paint and body work prices?

[Cruiserhead05]

Stopped by a few body shops in town today to gets some prices on putting my new quarter panels in and fixing some other rust and painted my 40. one shop quoted my 2500 alone to only paint the car and thats w/ no body work the other placee said 1600 for all body work and 800 to spray it. just wanted some opinions on this topic. also someone said they may be interest in trading their lifted 97 runner w/ mods for my 40....sounds like a sweet trade...what do you think?

 

[Archengine]

Well, although the price seems outrageous to me, it depends heavily on work quality/reputation and your area. That would be a normal price for a hotrod artist restoring your paint to perfect condition on 76th street lower Manhattan. Around here someone would probably charge around $500 labor plus cost of paint. I spent about $300 on my paint from Napa. Welding in qp's and smoothing the lines would probably be another $500. These are prices for shops around here in Ky. However, there are lots of people that do this as a side job, after work and on weekends. Many of them do great quality work. I would go this route myself. If your doing a concourse quality job, then pay the big bucks. However, if your going to 4wheel your truck, then scratches and dents are a part of life. So your paint quality doesn't need to be as good as a show winner. I would post on this board for anyone in your area that may do it cheaper. For my money however, I went and bought a good paint gun for $150, and practiced for a few days and then painted my own truck. If you want a smooth finish then wet sand in between coats. Not too difficult really. Best of luck.

 

[dd113]

Big problem is that many shops make much more money off of insurance claims than they will off of you; no matter what you pay. First you must find a shop that will take on the job. Normal car, no major dents or rust, no colour change should run around $2000 out the door. Add panels, rust and dents and it can easily go up to 3K. For that money you should get a very nice paint job. Usually nicer than any 40 deserves. The hard part is getting a good enough job for around 1K. Very difficult to do no matter where you live. Best thing to do is to buy the tools and do it yourself up till the actual painting. Hire a good shop with a booth and supply the paint. Looking at around $400 in topcoat.

 

[Otis]

I recently had my ’82 FJ40 re-painted. The truck had several dents and very minor rust in the bed. I stripped it myself and had the inside, outside, under hood and inner fender wells painted. The total for the bodywork and paint was $3000. Not cheap, but in the end I have a truck that looks almost new and was well worth it to me.

I did have some trouble finding a shop here in So. Ca. to do the work. Like David noted, most shops in this area were not interested in working on it because they primarily deal with insurance claims. The few shops that were willing to deal with it had prices that ranged from $2000 to $4500. I choose a shop that had painted a friends Mustang Boss 351 show car with very good results.

The truck is now almost too nice to go offroading in. However, I did just take it Surf N Turf and had a great time running the dunes with it…

If interested, there are photos of the truck and re-build here:

http://members.cox.net/1982fj40/

 

[fjcruiser]

Ditto what archengine said. It really comes down to what you are looking for. If you want a show truck, pay the big bucks and you'll get it.
I was in your position last summer. I knew I didn't want to spend more than a few hundred bucks. I learned to do the body work myself then paid a guy to paint it for me. Paint was ~$150, $300 for the paint job (inside and out completely disassembled), lots of sandpaper and my labor. Talk to you local napa or parts house. They will probably know someone in the area that paints on the side.
The only thing I'll add is that I wish I would have painted it myself. I could have bought a good quality gun for ~150 and would have saved even more.

 

[toddslater]

Without ever seeing the truck...all is just speculation. But to put two quarters on and shoot the pig..and do some other non specified miracles on rust for 2400 may be right in line and if he is putting additional sheet metal in ...down right reasonable. Just shooting the pig for 2500...well thats that other fellas way of saying he is too busy doing insurance work to F with a rust-o-ration.