Anyone get their car painted?

Post by **vjaneczko** » 23 Apr 2011, 11:37

I'm toying with the idea of getting my 855 painted - the whole thing - and I've never had anyone do any paint work for me, so I'm wondering if anyone can pass along some thoughts about the process & experience.

I've got the factory 601 Red and would like to change it to the 609 Bright Red. Not much of a change, so I don't think it would be that noticeable.

What would it cost for a darn-good job? I don't want someone touching my car for some $179 special but I'm not sure what a good job would cost. I imagine that most of the cost is in the prep work, so getting a few ‘extra’ coats of paint and clear coat doesn't jack up the cost that much?

I have a few dings and there's some bubbling happening on one of the side markers but I can't see any other signs of rust. How much $$ would that add to the job?

Should a good shop remove any trim parts to make the painting go better, or should I "trust" them to tape everything well? Or should I remove the stuff before I drop it off?

Post by **writer100** » 23 Apr 2011, 14:04

A body guy could give you the numbers, but suffice to say that a quality paint job of your entire car would be thousands of dollars. Think about it: all the trim would need to come off, the entire car including the door wells, etc, would need to be prepped and primed, bondoed if necessary, before being shot with the necessary coats of paint.

Of course, an Earl Scheib kind of job would be $399.99....

Post by **kcodyjr** » 23 Apr 2011, 14:40

My old man and I did it with the 1981. We did all of the prep work ourselves including scraping out the rust, bondo it over, priming our repair spots, removing all trim, and delivering the vehicle essentially ready to mask off the glass and paint. At that point, Maaco did a darn fine job for just under $1K. Of course, then we had to put all the trim back on ourselves

You'll save a good deal of effort by sticking with the original color.

EDIT: If you really must change the color, my advice is to strip the car down inside and out, leaving all the trim, light fixtures, and entire interior in your basement; then prep the car as far as possible yourself with bondo and sandpaper and spray primer, and then have it TOWED to the paint shop without even lights and such installed. The less they have to do, the less they can screw up.

Post by **matthew1** » 24 May 2011, 22:15

This might come in handy if you find yourself here: Volvo Paint Codes List.

Post by **asg1986** » 25 May 2011, 10:57

I had a badly oxidixed rear bumper and rust forming on my hood around the grille. I also had some rust forming on the rear door (about dime sized). To get half the door painted (below the trim); the bumper sanded, removed from the car, primed painted; and the hood rust removed, patched, primed, and painted... it cost around $3k. Ouch. It's a reputable shop, so it was worth knowing it would be done right... but that really hurt the pocket. The shop told me that for a gallon of their paint they pay $400.00! Their hourly rate is also about $80.00 (a lot more than most mechanics, but then again they are paint specialists...).

Keep 'em waxed!!!!

Post by **MNCO1** » 01 Jun 2011, 17:57

My sedan sits outside 24/7 year round. I had some bad sun "bleaching" (?) going on with the hood and the roof. I had previously painted the bumpers, roof molding, and trunk spoiler myself. The sides were not too bad. I should gotten some before photos but those bad areas were depressing me. Paint and body shops in my area need some work so I brought my car in. They took the hood off and stripped it. Also blended the front fenders in with the hood. Costs were $1,000 for roof and hood and another $300. to do the blend work. They did a great job and I am happy.

Post by **Volvo_240_Atari_2600** » 17 Jul 2011, 09:14

kcodyjr wrote:My old man and I did it with the 1981. We did all of the prep work ourselves including scraping out the rust, bondo it over, priming our repair spots, removing all trim, and delivering the vehicle essentially ready to mask off the glass and paint. At that point, Maaco did a darn fine job for just under $1K. Of course, then we had to put all the trim back on ourselves.

I am currently in the process (summer project) of stripping down mt 240 wagon COMPLETELY as described by kcodyjr stated. I have pulled off all the trim thus far and each day I have time to invest, I will atttack an entire panel or two.

So far two fenders are sanded to the original prime and now primed by me... I have used bondo "filler" wherever I caught any nicks here and there. I am not a professional body person, but I do believe I am a perfectionist that I am very comfortable with the success so far... The hood is 50/50 as I am considering sanding it down to bare metal. The car had been repainted by a ECONO Paint and Body Shop a few years ago and they made a mess of the roof and hood and shot it twice. Let’s just say I did the strip down of all trim and lights back then as the original paint was faded and beyond restoration. I gave them a naked car, paid for an additional sand/prep job and those idiots never applied an ounce of muscle and sanders to the car. Today (4 years later) I find myself scraping the ECONO paint off relatively easy with a razor scraper.

Anyway.. I had a 68 Cadillac done at MAACO years ago and that too was a naked car and they did a nice job. I am not looking to drop thousands of dollars on paint for this car, but what my wallet can afford. This 245 will also going to MAACO which will save me a bundle on their labor, nor do I want bumper covers, trim and lights masked off. I want to give them a bare naked and primed car for a clean paint job. You get what you pay for so I am considering the third (best) paint job or their best paint job less the labor.

I will start posting pics of the progress all the way to the finished job pretty soon.

The car is pretty much BONDO free except for the drivers door (original owner) which I have to say, whoever that body shop that did the work years ago, did such a great job it does not look like it had bondo... The rest of the car is BONDO Free for sure so I feel that sanding down to original prime should not be an issue. My concern is truly the roof and hood as they were both sprayed twice by those butchers.

Lets just say that the day I was called to pick up my car from those idiots, they tell me "your car is ready," and I have a coworker drop me off... it is December, a week before Christmas and my car is still tacky (not to the touch) but it clearly was NOT ready... This was clearly a shop with a high turnover as I witnessed newbie’s being taught how to remove the paper and tape over the masked areas. I drive the car home after installing the lights and I now notice a major imperfection on the hood as I am driving… Then, you could tell that the surface was uneven… One idiot has balled up tape and left it on my roof causing markings on that paint when the tape was removed.

Next day in broad day light I saw the hood clearly and the marking on the roof… They agreed to take the car back and fix it. What they did was fill the imperfections of the hood with bondo as I see this in the sanding process and of course, they shot the car with a second coat of paint from the pinstripes up.

Have not gotten to scraping the roof yet. I am afraid to attempt to sand down to the original prime and leave imperfections there as well and this is why I am contemplating going through a 100% sanding to bare metal of the roof and hood.

I just want my car to look decent but do not want it to look crappy either.

Any thoughts on the hood/roof situation?

Thanks

Post by **songzunhuang** » 22 Sep 2011, 11:33

A while back I had the hood of a Nissan Maxima redone for an extremely good price. I was friends with the owner of the body shop and he let me hang out here and do the work. We took the hood to bare metal, but it wasn't hard. He had this industrial strength aircraft urethane stripper. You wear thick rubber gloves and brush it on. Wait about an hour and then scrape all the paint off down to bare metal. The paint and primer would literally bubble off. After than it was just a few light dent repairs and sanding and I was done.

The painting part was equally easy. He charged me $90 for the paint and $180 for the labor. He had his paint guy do the spraying. With today's modern paints, it will dry in a few hours and you can take it home. It ended up being about a 2 day job since I wasn't there all day and had to wait for the paint guy.

So find a local body guy that will work with you! Of course this same body shop did a $7,000 paint job on my DeTomaso Pantera so he was cool with me using the shop for the "little" job.

Incidentally, last year he did the front bumper, hood, and fender of my S2000. Someone backed into the fender and bumper and left a bad scrape. For that job, it was $1200 (the painting cost). The replacement parts and slight customization I requested cost a bit more.