Repair estimate seemed high, what do you think?

[hooddub]

Re: Repair estimate seemed high, what do you think?

Well the rate at Calgary Coachworks is $65/hr where Cosmos is $85/hr. Depends on where you go and how specialized the shop is and the quality of work as well. And yeah the supplies would account for a lot of that cost. For a bumper/fender job that is fairly minor you can usually expect coats upwards of $2k. Bumper alone about half that. Hoods are usually $800-$1000 etc..
If you are paying $2000 for a paintjob, be prepared to deal with a sub standard finish and rock chips/peeling in no time at all.
I wouldn't want a paintjob that costs less than $10,000 done on my car ever. Of course I would do my own paint but when you are paying less than $10k, typically corners are being cut.
Auto body requires a lot of time as patience if you want a job done right.

[Ur0Drivr]

Re: Repair estimate seemed high, what do you think?

Evan,

How much would you say for the entire car with something like this type of work...

• Hand sanded for paint adherence
• Chips, nicks and scratches machine sanded,feather edged & primed
• Select moldings and emblems removed
• Painted with OEM-STYLE BASE COAT/CLEAR COAT system
• Select from factory packaged colors
• Oven baked finish
• Machine polished and hand glazed
• Vehicle cleaned to remove dust & overspray

[bobkatkat]

Re: Repair estimate seemed high, what do you think?

Around here the body shops charge a bit more than that per hour for paint.

Depending on your paint, some additives to create the proper colour can be very expensive too, in the range of $100-$200 for a small can. Granted that can should make a lot of paint, but your paint may contain from 5 to 15 of these additives so it does add up.

Well lets take the average Metallic color coat for a VAG. Even here in Calgary the price would be $45-55 for a pint and $85-100 for a quart. Maybe spray 2.5 quarts at the most then clear. Clear would be $90 -$250 a gallon depending on the quality. Take in all the paint and shop supplies to do a respray and you would be hard pressed to hit $700 bucks. So off a 10k that leaves 125 hours/roughly 3.5 weeks for labor. I am sure it is just not me but there is still something wrong with the math.

[Ur0Drivr]

Re: Repair estimate seemed high, what do you think?

Well, what I posted up earlier was from "packages" that a place out of Chico, California does. They have many great reviews and give a 5 year guarantee against fading and workmanship. All for a total of $3000 USD. For the whole car.


Sent from my perch atop Mount Olympus

[hooddub]

Re: Repair estimate seemed high, what do you think?

Evan,

How much would you say for the entire car with something like this type of work...

• Hand sanded for paint adherence
• Chips, nicks and scratches machine sanded,feather edged & primed
• Select moldings and emblems removed
• Painted with OEM-STYLE BASE COAT/CLEAR COAT system
• Select from factory packaged colors
• Oven baked finish
• Machine polished and hand glazed
• Vehicle cleaned to remove dust & overspray

We did an RS4 at Cosmos before I left and it was between $30-$40k. However, the doors were disassembled, all glass and mouldings, bumpers, mirrors, grilles were all removed etc.. As well as the whole car was fully prepped and primed before paint. I would peg the work that you listed around $10k. You really want to make sure they don't just scuff and hand sand the old paint and spray right over top because that doesn't offer enough adherence for the new paint.
$3000 seems really low for a full paintjob however, it could be that auto body doesn't cost as much in the states, I can't say for sure.
And Bob, materials to spray my GTI were between $1200-$1500. Primer, base and clear all together. I couldn't tell you individual prices for stuff like that as I didn't order it or anything. A larger sedan or wagon would be upwards of $2000 materials alone. However, that's at Cosmos and we did more coats than most shops, especially for clear, as the standard is much higher there than most shops and the price of their work reflects that.