Just got a paint job estimate

[infinity5]

There are 5-6 small (less than a dime sized) paint chips on the passanger side doors of my car from door dings.

I headed on up to my local SprayGlo to get an estimate. The lady was real nice on the phone, so i was optimistic.

After I got there she took one look at the dings and said, "to fix these, we will need to paint the entire door, and then blend the paint into the surrounding body pannels, which is a huge ammount of work"

"oh yeah?"

"yep, and it'll cost about 500$ to do it. What i reccomend is letting us repaint the ENTIRE car. It would be cheaper and then we would fix all the other small rock chips on the bumpers/hood/etc"

Interesting, but she was right, including the front grill, and both bumpers, theres a ton of microscopic chips and scratches all over that would be nice to get rid of.

"Heres an esitmate (*type type print*). For $300 we can paint your entire car with our "Supreme Urethane" paint service, featuring "catalyzed primer-sealer," "Full polyurethane Technology," and a 4 year peel/crack warranty plus a 2 year fade warranty."

um... ok... so.. you can't just dab some paint on the little chips, buff/sand it down, and blend it into the area right around the chip for like.. a 100$?

Ok, i didn't actually say that, but thats what i was thinking.

What do you guys think? i mean... hahahah.. $300 to paint my bimmer and a whopping 2 year fade warranty! geejolly, where do i sign up? she said the clear coat and paint were the same thing, and they were applied together. Its only one coat of paint total.. and primer. She said the sanded down the body pannels first though... I forgot to ask about their sophisticated drying process *cough sit it in the sun cough*

She showed me some examples. the paint looked nice, but it wasn't smooth to the touch the way my paint is now. It wans't super rough, but... still... it wans't super smooth.

If i was going to paint the entire car, I'd pay thousands of dollars and have it done the way it was at the factory. All i want is some glaring (starting to rust) chips fixed!

Guess i'll look else where.

Oh, and i asked about having the side-skirts/lower bumpers painted to match the body and she said the plastic those are made out of is meant to not let stuff stick to it and if they tried to paint it it would just peel off in a little while.

[bondheli]

Sounds simalar to Earl Scheibe's paint jobs. I wouldnt do it if you cared at all about your car. They use cheap paint, and you'll get alot of the "fish eye" effect. Go back in 6 months with faded paint, and I'll bet they'll deny your warranty. Go to any automotive paint store, and the paint alone (to do the job right) will be $300 - $500. Try duplicolor's touch up bottles, worked for me.

[pundit]

Over here a 'proper' paint job on a straight medium size car (not a color change) from a reputable shop using quality materials would set you back between 3-$5K.

If the car needed a lot of prep work and/or a color change then kiss goodbye to 5-$10k.

[liquidtiger720]

Over here a 'proper' paint job on a straight medium size car (not a color change) from a reputable shop using quality materials would set you back between 3-$5K.

If the car needed a lot of prep work and/or a color change then kiss goodbye to 5-$10k.

ditto.

[TheDuke]

Good thing I get discounts at local body shop. Front quarter panel fixed really deep dent and repainted $300.00. Sideskirts and front bumper $300.00, all sanded down primed and everything.

[infinity5]

yeah, thats what i figured. I guess i'll get some touch up paint from the dealer and fix the chips myself. Paint seems like awfully finiky stuff. Is that 3-5K mostly labor or mostly materials?

[angrypancake]

I got a price estimate of $6k minimum for a color change on my 535i, which would include engine bay, door jambs, etc, with labor and materials included...

[mattyb]

thats a good rubbing back job. then a master to apply the paint. then the drying process takes a while proper. and if its not right they doit all agian. thats where the dosh is.

[Randell]

you can paint the black bits on an E34, i didn't do it myself but it's been done to my car

i got rear ended and the panel beater resprayed the rear bumper to be even better than it was before... makes the car look significantly more modern. there is excessive black on the standard model and i don't think it flatters the car

if you hit anything or get hit by anything you can pretty easily chip the paint on the bumper, but only as easily as you could chip the paint on the rest of the car, so what they've told you is incorrect... it definately won't just 'peel off' if it's been done properly

[Jon K]

you can paint the black bits on an E34, i didn't do it myself but it's been done to my car

i got rear ended and the panel beater resprayed the rear bumper to be even better than it was before... makes the car look significantly more modern. there is excessive black on the standard model and i don't think it flatters the car

if you hit anything or get hit by anything you can pretty easily chip the paint on the bumper, but only as easily as you could chip the paint on the rest of the car, so what they've told you is incorrect... it definately won't just 'peel off' if it's been done properly

My respray was $2000, for what it's worth.