What Should Paint Cost?

One thing about body work these days, in my opinion. Body work industry is just like the medical industry because it's paid for by insurance. Go to your doctor and tell him you want knee surgery, no insurance, how much does it cost? He doesn't even know. It costs as much as he can get from an insurance company. Same deal with bodywork these days. The bodyshops will make more money doing production collision repair because they are just gonna soak your insurance company for as much as they can. This is of coarse a generalization. I realize there are still a few guys out there doing good work for a fair price.

In SoCal the insurance company's haven't up there pay out in 20 years

guy's i guess i'm pretty fortunate living here in the tulsa okla area.. i know a custom bike painter here that's been around for about 30yrs!! he's semi retired and not trying to make a killing... i bought my 76 kz900 this spring with old school custom paint from 1980!!he repaired a dent in the tank that no one else would consider for 250.00 and did a great job... well i just bought a 76 ltd 900 with non original paint. taking him the parts this friday.. painting it back candy red with pinstriping painted also in the gold and orange. even going with a little metallic in the stripes.. using house of color candies... and he's doing everything for 600.00!! believe it or not!! and he does awesome work,airbrushing included. anybody that might want to contact this guy let me know.. it would be worth your trouble.. here's a pic of my bike now.. will post pics when it has the colors back on in a few wks....
p.s. anyone that's in love with the kerker header's!! i'll trade my nice black one for chrome vance and hines street header in nice shape!!!

The insurance industry has caused the price of materials to skyrocket. When I bought a new Z1 in 73 for $2k the price for a gallon of Dupont automotive clear was $10. Now a gallon of PPG clear is over $200, but a new Jap 1000 standard is around what $10k? Inflation rate has quadupled on the paint compared to what we are putting it on. :blink:

seanbarney41 wrote:

One thing about body work these days, in my opinion. Body work industry is just like the medical industry because it's paid for by insurance. Go to your doctor and tell him you want knee surgery, no insurance, how much does it cost? He doesn't even know. It costs as much as he can get from an insurance company. Same deal with bodywork these days. The bodyshops will make more money doing production collision repair because they are just gonna soak your insurance company for as much as they can. This is of coarse a generalization. I realize there are still a few guys out there doing good work for a fair price.

Actually, it's the insurance companies that determine what the body shop gets paid when the adjuster appraises the car. There may be some wiggle room for the body shop due to hidden damage, but that needs to be "ok'd" by the ins co first.

In all actuality, I've found the ins claims to be fairly high. For instance, one of my 10 year old Metros got hit on a door, the ins co paid me $1100. You can buy a door in the same color and swap it out for probobly $150 including labor.

The times when we get royally screwed is when the car gets totaled because alot of my fleet had very high mileage and the cost to replace a car is well above what the car is actually worth. One car got totaled and the ins co only paid us $800. You can't even find a non-running car for that money.

It is also the EPA that drove up the price of a paint job. Not only in the cost of the materials and equipment but in the paint environment control during and after the paint job. Due to the fact that most paints today are Scianide based, long gone are the days of lacquers and enamels, these paints are much more tightly controled and the paint shops have much higher investments in their equipment than they used to.

Thanks all for your input. I checked a bunch of local shops and the majority didn't even want to mess with it. The low price I found was 650 with all the bodywork done by myself prior and zero gauruntees to a high of $1100, all bodywork done by them, epoxy primer, custom color, cut and buff, 5 coats of clear, lifetime gaurantee, paintcodes and mixing instructions and a bottle of touchup. The guy walked me through his shop and showed me some of the paint work he was doing on some custom bikes and has a kz1000 himself. he only uses "House of Kolor" paints too (not cheap!).

Decisions, decisions.....

$1100 is a ton of money for a motorcycle paint job unless the bike is worth 5-10 times that.

There's a bunch of info here about painting yourself using Duplicolor aerosol paint. That's what I used for my Z1 along with a special 2-part aerosol clear coat. Total supplies cost about $100.

hey guy's.
my body parts are still at the painter's being done.still looking forward to posting some nice pic's here in a couple wk's!! and this job will be costing me 600.00 and me doing zero of the work.. and will be house of kolor materials!!
i understand materials are high 200.00 gal of clear.. how far will that gallon of clear go?? 4 bikes or so..
here's another website that appears to do nice work at reasonable prices.
knkcyles.com/custompainting-kawasaki.htm
was amazed at some of there advertised prices!!
good luck to all looking for reasonable/quality priced paint job...

try this
knkcycles.com/custompainting-kawasaki.htm

vernons wrote:

hey guy's.
my body parts are still at the painter's being done.still looking forward to posting some nice pic's here in a couple wk's!! and this job will be costing me 600.00 and me doing zero of the work.. and will be house of kolor materials!!
i understand materials are high 200.00 gal of clear.. how far will that gallon of clear go?? 4 bikes or so..
here's another website that appears to do nice work at reasonable prices.
knkcyles.com/custompainting-kawasaki.htm
was amazed at some of there advertised prices!!
good luck to all looking for reasonable/quality priced paint job...

I totally agree with Vernon's approach. Doing a paint job yourself with out having experience or tools on hand is like a crap shoot. You are better off paying someone else for the head ache and trouble. Just make sure your getting your money's worth. Work a deal and pay him half for materials up front. Pay remainder upon pick up. Only when satisfied. Look for a clean polish . Hold up against a strong bright light. Look at the edges and corners for any burn through marks from buffing. A base/clear paint job should be flawless. For a flat job, 600 bucks is very reasonable. Like I said, your better off working your job that you know and paying someone to work their painting job to give you the best bang for your buck.

just got my trim pieces from the painter this evening. promised to post some pics.. bad lighting in my bedroom.
picture of tail piece in better lighting... still doesn't do the metalflake justice... going to let pieces set and cure a few day's before they go back on... weather will be turning cold tomorrow anyway.. and final cost was 620.00
more pics will come when pieces are back on..