Hey Guys,

I live in the New York (long island area) Would you know a ballpark figure i should expect to paint an 1995 XJS convertible? Any shop recommendations?
Thank you..

 

i know a guy who will do it for $600, and another guy who will do it for $6,000.

 

Lol. That's about right.
It depends on what you want.
What color?
How many coats?
Clear coat?
Does it need prepped or are you doing it?
Are there body panels that need fixed? Rust?
You replacing the trim? Reusing the existing?

If you want it all done by a professional, and you want it done right, be prepared to spend several thousand.

 

Take it to a couple of shops and get estimates then ask them to show you their work. Prices are all over the place, so is quality.

 

Yes. Its time to become practical. go for the 3-4 shop. estimate the cost, their working process and what they include during the process. so that you can get better idea.

 

Mine was done two years ago. Bonnet/Hood, trunk, both fenders and both doors where removed from the car completely, everything was stripped to bare metal, with wetsanding between coats of paint, and of course the final coat of clear was wet-sanded too. This was done at the best know shop in town. Two years ago in Houston, that puts you a little over 10K.

 

......and at the other end of the scale I got mine done at Maaco (stop laughing). It's black. It needed work on 2 panels to remove some PO issues. All in cost $1400. I removed as much of the brightwork as I could prior to painting to reduce the amount of masking they needed to do, but I didn't do any panel prep/sanding. I was very pleased with the result v's $, but be warned, not all Maaco are the same as they are privately owned through franchise. I had 2 within 10 miles of me. One had a terrible review rating on Yelp, the other had a 5 star rating.

 

i agree about $1400

 

I wont laugh. I believe that your 1,400 job might look as good or better than mine depending on the artist. I needed to go that route because at some point my grandfather (who I inherited my cars from) repainted the XJS at the BAD Maaco place.....for whatever reason the paint they used resulted in some disgusting reaction with the original primer and there was bubbling and peeling from beneath the paint, plus it looked like they had sanded everything down with their fingers...it was a mess. My only option was this mini "of frame" restoration type repaint, strip to bare metal, remove all panels ,use Dupont and wetsand between all coats.....and by no means is that at the high end. Some people pay 20K to have their cars repainted and they ask for multiple coats of paint...more than any factory would ever use

If your primer is in good shape, the car has not been repainted before, the shop uses quality paint and has experienced painters, there is no reason that you can not get an excellent looking job for 1500-3K dollars. If the car is BRG or black I would strongly suggest they wetsand between the last 2 coats and the clear at the end.

 

@Spike

Sorry to hear you had a bad MAACO experience. I know from your other posts that you are going the extra mile to bring your XJS back up to standard. It does look great in BRG..... that was also on my shopping list, but Black pipped it just

 

My experience with MAACO is a bit different, as I worked at one in Rhode Island for a few months. One day I happened to look over to see the MANAGER filling the rear quarters of a 67 Firebird with 3-4 INCHES of Bondo with nothing but a piece of cardboard behind it to hold it up.
I promptly told him he couldn't do that, the first time it rained the whole rear end would fall off! He waved me away and said it didn't matter, the customer was going out west with it.

I punched out, threw my timecard across the desk of the owner, told him "I quit" and walked out.

 

I always thought you should not wet sand the base coat before the clear and if you do, that you should spray another base coat before applying the clear, otherwise you can see sanding marks.

Im about to paint my jag brg and want to know if Im missing something here.

thanks

 

I've heard the same thing - don't wet sand the color; just wet sand the clear.
Now if you screw up the color with runs and sags and fish eyes sand the errors and re-color.

 

Hey guys.

On mine they wet sanded the last layers of color as well as the clear to avoid that BMW orange peel look. At least that is what they told me and I saw. I think I might have taken pics... Let me look

 

That makes sense to be sure. I am planning on painting my '96 Spindrift White VDP this coming fall. Tampa Bay is getting to be too hot and humid for painting, so I'm going to wait until the weather cools and drys. Planning on a change from spindrift white to a white pearl. Should be stunning. I'll soon have to paint my ice blue XJS as well. The clear and color on the boot lid are really deteriorating and the rest of the car isn't too bad. Both cars need leather and wood repair as well.