Fair Price for paint?

[wilnutt]

I'm rebuilding my 2-door, 57' Fairlane 500. The only rust spots are down at the rear of the front quarters (Of course). They're gonna have to be repaired, but other than that, the body is straight.
I've been given a price for blasting, metal/rust repair, sanding, body panel alignment, etc. This also includes a 2-tone paint job of Dark Highland Green (Bullitt Green) on the bottom and the stock Colonial white on the top. This also covers painting the interior dash and metal pieces on the door to match.

My question, Does $11,000 seem like a fair price? Fact is I wanted it taken down to bare metal, so I only have to have this thing painted once (One and done)

All help would be greatly appreciated.

PLUS If anyone's ever seen a 57 done in this color, please feel free to post a pic... Or maybe even photoshop a pic :-)

[JimNolan]

Wilnutt,
      I'm having a 63 Galaxie repainted now. The body was exceptional and I didn't have to take it off the frame to fix body mounts. The guy is doing it for $7,000. But, the window wiskers, headliner, dash etc isn't being touched.  What he's done is taken the body down to bare metal, straightened the rear quarter where it had been replaced, block sanded the car (that's $2000.00 anywhere) and paint it. I get to put it all back together. And I think that's a deal.
     If your guy is taking the dash apart ( not just masking it ) and block sanding the car before and after paint, I think you're about right. If your car hasn't been taken down to bare metal yet I'd sort of hold off on jumping up and down for joy about having a car with only rust spots at the rear quarters. A 57 Fairlane can hide a lot of rust and it's rust where it hurts. That's like the bottom of the front fender. You'd think that's easy to repair. But when you get into it you find that sub-structure at the bottom of the fender has rusted out too. So now you've got inside and outside to replace. Cha-Ching. Same with those little rust spots at the front of the rear quarter panel. And, that's an area you have to make yourself, they don't sell replacements.
   The only reason I'm giving you this long drawn out answer is because you said you wanted to do it once ( one and done ). If you don't take it down to bare metal you'll never know. And, the pride in the paint job may last six months. Otherwise, $11,000 isn't bad if it's painted right. Good Luck, Jim
 

[Zapato]

This is probably not out of line, one caveat would be to get maybe a second and third quote for price. But more important than that would be to get references from past customers. Not only for quality but to find out if they delivered on or close to time. Most body shops make their living off insurance work. Its their bread and butter and at some shops a job like yours will be the last thing they'll work on and after awhile you'll feel like your car has been hi-jacked.

What you're paying mostly is labor, and nobody gives that away. There's probably only $1500-2000 in materials.

Go to a cruise-in in your area and talk to guys and find out who painted their car and their experiences. Could save you a lot of grief.

Zap-

[burns]

I would think that is a fair price for a high quality job. Again as previously stated, get a firm completion date, talk to others and do NOT pay up front. Through past experience I can tell you what having a car in what I refer to as "body shop jail" is like!! also do not tell them that there is "no rush" famous last words of many classic car owners. the bread and butter is the collision work. I prefer to give them a down payment for materials, percentage upon progess inspection and a minimum of 30% upon completion. I have went as  far as drawing up a simple contract in the past for one of my high dollar cars and having a quick meeting after which we both agreed and signed. this can be of great benefit if you need to remove the car from the premesis. remember possesion is 9/10ths of the law.