Paint cost?

[New_kid]

So, i found this eclipse in my town for 2600 bucks, car is prime ready for paint stage, so i basically wanna ask, if any of you guys can tell me the average prices for paiting the whole car? I kinda like this gs-t just cause it has 87k miles on it, and the price seems fair, but the only thing is that is not painted?

Any opinions on should i buy it?

 

[markeski]

I'm currently having my GST painted. The shop is doing a factory style paint job for $4000. The paint job is including body work as well as little dings, a few larger dents, and welding in new sheet metal in the strut tower that has rusted through in one spot.

Honestly, when it comes to body work, you get what you pay for. A cheap paint job might peal, crack, or have flaws, but it'll look good from 10 feet away.

I think most paint shops can give you a quality factory paint job for the 2500-4000 range especially when it's only the exterior. If your car is primed then I figure a nice paint job could be had for the lower end of that range.

Is it worth it? Depends on the mechanical condition, modifications, mileage, etc. on the car and whether or not it is worth it to you personally. When I bought my gst I looked for a cosmetic fixer upper that was well maintained mechanically. I got a low mileage gst with tons of recent maintenance items done and a few nice modifications, but due to the cosmetic flaws, got her for a great price and had it painted so it'll be as close to a new 2g eclipse as I could hope to get.

Hope that helps.

 

[Bud92gsx]

Social media, word of mouth for your local friend of a friend,of a friend, who happens to do paint and body work.

 

[New_kid]

The car doesnt seem to have any dents, all it needs is to be painted, and also i am pretty sure, its just the outside. I just need a good opinion if i should pretty much buy this car?

So i messaged my old friend from middles school, he's in 10th grade right now, and asked him if he knows anyone who does paintjobs, and hes like i do, and i am like how much, hes like 1.5k for the whole car, he says he's done like 6 cars with high quality paint, do you guys think i should trust this guy or no?

 

[Mitsubishigst1999]

If you dont have alot of damage to the body and its already primed take it up to Macco they painted my GST Spyder for $430.00 they did a great job no complaints over one year ago.

 

[SleepyGST]

No disrespect to the last post, but i haven't heard a whole lot of great things about macco paint jobs. Like said before, you get what you pay for. I heard their biggest problem at macco is attention to detail, which is obviously very critical. haha

 

[KBasham03]

Spraying paint is the easy part... If the prep was done properly, consider spraying it yourself. Practice on some junk body panels. Im in the process of prepping mine, and I'm going to spray it myself.

 

[zedicus]

macco does great if you prep the car before hand, and you know how to finish sand and own a buffer. but then your doing the hard part, might as well buy a gravity feed gun and just do the entire thing yourself at that point.

 

[niddydsm]

I got a qoute from a local paint shop for my 2g tsi and it has a minor dent, faded paint, and it was only gonna be $800

 

[gophishy10]

I work at a body shop. I just did a full paint job on my car which cost me $300 because my boss gave me a discount. The cost will depend greatly on the color you want it, red being the most expensive. Also, it will cost more if you want the engine bay, door jams, etc done as well. I would say (from my experience) that a good paint job (just car exterior) should cost you about $1500 without doing body work. If I were you, I would have a body shop go over the whole car with wetsanding to find any small dings or dents. You will definitely be glad you had that done after the paint job. I wouldn't go with anybody that gives you a quote over $2000. And ask them the paint brand they use. Sherwin Williams is probably the best out there. Dupont has a new waterborne paint that is pretty good too.

 

[supraguy17]

I work at a body shop. I just did a full paint job on my car which cost me $300 because my boss gave me a discount. The cost will depend greatly on the color you want it, red being the most expensive. Also, it will cost more if you want the engine bay, door jams, etc done as well. I would say (from my experience) that a good paint job (just car exterior) should cost you about $1500 without doing body work. If I were you, I would have a body shop go over the whole car with wetsanding to find any small dings or dents. You will definitely be glad you had that done after the paint job. I wouldn't go with anybody that gives you a quote over $2000. And ask them the paint brand they use. Sherwin Williams is probably the best out there. Dupont has a new waterborne paint that is pretty good too.

why is red the most expensive? I had a body shop spray my bumper and both fenders for $250.. didn't even prep or let alone prim the panels literally just sprayed them and after a year my bumper is chipped from hell to back and my fenders are beginning to chip and flake as well

 

[gophishy10]

The cost/color thing all has to do with the amount of tint in the color I believe, hence why red is more expensive. It has a lot of tints. Your bumper would be chipping because it either wasn't prepped properly or it wasn't sanded good enough. Was it a new bumper? New bumpers can be tricky depending on who they are made by. Some require a process before a base coat is even applied.

 

[JusMX141]

If you walked in to my parts store with the same vague question, I'd give you the same vague answer I give everyone else....a gallon setup of Omni Acrylic Enamel in basic colors is $113.85, and a gallon setup of a metallic red or something else in Deltron basecoat with the best clear I have on stock would be around $900.

There are options at literally every price break in between based on the color you want to spray and the finish you're looking to achieve.

You need to have an idea of color as well as how you want the finished product to turn out before you ask such vague questions about pricing. This is no different than asking a performance shop what it would cost to build your engine without giving them a horsepower goal.

 

[boost97gst]

Dude, go on craigslist. There are great body men and painters on there that do really good work for less than half what youd pay at a shop and do it way better in most cases. Im getting my maroon eclipse painted black and all the dings taken out for about a grand. You cant beat that

If you spend 5k or more your going to have show quality paint. If you go to maaco...... well you get maaco quality paint. I prefer to find locals that do it on the side and use quality paint/clear so you get a very good job for a very good price.

 

[jpmxrider489]

If you walked in to my parts store with the same vague question, I'd give you the same vague answer I give everyone else....a gallon setup of Omni Acrylic Enamel in basic colors is $113.85, and a gallon setup of a metallic red or something else in Deltron basecoat with the best clear I have on stock would be around $900.

These numbers are just for paint. So if the car comes in primed, why couldn't the owner spray it? Would it be rattle can primer?

Say someone came into the shop and wanted a paint job, would you have to sand the whole car down and prime it. If so what would a estimate labor cost be. That's hours after hours. The paint job is what makes or breaks a car. I would want a pro doing it either way.

How much extra would shops charge just to do the engine bay? How would they do it without the motor out?

OP if this paint job is going to be the deciding factor on this car, I wouldn't do it. I think you can find a decent tsi or gst for the price of the car plus the paint job.