I am looking into repainting my 90. going to Stay with the original Polo green. the overall look of the paint is good, but the lower rockers have 20 years worth of rock chips and along with a few minor chips I think I would like a new paint job. Spoke with one shop owner but I didn't care for his attitude. He said he would start at $3,000 and would remove everything from the car to do the paint, if anything got broken on the car taking it off it would be up to me to pay for the replacement (Somehow that didn't sound right). So I am gonna keep looking.

key word is age. in most cases the stuff can be removed without breaking. it sounds as if they will be doing the carthe right way and stripping everything off and not just taping. put yourself in their position...if you had a nut with twenty years of rust would you want to be responsible for it? maybe it was the attitude that made it sound bad.

IMO 3K is a good starting number for minor body work and a quality paint job. Figure $500 to $800 for materials and a base number around 30 hours for labor. The amount of labor should be higher if they do a top notch job with all the minor details like door jams, wheel wells, under the hood, pop-up headlights, etc. The cost of paint fluctuates depending on if they are set up to mix their own colors or not. What shape are your bumpers ? If there's cracking from any kind of impact or heat, the price should be a bit higher to cover the extra labor to do it right. Best bet is to get references before deciding if they're the right shop for you. I agree with Eddie on any parts that break... it's the owners cost when your talking about 20+ year old cars. Good luck with your adventure !

$3000 sounds low...$11,000 sounds like someone has been huffing too much paint fumes.....
$5000 for a NICE, quality paint job is fair, and it really should take a month, at least, unless it is a shop that does NOT do insurance work.

As far as YOU being responsible for parts that THEY break? You gotta be kiddin....."Run, Forest....RUUUUN!!!!"
Granted, taking 20 year old(or older) urethane bumper covers off is a sure bet for something cracking, and bolts twisting off, but still....that should be expected, and figured into the estimate....not added on after the fact.

When I had my '74 painted in '97, I wanted a guy I know does top notch work to do it, but he wanted $5000, and it would take 6 months. I couldn't pay that at the time, so I went with another shop that was recommended by some of the local club guys. Biggest GD mistake I have made on that car. He did it for $3000......EIGHT friggin times.
I finally decided enough was enough, and just accepted that it was as good as they were gonna do it.
If you are willing to do a lot of the grunt work, like removing trim, the interior, and stuff like that, you can definitely save a little labor charge. But I would certainly do some homework, and ask around for recommendations, along with asking to see some of their work. A good shop will not have a problem doing that.

I had my 1988 Re-spayed last year , I bought it from a elder guy a few months back with some  driver door & wheel well body damage . I tried to go to a guy that only does fiber glass on corvettes  ....But he has retired   , So I checked 15 or so body shops here in San Jose , Long Story short  My C4 ended up @   Maaco's  I went by & seen the Glass work they did on a severely damaged Corvette & gave them a Chance , I was impressed with what they did on mine . I didn't  want Primer  on car & didn't like the  Charcoal Gray color on the car any way , So I Choose  a  LeMans Blue that has a Red Pearl . It's looks Black @ Night  , It changes 3 different shades of Blue .......Then it turns  Purple , They re-sprayed only once  and I'm pretty happy with their  work ( in this case  )  I'd say just knock on as many doors as possible ....look @ what's in their shop & previous customers pics . BTW it cost me  a total of  1000 $ with a 5 yr warranty.

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