The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop $500 paint job - BEFORE

I know this isn’t a truck or even a Chevy, but I plan to take this 2001 Honda CRV for a paint job. The manager walked around the car and gave me an quote of $450 to sand the car, paint the car, and then one coat of clear. I want two coats of clear, so that adds $50.

Since I’m skeptical about the quality of their preparation. I took it upon myself to sand the areas where the clearcoat was peeling. I used 150 grit sandpaper and got things looking pretty smooth.

Why am I posting this here? Because if it turns out nice, I may have them paint my 1965 C10.

My wife is very frugal. The car is 20 years old but still has a lot of life left in it. I’m not going to spend $2000 for a paint job. No way.

I stopped by an auto body shop near my house and was quoted a starting price of $5000 for a paint job on the Honda CRV. The $5000 paint job would look better, I’m sure.

VIDEO - BEFORE PAINT

Jay, keep the money for the trucks!!! ...but don't tell Ruth I said that!
you da man.

I had my Chevelle painted in 2004, and did not get a quote as low as $500 from anywhere! I had also done most of the bodywork already- You are very lucky!!

I will wait until I see the results before I do my happy dance. My wife was tired of looking at the peeling clear coat, so if it looks better than before she will be happy. I’ll follow this up with a new video and pics. The test of time will also be a factor before I consider having them paint my truck.

I kind of wanted to paint my truck myself.

That's just too cheap to be any good, IMO. Any time a shop picks up a paint gun it adds $1000 to any job up here. But I hope it works out for you.

It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Typical Honda...

Mileage goes on forever and the body deteriorates. It’s no wonder it needs paint. 😎

I asked one of the better-known independent body shops here about painting an entire pickup (correctly...not just spraying paint on the outside). This was 3 years ago and I asked just out of curiosity and because the owner has been a friend for a long time. They told me to figure between $18,000 and $25,000 depending on how much would have to be removed and hung to do the job right. Around here $500 might not purchase enough paint to re-do an MG Midget. Especially if you used good paint and if it was red. Good luck!

Most “Earl Schieb” paint jobs I’ve seen were sloppy on masking so you may want to mask the trim, around the windows, door handles and anything you don’t want painted. At $500 they won’t spend allot of time masking. You’ll also get overspray in the door jams, etc., just so you know what to expect.

I second painting the truck yourself and your wife’s Honda would be a good place to practice. I thinking your wife may have another opinion.

Around here MAACO is the cheapy alternative @ about $500. You definitely get what you pay for. Back in the early 70s Earl Schieb was $39.95 and actually did a decent job.

Someone did a hit 'n run, while my Honda was parked, sideswiping the door and slightly into the quarter panel. MAACO did a perfect color match and "blend" into the quarter. How the heck do they blend? $600 for the job done about 2 years ago. I plan to go back to them with truck fenders, grill, bed panels to see if they can guarantee perfect matches before I have the rest of the truck towed over to finish the cab.

I'm not sure you could get it sanded for $500.00 around here. We have a "Facto Back" here (like Earl Schieb) and if you don't mask it off it gets painted and it's about a $1000.00.

Haha! Back in the '60's a friend of my dad's got his pickup painted by Earl Shieb, and he wound up with tires that matched blue they shot on the truck.

Update.
We dropped the Honda CRV off at the paint shop today. I took a few minutes to inspect some of the vehicles they have recently painted. I think the results are pretty good considering the low price. I did find a few areas where masking was not done properly, but overall I thought the quality of the work was satisfactory for the price. Please see the pictures below. I will update this thread again when I pick up my Honda CRV on Saturday. I hope my CRV looks as good as the silver SUV in the picture. Stay tuned!

More pics.

At least the tires aren't painted.

I had a friend in High School that had a MAACO paint job on his Nova, he did a Beau and Luke slide across the hood and took all the paint with him. I suppose if you did the masking yourself it would be better, at least the finished product would be to your satisfaction. Just wondering though, what quality of paint are you getting for $500.00 including labor?

