Spirit R/T - cost of repaint?

[TurboSedan]

i really don't know anything about body/paint work, but can anyone give a ballpark figure of what it would cost to have my Spirit R/T repainted? the previous owner painted the car blue, and it's a pretty bad job :( i really want the car white again.

aside from body work (i don't think it really needs any), how much does a complete repaint typically run from a local body shop? thankfully my door sills are still white, so i don't need to worry about that. also, what kinds of things could i do to help lower the cost? i definately want something better than the typical Maaco job fwiw.

TIA

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Joshua Mitchell
'91 Dodge SPiRiT R/T
'87 Shelby CSX #667
'98 Buick Regal GS

[WLKivett]

That's a loaded question, could cost from 500-2500 depending on what you need done and where you live.

[Turbodave]

I would say in the 2k ballpark. You can talk to the body shop and sometimes get a better deal if you remove and re-install any trim, door handles etc.. That cuts back on their labor.

[Clay]

if your going to an actually body shop, I always say start at 1K, and go UP. (sometimes quickly!)

[tryingbe]

$500 to $10000

[overlordsshadow]

1+ to tryingbe. When we repainted my car (okay overhaul) the materials alone were almost 2k, but that included body work and installing a sunroof.

You may think it don't need work, but who knows what kind of bondo job is underneath. Pay and spray, $500. Real paint job. $2500+

[skitzo_inc]

Going to Kaleb it's going to cost me in the ballpark of 2500-3000 to get my Charger painted. That's bodywork, him taking off all the trim, spraying it, striping it, and clear coating it, putting it all back together. It isn't a set price, he hasn't seen the car yet, but that's ball park I'm figuring.

[fleckster]

I got an estimate from a dealership bodyshop and they estimated right around $2500 (but I would guess it would have ended up being more by the time it was completely done by them). I also had a local body ship who is owned and run by a guy who used to be the lead painter at the local Chrysler dealer bodyshop. He said he would make it look as good or better than it did coming from the factory. (Hey, he was at least familiar with what the car was and why my Spirit R/T was special and not just "another old Dodge Spirit"). He said he wouldn't touch it unless he could pull both the front and rear windows out and go crazy. He estimated $4500. It may have been a bit higher because of the silver paint but I doubt it as most of the money would be labor.

[TurboSedan]

thanks for the replies. i was kind of thinking i'd need around $3000 before i brought the car in but i wasn't sure if i was way off or not. i've never had a car painted before. now that i think about it the car is going to need some body work - the roof has some hail damaged that looks like it was "fixed" with paintless dent repair or something. it doesn't look quite smooth. other than that it's very straight and not a spec of rust anywhere on or under the car.

btw, will most of the blue paint be stripped off or would they more than likely just sand/paint over it?

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Joshua Mitchell
'91 Dodge SPiRiT R/T
'87 Shelby CSX #667
'98 Buick Regal GS

[oldgregg]

Seeing these prices scares me, well kinda.

It makes me glad my best friend owns a body shop (all of you who saw my Daytona in person knows how good he is) & I can take my time, help & "do up" my cars the way I want, not the way a "regular" shop wants.

I have plans on tackling the GLHS a bit differently than the Daytona was done, & it will show when you all see it next year.

Oh, & my cost for the paint & ding repair will be nowhere close to $2500 unless I want it to be!

And to answer your last question, stripping paint to metal will cost you, dearly.

Shops usually run a D/A over old clear/paint & then fill any nicks/dings so the new paint/clear won't show the imperfections.

My pal & I spent 2 days stripping a hood & roof of a full size Ford P/U & bringing it to bare metal.
That's what the owner wanted & he didn't mind paying for it!

As said above, it's all depending on what you need, or want done.

[Turbodave]

btw, will most of the blue paint be stripped off or would they more than likely just sand/paint over it?



It all depends on how good of a base the blue paint would be, most likely if was a white car originally they painted it blue when all the white paint started flaking off. If they didn't do a good job with the prep, you could be having that problem all over again in a few years. I would recommend going down to the metal or at least well into the original primer.

[TurboSedan]

yeah i had seen my car a few years before i bought it when it was still white. the paint was coming off in large chunks exposing primer, which is why the previous owner painted it. unfortunately, the blue paint is really crappy. it's way worse than even a Maaco job. one of the previous owner's friends told me he painted it outside in front of his house. some of the blue paint is already coming off in places such as around the window trim, rear bumper etc. i don't think the blue would be a good base at all :(

looks like this could be expensive. i think the car is worth it though; no rust anywhere at all, 118k, really clean interior, runs/drives great, recently rebuilt w/forged JE pistons, cylinder head & valvetrain are perfect etc.

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Joshua Mitchell
'91 Dodge SPiRiT R/T
'87 Shelby CSX #667
'98 Buick Regal GS

[TurboSedan]

is there any way i could start removing the paint myself or is that better left to a body shop? how would i go about doing it?

TIA

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Joshua Mitchell
'91 Dodge SPiRiT R/T
'87 Shelby CSX #667
'98 Buick Regal GS

[Turbodave]

On my old white R/T a quick blast down the interstate always took some paint off ;)

Or, you could use a checmical stripper to remove it, Aircraft brand works well. Or, if you've got a good compressor and a DA sander you could sand the old paint off.

[WLKivett]

If the current paint is that bad, you may want to remove the body panels and take them to a media blaster for paint removal. But just remember you have to protect the bare metal quickly with primer, bare metal will start rusting quickly.

[1966 dart wagon]

I work at a body shop and they told me typical price is around 2500 bucks. thats basically a scuff and shoot. now you can save alot of money by removing mirrors and misc trim as stated above. Things add up quickly, its surprisin to me also but if you think of everything your looking at at least 800 bucks for materials, paint, tape, paper, sand paper, most dont think of all the little stuff, scuff pads, gun cleaners(thinners) air, electricity, the paint boot cha ching

And as always have a body shop look it over, check around, look around the shop, perhaps ask about other cars they have done check out what else they are doing. What will be done for what your paying is a good question also.

on the paint stripping, ive talked to some guys i work with they have tried everything, aircraft paint remover, media blasting, sand blasting, soda blasting, and the guys say the best if not best bang for buck (if just doing external surfaces) is a good old grinder/da sander, heck throw some 36 grit on a da and let it do its magic. and doing bodywork, dents and such, doesnt always save you time, ive had that happen where people try to do it them self it would actually taken them less time/money to just have us do it, since typically you have to reblock and sand everything
Id say shoot for 3k plus

[TurboSedan]

thanks for the info :) i'm definately not planning on doing any body work at all; i'll leave that to people that know what they are doing lol. removing paint seems straight forward enough though. i was planning on bringing the car there with front/rear bumpers removed, remove door side mouldings, rearview mirrors, tail lights etc. the engine/trans would be out as well along with engine wiring harness, brake/fuel lines etc since the engine bay needs to be redone as well (idiot previous owner tried to paint it black :mad: ). not sure about the gfx, since i really don't want to break them trying to get them off. i'm going to be replacing the hood, trunklid and front bumper from another white R/T. hopefully most of the body work is limited to the roof. i think mine had some previous (minor) hail damage and then had some paintless dent repair or something. it's mostly smooth, but you can tell it's a bit wavy in places. i haven't seen any dents or dings on the car and thankfully no rust to worry about.

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Joshua Mitchell
'91 Dodge SPiRiT R/T
'87 Shelby CSX #667
'98 Buick Regal GS