If You're Looking for a Car Painting Job, You Get What You Pay For

I had an old Fiat Spider that desperately needed a paint job, but since the car was always breaking down and I was spending most of my spare money on mechanics, I had to go with the most inexpensive car painting option I could find.  In looking for someone to do the car painting cheap, I found a small franchise that advertised dirt cheap prices in the phone book.  I had the car painted cherry red and oooh, did it look hot!  Well, it looked hot for a couple months.  Soon the sun took its toll and the since my car painting project had been on the cheap, the paint did not withstand the sunlight and heat for long and started chipping and peeling.   Some of it started to oxidize and fade almost to a dirty white color.  Within a year, it was an embarrassment to drive around in my splotchy red convertible.

So when I was in for yet some more mechanical repairs, I asked the mechanic if he could recommend someone to paint my car.  He suggested that I visit Ernie, his buddy down the block who was a car detailing specialist and did a fantastic job with car painting projects.

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Not ready to be burned again, I visited Ernie's shop and watched him do his car painting. Though he seemed to be fast at what he was doing, you could see the passion that he had for restoring a vehicle.  He seemed to be very detail oriented and appeared to take his car painting seriously.  This might be because Ernie liked to restore old cars as a hobby ... he treated his customers' cars with the same care as his own.  In any event, I was impressed enough with what I saw at Ernie's place of business to pay more than double what I had paid on the original car painting job, but it was well worth it because the cherry red paint is just as shiny and hot now, three years later, as when I took the car in to Ernie.

Car painting can be expensive, but as you can see from my experience, you get what you pay for.  I think that in the long run, you're actually paying less if you pay a bit more upfront and get a good job that's going to last and not have drips or blemishes.  If you don’t want to spend very much on car painting, make sure you are going with a color that matches your car's original paint job and don't plan on having detailed work done on the vehicle. 

Finding someone who is really good at car painting is to go by word of mouth. Ask around for recommendations, and see which names come up the most. A good car painting business may have a long waiting list of customers, but that just tells you that they are good at what they do.  

"If You're Looking for a Car Painting Job, You Get What You Pay For," contributed by Brantley Garrett