RMills944

This was also the type of shop that paints cars for 100 point inspection concours. When they did the back bumper on my jetta they had an old Buick in there getting a $20,000 paint job.

steve g

Do you really have to paint your car ?

FRporscheman

$20,000.... I just don't know what to say.

My old 944 needed a paint job badly. It had never been garaged so the guards red was basically guard Dead. No amount of polishing, buffing or waxing would help more than 20%, and it would only last for a couple of days.

I set out in March to get the car repainted. I did all the preparation work (sanding, removing parts and trim, filling dings) to the point where the only thing left was the paint itself. Luckily my paint was so bad that I didn't need to sand through any clearcoat or wax - just some nice even scuffing and it was done. Any heavy scuffing would immediately reveal the primer - it was that bad.

I did all this in my last semester as an undergrad, so I was busy and poor as usual, so I just took it to Earl Scheib. My theory was that Earl Scheib can do a decent job if you prep it yourself, and I was right! The paint came out well, except for the typical overspray in a few spots, but for $500 it looked like a $1500 job. It won't win a coucours but it made this broke college boy happy.

testarossa_td

I have talked with a shop that is well respected and does Lambo/Ferrari/Exotic repaints etc and I have seen their work. They quoted $10k+ for concourse better than factory on a 951 and I have seen their work on the car and a first year 928. They don't BS and told me all I ever wanted to know about the process and how it changes with manufacture and paint type.

As mentioned most shops are scared because they cannot afford a mistake.
Normally the only ones who will touch them are those who have done it before or have nothing to lose.

Maaco and Earl=Nothing to Loose
2K= respected average quality paint shop who has done a P-car before.=comfort

500

It all depends!!! I painted my car, went overboard with extra clear and did everything (including engine compartment) and I spent over $2000 CDN on the liquid paint materials only (with primers etc included). I have since talked with someone who operates a shop and what I paid for my materials is only a little higher than his rate. Now it was Glasurit I used, and that is notoriously expensive. DuPont, PPG etc. make excellent products that do cost less. So having said that, $3200 for materials does sound high. But there are also many consumables that go into it and some overhead (like booth time etc.) may be rolled into that. I would still look around. Pay attention to what they actually will spray on the car, prep and care are extremely important, but cheaper paint will not wear as well over the long haul, even though it can look very good at first.

The amount of time to do a job right is huge. I expect when I do it the next time, I will be a little faster and more efficient, but if I were doing it for profit, $5000 would not be too much.

How much should you spend on painting a 944? Well, many 944s have trouble fetching $5000, so that is a splash of cold water right there! As it is, I know that I badly over-spent on my project, but the results are worth it to me, but not to a saner man! For most cases, $1500 to $3000 should get you a decent job with quality materials. FRporscheman has a good suggestion of doing a lot of the labour-intensive prep yourself as a way of mitigating cost. Just talk it through with your chosen shop first. Some people won't touch that kind of a job, others are OK with it.