pray to make it look lost you again in black as it should would do the car some serious justice. I am confident that after it comes back this time it should look at least like I was expecting. I wouldn't have minded trying to paint it myself but for $800 it seems like easier deal then that. I will be sure to share the next age photos and make them better than these but I wanted to share anyway.

GasolineLollipop > Casper 09/05/2013 at 13:04

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And the price of those paint materials keeps skyrocketing. Its not cheap to run a quality paint shop. Good employees and disposing the paint materials properly is expensive.

Frank Grimes > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 13:38

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I think maaco would have done a better job spraying. Even if the person payed minimum wage to paint a car hated life his job cars paint paint guns he would by virtue of experience and time manage to spray paint better than that. Also orange peel drips just waste paint.

MonkeePuzzle > Checkin' Pockets 09/05/2013 at 22:00

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wow! definitely take that back. I'm currently spray painting my whole car with wal mart $1/can and its coming out better than that!

Update us, would love to hear how the company made it all better in the end

JasonStern911 > Casper 09/06/2013 at 00:26

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A decent paint job can be obtained for much less than $5k. 40% of the cost of a new Nissan Versa isn't the paint job. But if you are skimping as OP did, you better do all of the prep work yourself, hopefully do the masking yourself, and then ideally keep it sheltered until the paint cures and then wax immediately so the paint has some protection.

But, if that's too much work, you can always plasti-dip... :)

JasonStern911 > Checkin' Pockets 09/06/2013 at 00:27

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it's a BMW. are you sure the orange peel texture wasn't stock? :P

Casper > JasonStern911 09/06/2013 at 00:28

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Painting a car OEM is very different than repainting a car. They are starting with bare metal and typically aren't really "painting" the cars in the traditional sense. For most areas, $5000 is a decent paint job for a whole car with a little extra for fixing and squaring everything back up. Obviously you could do it for $3000, but that means there will only be around $1000 or less of prep work and painting labor... which is not a nice paint job.

JasonStern911 > Casper 09/06/2013 at 00:43

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my arguments were flawed but my rationale is solid. you don't need $2k in supplies to do a decent to good job painting a car. the people I have talked to that paint cars have told me that spraying a car takes practice, but is relatively easy. it's all the proper prep work - sanding, priming, etc., and then once it's painted, the post-prep work that makes a huge difference and is ridiculously time consuming, I mean, there's also spraying in an isolated area where dust/dirt/contaminants cannot affect the paint. but, if you're cash strapped enough to be buying an $800 paint job without getting seriously hooked up from a friend that does it professionally, you can still get a good paint job if you're willing to put a reasonable amount of effort into it. it's not like sanding and priming is rebuilding a Porsche motor... :)

Built BMW Tough > Checkin' Pockets 09/06/2013 at 00:44

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I'm sorry cowboy, but an M3 deserves better.

Casper > JasonStern911 09/06/2013 at 10:42

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How much do you think it costs for good paint? When I say supplies, that is what it will cost for good primer, good paint, etc... that's not using some really nice House of Color that is $60 per small bottle, that's just good standard paint and enough of it for enough coats.

I think you have a very different definition of a decent paint job.

Checkin' Pockets > Built BMW Tough 09/06/2013 at 15:10

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Sure it does, but we do what we can with what we have and when its done it'll look far far better than before. Thats all I need it to be.

Checkin' Pockets > JasonStern911 09/06/2013 at 15:12

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I really wish I had taken pics of the paint before it went into shop cuz it was toasted lol

JasonStern911 > Casper 09/06/2013 at 22:20

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I think you have a very different definition of a decent paint job.

Probably. I don't associate decent as show quality by any means - I associate it with... decent. I'm guessing you look at most new cars and realize that the factories didn't spend $5k in paint, primer, and clear coat and scoff, but people still buy new cars anyway...

JasonStern911 > Checkin' Pockets 09/06/2013 at 22:22

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Meh. Nice paint jobs are overrated. Other than the hood, I doubt you notice any of your vehicle's paint while driving. :)

Casper > JasonStern911 09/06/2013 at 22:30

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New cars generally have none of that anymore. They use a heating technique. It use to be that they very much did have to spent a fortune for a decent paint job from the factory until they figured out methods like baking it on and one pass paint/primers. Those techniques don't work after the first time the vehicle is painted.

If you wanted to be able to replicate that method you would spend millions just building the facility... but then yes, each paint job would be cheaper.

JasonStern911 > Casper 09/07/2013 at 00:50

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While I would argue that 25%+ of the purchase price of a new car has never been paint, I will also admit that I cannot state that as fact.

Casper > JasonStern911 09/07/2013 at 00:54

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Painting a vehicle never use to cost as much as it does today. A lot of the cost now are tied to environmental regulations. For instance, the company making the paint has to spend more money to meet guidelines on their products so they charge more. The shop doing the paint also has to spend a lot of money to meet the requirements for disposal and handling of the paint and remnants, which is added on top as well. Add that to the general inflation of prices as well as the decrease in out of pocket payment in lieu of insurance payment and you get current prices.

Checkin' Pockets > JasonStern911 09/07/2013 at 13:36

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Its when I get out and turn to look at it that matters lol. Before it looked really ratty and busted. Now itll at least look like someone cares about it.