$15,000 for racing and rocker stripes in St Louis?!?!?

[foqus]

Hello all,

My Oxford White Mustang will be arriving in a few days. I wanted something unusual, something that pays homage to great novelty cars of the past. I thought of every movie or TV car that I could think of...Speed Racer, Racer X, Dukes of Hazard, A-Team van, Starsky and Hutch, Herbie the Love bug (even though I have a Herbie 1963 Pearl White with decals in my garage already). Well, nothing will fit the body style of the Mustang, so I decided on white and to just put red and blue racing stripes on it...a subtle patriotic theme.

From my limited perusal of sites such as this, I was expecting the stripes to cost about $1,500 - $1,800 or so. Imagine my surprise when I recieved an email quote from what appears to be a fantastic St Louis shop: $15,000. Fifteen thousand dollars. Of course I thought it was a typo, but nope. They have to do a lot of work, like take off the splitter, and they would clear over the stripes.

They said that if I stay on the hood, roof and trunk alone, and don't bring the stripes to the ground, and kill the rocker stripes on both sides, then the cost would be about $6,500.

Am I just way totally off base thinking that I could get stripes painted on for a couple of thousand dollars?

marco

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[redgt]

Lol holy fuck that’s hilarious

 

[UAmach1]

That's more than when I had the hood, front end, and whole passenger side of my Mach1 painted, and repaired after a side swipe.

 

[thill444]

Yeah I would get some more quotes.. Screw that..

 

[Roadway 5.0]

$15,000 for paint work is not uncommon...for a Concourse car. You are indeed being laid over the knee friend. Search elsewhere.

Have you considered vinyl stripes?

 

[Nagare]

Did you tell them the car is already painted white? I feel like that'd be the ballpark for a full repaint like what [MENTION=31740]scottmoyer[/MENTION] had to go through, not for some stripes.

At that point get a full custom wrap...3 times...and still have your original paint in great condition.

 

[MaxQ]

They Didn't want to do the job.....

 

[Armen]

Vinyl, man. You can do anything you want for WAY WAY less and then change it up whenever it strikes you to do so.

And it lets you remove them completely if you ever trade the car in. Otherwise I'd think that painted on stripes in that combo may hurt resale value.

 

[foqus]

All good suggestions/responses...thanks. I'll just have to think on it for a while...I'll post a photo when I eventually decide.

~Marco

 

[Weasel1]

Run, don’t walk, away from the shop.

 

[ctandc72]

They Didn't want to do the job.....

This right here.

Think about the labor involved with painting your stripes. They have to lay them out. They have to prep / paint, remove parts etc. The aren't replacing anything - so no parts or mark up for profit beyond labor.

I know several guys that do paint and body and have for years. Two of them run their own shops - the other "retired" from a high-volume (mainly insurance jobs) and now paints cars and truck (tractor trailers) out of his own shop.

Insurance jobs are known factors and they KNOW they will get paid. I can't count the number of stories these guys have told me about cars they were doing extensive body work / paint on and the owner decided to pull the plug or not even pay them and they had to go to court or get a mechanic's lien on the car then try to recoup their money.

Most people who have never done it or don't know what is involved with a quality paint job don't realize how much labor goes into a QUALITY job. You can literally put a crappy BC / CC paint job over GOOD prep work and with some sandpaper, time and a buffer - it can come out looking amazing if you put enough clear on it.

You could hire the best custom painter in the world and use the most expensive paint / products and if the prep work is subpar, the paint job will end up looking like garbage.

I've done a few paint jobs in my time and with a little research, some time, plenty of patience and the willingness to realize when you think you are done with the body work - you really aren't - most anyone can do a good job. Modern, quality BC / CC product is easy to apply if you can read instructions, and correcting any mistakes is very straightforward most of the time and doesn't usually require a respray at all.

 

[ScottsGT]

That shop with the TV show? If so, there's your answer. It's gone to their heads.

 

[Chameleon]

 

[ISHLISS]

+1 on the shop didn't want the work.

Our old body shop did this a lot, they would mark up everything 150% if they didn't want the job.

 

[Fray_s550]

Dude, Vinyl Stripes FTW!!! With $15,000 I'd slap a supercharger and every other mod that I've ever thought of. That's such a ridiculous price

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