how much to paint a whole car

[M3corey]

im talking inside the doors .. engine bay .. trunk .. etc .. im toying with the idea of painting my car BRG :)

[m3ltw98]

At a top notch place that will take the entire car down to bare metal will be 5-6k. We use Concours autobody in Pennsauken and they would strip the entire car down to bare metal and do the whole painting process over again.

[M3corey]

i heard from a friend of mine who knows how anal i am about work on my car .. says for a top notch job around like 9-10k .. basically stripping the whole car and dipping the chasis

[aceves]

i heard from a friend of mine who knows how anal i am about work on my car .. says for a top notch job around like 9-10k .. basically stripping the whole car and dipping the chasis
That is probably right, not worth it. If you already had some other shade of green then it would be MUCH cheaper. This way you wouldn't have to paint all the door jambs, enginebay, etc.
That's what I'm going to do :D

[m3ltw98]

You wouldnt have to dip the car. You use aircraft paint stripper to take the whole car down to its bare metal, then primer, basecoats clearcoat etc.. The place we use wetsands in between every step to insure perfect paint w/ no orange peel.

[lkstaack]

Man, considering all the labor involved with removing just about every nit-noid thing in the engine compartment, labeling it and putting it back, I can see the $10k estimate for a color change to be in the ball park. I have no personal experience, however.

[MMNJTWA]

my friend had his 02 monte carlo SS changed from white (factory) to a blue with flakes (ghetto, but different) and the whole job at a really good body shop costed him $8G IIRC.

[JT///M3]

whats wrong with orange peel? orange peel is just like factory. If I had to repaint my car, I'd love to get orange peel. It would make it look like a professional factory job.

[paul e]

If the estimate is around $10k for a total strip and repaint to a different color, what would it cost for just as good a job, but going with same color? IOW, I presume that would save having to remove all the engine bay equipment, and save painting the engine bay, the door jams, etc... Just prep and repaint of the exterior surfaces, but done to our avg anal satisfaction? Would the exterior even need to be stripped? Why not just sanding of any chips/scratches, followed by color and clear layers, with appropriate sanding in between; im NOT a fan of orange peel!

[aceves]

I would say about 2 - 2.5 K, they would still have to remove mouldings, mask, and sand/prep the surface.

[Estoril ART]

I would say about 2 - 2.5 K

Sounds about right.

[MPOWR95]

Keep it white man, put the money into making it look awesome. Just imagine all the mods you could do for the money. Green is not flattering at all for a sports car IMO.

[RRdawho?]

whats wrong with orange peel? orange peel is just like factory. If I had to repaint my car, I'd love to get orange peel. It would make it look like a professional factory job.

WTH? Orange peel is a sign of how LAZY bmw was with their paint jobs. Johnny's car was repainted before, I won't disclose how much he paid, but they took the car stripped into the bare basics took all the parts off and repainted everything the right way. Zero orange peel, the paint is smoother than water. Oh and Avus blue is sexy.

[MPOWR95]

WTH? Orange peel is a sign of how LAZY bmw was with their paint jobs. Johnny's car was repainted before, I won't disclose how much he paid, but they took the car stripped into the bare basics took all the parts off and repainted everything the right way. Zero orange peel, the paint is smoother than water. Oh and Avus blue is sexy.

Yeah man, I'm with you...who WANTS orange peel on their car??? It looks horrible and cheap.

[clumpymold]

Yep, I'm guessing around $2-3k for a full exterior job (includes door jams, partial engine bay, and trunk). I paid about $2500 for my last job on my Audi. But this also depends on the color. Plain colors (including metallic) are this price. If you get pearl colors, that's an additional "step", making it a three step process and costing more. Chromallusion would require 6 steps and is about $5-7k, I believe and is a major PITA to keep nice. If you get a small dent or chip and want to "fix it" you'll have to repaint the entire car. :(

Let me know if you would like more feedback on this as I've had my last two cars painted fully (well, exterior-wise). :)

[JT///M3]

who wants orange peel? orange peel is the sign that its original paint. nothing is better than factory paint man. Their process is superior to resprays. no body shop can strip down a car and redo it better than factory. they have the benefit of computer controlled sprayers that lay out a consistent coat everytime. Every bmw, mbz, Audi, any car has orange peel. Don't believe what the body shops tell you that orange peel is bad. Its b/c they can't replicate it consistently so they sand everything down. Trust me, my friend who owns a body shop tells me if he could, he would try to replicate OEM paint jobs, but he can't so thats why he tells people orange peel is bad. Factory lays down over 15-18 coats of paint while your best body shop can do 5-7.

[JT///M3]

Yeah man, I'm with you...who WANTS orange peel on their car??? It looks horrible and cheap.

well, you have it so is your car horrible and cheap?

[paul e]

If my alpine white '99 m3's paint gets beyond the point where I can remove most of the scratches, or the clear gets too thin, whatever, Id just get an exterior job, and I think I would keep it white. ITs in good shape now, so i dont think it would have to be totally stripped to the bare metal.. I think just some sanding, and filler if needed, and then enough color and clear coats to make it look Real deep, with No Orange Peel! ITs not that I wouldnt like to change the color to something different, but to me, for the loads of extra work involved and extra steps, it wouldnt be worth it. It looks great in white as it is, and a new paint job would be all thats needed to make it look brand new again.. Better, realy, with enough coats! :D

[Darlantan]

What is orange peel?

[binh]

What is orange peel?

go look at the skin of an orange. That same texture would be on the cars paint.

Orange peel to a minimum would be good to mimic factory paint but if you look at some work from less superior shops its more like "colorado mountains" then "orange peel" :nono

anyway, imho, it would cost wayyy too much to get a decent job and definately not worth it on your car since your paint is in good shape.

[JT///M3]

what some of you are refering to may not be orange peel but the 'fish eye' effect. now that is bad. fish eye is when you get moister in the gun/air line and after the water evaporates, you're left with a dimple like fish eye.

[MikeV]

I need to paint my car. long story short, a body shop burned through the paint. Rather than touch it up, I want to do it the right way (paint is thin now, and 7 body panels were burned) so I need to get it painted. Oh well, add it to the list of things I cant afford