Price on a Panel Beater

Had to open a can of worms here as I'm still laughing at a quote I got today.
I have still got a couple of bits of rust to finish but have had three guys quote to respray my van.
1. $18.500.
2. $100 per hour to panel beat and an additional $12.000 to paint.
3. This one spun me out today, came looked at my van, $40,000 for beating and $12,000 paint.
Just putting it out their but that's got to be the most stupid price I have ever seen, I told him I would want to win Summernats Grand Champion for that price.
Cheers and guess I'm painting this one like last time.....

at least you know is done right then   

$52,000 to paint the van!!!    

Sounds like he didn't want the job!

But in all seriousness it is bloody expensive to get a professional job done these days, Mully was quoted $20,000 by the great John Evans to do his van... if he brought a perfectly straight van ready for paint.

But from what I have seen of your last build, you are more than capable of doing it yourself, and imagine what you could do to the drivetrain if you saved yourself that sort of coin on the paint!

Resprays are defantley not cheap when l was pricing around l got quoted $14000 another 2 at $10000 these quotes were bare metal resprays best quote was from my relative l done all the hard work he just painted
But like Karl said you seem capable of doing great job have a go nothing to loose good luck with it

Yeah um like wow!!!

    

$52k to paint it..............you'd buy a few finished ones for that price and save yourself the headache.   

That's quite a shock.
I'll be be saving for 10 years for a respray.....

My son is a painter by trade and does work at home,
Some of the quotes of 8-12000 dollars I can understand .But not 52k.
The hours and hours that go into prepping a car for paint is incredible and you don't beleive it until you see it first hand.
The most expensive way is drive-in /drive-out ,They have to pull the car apart every nut & bolt .
Do the repairs that are asked for ,Then prep that area for paint ,make sure it's straight .
The more repairs the longer it takes.
Just in the painting side all the van has to be rubbed down(and there not small) Removeing all the old paint especially if it is originally done in acrylic  like most where done from the factory,it will literally
once painted in 2 pak it will just peel off .(e.g Denise cefrains xc) Even my own had problems with the roof .It was  painted 3 times
Don't forget the costs involved with this ,more sandpaper probably 3-4 different grades to remove old paint again ,the time to do it as well,The cost of a paint ,which some are not cheap( eg glasurit,ppg).
It cost me 2600 just for 6 liters of glasurit and that was wholesale.
My son has just done a hilux at home ,it has taken him 4 months to do  and goes back together this
week .The hours he has on it are as follow- he would finish work at 4 ,be home by 4:15 in working
on it at 4:30 till 11:30-12:00 at night 5 days a week .then Saturday's 8:30-9 till 6-7:00
Sundays he would sleep in start at 10 ish and go till 4 or 5 .Add that up over 4 months even @ $45 an hour that's a lot..
I guess what I'm trying to say is the more you do yourself the better of you are ,
I know not everybody has the patience to sit there and sand ,I know I don't .
I waited 20 yrs for my son to paint my van.

P.s
Sorry for the rant ,I am not trying to justify what painters charge by any means
But trying to give some insight

Insurance companies allow around $300 per panel for paint (only).
OK so this is just to new car standard not show stopping stuff. But some of the prices being quoted are ridiculous.
The answer is to do it yourself or trade your skill set with somebody on the barter system.

Paint only job should run around 4 to 8K in my books on a Van. Beating and rust repairs obviously on top of that.

Regards, Smooth  

hey spraying isnt hard its all in the prep, hate sanding so much helps to let the mind wander to the other jobs to be done ect.
i got my start with a booklet that was in with a mag called the dulux guide to automotive paniting and a mag how to build your own custom street car way before the internet now you can get videos and info so easy.
i aways use acryic more work but at home you can get a finish better than your pre 80s car left the factory.
get a hvlp gun would never go back the old gravay feed gun use to do 5 minites spraying in the shed and it would be foggy as most of the paint was bouncing back off the panel the new guns r excellent.
pick a warm day for topcoats bout 25 degrees is good primers can be cooler.
i wet sand always use a block clean water n i use a mirofibre cloth to wet the panel the hang it abouve n let the water run out of it as well as dipping the block in the bucket.dont rush like im doing atm between rain days .
if the compresser cuts in stop spraying till it full . practace on an old panel
if you can see a mark in the primer sand if will show up in the final coats  hi fill primer is great,
have fun and in the end take the pride you did it youself      tom

home sprayfinish off the gun

those prices are pretty expensive! so many think painting and panelbeating is cheap and easy though, and it is not. it is a trade and one that requires skill and patience.

