Price variance between a quart of paint and a gallon of paint are very strange

[harrisonm]

I painted my Barracuda about 10 years ago. I had a little over a quart of paint left. I just repainted my hood due to some damage and have virtually no paint left. I thought I would buy a quart of paint from the same place so I would have some, just in case. A quart of paint is $200, and a gallon is $400. That just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. I’m tempted to buy a whole gallon just to get four times as much paint for only twice as much money. I can understand a reasonable variance between a court and a gallon, but that just seems weird.

 

[doug 371]

Always been that way

 

[ragtopfury]

Volume = value

 

[coloradohill]

I needed about a half quart of kilz a couple of months back. Ended up buying a gallon for about twice the price of a quart.
What gets me is the price of an empty gallon paint container is around 8.00 seems high to me.

 

[Dana67Dart]

Here is my take...

Material plus labor = total

Labor to make one qt = labor to make 1 gallon.

Let's assume labor is 100.00

Let's assume 1 qt of material is 100.00

100.00 + 100.00 = 200.00

Volume discount !
75.00 per quart for a gallon of material
100.00 + (4* 75.00) = 400.00

 

[George Jets]

The tuff part about buying a pint or a quart of touch up paint is it pretty much will never match your 10 year old paint job.

The basecoat colors are more forgiving because you can blend them off after the repair area, then clear the whole panel to make it all look as one.

First order of business is how are you going to get it to match, or find a break off area where you can hide it when painting.

2nd order of business is how much paint do you actually need now, and how much matching paint do you want to have on hand for future touch up or damage?

Yes, paint prices are crazy. Try buying some Red now days, 500 dollars won't go very far.

☆☆☆☆☆

 

[George Jets]

As another option for small touch ups of your color. A lot of AutoBody Paint Jobbers can match to your paint code and put it into an Aerosol spray can for about 40.00 dollars per can.

Basecoats go a lot farther than the single stage colors. Then you put your own clear over the basecoat spot in work area.


☆☆☆☆☆

 

[George Jets]

Just ordered off Ebay a can of Exotic Red aerosol basecoat last Friday, will see how well it matches later this coming week.

Also ordered another gallon of nason select clear and mid temp activatior. Nice part about these clears is they can be used on all vehicles over single stage and or basecoat finishes. So there is a lot of value here as to the many vehicles that it will be used on, keeps well too even after it has been opened.

Just a few examples of some paint pricing. Can usually get better prices when ordering from online if you know the product you need vs buying retail from an autobody paint jobber.



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[andysauto1]

Paint has gotten ridiculous price wise. We mix our own at my shop, can mix as little as four ounces. Even at that our paint bill at the end of the month is always between seven and eight thousand dollars. When I started 1972 a pint of paint was $4.20.

 

[Syleng1]

All because of :
Fuel to move the supplies
EPA for making it “better for the environment.”
States: only body shops can purchase supplies
Inflation
Government regulations: putting companies out of business that handle products needed for build the paint ingredients list….
Shall I go one?

 

[Demonracer]

This all started about 15 years ago when people jumped on the bandwagon about VOCs and what they due to the environment. The amount of damage done by shops is minuscule compared to the damage done by large industries. It's just another way for businesses to get into the little guy consumers pocket.