I'm interested in getting my rx7 redone. Does anybody know how much it would cost or had theirs painted before?

 

it depends greatly on how much work the car needs, how nice you need it to turn out, and if you can do anything yourself.

so the low rung, is the miracle, earl schibe, where they will wipe the car down and spray it. its about $400, since they do no body work, all the dents/dings/etc that were on the car before you brought it, will be there after. it helps a lot to remove as much trim as you can, as they wont (unless you pay them). we take the race cars there, as we don't need them to be prefect, and it should be said you get your moneys worth, i've had a couple of cars turn out really well.

at the high end, they will take it apart, do all the body work needed, get the thing as straight as possible, and then respray with really nice quality paint. all the trim either gets replaced, or redone, and car will end up looking new. these show car types of paint jobs can be 5-10k.

in the middle it gets hard. i've seen a lot of $3000 paint jobs that weren't any better than the $400 earl schibe jobs. i've also seen some really really nice work. i'd suggest looking at as many cars that a potential shop has done as you can.

lastly, the more work you can do the less labor they will charge, so if you pull the trim off, and clean the thing, you can save a bit.

 

Go to local car shows, seek out owners with nice paint and ask them where they had their cars done. Then hone in on the ones with better quality paint jobs who meet your budget criteria. That's my .02!

 

Around here, nobody puts the same effort into the import classics that they do the domestics, so I would recommend import car shows lol.

 

Or, you can do what I did and do it yourself. I spent about two years and about 2K or so in premium paint and materials and several hundred dollars in beer to entice my painter friend to instruct/critique my work. It did come out nice tough.

The biggest thing I learned is that the initial quotes I got that sounded outrageously high were actually reasonable. It is a ton of work, if you do it right.

 

I did some searching and got some recommendations from friends who had gotten paint jobs, and went with a small local shop that provides contract services to the police department.

Talked with him about what I wanted, said if I didn't need it right away he could help reduce costs by getting work done during slack time in the shop.

Quoted me $6k for showroom paint job, did an awesome job, removed trim, doors, hood, etc, did all body work/prep.

$6k out the door.

 

This is about my theory as well - I'm too cheap to pay someone else to do a paint job for me right now. Being a college kid on a budget really does help with that mentality, if I had a career I would consider paying to have it done.

I'm considering Plasti-Dipping my current car in red (it's already red) to save money and time. The stuff is easy to use if you're patient, simple to remove if you don't like it anymore, cheap to purchase and figure out, as well as being something that requires minimal painting skill to accomplish and have a good finished product.

But I'm still debating that option...

I was quoted around $3,000 from a "friend" (at the time)'s dad who runs a body shop near me. There was no way I was going to pay for that. But I may end up having him help me do a full paint job on my 7, we will see how it all pans out.

 

At the high end, you have a full teardown and rebuild. We stripped my FB right down, inside and out and mounted it on a rotisserie. We removed *everything* from the engine, transmission, rear end and suspension to the interior, carpet dash and glass. We stripped the underside with chemical cleaner followed by 1800psi of boiling water from a setup used to strip 18-wheeler chassis. All rust was identified and removed with great prejudice, and new metal welded in. Some pretty crazy rust had just begun to attack the wheel wells so I'm glad I got to it when I did.

After the metal work we coated the underside with truck bed liner. We stripped the rear end and gave it a similarly tough treatment. The suspension and wheels went back on (with new poly bushings) and we started with the filling and prepping on the body. It went into the paint booth and came out with a brilliant paint job in the original colour (K3 Sunbeam silver). Since we had the carpets out we lined the floor with sound deadener and sound absorber and installed a new carpet. The windshield didn't come out in one piece and was pitted from 30yrs ususe anyway so we're replacing that. Now we just have to finish reassembling the interior, put the rest of the glass in and reinstall the engine and powertrain.

Total for the shop's work on paint and body (not including parts I chose to upgrade like the bushings) is $13k

Yes, I could have bough a third Gen for that. Still, to me it is/was worth it.

So your range goes from $400-$13,000 depending in how crazy you want to get with it. Good luck.

Jon

 

that actually is a good deal. we did one at the dealership, that was $11k. the car was decent, but it got a new door, new fender, all the moldings/weatherstrips/lights/badges that were available, paint, and they did door panels.

it turned out really nice, but we didn't touch the suspension, or the original engine.

i guess it was the guys wifes car, and she wouldn't let him buy her a new caddy, so he just brought the 7 in and said make it look new

 

That's awesome wish I could afford that though haha

 

anyone do a single stage paint? is it much cheaper?

 

Yelp done acrylic urethane before. Keep it out of extreme continuous sun it will fade quick! Easy to spray but you will work your *** off wet sanding and buffing it to get it to shine. Looks great when painted after wet sanding and buffing but it just doesn't hold up without clear. Spend your money buy decent paint like ppg finish line and but REALLY good clear. I have painted with kirker two stage a few tunes and pretty good results for a lower priced premixed color paint.

 

thx for the heads up. S. FL here, so we get some sun!

would it do the same to say a single stage matte finish? I am still undecided on black or red.......but I want to keep the car a long time, and I know a 30 yr old car is gonna have some rust bubbles come back here and there and had heard single stage was much easier to just do a section.

looks like I might be going with the clear coat afterall, but was hoping otherwise.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-gen-archive-71/paint-how-paint-your-7-less-than-$100-56k-beware-706448/

something I read up and favorited
=)

 

I favor catalyst epoxy primer. Take rust down to bare metal. Use wire brush to get into the pits. Acetone to clean all debris. Spray epoxy primer. If it's sealed it won't come back. That's surface rust. If it ate from inside out nothing stop it but new metal. Rust needs 2 components. Moisture and air. Cut those 2 off and it can't. If you have a lot of very minimal sanding marks and minor imperfections. Use K36 ppg prima mix for high build 5:2:2. It will eliminate need for lot of body filler.