Reasonable Cost for Body Prep and Paint

I had a fellow out to the house the other day from a paint shop that had been recommended by a couple of people. I am at the point where any further work needs to be coordinated with the who ever is going to paint the car. Since I am by no means a body man this is critical and I want the body shop to do the final fitment of the panels as well as prep/paint the car.

The guy did say that the body was not as bad as he anticipated (he has worked on several replicas and one actual GT40). I told him that I didn't expect a show quality finish, but that I did want the car to be "nice." I told him that I had budgeted $6-8K. Long story short, as he was leaving, he said that he could easily see double my budget in finishing the car. He did say that would not be using any of the journeyman painters, but that he or one of the "master" painters would do all of the work at $45/hour. He also said that this would include 4-5 coats of polyester primer and then block sanding followed by another 4-5 coats and another block sanding.

Am I being foolish in thinking that this was a bit on the high side?

Why use a "master painter" to do the block sanding, which is 2/3 or more of the time?
No reason you can't get a show quality finish
for the budget you have ASSUMING the panels
are in good shape with good gaps to start.

I spent HUNDREDS of hours getting my body
seams to line up. Hopefully yours is much
better.

MikeDD

Lynn, it seems to me that you should take your business elsewhere if this guy can envision doublke your budget, or $12,000 to $16,000 in other words. When I picked my car up from Bob Lawrence, who has been down this road before with his Cobra, he said that he had a guy lined up to paint his car to a show-quality finish for $6,500...that price to included "ghosted" Gulf decals and other tricks.

Maybe this guy sees all the extra time in aligning the body panels. Regardless, I think you should shop around.

MikeDD - HUNDREDS of hours? WHat was the problem?

Lynn,
The cost to paint a GT40 including all the body prep and seams should not exceed $5,000
including materials. Now if you include the fittment of these panels to the job then the price will surely shoot up. All GT40's are
complex and require careful fitment. A good
bodyman should be able to fit any GT within 40 hours.
My suggestion to you is to make sure the party doing the work agrees to a reasonable
time period. Otherwise if this is a common bodyshop your project will get shoved to the back everytime a quick insurance job comes in the shop. Most body shops look at this type of work as filler to keep their men working when things slow down. You better make sure they sign an estimate sheet that fully details what you expect. If you allow them to work on it by an hourly rate you will lose. They will rack up time like you won't believe. Who ever you hire to do this car must realize that it is a priority and it must get done and done right.
My guestimate says that if your fiberglass is in good shape and does not require any major body work you can expect to get it fitted and painted for under $8,000.
The hard part is finding the right guy to do it. If I lived out there it would be a no brainer.

Hersh

There are some members here who have had £6000 plus paint jobs and they look fantastic. And I have heard of up to 18 coats of paint/lacqueur being applied! The weight of that must be enormous! However definately a cut above some other cars. But some other members have paid far less and have got good paint jobs too. Therefore it can be done at reasonable prices. Having smacked my car this year I have a choice to make on whether to go for a complete respray or just the affected areas. The actual paint costs are not the critical thing. It is all in the preparation. However as the paint is the final covering of the car, you will find that the initial reaction by all Joe Public looking at your car will judge the whole build by the paint job as they often don't know any better. Get this bit right and you will be happier too!

Malcolm

Lynn,

Be sure to "thank" your friend for that recommendation! That estimate is ludicrous!
Shop around! I'm sure that by doing a bit of research, you'll find someone just as talented, for half the price. Most decent
body shops keep albums of their custom work.
Ask to see what they have done, as well as
ask for references from satisfied customers.

Bill

Lynn,

Was this price of $12-16K for prep and paint only, or did it include panel alignment? Like others said, it sounds really high. Even ERA says that they use a painter that can do a show quality paint job for $10K, and we all know how high ERA's standards are.
Definitely stay away from paying an hourly rate; I had a friend spend 3 times over the estimate based on this method. Let the shop give you a total job price. If they go over, it's their problem, if they come in under, it's money in their pocket. Good luck, Max.

Lynn, I agree with the above. I spent $18,000 to paint a 36 ft fiberglass yacht, took months of prep, came out beautifully. The local Ferrari restoration shop gets 15-20K for a full-out, show-quality job on a vintage Ferrari- not a new car but an old one and frequently lots of metal work. You should be able to get the GT40 done for far less. I agree with 6-8K, and I think you should keep looking. Good luck.

I agree. I've had numerous cars painted to a very high standard for less than $4000. Find someone that wants a "calling card" car. Nothing brings in business like high quality work. Sell the idea to the shop...

Lynn,

After I spent about 3 months full time (say 40 hours a week) getting all the shutlines right and the panels flush (with a lot of grinding back the gelcoat and adding glassfibre), I still had a bill close to $4500 (UK rates of course) for the final finishing, undercoat and topcoat (two-pack of course). It was a plain Gulf blue paint I then added stick on white stripes. I humbly think it has received universal praise on the final finish, certianly more than good enough for me. You can see the results on the Web at 'perso.club-internet.fr/dherrero/lmclassic02_gt40b.htm' along with others who went to the Le Mans Classic weekend.

I used Elite Coachworks in Spalding, Lincs UK. I gave them a very detailed spec of what I wanted and didn't want which I think is VERY important to avoid problems later - also of course it was a fixed price job. I was pleased with the result and the communications (I dealt with the painter direct).

Good luck, you will probably only do this once, unless you are Malcolm of course so better err on the good side of the required result.

Thanks, everyone, for your input. You have really given me a good benchmark to work from in arranging the finish. From a price point of view and the who and how of the job as well. Bye-the-way, the quoted did include some panel alignment. Overall, the lines where the clips come together are actually pretty good from the perspective of the width of the gaps. Mostly just getting them parallel. But, as always, the big deal is the doors.

I bought a set of untrimmed doors from GT Supercars so that I could get the best fit. I have taken the edges down to the point where they fit the opening like a glove: virtually no gap. But there are still some minor alignment issues along the bottom of the door and the A pillar. I don't want to remove any more material from them because they are at the point where it would be easy to ruin them. This is where I want the experience of a good body man: a guy who understands how trimming one area can have an unanticipated (to the layman anyway) effect on different areas. Especially, when dealing with complex muliplanar shapes like a GT40's doors. And then, you have to consider what happens when they open and close! Ouch! It gives me a headache just thinking about it.

I believe that all GT40 bodies have some inherent waviness in them-- I have been told by several independant sources that the originals were the worst in this regard-- so one could probably work a year getting them perfectly flat. I suppose this could rack up the dollars to the point of the quote that was given to me. This is supported, I think, by the sales ad for a GT40 on the east coast a while back where the owner said it had a $10K paint job and that was done at least 5 years ago. So, I guess, it is not unheard of to spend that much money, but, for the most part, it is probably unnecessary.

Lynn, I have to agree with Neal. Find an up and coming body shop that "wants" to do the job. Tell them you'll keep their business card on the dash and give it out at shows.

Depends what kind of job you want, to drive or just to show but don't spend over 5k IMHO.

Any body guy is probably going to have fun with the doors.