painting a car

[Dale]

I'm thinking about having my 1993 Toyota Corolla painted. I don't need a high end job, obviously. I just have no clue what the price range would be.

help?

[djm]

This is something you can calculate for yourself. Get a can of day-glo orange flourescent spray paint from the local hardware store. Note how much you paid for it. Take it home and measure how much coverage you get from spraying your Toyota with that first can. Measure the remaining area to be painted. Calculate the remaining area divided by the area covered by the first can, multiply by the cost of the first can, and you can easily figure out how much it will cost you to spray the rest of your car. Using a telling colour like day-glo orange makes the area covered easier to measure, unless that is the existing colour of your Toyota, in which case you should use emerald green spray paint instead.

djm

[missy]

depends on how much "prep" is needed, and what type of paint job you are thinking about. Same color or different? Do you want to take it down to base and have it totally redone, or just rough it up and put on new? Even with the "cheaper" paint jobs, you should have at least three coats (primer, color, clear coat) if you want it to last any length of time.

Tom and Nate redid the exterior of our 1979 pickup 5 years ago, and then repainted it original colors. The only thing they couldn't do was "bake" it under lights or in a heat chamber as the pros can. Of course, they had to buy the air compressor, sprayers, paint, tape, paper (it's two toned) pinstriping, etc. I forget how many coats of clear coat they used after the paint - at least 2, maybe 3. Oh, and lots and lots of Bondo.

[peteinmn]

I'm thinking about having my 1993 Toyota Corolla painted. I don't need a high end job, obviously. I just have no clue what the price range would be.

help?

Earl is a kind of volume car repainter in the Chicago area where I used to live. His "cheapo" paint jobs used to last a couple of years. If you want a real restoration type job, expect to pay quite a bit more.

[hyldemoer]

This is something you can calculate for yourself. Get a can of day-glo orange flourescent spray paint from the local hardware store. Note how much you paid for it. Take it home and measure how much coverage you get from spraying your Toyota with that first can. Measure the remaining area to be painted. Calculate the remaining area divided by the area covered by the first can, multiply by the cost of the first can, and you can easily figure out how much it will cost you to spray the rest of your car. Using a telling colour like day-glo orange makes the area covered easier to measure, unless that is the existing colour of your Toyota, in which case you should use emerald green spray paint instead.

djm

You aren't kidding, are you djm.

Do you have a brother or cousin who lives on the NW side of Chicago? One of my neightbors used your method to paint his car but did it powder blue, bumpers and all.

[djm]

Powder blue is way cool when them ultraviolet lights hit it. Sorta glows. But you can't beat the retina-burning flash of day-glo orange as it assaults yor senses, sears itself inta yer brain, so that the after-image stays with ya fer days. Yup.

djm

[Lambchop]

I'm thinking about having my 1993 Toyota Corolla painted. I don't need a high end job, obviously. I just have no clue what the price range would be.

help?

Before you decide you only need a cheap job, think carefully about why you want to keep this car and how long you plan on keeping it. Another astute reader has mentioned that a cheap job only lasts a few years, and this is correct. If all you have now is fading paint, you'll have paint where it's not supposed to be right away and in 2 years you'll have fading paint AND rust burbling up from everywhere.

Go look at various paint jobs and compare the prices to how well they do the job. Granted, you don't want to preserve this car like you would a vintage Corvette, but you don't want to have a worse-looking vehicle in 2 years.

[chas]

Quoting Tom Waits: "Earl Scheib -- thirty-nine ninety-five merchandise."

I didn't get it till Earl Scheib died and they had a story about him on NPR. He was the guy who said, "I'll paint any car for 39.95." I think it was up to 69.95 when he died. He introduced cheap paint jobs, and they're out there to be had.

[Charlene]

We had our 1991 Chevy S-10 repainted at Maaco last year - cost around $600. The original paint was flaking off and down to the primer in most places. We went with one color instead of the original two-tone because it was cheaper. This was the medium priced offer. The very cheapest was around $250 or so. There were a couple of places where the paint had run and dripped, so the manager told us to bring it back in a week or so after it cured a bit and he would fix it for free, and he did.

Now if we expect to keep this vehicle much longer (in order to justify the paint job, new battery two years ago, and the new tires last year) we need to do around $600 worth of repairs to the seals in the engine to stop some oil leaks. And the weatherstripping around the side windows needs to be replaced - I don't dare go through a car wash or I'd have the inside washed too, since one window has tape where the weatherstripping should be. And the things that hold the tailgate open need to be replaced before the broom handle we prop it up with wears out.

It's good enough to drive to work and back, especially since I work in a crummy part of town and people have had their cars broken into. For long trips we take our 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan. So far the paint is fine on that.

A small car might cost a bit less than an SUV.

[BigDavy]

Hi Dale

At 14 years old is it worth spending the money on a paint job? Would you not be better selling it / trading it in and putting the money you would have spent on it to a newer car.

David

[Cynth]

I'm thinking about having my 1993 Toyota Corolla painted. I don't need a high end job, obviously. I just have no clue what the price range would be.

help?

Earl is a kind of volume car repainter in the Chicago area where I used to live. His "cheapo" paint jobs used to last a couple of years. If you want a real restoration type job, expect to pay quite a bit more.

Well, shoot, talk about a trip down memory lane. Earl Scheib used to advertise on TV in Los Angeles when I was in high school, like 42 years ago---I didn't know he was all over the country. He did his ads in person and he always started out with "Hi. I'm Earl Scheib." I don't know why it used to seem so funny, but it was .
<img src="http://www.scripophily.com/webcart/vigs ... .jpg"w=200>

[cowtime]

He did his ads in person and he always started out with "Hi. I'm Earl Scheib." I don't know why it used to seem so funny, but it was .

Probably for the same reason " I'm Laurence Spivak and this is Meet the Press" use to send my brother and me into hysterics. Who knows?

[I.D.10-t]

"and by the way," the man added, "that's not a Porsche , it's a Ferrari.”

[Doug_Tipple]

I think one of the low cost paint jobs would be OK for the 1993 car. The car is not worth investing much money for a premium paint job. I have a 1994 Buick, and I don't worry about the fading paint and the rust spots. It is only when I am driving a new shiny car that I worry. I think of my old car as a service vehicle. I can park in the crowded grocery store parking lot right next to Harvey-door-banger and not worry whether I am going to get yet another door ding. I feel sorry for the people driving new, expensive vehicles. When they come to a place in the road where they are resurfacing the road, they freak-out because of the fresh oil and flying gravel that is hitting the windshield. The signs say "Drive Slowly", but there are always people who disregard the signs and pass you and throw rocks. In a similar situation I don't worry so much with my old car with the rust spots.

[harpmaker]

I figure it this way...if the car is mechanically sound, and you have been good about maintaining it with rgeular oil changes etc, then even if the paint job cost a few thousand, I'd do it. That would still be a whole lot cheaper than buying another vehicle.

You have to understand though that I am one of those people who looks at a car as simply a way to get from point A to point B. The last new car I bought was in '89 and it was nothing but problems. Since then I buy a cheap car and drive it till the wheels fall off. Last year I finally sold my beater and upgraded to a 98 van. But that beater had over 200,000 miles on it and I still would have hopped into it and driven it across country with out a second thought. The cost of maintaining it probably paid for a good chunk of my mechanics kids college fund, but it was still far less than what a new car would cost annually.

I have this hang up about paying more for a car than I did for my first house....