With the amount of paint they go thru, they most likely get a really good price. I wonder if you have a limited choice of colors?

Since I removed the roof rack and the spare tire from the rear door hatch, and since I sanded off the really bad areas of clearcoat on the hood and driver side they gave me a discount. The price is now $430. I told them to put on extra clearcoat. The new price is still under $480.

A survey would show that we all have different standards as far as paint and bodywork goes.

My wife did not like looking at the peeling clearcoat. My wife and I walked around the lot and looked at the cars that were already painted and she thought they looked good. The goal here is to satisfy my wife with a decent looking and good running car that isn’t an eyesore to her. I will probably get my moneys worth and nothing more. If she is happy, then I will be very very happy.

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Hers is my complete $300. paint job , done in my driveway . Both blue and gray are Home depot exterior latex house paint for metal , premium brand no less .
The black is high gloss tremclad , I used semi gloss black under the hood .The wheels are painted with rubber guard .
It was all applied by spray but I did have to invest in a spray gun with larger orifices to apply the latex .
The green paint was also the same kind of paint but in flat and it went over bear metal in places as well as primer and original paint with prep consisting of a quick sanding with 200 grit paper .This lasted 3 years until I decided to knock out the biggest dents and change the color.
The blue and gray paint job was completed In July of last year ( painted out side in my driveway ) and then we took off for a week to eastern Ontario for a few days all the while traveling in some serious down pours , which doesn't seem to have had a negative affect on the paint .Oh the most recent paint is semi gloss to hide the dents I didn't get .
My intent was not perfection but just enough to make traveling with me palatable for my wife .

Not sure what happened to the second picture ???

I am not an expert but was always told that by the time the clear failed, UV had reached and "killed" the basecoat. It would be interesting to hear the results. I suspect it will look much better but close inspection will always reveal where the problem was.

I’ll shoot a video as soon as I see the CRV in person. My wife took these pictures when she went to pay the bill today. She says it looks great. If she’s happy, then it’s a win . . . . as long as it lasts for a while. $460 out the door.

Looks good

Color is darker than original. Some overspray from poorly masked areas. The finish is pretty decent and I don’t see runs or fish eye. Tires were properly covered and don’t show any paint. Glass isn’t painted either. So far so good. I’ll touch up the overspray and call it good. Wife is happy with the color, so the fact that it’s slightly darker isn’t an issue.

Looks like they can spray paint,most of the work is in the prep so time will tell but for that price if they were close to me I would be in .

Looks good.
Show us a pic after the first bump in the road so we can see if the paint all fell off.

I won’t let her drive it over 10 MPH for the next week so the paint won’t ripple. Ha ha!

It came out nice. Happy Wife, Happy Life! Well worth $500.

Well...I would have lost money on that bet. It turned out pretty decent.

I have an 05 Yukon that needs a visit to that shop. It looks great for $500.00.

I wish there was someplace like that around here.. in this area, you need to hand them $4,000 to get started and they won't touch a car on which they can't match factory paint or there is any rust. It's pretty ridiculous, actually. Body shops here aren't body shops in the traditional sense-they literally won't even work on my '78 Cadillac. Won't even entertain the conversation even when I walk in with an envelope full of $100 bills. They don't want to sand, prep, remove chrome, fix rust. It's too labor intensive, they straight up state that they don't make enough money doing real body work but just want to spray and stick fenders on modern cars for insurance checks.

Two years ago, I walked into a better quality body shop in Issaquah, and I told them I had five grand to spend in painting a straight, rust free '88 VW Cabriolet with no notable dents or body damage. They literally wouldn't even look at the car. Not interested.

So.. home paint booth it is.

I just got a quote from a painter who does work on the "side" to paint the cab, hood and grill shell and the trim pieces which are a different color for $2ooo to $3000.All the body work has all ready been done. Sounds like a bargain if it turns out ok

Hey Lugnutz, my wife has a 2005 Silver CR-V LX. It only has 90k miles on it, but the paint is in really good shape, despite me making her park it outside.

