Car Paint Job Cost – Why Is It So Expensive To Paint A Car?

The average price of painting a whole car in the US will be around $1000 to $2500 depending on the quality you want to get. But you may do it for as low as $300-$500 if you are ready to paint the vehicle by yourself in your garage. And also the price may go up to $20 000 for a single car if you want the showroom quality.

Car paint job cost depends much on what results you want to get. There is a price tracking site called Costhelper, and they made investigation on car paint cost. The study showed that an average price of $566 for car paint job plus materials is considered to be fair for poor quality painting in some car shops. The average price of $1 316 is optimal for normal quality body paint, and high quality (showroom) painting will cost $4 975, on average.

How much is poor quality car paint job?

By poor quality we mean using cheap materials like the cheapest enamel car paint. If you pay up to $1000 for the whole-body painting, you are likely to get two or three layers of paint. It's not enough to ensure protection from rust, and it's not enough to protect from scratches.

Preparations are completed carelessly, so paint may appear on those areas where you don't expect to see it. Also, color of the paint may be much different of the original color. It will apparently be the same color, like yellow or green, but the shade of it will probably be different.

This kind of body paint will cost $300 to $900, but actually this is money down the drain.

How much is optimal quality car paint job?

If you are ready to pay $1000 to $3 500 to have your car completely repainted, the quality of the job will be much better. This job will apply higher quality materials, dealing with rust, dents and scratches properly. It may also include engine area and interior parts painting. Prep works will take much more time.

As a result, you'll get wonderful finish and solid rust protection for years. There will still be some minor problems with final look, but the quality will be incomparable with what you could get in the cheapest price range.

How much is showroom quality car paint job?

This type of painting includes the highest quality automotive paint, the longest and the most thorough prep work and total protection of any kinds of rust and other problems with metal parts of the body. The vehicle will be sanded down to bare metal, any dents will be professionally removed. 20 to 24 layers of primers and paint are usually applied.

The showroom quality car painting usually takes up to 1 month and sometimes even longer. The final price will depend on the company you choose, on the vehicle's condition, on the chosen type of painting. But usually, the price range is from $3 500 to $20 000.

How much is to paint the car by myself?

Our colleagues from Motortrend say in this article what you will need to do to turn your personal garage to a real car paint shop.

We will concentrate mainly on the prices. To paint the car with 2 or 3 layers of paint in your garage, you will need about 2 gallons of car paint. You can find the cheapest synthetic enamel car paint for as much as $25-$30 a gallon, but you will also need other materials, so let's come up with a total price for materials at about $150.

Let's imagine you have the compressor or you will rent one out from your friend. So, you will also need to buy or to rent a paint sprayer which costs around $200-$300.

Then, you will also need instruments to sand your vehicle and to prepare it for being painted, that's another $50 in the budget.

But the most important thing is that you will need to spend two or three working days for painting your car in the garage. This is quite a time-consuming operation.

So, the total budget for materials is $200 plus $200-$300 for paint sprayer. And also, add your time. The trouble is that in this case you aren't likely to get even the quality of a lower price range professional car paint job. So, it doesn't make much sense.

How much to paint one body part (door or hood)?

You may think that if a whole body painting costs around $1500, you just divide this to 12, as there are 12 body elements in the car, and you get $125 for one body part. But it doesn't work like that. One body part painting with high quality materials should cost around $300-$400. The thing is that it's extremely time consuming to complete prep works if you need to paint one body part only.

Also, at least $50 will be paid to a car paint shop for paint matching. There are hundreds of shades of each color, and you will want to have exactly the one your car is painted with. So that the door or hood didn't look like they had been taken from another vehicle.

What are the signs of poor-quality car painting?

If you pay over $1000 for car painting, you expect to get a high-quality job. We came up with a couple of factors that can tell you about poor-quality paint job:

1. Sagging paint or drops of paint running down the body part surfaces. This is a sign of extremely poor job and low-quality materials.
2. Uneven surface. If you still see some dents under the coats of paint, it means that the car paint shop workers didn't bother much with prep works.
3. Overspray around the painted area. If you ordered partial painting of the car body, look at body parts around the painted area. They should be clean and smooth. If you see small drops of paint, it means they didn't mask off these areas well enough to protect them from overspray.
4. Uneven color. If the job is done with poor quality, you will see uneven color of different body parts. One fender may look brighter than the other one, for example.
5. No shine. After painting the car paint shop workers usually complete a range of tasks to make the car body shine. If the new paint looks dimly, it's all about the poor quality.

Why is car painting job so expensive?

If you pay for a poor-quality job something like $500 or $600, it's hard to say expensive. As you remember, the materials for car paint will cost at least $200 or $250. But the higher quality job really seems to be too expensive.

The problem is that for painting the vehicle, the car paint shop needs a special spray booth. This is the area without any dust and dirt, with optimal humidity and optimal temperature. Also, the equipment for professional car painting costs quite a lot.

You may pay less for your car paint job if you visit several paint shops and check the prices in your area.