paint $$$ - BMW Forum

drz · 01-15-2006, 04:18 PM

How much should a good paintjob on my hood, nosepanel, bumper, and fenders run me? Boston Green Metallic.

Dactyl · 01-15-2006, 05:10 PM

If you did the prepwork yourself, maybe 500-1000 at a place like maaco, but they probably dont have that color available. You can find original colors at places like www.paintscratch.com and do it yourself if you have the equipment.

drz · 01-15-2006, 06:50 PM

Don't get me wrong, but who has all the equipment anyways? I have some rock chips and the clear coat is peeling off in some places. Do you think I can get a shop to do the clear coat only? Maybe I can patch up the rockchips with stuff from paintscratch.

Dactyl · 01-15-2006, 07:02 PM

I suppose you could use touch up paint on the parts where the paint is completley gone, but it'll look odd at an angle.

It all depends how well a job you want to do.

Option 1 (1-2000 ++ bucks):
Bring it to Maaco or a pro paint place and have them do the prep/body work and paint it all themselves. The body work labor will kill you in terms of $$$ but they know what they're doing if you pay them enough.

Option 2 (500-1000 bucks):
Sand down the rock chips so everything is smooth, then prime everything yourself (which can be done with spray cans). Tape it up and bring it in to Maaco and try to see if they can get the same paint code you currently have.

Option 3 (500 or less):
Find a friend with a solid air compressor and get yourself an auto spray gun at home depot, set up a paint booth. Do all the body work described above and shoot the car using paint and supplies bought online.

However, if you want all this to work out I'm assuming you have an idea of what you are doing with body work, bondo (if needed), primer, wetsanding, etc... This stuff truly is an art and takes a lot of patience. The easiest way to do this if you have a lot of money on your hands is just to take it in and have someone else do it.

Edit: if you just want clearcoat, auto body places should be able to do that

///M Power · 01-15-2006, 07:23 PM

Get a real body shop to paint it. My friend just had his CF hood custom painted leaving jsut the center unpainted. In order to ensure the new paint flowed well he also got the frotn bumper and front fenders painted. This job at a local semi-ok paint shop cost him $600.

Cruzin 323is · 01-16-2006, 01:40 AM

i would prolly say some where around 750....

i got quotes my whole car, with prep work, for 3500 bucks.. which really isn't that bad...

drz · 01-16-2006, 10:04 AM

I'll probably wait a little on this. I'll get quotes for just the clear coat, for the whole front end, and for the whole car. Paint will take a second seat to performance now. Worst case scenario: I stay with the paint I have now.

Delmarco · 01-16-2006, 01:00 PM

They told me $400 at the BMW dealership for paint to hood, nosepanel, (w/ extra paint fade and clearcoat into fenders) and to fix the dent on my hood!

not bad...

I oreder paint from Pscratch...trust me you would need alot of cans to get all that...remember when you DIY you gotta give a few onces for messing up, a few more onces for layering...
you'll need about 5 $67 kits....and it wouldn't come out the same as if you'd gotten it done at a pro-shop.

this is based on my experience with painting my trunk lid trim...
labor was a bitch too...

a single kit looks like this

and this job took the almost whole kit (well I still got about 1/3 of paint left inthe can and 1/2 of primer left)...it was about 3 days of labour too.

the results...

after:

Torque · 01-16-2006, 01:23 PM

Del, with all due respect, paitning large surfaces is not as easy as painting a trim piece. Trust me, I know. We basically painted a 90 Eagle Talon like that. From far away it looks alright, but once you get close ... yeah.

Delmarco · 01-16-2006, 01:52 PM

Torque I never said otherwise....
where are you coming up with these rants...

I was telling him that doing my trim was 3 days of labour and was hard on its own.

Painting a hood and panels must be left to the pro's...

drz · 01-16-2006, 03:17 PM

^^ Well, I wasn't suggesting I would try to paint the whole thing on my own. The option I am considering is using the paintscratch kit to patch up the rockchips.

I do appreciate your reply, Del, given that it would have been eye-opening if my plan were indeed to DIY the whole thing. $400 for all that doesn't sound half bad.

Thanks for the replies.

Delmarco · 01-16-2006, 03:38 PM

Ask around at the dealership...
If you want paint detailing I might still run you high at $200 - $300 because they will want to paint as much as possible on the panel...and if youhave rust on the metal beneath. They would opt for you to re-paint the whole panel..since the rust can still spread with paint detailing.