How much to paint a car the same factory color?

My rx8 is winning metallic blue.  I love the color.

The paint is dying (see what I did there) a quick death.

How much does it actually cost to repaint a car in the same color?

Basically, the front and rear bumper need repainted.  As do the roof and trunk.  Those panels are all a lighter shade of blue than the rest with clearcoat starting to fail.

Is it possible to repaint just the horizontal surfaces and get a good match on a metallic?  If so, is it significantly less to do that than paint the entire car?

What say grm?  Here is a picture of the front so you can see the difference.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

I assume low $ is the first priority?

How about a wrap for the roof and car-part for factory color matched panels that you can bolt on?

It depends on what kind of quality you want out of the job. Paint work costs way more than people think. Paint--just the colorful liquid that you spray--can cost hundreds of dollars per gallon. That doesn't include the clear coat (if applicable), reducers, etc. Then there's the material cost of the sand paper, body filler, etc. Then the time for the person who's going to actually do the work. I'd guess that you're looking at $2,000 on the low end. If you do it yourself, then it's significantly cheaper because labor is expensive, but you still have a lot in materials costs. You'd be surprised at how expensive decent sandpaper is. You'd also be surprised at how expensive cheap sandpaper is (you burn through it really fast).

Your paint might also be significantly cheaper than hundreds per gallon. John Deere yellow is like $40 a gallon. I've heard of some colors that are nearer to $1,000 a gallon.

You'll have to blend in the paint to the adjacent panels to avoid getting noticeable color differences. Given the panels you mentioned that need to be repainted, you're looking at repainting a fairly large part of the car and the only panels you possibly won't have to touch are the main parts of the doors. That's assuming you can find someone who can mix the paint very close the current paint color as it'll have faded from when it was new and just using the paint code will give you a great "partially repainted" look .

As to how much, are you looking at doing most of the work yourself and then have the local Maaco just do the paint itself, or take it to a bodyshop and have them do the work, or DIY the whole thing?

Materials have got really expensive over the last few years so it's not going to be cheap either way.

Maybe check out the "Paint Society" channel on the Toobz?

Also plastics like bumper covers almost never end up looking the same as metal painted with the same paint.  So the color difference there might resurface after a little while if repainted. 

So,this is no longer a challenge car.  This is "my" car.  I'll do the mechanicals, but I want it to look really nice.

It's turning into a forever car.

Does a 5k budget make sense?

I mean, painting a car for 5k$ that I spent WAY less than that to build probably doesn't make sense, but do you think 5k would be a decent budget?

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Probably in the correct ballpark. 

The harder part is finding a good shop to do it. 

You'll probably be able to save a few bucks doing disassembly and reassembley yourself. 

Paging Brent Norma-66 to the thread!  
 

Brent owns a body shop and does very very nice work.  

Is it a scuff and shoot, or will there be any body work or repair required?  Labor is the expensive part.

I usually toss out $6k as a good starting point for a whole car respray. You can save a lot by de-trimming it yourself beforehand. Normally, if it's just top surfaces I'd suggest just doing those. Every panel is another multiple again of cost. The 'average' panel is probably going to cost about $300 to scuff, prep and paint. The problem with a panel like the roof is there is often no 'break point', and you wind up having to blend and clear the quarters so you don't have a peel-back edge for the clear. 

Then, of course, there is the slight color variance you can inevitably get with an adjacent panel if you don't blend.

Most shops don't want anything to do with full paint jobs. This really is where someone like Maaco can come in. If you stay away from their cheapest packages, it is possible for them to do a good job. It won't be $1200, but it may be half as much as everyone else will charge. 

Materials are really expensive now, and talent in the industry is diminishing every year as the old guys retire. I see a growing problem on the horizon in the industry as a whole.

Four years ago I got a quote from Maaco at $3500 to paint a Miata.   All one color (white), me bringing the car in stripped.  I'm guessing it hasn't got any cheaper.  I ended up finding a small hot rod shop that did the job for the same price, but with a few upgrades.  They did a good job, but not fantastic, probably better than Maaco would have, but not what I would call show quality.  For metallic,  and multi-stage (winning blue is probably three stage), $5-6k is probably a good starting point.

ddavidv said:

I usually toss out $6k as a good starting point for a whole car respray. You can save a lot by de-trimming it yourself beforehand. Normally, if it's just top surfaces I'd suggest just doing those. Every panel is another multiple again of cost. The 'average' panel is probably going to cost about $300 to scuff, prep and paint. The problem with a panel like the roof is there is often no 'break point', and you wind up having to blend and clear the quarters so you don't have a peel-back edge for the clear. 

Then, of course, there is the slight color variance you can inevitably get with an adjacent panel if you don't blend.

Most shops don't want anything to do with full paint jobs. This really is where someone like Maaco can come in. If you stay away from their cheapest packages, it is possible for them to do a good job. It won't be $1200, but it may be half as much as everyone else will charge. 

Materials are really expensive now, and talent in the industry is diminishing every year as the old guys retire. I see a growing problem on the horizon in the industry as a whole.

I'm fairly lucky with the roof that this car has gutters that are removable.   It should provide a clear "cut line" between the roof and upper door sections.

I'm also thinking I may wrap the roof with a blue carbon fiber wrap and try to find good replacement bumpers.

I think that would be cheapest by far!

I just resprayed my truck for the same reasons - failing clear and my half-assed attempt at a cheap fix to just the hood and roof panels.

The cost for me was very low because I leveraged some work connections. The system I used was spec'd by the painters and is the top line from Sherwin Williams. Even with a discount the color was $750 for a gallon of the factory code (I only needed about half of that). Sealer/primer/clear were all used from existing supplies. Those would have doubled my material cost. I did as much prep work as possible beside the final scuff and masking before it went into the booth.

Sending it out to a shop, if you find one that is interested in something other than insurance work, is likely to be in the ranges noted above.

I know you're not in the Tampa FL area, but Hong Norr $2000 Challenge veteran George (idk his last name) owns a shop there called Krucial Kolors. They do fantastic work.

High Quality Paint is well over $1,000  gallon. Add in the cost of any hardeners, reducers, clear coat, Primer, sealers, etc. and you are talking huge costs.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

I had one of my Volvo 245s repainted last year by the body shop at the dealership I work at. I removed most of the trim myself. They did not "jam" it, but they did remove all the glass and reinstall. It was $5500 all in. It turned out nice!