$30k to paint a car! They saw you coming a mile away! Should be @10k.

 

Send it back to Missouri. Our shop has time. We do resprays for dealer cars. It's dead now. My 965 is finished and going back together.

 

Upper picture is us back in the 90's. Lower photo is today of the 1991 waiting for it's 100% rebuild. These cars are a huge headache to rebuild. Paint is easy, just can't match color on such an older car. We have an Amethyst that needs to be done next. Our painters want to spray the entire car.

 

Problem with pricing a "paint job" is everyone's definition of that is different. Is there rust repair? Does it need to be stripped? What's under that paint? Dents? Panels need to be replaced? How much do you want to disassemble? There is no easy answer. When you try and quote, is when you go broke. I've quoted jobs in the past, did them and ended up making minimum wage or less due to the unforeseen.

I can quote what paint will cost. My definition of that is the body is in it's final coat of primer, from there sand it, wash and degrease, mask off, shoot, cut and buff. I can predict how long that takes. Everything else is time and materials now. Stripping (R&I) the body, stripping the paint, rust/damage repair. bodywork, blocking the primer, etc.There is a tremendous amount of labor that is involved in doing quality work. IMO 350-400 hours (total) minimum to do a basic bare metal quality repaint on a 911/964. If it was ready for paint, around 120 hours. Personally I will never shoot over someones unknown bodywork. Too many unknowns.

Everyone's idea of quality may differ though. Personally I will only work down to a certain level of quality. Anything below that I try to politely say no thank you.

Having recently started out on my own after working for others for nearly 30 years, it's hard to attract quality work. I'm not getting rich charging $45/hour to do what I quoted above. When I can build my Shop on my land my rates will increase though. Right now just trying to make a living and pay the bills.

Another thing folks don't understand is material cost is through the roof nowadays. A gallon of Glasurit 22 (single stage) costs me $1500. Not including the activator, or reducer etc. Just the color. Base is similar Glasurit, Sikkens, Standox, all are extremely expensive now.. Primers, clears, body fillers, sandpaper all have doubled. None of us are getting rich doing this.

 

$30k is around what i was quoted in NY for a respray too. I decided to keep the paint original and rock the patina on my most recent build (deserves its own thread but thought i'd post a few anyway).

 

Agree with doing a wrap if you can get a good one done with the jams too. Paint work is way too expensive these days and rarely done right without damaging the car in other areas while at the shop.

 

@ChrisHamilton is spot on. ”Personally I will never shoot over someones unknown bodywork. Too many unknowns.“

964s were cheap used cars for many years. Lots of delayed maintenance and cheap/incompetent repairs. Especially bodywork. Both of the 964s I bought obviously sat for quite a while before being sold. @GBX has the right idea. One of my cars was hit by a dope in a pickup truck, so it was either total it or fix it. Otherwise I would have “rocked the patina”.The other was perfectly fine as is, but was developing rust under the windshield in the typical spots, so I decided to go whole hog because mechanically it’s excellent.

 

I have done some research on paintwork here on the east coast since my 997 S needed paint. A full respray ranges from $7k - $9,300 with them doing full disassembly and 2 stage House of Colors paint like factory. A shop up in Maryland said they'd do the same including color change between $7-8k depending on the color and amount of bodywork (Mine needed none). They did a 964 color change to Porsche Chalk for about $8k. It's all in the prep and you can typically tell what level the shop works by the type of booth they have. $30k is excessive for a full respray, especially if the car is already taken apart.

 

LOL. Just an FYI, HOK doesn't have factory colors. They have no OEM formulas. That they tell you that is a red flag to me. The price is about right....IF, there is no bodywork and they shoot over your existing finish. That is the most basic of re-sprays. I would be surprised if they do the jambs. The 30K quoted above would include a lot more. If it was for a basic respray.. yes it would be excessive, but if it was strip to metal, do rust repair etc, block till perfect, cut and buff, do all the jambs, under the frunk and engine cover, etc etc, it starts to look more realistic.

A quality respray (you don;t get those at collision shops) is about 120 hours for a 911/964. At least that's what I quote. R&I components, final sand, mask, degrease, shoot, cut and buff, reassemble. That what would be included in those 120 hours. That would not include the jambs or under frunk, under the engine cover. Anything more the price goes up. At my very reasonable rate of $45/hour that would be $5400 + materials.

Keep in mind too, that when using quality materials (Glasurit, Standox Sikkens, not HOK/Valspar) the paint/materials cost is going to be $2500 minimum. Usually more.
Nobody is getting rich doing this, and most of you would never work for the amount that we make.

Quality costs money. The satisfaction of a good job will be remembered long after the price is forgotten.

 

Still very reasonable. No one realizes how much the paint itself costs. It's crazy.

 

A gallon of Glasurit 22 Line (single stage) which is the preferred paint to use for solid color cars (Porsche's) costs me $1500 per gallon. Basecoat is similar. Glasurit 55 Line costs anywhere from $1200-$2000 per gallon depending on the color. Standox and Sikkens RM-Diamont are all similar. Lot of the materials have doubled in the last 2 years. Bare metal repaint on a 911/964 total of materials is $3000 -$4000, sometimes higher.
Cheaper paint is out there, but it won't last long term. Lowest I will go in terms of quality is Wanda or Motobase LV. Both are good quality, reasonably priced. On a premium cars though I only want to use premium materials.