She's had it for over 10 years, the original owner was the hubby of one of her friends, they just babied it, and they moved back to Japan.

I saw your video on YT, they did a great job for the price, IMO, but the orange peel was not very visible on the video which you pointed out.

My '46 is literally painted with Rustoleum, even has the brush marks. Good paint is so overrated...

When it comes to body and paint you get what you pay for. I worked for The Earl in the late 80s if my memory serves me right a paint job then was 129.00. that was a paint job only that consisted of a once over with 220 grit quick mask and paint no hardners in paint , no sealer coat and 2 coats of paint done, So people who brought in cars with damage and did not want to pay to get it fixed were usually not happy. A paint job is only as good as the prep work under it. We had some customers who would do their own body work, strip car of all chrome , glass, lights, and any other parts that would have required masking so masking was minimal.. they would up grade and get sealer coat and add the hardners to paint I saw some very nice jobs go out of there for around 400. The last one I painted in my shop was a mustang materials ran over 500. for a base clear in 2012. There is a lot of good information to help you on line. Good luck with your truck. Aaron

Back in the late 1970's I interviewed for a manager's job at a local discount paint shop similar to Earl Scheib called "Color-Glow" in Merced California. At the time, they were advertising an all-over paint job on any car for $125.00. The trick to keeping the price low was minimal surface prep- - - - -no primer, just a quick scrub-down with a Scotch-Brite pad and household ammonia and a thorough pressure wash, then spray a thin coat of alkyd enamel. They offered about 10 basic colors- - - -none of which matched any factory color chart! On a really good day, the job they did might last 6 months or so before it started to flake and peel! No, I didn't take the job, partly because of the low salary offer, but mostly because of the poor quality job they were selling.
Jerry

Back in the early 90's, I fixed up a 1975 3/4 ton chevy 4x4 truck. I took it to Maaco after doing all the prep work myself. It wasn't a cheap price but it surely looked like a cheap, quick spray job instead of a paint job. To top it off, they started screwing around under the hood. I had just installed a new battery, the engine was freshly rebuilt, and the carb was working good. However, the fools in that shop managed to flood the engine and continue turning it over until they drained a brand new heavy duty battery. They told me this over the phone when I called them and I knew that my truck was in the wrong shop. I told them do not touch it anymore. When I got there and opened the hood, there were 2 screw drivers sticking out of the top of the 4 barrel carb and the stock air filter was no where in sight. I grabbed the screw drivers and threw them across the shop as I began cussing out everyone in sight. I pulled the dip stick and it smelled like gas and I was fuming to the point of hurting someone. They payed for an oil change and I told them they might be buying an engine after washing my rings with gasoline. I was going ballistic to the point that people working there were getting in their vehicles and leaving. Watch out when you leave a vehicle with someone.

Jim

I payed dearly to have my nice black paint job on my 50 Chevy 3100. (It's in the gallery) It has stayed together and still looks great after 5 years. It should since it cost very close to $10,000. I might pay severely one more time when I find a GTO like I'm looking for (69 or 70). Hopefully I'll find one with a good paint job !

I gotta say my $460 was well spent. Nothing bad is happening, and it’s been 11 weeks since the CRV was painted. It stays outside in the SC heat too.
Looks great.

Just tossing another option out there. North of Boston the local tech High School has adult autobody night school. The class is $300 for 10 4hr sessions not including materials, a lot of the guys sign up for both the Tues and Thursday night classes. In General it's just open shop night if you have a question the instructors are there to answer them. Most of the folks who go drive their project cars to the shop and work on them, or as I did bring in one fender at a time. The school I went to a few years ago has two paint booths available, The instructors will help mix the paint and show you how to spray it. It was always a good idea to bring your own tools, and get there early to grab a working mig welder. Many years ago late 90s my wife dropped off an old car there and had the students do it... six weeks later we got the car back with a decent paint job and a few missing grill clips, but the kids have to learn somewhere. After going thru a tech school auto body program down in Maryland my 21 year old niece is head painter at a dealership. I'm considering flying her up to Boston to paint my truck when it is ready.