Paint estimations and advice
 

I'm getting to the point where the paint on my car is starting to annoy me...
If you saw the paint from the drivers side, you would think it was perfect, but then you see the roof...pretty much down to the metal in some places. The hood is oxidized very very badly (too far gone to help).

So, how much should I plan to save to get a paint job for a first gen? I know it varies greatly from shop to shop, but what's a good price for a good paint job?
Secondly, my car is currently black (see my avatar) but black shows every scratch and piece of dust.. I love it black but I just can't stand washing it every 3 days to keep it looking good. I don't plan on having the engine bay painted so think I should just keep it black and live with it?
And what about the trim around the windows? Can that be repainted with the regular paint or will that take different paint/more money...?

I just got a quick and dirty (not detailed by any means, just the dude speaking from experience) on a paint job for my SE. He said $2500 for a quality job...all doors, windows and trim removed. Bodywork is extra, so maybe $3000 total. As for the trim, he said it was powdercoated so I'd have to take it to a shop that does powdercoating. You'll probably want to replace some parts while you've got them off, like the window seals, hatch seal, etc...so it could get pretty damn expensive.

Has anyone painted the black plastic trim pieces on the sides of the car?

Holy hell, Mike! Where did you get that quote from?!

It certainly wasn't me! ;) :D

Are you talking about the trim around the windows and what not? I spraypainted it a few weeks ago and it looks good. My paint is starting to get on my nerves too, I have primer spots all around.

Just saw a Maaco commercial for basic paint job at $225. Hm, I have experience with them, but should I let them paint my exhaust and tires again?

Go to Sam's club or Costco and look for a gallon of shoepolish. That's the same stuff Maaco or any Econo-painting place is going to use.

For reference - I've only ever seen ONE good paint job from an economy paint place, and the guy's parents owned the place, so it got the best paint the shop had ever used, got the most body-prep the shop had done (maybe even with all other cars combined).

The moral is, stay away from those places unless you're a used car salesman or are planning on going to another country for 5-10 years. ;)

That quote was a shop in South Austin that DJ from Beasley Mazda suggested. I was in the area so I stopped in to get a "quick and dirty" estimate. Yeah it was 5-6 times what you quoted me....and I still don't know when or if I will get the Mound painted. I need to find another car first, because whereever I take it, it's going to take at least a month to paint.

I'd expect to pay $900 to $1200 for an acceptable paint job. I've paid the upper-end of that on mine back in 1996; including new pin stripe and somevery minor body work. It looked great, but there were some 'fisheyes' upon close inspection on some edge-areas. Most people wouldn't have noticed, but I did. Prep work has alot to do with it.

Yeah what he said ^^^. But When I took mines to the body shop I had a full body work and some cutom shit done (cause I knew the guy). As for thetrim painting I had that done with him too I was just too lazy to get a can of spray paint and do It me'self

Good luck
Nector

lets see the paint cost for our cars is 300-500 for the product, add cost too prep, paint booth time + painter( 300-500). the prep cost is the big $? (100-1000 or more) I have paid 3000 many years ago for a so called show quality job after I installed my body kit. way too expensive! even at todays prices. the last time I had it painted it was around 1200 that was about 6 years ago and it was a much better job than the show one but far from my expectations. this time I am doing it myself and it will cost me less than 600 total for 3 stage pearl . that said you should be able to get a good job done for as little as 700 but you would need to know someone. expect it to cost about 1000-1200 for 2 stage. learn about paint, paint quality, and what prep work is before trying to bid out your paint job. I have also heard of some of the cheepy shops alowing the customer to suply their own paint and prep work. so good luck

as for the trim. it can be can painted. I never heard of it being powdercoated or seen it powder coated. if it was I could not see it needing to be redone.

That's about the same estimate I got here in Denver. $1600 with trim removed, but only to the edges (only works if painting the same color). $2400 if doing the complete job and/or changing colors.

My friends girlfriends brother runs a paint shop, so I may could get a discount but I have no idea of the quality of his paint jobs so I hate to risk it.
My paint below the trim is great....right now..but if you put new paint next to it I'm not sure how it'll look. As of now though I really can't tell the difference between the lower section of my car and a new off the lot paintjob.
Does anyone know if there is a FAQ on what all needs to be removed for prep work? My door jambs are seriously like new(car only has 73k miles), so I'm not even bothering having them done.

what do you guys think about diy paint jobs?

a buddy of mine has a cabinet shop with a full spray booth and all the sprayers and stuff
think it would turn out ok? nothing fancy just you know something to cover up the rust.

ive heard black and white are the hardest colors to spray so what would be the easiest color to spray for someone who is at intermediate level?

If most of your paint jobs are original they were done in lacquer and have to be stripped down to bare metal and started over to get a good job. If you have alot of dings,search for
a service like we have in ca that removes door dings and minor dents, I have had up to 15 dings done and it cost me about $100.00. That takes away from unnecessary prep work for fillers. AS every one has stated it is in the prep work. You could strip the whole car down to bare metal by either using something like aircraft stripper and using a pressure washer with at least 1800psi, you can also check into someone that uses blasting like coconut shell to
strip the paint. The more you remove from the car the less you are going to pay. rx7doctor

paint and body
 

I had 2 RX-7s painted in the last 5 years =$2500.00 per car
Unfortunately our cars really haven't started to appreciate appreciably to date and so I now have two first generation RX-7s in near perfect shape worth about $3000.00 each[Canuck bucks]
Perhaps next spring will bring me atleast $4000.00 each[I sure hope so]

lol, I refuse to pay more for a paint job than I did for the whole car.. I'll spraypaint it flat black before I'd pay anything close to 1k for paint.. Then again I'm doing my own body prep.

I paid about $1500 for my car, this was supplying the Mazda paint code, minor bodywork to straighten out a few door dings and stuff and this was also including an extra $200 to have them remove all aftermarket body kit parts to spray the BZ-21T over the original body; allowing me to remove any of the add-on bodywork and still have the yellow underneath (i.e. return to stock bodywork).

This seemed high to me at the time, but was money well spent. There are some spots with roughness and orangepeel effect, but overall, I'm happy. I may take the car back to them this year to have them claybar it and smooth it down where it needs it. After 1 year, I'm still very pleased with the results. The high visibility areas are certainly very shiny and clearcoated evenly.

Paint won't make you faster in the 1/4, 0-60 or stop faster, but it will make you feel differently about your car. HTH,

Quality paint and decent body work will run at least $1500-$2000. Don't go for the cheap paint. It'll fade in a year or two.

I can get enough speeding tickets in a stock GSL-SE : )
Thats my issue though, Racing Beat exhaust...or a paintjob..