SqwirlyCivic

Okay I think you guys are forgetting that REPAINTING is completely different from CHANGING THE COLOR. I typed it BOLD since some of you seem to have trouble noticing that if the outside of the car is new Maaco silver and your engine bay and door jams are still factory blue, it will look horrible. $300 is for a basic repaint, hopefully the old color or close enough to it, if you want to change the color it's a whole other labor cost. Spraying the car is a just a fraction of the work, it takes ten times as long to mask the car. If you want to change the paint color and do it right, you technically would have to remove some engine parts, and take off every removable body part and paint it off the car, then replace. You also need to paint the semi-hidden areas like door jams and hatchback edges. So going with Maaco and changing your color every year would not be much of a bargain. Having an exterior that mismatches your engine bay definitely qualifies your car as ricey.

shaved_civic

I dont know where you get your paint cause thats a lot, i worked at a body shop a while back and for a civic it took about 2 quarts of paint and for about 3 quarts of PPG it cost about 90 bucks. So your gettin ripped off PPG is very good paint. Comes out nice. Also does having your engine bay really qaulify you as ricey
Your dumb, Its a lot of ------ work to rip out your whole engine to paint your engine bay. People rarly do that. Unless your going full show! comon give people a brake. You dont know the real value of painting. Its not a day job!

SqwirlyCivic

Yeah my dad and I didn't necessarily get a very good deal on the paint that we buy, since we have to get it retail. It might not be quite that high, I just know it was like $140 in materials to paint the front end after we bought it wrecked.

I know not everyone's car is going for show, but I'm not gonna pretend a $300 paint job can be as nice as a $2000 one just as long as I redspray it every year. I would rather have the nice, glossy, multi-layer paint job that matches the rest of the car than be ashamed to open my hood. It seems kinda counterprocuctive to be proud of your LS-Vtec or Hybrid swap if you pop the hood and people laugh at you. But then again, this is the homemade website where we use PVC for charge piping sometimes... just my $.02

SqwirlyCivic

Forgot to mention, most of you guys could probably borrow a spray gun from a friend and paint your car in your garage and have it turn out better than Maaco, for about the same price. spraying is not that hard, buy a book on it at Barnes & Noble. Just watch that overspray!

88crxSi

im too lazy to go back up and look. But whoever said GOOD masking is the key they are right. Take your time, mask off the windows and ANY whether seals you can go nuts with the paint and it will look great.

jung4g

yeah, I've got a spray gun, compressor and all that, I'm gonna spray my civic this winter (having a winter car is awesome) after I get all the body work done. Still deciding on a color, I'm thinking of that semi-gloss metallic black they use on the Ducati Monster... that would be awesome looking and not to flashy.

I'm just gonna hang old sheets around, mask everything off, and then spray away.

Jung

jazeo24

PRIMER BLACK BABY!!! I had tendencies to go off road when I had a liscense, so $25 for a box of 12 cans. Key marks, sticks, belt buckle, anything scratches..... open the hatch, pop the top, ppppsssssshhhhhhh, what scratch? I gave up on paint when a large branch fell off a road-side tree on the roof of my old T/A Besides, in the dark, my ride disappears like an African with his eyes closed

SqwirlyCivic

and when you mask your car, remember that clearcoat travels in the air like a beast, and it'll stick to anything. It will go up and under some sheets that you may think are draped well enough to cover stuff, and then you're screwed. Dupont 3812 will take it off if you get to it early enough, just try to mask as good as possible -- it's worth it in the end.

An African with his eyes closed? nice visual

jung4g

$25, look at my car, and that only cost me $11, for 11 cans. with the tint and my black wheels on, it's pretty stealth, especially when the windows are dirty and don't reflect.