i also found at work the worst thigns a customer would say to me were "oh ive saved you time and sanded it all ready for you" those can be quite scary words :O id always prefer to prep myself so i know it is done to standard and it actually saves time.those people generally did not have any clue on how to prep a car they were mroe of the type that drive around with smoke blowing and think its normal.
painting/panel beating is things that cannot be rushed, and crash shop stuff is different to restoration stuff. resto places do not see as many cars as they take their time, crash shops its get it in and out as fast as possible whilst still doign the job right.
whilst 52k is way rediculous, generally speaking paint and panel work is not supposed to be cheap. so many take short cuts when they get to this spot. my dad being one he built this aweome awesome camper for his ute LOL and i got my price on automotive grade paint/primer/etch etc. it was actualyl really good value. but he decided t ogo with cheapest stuff he can. well, we used industrial enamel, it will not protect as well as a decent 2pac job would have. as the paint is softer.
my horse float is another victim of the cheapest spray job, it only got rebuilt by a big company here about 4 years go (just before i got it) and its already needing to be stripped back and re done as everything penetrates its badly done with cheap thin paint acrylic spray job. it is terrible. built amazingly then they take short cuts at the end with the most important part :O

you are not wrong about a can of worms

i went pricing about 6 months ago more so i could prepare the bank i got three genuine quotes for a bare metal respray with sorting out the rust and a few of the panel issues bluEJay has
A $15000 + 6 months if i drop them in a shel
B $15000 as a base price + 3 months drive it in and leave them the keys
C $20000 + 12 months if i drop them in a shell

i was refered to shop A by a family member who was a body builder limo builder for 40 + years
i walked in all i could see was empty beer bottels and half finished cars porbly 30 or 40 of them
that didnt fill me with confidence

shop B has the business was split down the middle 50% smash 50% restoration but both sides of the business were separate down to the work shops were two different buildings staff ect i was told just by looking at it as i drove it in $15000 plus what every was uncovered during the striping down process that wasnt seen witch i thought that was fair enough i was also recommended to have bluEjay chemical striped rather then simply sanding it back because of the age of it a lot of the seam sealer has gone hard and will simply brake off in time leaving bare steel to rust and start the hole process all over again plus with the chemical process the car is dipped in a solution much like a modern car like a protective coating ever pice better then the factory ever did but i priced this up and it will add about $5000 to the total so i am looking at $20000

shop C i went for a walk around the shop and there were a few older cars and even an eh but what worryed me was the hole quater from door jamb to tail light was bog when i asked if this was being repaired or preped i was told that there is nothing wrong with bog if it is used correctly

so i dont know what to do ?  

putting a inch of bog over the whole panel then sanding half it off is how most tradies do it now wouldnt even know what a body file is

Seem's to me that the painters and beaters are making big dollars out of the mining boom over there,they would know what money miners are on so they will quote what they wan't knowing that some will pay for it.
On saying that if I didn't wan't to do a job I would quote very high,I am no longer in the game and I don't miss it if you wan't to save a few bucks go and do a tafe course if you are in no hurry on your project or be prepared to pay as times have changed and there are not to many old school painters or beaters left anymore,my suggestion is look for a restoration place that really takes pride in their work and take your time looking around.

Regards Tony.
  
"leave em"wanting more!

An old retired guy has quoted me $6000 to do my body, he has a van himself and contacted me through the Steel Bumpers over here and came and looked and said he would love to see another original van on the road and it will give him something to do, watch this space.....

nice thats the way to do it   

fc59 wrote:you are not wrong about a can of worms

i went pricing about 6 months ago more so i could prepare the bank i got three genuine quotes for a bare metal respray with sorting out the rust and a few of the panel issues bluEJay has
A $15000 + 6 months if i drop them in a shel
B $15000 as a base price + 3 months drive it in and leave them the keys
C $20000 + 12 months if i drop them in a shell

i was refered to shop A by a family member who was a body builder limo builder for 40 + years
i walked in all i could see was empty beer bottels and half finished cars porbly 30 or 40 of them
that didnt fill me with confidence

shop B has the business was split down the middle 50% smash 50% restoration but both sides of the business were separate down to the work shops were two different buildings staff ect i was told just by looking at it as i drove it in $15000 plus what every was uncovered during the striping down process that wasnt seen witch i thought that was fair enough i was also recommended to have bluEjay chemical striped rather then simply sanding it back because of the age of it a lot of the seam sealer has gone hard and will simply brake off in time leaving bare steel to rust and start the hole process all over again plus with the chemical process the car is dipped in a solution much like a modern car like a protective coating ever pice better then the factory ever did but i priced this up and it will add about $5000 to the total so i am looking at $20000

shop C i went for a walk around the shop and there were a few older cars and even an eh but what worryed me was the hole quater from door jamb to tail light was bog when i asked if this was being repaired or preped i was told that there is nothing wrong with bog if it is used correctly

so i dont know what to do ?  

Maybe Dean you come past in the next few days
and sus out my young blokes latest efforts....... 

cool