Body Shop estimate

Hi,

It seems like every time I need something it costs an arm and a leg but my paycheck does not look like that.

After a couple of attempts at doing the bodywork on the tank, and front fender myself I went to a body shop to ask for a quote. Get my gas tank painted black, same with the fender, rear cowl and side covers. They are all stripped so quite a bit of work has been done.

I am not going to post it yet because maybe is just me but how much do you think it is reasonable for this job?

Maybe my definition of reasonable has changed lately so I want to hear from others.

 

I bet they asked 200 - 250 , same as a budget paint job on a car.
They have to handle multiple small parts, de-grease them, store them where they won't get kicked, rig-up a rack to spray them . . .

Too bad you can't pay by the square-foot.

 

250 -300 GB £ over here in the UK for a quality job, what's that in $? 500?
Not at all cheep, I'm sticking with the DIY method for now

 

It's always worth a shot to ask then to tell you to bring them in when they're painting a black car and then shoot them at the same time, cuts the price since a the setup an paint mixing is already done

 

I'm getting the "tins" done, tank, side covers, plus both fenders, by the best body man in my area IMHO, and he's charging me $250.

But he's a friend. 8)

 

I was hoping/wishing to get it done for 200/250 max. When I stopped at the body shop the guy came out took a look at the parts and then said that it would be around $800.

I didn't know if I was supposed to punch him or throw up. Does he think I am with the History Channel? Am I on candid camera? Is this Flipping cars? Rick's restoration?

And I asked for a gloss black, nothing else. I had my decals and he even said that applying my own decals would be an extra $50. What in the world is he thinking. His labor rates were at the from desk... body work $45/hr paint $35/hr. I guess it was going to take them more than one hour to apply 5 decals.

Now I know where to stay away from. I may try another shop or two before really going to paint shop and body school myself.

 

Sounds to me like the guy has plenty of work to keep him busy, so he high-balled you. I'm no pro, and I don't know how much body work is involved, but if someone local really pestered the h3ll outta me, I'd do it for $350-400. Keep in mind that material alone (primer, base coat, clear coat, reducer...) would be close to $200... he's definitely high, but unless you find a buddy who can splash paint and has some material lying around, I doubt you'll get it done as cheap as you want. Perhaps I should clarify that... You're not going to get a quality job that you are happy with for that low of a price. You might get someone who will do for that price, but remember....ya get what ya pay for..

p.s. That's why I did some research, joined the custom painting forum, bought my own gun and decided to DIY... it's really NOT that hard. Look at VooDoo, that was the third paint job I did

 

See if you have a vo-tech school near you with an auto painting class. I had our local BOCES auto class isn't my tank and the included flames.... Gloss black with hint of blue flake, ghost flames, clear oat...... Plus all necessary prep----
Total cost: two boxes of donuts from Dunkin Donuts
How good: well the bike got a second place trophy---

Dave fox

 

Heres the thing. Painting a car is much easier. Lots of big flat (ish) surfaces. A motorcycle has lots of goofy angles and small surfaces.

Also, black is one of your hardest colors. It will show the smallest imperfections on your prep work.

PS. Good idea Dave!

 

I would have thrown up on his counter top . . .

 

Last fall I scratched a customer's saddle bag lid, which happens to be black.

Repainted to match the bike, including prep, $250.

 

I was quoted 175$ for the tank and side covers prep included. Craigslist guy. He had some nice pictures of his work but I never called him back.

 

A lot of auto body shops will highball you because they dont NEED your business. They stay busy billing insurance companies all day

You might find a better deal at a custom paint shop. They tend to deal with a whole lot more "customer pay" jobs, and believe it or not can be more reasonable. They will also be better set up to paint something like a motorcycle fender or tank as opposed to a shop who makes their money meatballing new bumpers onto Camrys all day.

 

Professional paintwork for my X was $300 (I know that the materials were more than half of that). Performed by one of my long time friends in the bodywork business. I thought that was very reasonable for the quality job he did.

However, I did all the straightening, filling, primer and prep sanding. In turn making his job easier so all he had to do was de-grease the parts and set them up so they would stay in place when applying the paint. Come to think of it, I even made a stand for the front fender and side covers.

$800 for the job is a bit high, so I think somewhere in the $400 - $500 should be a fair price for quality work. Remember, the more prep work you do, the less it will cost overall.

Tony

 

just do it yourself
if it is prepped ready to go
use a rattle can and then rattle can clear coat
if you have to bondo the tank and sand it.. do it
I did mine for not much
the clear coat runs 22 bux a can and you need about 2
the paint is cheap
I am actually going to repaint my bike this winter
I am just going to wet sand the paint off
reprime paint and clear coat

 

mtnbikecrazy55 has the right idea!
My bike was painted with my friends Mustang.
Buddy just mixed up a little more black and shot my parts with the 5.0L
Then I took my tank off and set it aside and the fuel seeped out of the fill lid due to a loose screw and stripped the paint to the metal down one side.
So I went to Canadian Tire and bought a black spray can and just like the kids do to train cars I sort of fixed it up!

 

Have you thought about doing a vinyl wrap instead of paint? I did mine a year ago and so far it is holding up well and looks good. Here's a link to the thread: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=42190/

I got a ridiculous quote of $1200 to paint the bike from the only local paint shop that does bikes - as one of the previous posters pointed out, some just don't need your business because they make way too much money doing insurance claims.

One advantage of the vinyl wrap is that you don't have to be quite as finicky with the prep work. And you have a choice of dozens of colors and even patterns.

 

Thanks for all the feedback/ideas. I have contacted an instructor for a local community college, we'll see his students are willing to "play" with my bike's parts.

I have started to do the job myself but was curious if it was worth getting over the learning curve.

 

I bet I know of another one also. A perfect example of ghost flames on a black tank.

Eco. You will be very pleasantly surprised by what you can get from a vo-tec, or community college, and they are usually happy to get the experience.

Ghost

 

One year forward and I stopped at another shop with some "compitas" working. After talking to the guys they quoted me $250.
I am sure it helped to price my job the fact that they just happened to have 2 black cars that they were working on. I will pick up my parts next week

 

I got one of my bikes done for $325.00 about 3 years ago. All black, which included the front fender, tank, side covers and tail. Tank was already stripped to bare metal when I gave it to them. The one criteria I had was the clear coat had to be a 2 part urethane in order to get the most durable and fuel resistant finish possible. Came out great!