Paint job cost ? What have you paid ?

57AGIN · 2010-09-09 15:13

Zapato:

What a great topic and outstanding responses. Rick indicated that I'm in the process of getting bids for doing the paint on my 57. I've had the car for 12 years now and it had just been painted before I bought it. I have no idea what kind of surface preparation was done before it was painted, but it has held up pretty well. That being said I'm starting to see some bubbles forming in the lower rocker panels by the wheel wells and some minor problems where the roof meets the front windshield. I don't have the skills or available space to tackle the job as some of you have done. So I'm out shopping for a decent job, but not for a garage queen or "Riddler" quality show car. What I'm intending to do is take the car to the upholstery shop that did my interior 6 years ago and have them remove the entire interior and refurbish what the 6 years of wear and tear from driving the car to and from the beach (loaded with surfboards & wet suits), to the drags a few times, to work on occasion and to 20 to 30 car shows a year. Then the car will go to the paint shop where the front clip and all trim will be removed, the car will then come home and I'll pull the radiator, engine & transmission and bag the wiring then trailer the car back to the paint shop for body work and the paint job. It won't be a frame off restoration nor will it be media blasted. The bids I've received for the body & paint go from a low of $9,000 to a high of $12,000. All of them contingent on how much body rust, etc. is found during the block sanding. It could go substantially higher. None of the above includes having the bumpers, grill and all the stainless rehabilitated.

It probably won't end up perfect, but the shop I'll be using has had cars in just about every hod rod rod magazine on the market. Plus he comes highly recommended by a friend in whom I place a good deal of trust. We'll see. I'm looking forward to the project.

rmk57 · 2010-09-09 19:55

I think it also boils down to is how much your going to spend on a paint job on a given car. Somebody
may spend $30,000 on paint and body on Boss 429 Mustang but could you justify spending the same
amount on a run of the mill 302 coupe ?

Ford_Fellow · 2010-09-09 23:07

The car's I am about to show are not 57 Fords but the pictures are just to show a little of what goes into Paint and Body repairs....My own cars are Fords and 55 & 56 & 57's are where my dreams are...The paint and body work is same idea on the different brands..I have been doing this work for just shy of fifty years...

Ford_Fellow · 2010-09-09 23:10

Taking pictures of how the car is before it is disassembled can save a lot of work after and fix problems long before the assembly process

Ford_Fellow · 2010-09-09 23:12

Body mounts in the order they came out of the vehicle

Ford_Fellow · 2010-09-09 23:15

The car is a 59 Chrysler 300...I lifted it off the frame and put it on my rotisserie in an eight foot ceiling and I was able to rotate the car in the eight foot high ceiling..