Was quoted $1000 to paint my white q black

[Marshall206]

does that sound reasonable? seems too cheap

he says he can do jet black for $1k, or with metallic for a few hundred more

I told him I only want oem paint, what ever that is

I know the q has a good paint job from the factory so I want to make sure it will be just as good, is there just a lot of clear coat in it?

can anyone shed some light?

he says hell just match a dealer code, but I want to make sure the rest of the paint job, clear coat, etc. is up to par

[oldmako]

Laughably cheap.

You sure you really want to change the color? Inside all the door jambs, under the hood, the trunk lid, its supports, the the the...... If you really want to go this route, put it off long enough to inspect some of the cars he has painted. Preferably one right out of the shop and another which has spent two years in the sun.

The only way I'd ever change a cars color is through an off the frame rebuild, or with a dozen cans of Krylon.....each a different color. If it's gonna look like hell, might as well go all the way!

[Marshall206]

Im probably going to just have him paint the lower portion of the car that is gray to white, im kind of leaning away from black

what do you think is reasonable for just painting the lower half of the two tone paint from gray to white oem?

[bullittandy]

You cant really save money by painting less because all the cost is in prep and buying materials but I would think that $500 is reasonable.

I promise you that you dont want to change the color-there is almost nothing harder to do on a car-adding a turbo would be easier.

-A

[Infinitiguy19]

What does the dealer want for the paint job?

If it was my car I would save up for the paint job and go to the best place possible.

[qship96]

I would bet it is IMpossible to purchase the exact same paint the factory used, as formulations change........certainly they can match the color, but the paint itself will not be the exact same as used 10-15 years ago......

[elwesso]

honestly, a $1000 paint job every year for 5 years is probably going to look better than a $5000 paint job after 5 years... just sayin..

as long as they put on a lot clear so you can polish/wet sand the hell out of it, hard to make black not turn out.

[Marshall206]

hmm good info, its wierd when i look closely at my car, some of the gray on the bottom of the door panels is nice shiney paint, but the gray on the bumper is what I dont like, just doesnt have much of any gloss to it, it looks really flat

its a diff material on the bumper, plastic, but still the paint job on it sucks thats why I want to paint

I also considered selling the car.... but at this point for what I would pay in taxes on an 02 q I could completely fix mine up

so, doing the kyb's with the insurance springs with all rubber bushings, etc to get the ride of the car back in shape, and doing all 8 coils + k/s and harness

looks like suspension and coils will be 1600, then not sure on the k/s and harness prob another $400 for that, then paint for around $750 to clean it up a bit

I figure I can afford to spend $3000 and get the car the way I will like it and enjoy driving it rather than selling it now and getting close to nothing or fixing and then selling and still not getting much, used car market sucks right now, id prob get 5k for my car.

[Haitian_King]

does that sound reasonable? seems too cheap

he says he can do jet black for $1k, or with metallic for a few hundred more

I told him I only want oem paint, what ever that is

I know the q has a good paint job from the factory so I want to make sure it will be just as good, is there just a lot of clear coat in it?

can anyone shed some light?

he says hell just match a dealer code, but I want to make sure the rest of the paint job, clear coat, etc. is up to par

I was quoted $2-3500 for a repaint and I wasn't changing the color. Just wanted to clean the paint up and get a new coat of black.

Either your guy is super generous or it's too good to be true and you might have an orange peel situation in a year or two.

[[email protected]]

come on , are you crazy ! 1000 to paint a car ! not even the same color >? whats he using a spray can ? i dont know where your from but that crazy cheap ! you cannot go white to black , it will always show through. when you paint a complete car you can go a few shades off without a problem but not to the extreme you want . i dont wanna burst your bubble , i just wanna let you know what your getting your self into , i dont want you to throw your money out the window. when you get paint from a body shop supplier its the same paint the dealers use ! so dont ever go to the dealer ! i haven been in the automotive buisness for a long time ! and have alot of body shops in the family.

i would start with a different car if you have your heart set on black . total color change is a big no no , unless you have alot of money into the car and plan on spending 3-4,000 on a real job .. hope this helps ....

[qbert45]

I wouldn't do it. Save your money.Sell it or trade it in..

btw, I took a automotive class at college and have painted cars in a booth big enough for a double story bus.

A student would probably charge $1500-1800.


