Looking for a place to paint the bird - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

laurxj · 02-07-2008, 11:15 AM

Well, come spring I plan on having the bird back on the road for good. I am looking for a decent place around me (I live in Englewood) to paint her. Just seeing who has personal experience with any shops in the area. I'm willing to trailer it a good distance for nice work. Let me know. Thanks
Laurie

chrisfrom nj · 02-08-2008, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by laur79fbody

Well, come spring I plan on having the bird back on the road for good. I am looking for a decent place around me (I live in Englewood) to paint her. Just seeing who has personal experience with any shops in the area. I'm willing to trailer it a good distance for nice work. Let me know. Thanks
Laurie

theres a place in west orange that does great work called chris collision on park ave my uncle works there

brp88gta · 02-08-2008, 08:32 AM

i would highly recomend looking into RPM Resto & Custom a call. He is in Hillsbouro right off of 206. He does great work and his cars have been featured in a few magazines. www.RPMRestoAndCustom.com
he is also a member on this forum. i think his name is HardcoreZ28

Tru2Chevy · 02-09-2008, 06:55 PM

I second the vote for RPM Resto and Custom. I've seen some of their work firsthand, and Paul (the owner) is a great guy.

- Justin

Savage_Messiah · 02-10-2008, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

I second the vote for RPM Resto and Custom. I've seen some of their work firsthand, and Paul (the owner) is a great guy.

- Justin

True Paul does awesome work, but since you're in englewood anyway, check out englewood auto body right on the corner of dean and.. i forgot the cross treet that its actually on, but it's right across from the infinity dealer. The guy Lenny is a good guy, ued to work with my dad years ago, and has a first gen himself. Tell him Kasey Caban sent you

ShadowHawk · 02-10-2008, 07:47 PM

I've been looking too...anyone reasonably priced? It seems like auto body is the business to get into now-a-days...they all seem to charge an arm and leg. I keep getting prices from $5k-10k for a BASIC paint job.

I'd love to have my bird painted HOK Sunset Pearl, do all the jambs and exterior, but leave the engine bay black. No one wants to help me out for under $5k...almoost better off selling the car and trying to buy one pre-painted.

Anyone know a quality place that won't take my 1st born to paint my car? Anywhere in Jersey would be fine, I'm willing to travel. I even thought about going out of state if the quality/price were right.

Tru2Chevy · 02-10-2008, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nighthawk355x

I've been looking too...anyone reasonably priced? It seems like auto body is the business to get into now-a-days...they all seem to charge an arm and leg. I keep getting prices from $5k-10k for a BASIC paint job.

I'd love to have my bird painted HOK Sunset Pearl, do all the jambs and exterior, but leave the engine bay black. No one wants to help me out for under $5k...almoost better off selling the car and trying to buy one pre-painted.

Anyone know a quality place that won't take my 1st born to paint my car? Anywhere in Jersey would be fine, I'm willing to travel. I even thought about going out of state if the quality/price were right.

You won't get a quality color-change paint job for only a few thousand dollars.

- Justin

ShadowHawk · 02-10-2008, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

You won't get a quality color-change paint job for only a few thousand dollars.

- Justin

I'm not talking a few, I know it takes work. But I also don't want to pay the majority of what my car cost to paint it.

Ideally I'd like to be somewhere around $4,000. I don't think it's that outlandish, especially since my car needs ZERO body work, but apparently I'm wrong. $6k+ seems weetarted to me

79CamaroDiva · 02-11-2008, 10:53 PM

Anyone in the Bergen/Passaic area, I HIGHLY recommend work by Garfield Auto Center. He's taken care of all my cars since I've been driving, and does fantastic paint work as well as performance if you're looking to go that way. Its real easy to get to on River Drive, just past outwater lane by the old mobil station. phone is 973 478 2311, owners name is john. You can tell him melissa recommended him

Scorched SS · 02-28-2008, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nighthawk355x

I've been looking too...anyone reasonably priced? It seems like auto body is the business to get into now-a-days...they all seem to charge an arm and leg. I keep getting prices from $5k-10k for a BASIC paint job.

I'd love to have my bird painted HOK Sunset Pearl, do all the jambs and exterior, but leave the engine bay black. No one wants to help me out for under $5k...almoost better off selling the car and trying to buy one pre-painted.

Anyone know a quality place that won't take my 1st born to paint my car? Anywhere in Jersey would be fine, I'm willing to travel. I even thought about going out of state if the quality/price were right.

Ill tell you straight up a lot of shops dont like HOK paints - especially if they're not familiar w/ them.... they'll prolly charge extra just for NOT using there systems. Otherwise, painting a whole car is A LOT of work to do properly - even if your car needs no body work, to repaint a new color requires that every body panel be taken off, shot, cleared, then re-installed, gapped & then rubbed out... the cost of doing it right is completely worth it.

