# How much does a full car paint job cost???



## RetroAction (Jan 1, 2012)

I've never had my car fully painted nor do I have any friends that paid a shop to fully paint their car. Any idea how much a good paint job would cost where they would also fix little dents as well? Could I get a good paint job for around 2-3k?


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## coolalex (Jan 20, 2012)

Depends on car, area, shop. Be prepared to spend around 3 for a good job.

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## RetroAction (Jan 1, 2012)

coolalex said:


> Depends on car, area, shop. Be prepared to spend around 3 for a good job.
> 
> Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2


 i live in the suburbs of chicago, i have a mk4 gti (2 door). you really think 3k is what its going to cost? seems excessive for such a small car.


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## coolalex (Jan 20, 2012)

A lot of the cost is just labor of stripping your paint. Sometimes you can find a shop that will cut off a big chunk of the price tag if you sand your current paint yourself.

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## Turbio! (Feb 21, 2005)

RetroAction said:


> i live in the suburbs of chicago, i have a mk4 gti (2 door). you really think 3k is what its going to cost? seems excessive for such a small car.


 Seems cheap to me. Sheetmetal area is the least of it; the cost is in prepping the car for painting and masking off stuff. 

Personally, I would be very suspect of a total repaint that cost less than $4k, because you get what you pay for - want overspray, runs, goobers, and unpainted jambs, that's what $1-2k buys you, and going up from there you get progressively better.


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## EightyNineGLH (Sep 8, 2006)

coolalex said:


> A lot of the cost is just labor of stripping your paint. Sometimes you can find a shop that will cut off a big chunk of the price tag if you sand your current paint yourself.


 :thumbdown:

A lot of the cost is PREP, not stripping. Removing trim, blocking, filling, taping, etc. 

If a body shop stripped the paint before repainting a car they wouldn't be in business, because nobody would pay for it. I have NEVER stripped the paint before painting anything, and I've only painted 3 cars. I scufff, prime, and shoot. Best answer is to take it to a body shop, and get a couple estimates. Ive seen from 3k to 5k for a full spray, including door jambs and under door panels. Depends shop to shop.


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## Balaban (May 15, 2013)

Depends on what you're willing to pay. Maaco does great paint jobs if you're willing to pay the price(Not the 600 dollar specials they do.). If you have a skill that could be useful for a painter, you could barter with them.


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## jlb85 (Oct 24, 2011)

My personal opinion of what a "good paint job" consists of would result in $10k+ . Full strip, engine out, jambs redone, color sanded between coats, flat sanded clear, 200+ microns of clear, pure black (no flake or metallic), black tinted clear, all new rubber trim, etc. Good work takes time, a lot of time!

A decent respray in the same color should be around $3k, but I would still expect to spend some time on the paint once it leaves the shop, chasing holograms and small defects, plus polishing it properly.


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## james442 (Feb 14, 2016)

*Nice*

Depends on car, area, shop. Be prepared to spend around 3 for a good job.

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Thanks for sharing this topic.


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