I've got some fracturing in the paint on the trunk lid and some bleached out spots on the hood. I'm considering getting the entire car repainted. Has anyone on the forum had that done? Especially anyone in California, as I imagine prices are much higher here. Any ideas on the cost and labor involved? Thanks for any info.

 

Looking back at your previous posts I see that you have a '98 XK8. If you would put that in your profile it would help.

Full paint jobs can run from a $500 MACO paint and clear coat spray to about $8000 for close to a factory quality job. The value of your car and your long term plans needs to be taken into consideration.

If your original paint is sound and there are no needed or hidden repairs I would think you might think of spending $1000 - $1500 on the paint. Problem is that you might then want to replace the leather seat skins, and then . . . .

 

After a recent bumper cover/headlight replacement on my daily driver, my body shop owner refused to address scratches all over my car. He said that no body shop in our town will fully paint a car--they just paint fender by fender. With 10-15 employees and a new $2 million+ building, they're looking for high volume/quick turnover jobs. Painting a car is supposedly a losing proposition. Paint quality is easily controlled on a single fender--where every full car paint job will have an owner complaining about a little paint run, bb ding or overspray. This is a body shop's way avoiding customer hassles and dissatisfaction.

Your local auto paint supply or vo tech body shop instructor can refer you to a small 1-2 person body shop that can do the job. Just be prepared to pay $1100-1500 for the paint/supplies and at least $2000 labor. The quality of the paint job goes back to the quality of preparation and how good (and patient) they are at wet sanding the clear coat. It's just a very time consumming proposition @ $40-50 per hour labor.

 

You guys are cheap, I have done full resprays many times, and lets just assume you have no issues and all you want is a blow over, $4500.

You have some rust maybe a couple of dents the odd scrape then more like $6000. I guess we go a little mad as I insist on removing every external trim piece, door handles, lights, bumpers are removed and painted seperate. The car is then DA-ed down, primed, wet flatted, primed again, painted, laquered, wet flatted and lacquered again, wet flatted and then buffed to a high shine.

I guess if you rolled into a back street bodyshop and the guy with the large roll of masking tape attacked your car and removed nothing you would get a much cheaper job, just dont expect it to look the same in 6 months

 

Just had a quick look at your website. Very nice stuff.

Jack

 

I used to own a body shop. It has been some time now but here is my two cents worth. If your body shop says thay won't do a full repaint, that means they need to hire a new painter. You need to know that a full repaint will distract from the value of the car in the future. Some one always wonders how bad of a crash has it been in. Painting single panels is the same situation. Espacially front fenders (wings). The paint in Enland must be different than in the states. You won't find any lacquer. You will want a "base coat" "clear coat" paint job. As far as stripping accesories rather than masking them, I wouldan't have it any other way.
When looking for a good body shop, find the one that is doing work for the "high end" car dealers. There shop time will be highest cost, but it will be worth it. You can tell I would only accept the best, but I can't see devalueing the car with a poor quality paint job. I am not up on the costs now days. Judging from what I would charge when I was in the business; I would think $3000 to $4000 would be about right.

 

Did a Probe (similar in size to a coupe) for $2600 and everything was stripped off. Paint was excellent and 8 yrs later, the car is still looking good. You can do stuff like pulling lights and some trim to cut down labour. Find a local guy who does custom work for car nuts and hot rodders. You'll be able to see his work and most of the car nuts are very fussy about the results. Good luck.

 

Qwakwak is south of San Francisco, and all auto painting in California is done with water based paint. After seeing all the California showcars on Car Crazy TV, there are probably more auto paint "artists" in California than anywhere. Unfortunately labor rates are high due to the extremely high cost of living--especially around S.F/San Jose. Best of luck finding the right painter for the job.

 

around these parts in sunny ca. (75 F today in bay area) a decent full job is $5000 minimum

 

I can confirm Beauregard's assesment - I got a quote of $6K from a Sacramento based shop that paints for Mercedes/Jaguar/Ferrari etc dealerships. I decided to pass for now my 2000 XKR still looks pretty good and the thought of dropping $6K made it look even better

 

I had my 96 XJ6 totally repainted at a quality shop in Virginia 3 years ago for $2500. Urethane paint was used and the job was warranted for 7 years. Good job. Not show quality but it looked fine for a car its age. If I had wanted to show it, I imagine the cost would be getting towards $10K since all the little bad places would need more prep and there would be more hand work in the sanding and color sanding to get that orange peel- free finish. The only problem I had was that the shop had a hard time putting it all back together and one of the door handles was set wrong, the polished bumper trims were loose and similar. They made it good but I had to go back a couple times.

 

Y2J XJR: You can always make your car a Rat Cat. Aren't Barn Finds latest thiing--looking for completely original cars regardless of the condition? You can be ahead of your time.

I saw Stacy David on Speed TV giving instructions how to do a faux rusty look on a 50's Ford pickup.

Wayne Carini on Discovery HD's Chasing Classic Cars recently entered an old junk Fiat in a Rat Rod class at a fancy car show. Tomorrow night, he's auctioning a '38 Bugatti 57C that's been in a barn for 50 years.

I just hope I can keep my 99 XK8 looking like it's never seen a bug.

 

My '98 XK8 had a second owner that was an idiot. Bought the car for wife who couldn't get in it with a shoe horn. He took it over after 3 months of her wearing away the seat bolsters. Did I mention he was a contractor and used the car for work and little trips to home depot. He parked the car outside never covered and the Jersey Shore salt air and sun ate up the clear coat. Priced paint jobs. Dealers favorite body shop wanted $3800. I went to a local guy for $1700. I removed everything from the outside of the car including mirrors. Plain and simple, "you get what you pay for". I think he painted it in his back yard under a tree. Orange peel all over. Bubbles from dust. 1/4 of the car not rubbed out. I brought it back 6 times. 12 years old, 90,000 miles, and a daily driver. On the highway doing 65+ it looks great. I'm going to live with this one. The next one I'll be more careful. Had the dealers shop do some insurance body work on my X-type. Perfect job. Jack