I say $5k-$6k is a pretty good deal - the lowest I've heard is around here $8k

ShadowHawk · 02-28-2008, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scorched SS

Ill tell you straight up a lot of shops dont like HOK paints - especially if they're not familiar w/ them.... they'll prolly charge extra just for NOT using there systems. Otherwise, painting a whole car is A LOT of work to do properly - even if your car needs no body work, to repaint a new color requires that every body panel be taken off, shot, cleared, then re-installed, gapped & then rubbed out... the cost of doing it right is completely worth it.

I say $5k-$6k is a pretty good deal - the lowest I've heard is around here $8k

I know what's involved, but it's NOT $6-10k worth of work. I even offered to rip the car apart myself and put it back together when it's done, and THAT was the $6k quoted job! WTF?!

There's a guy on LS1 Tech that does paint/body work, I think he's a sponsor. The quality of his work speaks for itself, he can DEFINATELY hang with the best out there. I just saw a thread were he redid a guy's WS6 the sickest red I've ever seen.

Unfortunately he's in Florida but i asked him and he said for a complete paint job minus the engine bay(i want to keep it black), he'd want $3000. This is for the entire job, door jambs, trunk, and everything, done the right way. It even included all the paint and 2 coats of clear. I really don't see what could make such a price difference between here and Florida.

Guys around here are OUT OF THEIR MINDS, I don't care what anyone says. I'm even debating taking a trip down to Florida for this. Even with the cost of the trip it'll be cheaper than the pre-madonna's around NJ.

I just don't understand why it's so unheard of to get a good paint job for less than WHAT I PAID FOR THE CAR.

ShadowHawk · 02-28-2008, 12:41 PM

I just noticed, who tuned your car? I have the exact same setup as you and I really want to get 400rwhp out of it. Right now I'm at 385rwhp, 381rwtq with a tune. I kinda figured there was more in it.

These are my mods, maybe you have something I don't??

03 LS6 Z06 motor, fast 90mm intake, nick williams 90mm TB, off-road y-pipe, SLP loudmouth 2 cat-back, MSD wires, ram powergrip clutch, ram slave/master, EGR + emissions delete, AC delete, custom tune.

I know the 90mm setup is probably hurting a bit on the low end without a cam but I didn't think it'd cut 15hp and 10tq off the car.

Fast92RS · 02-28-2008, 12:46 PM

Dont forget the cost of paint itself can vary. The better quality paint the higher the price. Plus you have to add in the cost of the chemicals like reducers, hardners and etc.

ShadowHawk · 02-28-2008, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fast92RS

Dont forget the cost of paint itself can vary. The better quality paint the higher the price. Plus you have to add in the cost of the chemicals like reducers, hardners and etc.

Yea I know, a buddy of mine does paint/body so I know the costs of everything...it's really not that much. On most of the cars he paints all the paints/reducers/etc come to around $1000 or so. Even if it's like $1500, where's the other $4500 in labor come from. At $100/hr that's 45 hours of work?! I really don't think so. Even factoring in what body shops have to pay in costs for disposal of materials and everything else it's still robbery.

I'd have my friend paint my car, but he's "eh" with everything. He uses the same brands of supplies as anyone else but sometimes he does things too quick so they don't come out 100% right. He's still 1000X better than any Maaco job, even the expensive ones, but I want it looking like it was factory painted.

Fast92RS · 02-28-2008, 01:20 PM

Well the majority of the labor comes from prep. Things like removeing things like taillights, door handles, headlights, trim, etc. Then the amount of time to completely tape the car, buffing the car. All that time can add up quickly. The actual time to paint it takes the least amount of time.

ShadowHawk · 02-28-2008, 03:00 PM

Yea so like I said, if I did the removing/installing of parts then it should cut the price almost in half, which it didn't when I got quoted(then again it was Bob Nagy, excellent body man but his ego is even bigger than his reputaion).

Taking the car apart and re-aligning/installing is easy, I'd do it myself. I just want a quality paint job that won't cost more than all the mods in my car combined.

So aside from that crap what could it take? Lets say $2000 in supplies to be more than fair, then 15 hours of labor at most. Where in the hell does the number $6000 come into play?! Maybe $4000 or so at best.

Fast92RS · 02-28-2008, 03:05 PM

Ive seen his work it is nice but he does charge a premium price. I had some work done there before. I had him fit a fiberglass hood on car I had. It came out great but I probaly could of did it myself if I had the time. Im in the same boat as you. Im going to do all the work I can myself and then I might send it out to paint. Im still considering just painting the car myself.

79CamaroDiva · 02-28-2008, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scorched SS

Ill tell you straight up a lot of shops dont like HOK paints - especially if they're not familiar w/ them.... they'll prolly charge extra just for NOT using there systems.

Why is that? from dabbling in airbrushing, thats ALL i've used. I really like the way they flow, etc. The shop that I've done work at has no problem using them, never mentioned that he liked or didnt like them better than others.