Question about paint (time, cost, experience ect.)

[Syclone#1992]

Well I am thinking of getting my Typhoon painted sometime soon. Want to hear some of your guys experience, recommendations ect ect.

Couple of questions:
Whats the turn around time for a decent job?
Price range? 3-4k?
Should I remove cladding or let shop do it ?


This is what I plan on having done:
- Roof rack removal
- Cladding removal
- Truck painted Red/Red
- Fill in body lines? by rear glass and by doors? opinions?
- Body is pretty clean, has been painted before, but no rust that I can tell
- Cowl 3 inch hood
- Windows taped off really nice and correctly.

What do you guys think? Who has had this experience. Not looking for a show stopping job, just a nice quality job. Main reason for doing this is because the cladding looks bad. The body paint isn't too bad, but who ever sprayed (looked like Macco) didn't do a nice job.

 

[BigBadSmoosh]

paint is a bitch, either you spend a TON of money and get a great job or you don't spend enough and get a giant orange peel.

if you try to do it yourself it will eventually come out nice but you'll kill TONS of your own time.

prep is the biggest pain in the ass, but it makes the most difference.

 

[JSM]

Anything you can do before hand, removing cladding, door handles, mirrors, etc will save you ~$40hr. What is your time worth?

I would be cautious of filling the seems. Done wrong they will crack. Don't just fill them with some plastic mud, and smooth things over it won't last and look WORSE in the end.

Paint work is 10% paint 90% prep. Spend your money/time on the prep and most likely paint will come out good.

Actually PAINTING a car is not hard, heck GM has robots painting cars.

Think of paint as a mirror, it just reflects things.

There is no such thing as a perfect paint job, just levels of imperfections.

Less you pay the more you get.

 

[Syclone#1992]

Ok, my dad and I have painted/prepped vehicles. He has done two corvettes, and I have helped paint a truck. The truck didn't come out as nice as I would have liked, thats why I was going to have someone else prep the Typhoon and do it all at once (prep and paint). I figure if I let them remove/install cladding, they will be responsible too.

So whats the going price for a decent job? Smaug what did you pay and are you happy? Any tips?

 

[syclonekid43]

please leave the body line alone please. like said above the more work you do the less it will cost you. your also gonna have to drop the headliner to weld the roof rack holes. DO NOT bondo over them, cause in time they will crack and water will get it. i would take the cladding off of it. my buddy painted my syclone. we did all the prep work. i used sikkens paint. it came out like glass. and it still has to be cut and buffed. i ended up spending just under a grand for paint alone.

 

[BigBadSmoosh]

Ok, my dad and I have painted/prepped vehicles. He has done two corvettes, and I have helped paint a truck. The truck didn't come out as nice as I would have liked, thats why I was going to have someone else prep the Typhoon and do it all at once (prep and paint). I figure if I let them remove/install cladding, they will be responsible too.

So whats the going price for a decent job? Smaug what did you pay and are you happy? Any tips?

I had a "friend" do it..
I was not happy at all with the inital outcome, I did all the prep and I missed a dent or two, apparently when the painter went over it he also missed a dent or two..

my paint isn't perfect by any means, but it definately is better than what I started with.

when it comes time to paint the syclone, I am going to go INSANE with prep work, and if I have my own house/garage ill probably paint it myself.

 

[Syclone#1992]

please leave the body line alone please. like said above the more work you do the less it will cost you. your also gonna have to drop the headliner to weld the roof rack holes. DO NOT bondo over them, cause in time they will crack and water will get it. i would take the cladding off of it. my buddy painted my syclone. we did all the prep work. i used sikkens paint. it came out like glass. and it still has to be cut and buffed. i ended up spending just under a grand for paint alone.

Well I was going to have them fiber glass from teh inside then, fill them in on the outside.

So keep the body lines, and just have them fill them in better than factory.

I am going to get some quotes soon in the neighborhood and see what the cost is....going to run me. Do most body shops like to handle the prep? I talked to one guy that wanted to do the prep to make sure it was done right? So that was why I thought I should get everything done at once.

 

[syclonekid43]

the only way to fill the body line the right way is. spot weld it here and there till the wholt line is filled in. i used all-metal on my blazer. it cracked a few weeks later. i also filled in the body line on the rear quarter. the 2 tops one on each side where the quarter panel is joined. that cracked to. save the headaches and leave the bodyline in. i learned the hard way.

 

[bdydrpds10]

The Body lines you are talking about are stress points.
They were put there from the factory for a reason.
Like everyone else has said they will crack back through
if you try to weld or bondo them. :2cents:

 

[MasterBlaster]

The Body lines you are talking about are stress points.
They were put there from the factory for a reason.
Like everyone else has said they will crack back through
if you try to weld or bondo them. :2cents:

I can see them cracking when you bondo them but welding?
If done properly as to not warp the metal I can't picture them cracking. Just curious is all.

 

[JSM]

Fiberglass is for boats and corvettes, not metal bodied cars.

Unless done 100% correct, with proper reinforcement constructed for the backside, etc they will crack.

I don't see any "normal" bodyshop doing what would be needed to insure it didn't crack.

I dont' truck 99% of body shops anyways, but that is me.