Cost of a single-color paint job?
Sweet...in college I had a car Earl Scheib-ed...
"I'll paint any car any color for only $"39.99"
I prepped it and it weren't half bad, it served it's purpose.
Paul
Earl Scheib. I had forgotten about these guys. LMAO. Sorriest paint jobs I've ever seen. Many looked like they had hooked up a paint bucket to a ROBO wash.
A buddy back in HS had a 50 Ford shot by them. He was expecting dark green metallic and got a car that looked like a pickle on wheels. They masked the bumpers, door handles, lights, grille, and glass. There was overspray on the tires and tail pipes. All of the rest of the car was sprayed pickle green. I don't think they even used primer. IIRC, the finish on the car looked like it had been roughed up with a sander for surface prep. It was the sixth car the painter had shot that day.
True to their word Earl Scheib charged $49.99 and the car was done in 24 hrs. If you needed a fast, cheap paint job, they were the only ones to go to. The question is how
bad did you want it?
http://www.ask.com/wiki/Earl_Scheib?o=2800&qsrc=999
The rest of the story is that my buddy worked like a fiend all summer to save up for a real paint job. His mom would ply us with chips and lemonade while we stripped the chrome trim off to remove the paint on it. It kept us occupied for several nights getting the pickle green off of it. Thankfully the paint stuck to the chrome about as well as it stuck to the car. The Scheib paint was really thin. It scratched and flecked off of the car easily.
I really think that stories like this got splashed over to MAACO since they competed with Scheib back in the day.
To the OP, the trend should be clear. As you crawl up the price ladder, you should expect better materials, better preparation, and better labor. If you require a concours paint job, expect to pay dearly for it. If all you want is a "5 footer" (and there's no shame in that) it will cost a bit less. IMO since paint and labor at a given level of service are sort of constants, the real thing that will drive the cost of your paint job is going to be preparation cost. The more of this you can do before you go into the paint shop, the less it will end up costing you. And as we all know, our labor on our own cars is worthless/priceless. LOL