At Georgia Square Collision, one of our most frequently asked questions is “How much does it cost to paint a car?” The paint protection Gold Coast treatment provides a Teflon-based coating infused with anti-detergent agents to prevent its protective laying being washed away.

This seems like a simple question, but it’s actually a pretty complicated one.

What the car owner’s goals are for how their automobile will look after it has been repainted.The type and quality of the paint materials, vehicle preparation, and the quality of the paint refinishing process used to repaint the automobile.

In our last post, we discussed whether you should get your car repainted, and now we would like to more fully explain the price ranges for a new paint job. Let’s dig a little deeper into the cost factors.

How well do you want your automobile to be repainted, and how long do you want the new paint job to last?

A number of things affect the quality and durability of an automobile paint job, and therefore, the cost.

There are many different types of paint available today, including enamel, lacquer, urethane, and basecoat/clearcoat, with wide ranges in price and quality. As the price of the paint goes up, so does the brightness of the color and the durability of the finish. Today’s new car paint finishes cost several hundred dollars per gallon, so a budget paint job will not use this level of paint.

Clearcoat top finishes add shine and life to the paint finish, but require an extra application of a different material, adding cost and complexity to the paint process.

If a car needs to be repainted, it’s usually because the existing paint has decayed. This decay can appear as flaking, fading, oxidation, or cracking. In order for the new paint to adhere to the body, the surface should be properly prepared. The damaged paint should be removed, and the surface should be even.

So that the paint will adhere, the body panels must be treated, and a primer or sealant coat should be applied before color. Failure to properly prepare the surface will cause problems like bubbling, or an uneven paint finish.

Improperly repaired prior damage can affect how a new paint job will appear. If a car has existing damage, it is not possible to properly paint without first repairing the damage.

Because auto paint is applied using a spray gun, it’s not possible to apply the paint without covering a fairly broad area. Accordingly, parts like door handles, glass, headlights, taillights, and moldings will be covered in paint unless they are protected.

The two most common methods for protecting unpainted trim are masking and de-trimming. Masking involves covering the trim items with tape, while de-trimming involves removing the items completely, and reinstalling them after the car is painted. De-trimming yields much better results, but involves more labor and cost.

Whether we are talking about the paintings in a museum or the paint on your car, painters are artists, and skill levels vary. Good automobile painters are highly skilled and deservedly better paid than people new to the trade. Differing skill levels are obvious in the quality and beauty of the finished product.

The quality of an automobile paint job is greatly affected by the equipment used to produce it. High quality, properly maintained paint mixing and spraying equipment will result in a smoother and more uniform finish. An airtight downdraft paint booth minimizes debris and contaminants that cause imperfections in the paint finish.

A good paint booth also prevents pollutants from escaping into the air we breath. Believe it or not, some body shops do not even have a paint booth!

Warranties have a lot to do with the quality of the paint used on the car. The least expensive car paint jobs may come with no warranty, or a very short one. Better paint jobs may come with a warranty like the one that came with the car when it was new: 3 years, in most cases. The best warranties, like the one from Georgia Square Collision, stand behind the paint refinish for as long as you own the car.

OK, so how much does it cost to paint a car?

Let’s use a midsize sedan as an example, because the size of the vehicle affects the cost. We will assume that the car needs no body repair work in order to prepare it for painting. A “cheap” repaint of this car will run $1,500-$2,000.

“But wait,” you say.

Don’t want to settle for less than a quality repaint job, but also don’t want to spend several thousand dollars? In our next post, we will discuss alternatives to a full automobile paint job.