Mr.Whitey

I stopped by a shop that does work mainly on Corvettes, f-body and other similar cars along with custom rods to ask him about getting my 93 painted this winter if I can afford to do it RIGHT. I know he isn't going to be cheap but I want a great paint job. The car has no dent/dings or other problems that will cause a bunch of extra work. He told me that his "set fee" for my car in red would be $5500., not including any extra work like the engine bay. The one thing I forgot to ask him was about the clear coat. I didn't ask how many coats he would include with his "set fee". The guy is now on vacation for several weeks and won't be around for me to ask. How much clear would you think a high quality type shop would put on? How much is too much, if that's possible? I would rather spend the money to have a paint job that has lasting looks. The factory paint is still REALLY nice for almost 10 years old but it's starting to build up small chips all over. I am **** about my car, probably like most here and the chips are bugging the lleh out of me.
Thanks in advance.

FilledWithFurySS

I saw a black Z28 with count them...20 coats!!

the car looked almost like a lucid dream!! It was killer to say the very least!! I beleive a stock paint job is 4 coats of clear


I am not sure though

~Mike

MadKilla

An old friend of mine has a mint restored Yenko camaro. While I was in high School I went to see the car get prepped and painted. The guy said a real good 10K concours quality paint job is all in prep work. After that he said its in the post paint work. As in, it got sprayed with 6-8 layers of clear, and is wet sanded in various stages down to 3-4 layers. that is what gives that deep liquid glass look. So you can shoot 20 layers of clear, it'll probably crack or be too soft, but still won't look half as good as a well prepped and executed job. Check their process for painting, don't worry about clear coat, unless they say the spray 3 coats, which leaves nothing for wet sanding or blocking the car.

HEATH

approximately 4 mills is factory 7 is pushing too thick .over 10 millimeters of material and you beggeing for problems. like he said 8 coats and 4 were sanded off. leaving 4 ulraslick coats.

normal application of any paint system Basecoat/clearcoat is 2 coats clear medium wet. 3 if trying to hide dirt or imperfections.
if overall paint job, its ok to spray many coats if theres proper flash time and some is going to be sanded off. but if you are panel painting any color but black 2 coats is about maximum. usually too much clear will totally change the color of that panel because clear isnt totally clear it has a dirty tint to it (kinda ) yellow.

my 65 chevelle has 8 coats of clear on it but ( its 17 year old laquer clear) old stuff..... part of the reason it has to be stripped down and reshot this winter. 53000 orig miles on it. the paint my dad did in 1985 held up awfull well. but its showing age.

just my opinion.

shop around when getting estimates.... theres a real large (U GET WHAT U PAY FOR) when it comes to quality paint jobs. for a overall color change on a straight car i wouldnt touch it under 4000$ and up to 10000$ is easy to get too if you want a show winner..........GOOD LUCK

Brent94Z

I asked the guy who painted my SS millennium yellow how much he would charge the next guy who wanted theirs painted the same color. He said $5000 with no body work. That's due largely to the expensive tint based yellow though.

I also got the impression that more was not necessarily better. I'm pretty sure most of my car has 4 coats of clear. It would have had only 2 or 3 but because they knew they were going to have to wet sand it, they either sprayed another coat or did the last one heavy.

Mr.Whitey

Thanks guys for helping me understand the process much "clearer" now. From the way it sounds the price he is asking for is in the proper range. I've seen work he has done and it's great. Before he left he told me that if I wanted to have it done before early spring to schedule now. Is that what you call job security? I want the engine bay done also but he won't touch it w/ the engine still in. I am thinking about starting a non-profit company to pay for a quality paint job. I am going to call it "ME". Any donors?
Thanks again for the help.