Modified by qbert45 at 2:05 AM 3/24/2010

[Q45denver]

I think most Macco franchises will do a good job if you make sure all the body work is done before hand. Also, remove all the emblems and anything else that may be in the way. I recently had my black Frontier repainted the same color for $600. That included $200 of bodywork and was an upgrade from their midgrade polyurethane package they had on sale. I believe they quoted me around $1000 to redo my 1995 Q45 (using a DuPont base coat/ clear coat system) but since the rest of the paint on it was still good, I elected to just have them repaint the front end. Perfect match BTW although I had to take it back to have some of the orange peel buffed out on one of the fenders. It was really amazing that they were able to do both cars in just a few days between Christmas and New Years.

I also plan to get my 1990 Q45 repainted latter this year. Not sure if I will get their base/clear coat system since the paint on the Frontier looks so good. A national warranty is included on all their paint jobs as well.

[Marshall206]

Ya I just cant bring myself to take a car I like to maaco, ive seen the work they do, at least here in seattle, and it is terrible, they did my buddys car, wasnt the nicest car in the world but they only did the outside, no door jams, nothing looked good until u opened a door or popped the hood, or trunk, or sunroof.....

I think im just going to paint the bottom half white so the car is just all white, should be too expensive, but im not going to have this guy do it, I know from experience that if u give a low estimate from the get go, the whole job is going to suck for both parties.

taking it to Roosevelt auto body

-thanks for all the info

[G50Q45]

Honestly, I'd stick with the white in the first place. Black paint is just a pain to maintain and every little thing shows.

[Haitian_King]

Honestly, I'd stick with the white in the first place. Black paint is just a pain to maintain and every little thing shows.

Tell me about it bro. My black G50 looks good but I see the flaws and they bother me. Just recently my clear coat on my bumper has started to bubble & peel.

[Romeo5k]

No disrespect meant.. But im about to speak my mind.***********What is wrong, are you reallly that bored? Seriously, paint white black? I can see taking white to off white, or pear white, or just another shade white, but black?? You gonna burn up in the summer, and be washing the car every day in the winter. And wipe downs dont exists for black cars, as they do smear! 1000?? Tell him/ her, ill pay 1200, 200 extra for traveling down here. I was quoted almost 5 grand by the paint shop that the Infiniti dealer takes their cars to. I was told i think 3500 by a nice shop that does great jobs. And told almost 3k by maaco, but thats with extra 500 for dings.for 1k, hell no.. The job wont be done right. Now my best friends dad said he can do my car, but he will do it as he feels like it.. so it could take 6 mos before i get my car back. It would be perfect, but thats 6 mos no Q. He is in louisiana. But anyways, u on ur own.. i dont think u will like it.. But thats my own opinion.. white looks good.!! U bored.. put wheels on ur car or something.

[ZMARKUS]

Sounds like a nice nail polish paint job to me. I know you want to save money but don't do it unless you want a paint job like I did it. What you want is a paint job of equal or superior quality than your factory paint job. Then you throw the color black in the mix and that's another can of concerns. Black is the most unforgiving paint color as it shows all flaws. It has to be done PERFECT. After a true high quality paint job, your car should not look like it was recently painted but more so like it never aged. Another thing to keep in mind, your totally changing the color of your car. This requires even more pains taking labor and precaution. You think $1000 bucks is gonna give you all that ? They're gonna need to disassemble parts of your car to do it proper. Real talk, your looking at minimum $2000 to have it done RIGHT.

[Infinitiguy19]

How much was your OEM superior paint job?

[BadQ45t]

Maaco is the worst, if you just wanted to sell the car or if the paint was horrible on a POS that you didn't care about sure, but a good OEM level paint job in CA would be more then 2k, probably closer to 3k, and plenty of places would want 5k.

Don't change the color!!!! Leave the color exactly the same as it is, biggest mistake you can ever make is to change colors from original.

I did a $500-600 pain job on my old Maxima with shop that did okay work. The paint was a horrible brown color but i kept it that color, wasn't worth changing. The paint was excellent for 3 years and I lent the car for 4 months to my cousin how didn't wash, wax or do anything to it and the clear coat was history.

If you go with the 1k job plan to do frequent waxing with highest quality products. But leave the color alone or buy another car.

[Infinitiguy19]

Plus if you plan to sell the car on say Barret Jackson they well say the color was changed. Which will not bring in as much money as if say the car was all original. There is a plaque somewhere on the firewall just like the G50 that lists the OEM color code. the OEM color code can also be found in the VIN. But I am a perfectionist when it comes to my car. I added 10 AWG ground wire for the J30 Key less entry I plan to add to my 1993 Q45 LOL, talk about over doing it.

Plus to do a OEM equivalent like Wes said (In another topic) the paint would have to be bakes on which is the best way and fastest way. Faster because you can wax (Protect) the paint sooner than waiting 30+ days to wax a car so the paint can cure fully. That previous knowledge is thanks to Autopia.org