transam85dudeman

can i wax the car 25 times? im in college cant stand the dirt in the valley

BigBadGTA

yes, but waxing your car is not going to keep it clean...

86NiteRider

iTrader: (10)

Good answer. Wax is a protectant not a dirt eliminator.

transam85dudeman

I KNOW THAT FELLas. i just thought if i wax my bitch, if she would easier to prevent the dirt. shes starting to fade on the hood. im sad. but then again i get door dinged and scratched from other cars at the school. doesnt really bother me, better than her than the paint job on the bimmer. In fact shes going black. when rebuild/restore her, everything is coming out. EVERYTHING. whats a good price for a paint job? 1500, 5000grand?

crazy_hotrodder

mine if i can afford to stay in my house/shop is going to take about 800 hours of my spare time and about $2000 in supplies and that is with my body shop discount. It is going to serve as my custom paint portfolio. It's total cost to a wholesale account such as my weekly customers would be about $20,000 that is at a very low labor rate of 25 an hour most guys charge 3x that, everything is getting reworked on mine though. and I made my own hand molded wing and graphed it to the body. So paint is not cheap. a good factory type paint job should run around 4-6k. as far as wax is concerned, every time you wax a car you are essentially sanding down the top surface of the clear coat. clear coat has a microscopic rough surface even though it looks glossy to your eyes. waxing or rubbing of any kind will sand off a tiny part of that surface, wax sands off the high spots and fills the porous surface with wax which seals the surface lessening the weathering and wear on the lower inter surfaces. you have to think of it from a different view point. clear coat is very thick as far as painted surfaces are concerned. it has to maintain a certain thickness to provide uv protection for the base coat or color itself. when that clear coat gets too thin it looses it's uv protection. nothing under the clear coat is safe from the sun without it. after the thickness is lost the sun now starts to degrade the base coat, urethane primer and factory cooked primer, after that it's rust and the crusher. the one thing you DO NOT want to loose is the factory cured electro static base primer, no one can replace or recreate it, because the bare metal body is dipped in a tub of it and cooked at 350-400 degrees F before anything else was put in contact with the metal.

When you see the bubbly cloudiness in the clear coat and that little haze it is time to repaint. Wax should never be put on a freshly painted surface like new cars or new paint, anything that seals it will trap the venting solvents which will in turn cause tiny pockets anywhere from microscopic to highly visible imperfections that have to be repainted. there are many wax free non sealing products out there if you want a polish, such as many of the products made to color sand and buff fresh paint. you are still going to be taking off a small amount of the surface. any good body shop and any auto paint supplier will be able to tell you how much clear coat you have with a paint thickness gauge. I would highly recommend waxing your car's paint, but never within one year of paint's application and never more that 3-4 times a year. that should keep your paint good for 3-5 years outside and 5-10 years for a garage kept vehicle. It's good to remember that water is abrasive enough to sand holes in rocks, given enough time. wax is rougher than water(6,000-10,000 grit equivalent) and clear coat is much softer than rocks. tread lightly and remember that wax is not part of the regular cleaning routine of your paint but is more of a maintenance servicing like changing your oil.

transam85dudeman

youre a genius. 20 grand, whats that about. im a genius, IQ of 140, while wasted. but 20 grand, i got a local qoute of 2K PRIMO

crazy_hotrodder

2k is not going to be a really good job. there is more labor than that involved in doing it right. that price is for just preparing the body on the car, back taping, priming and painting. that is typical respray retail pricing, I do them for half that working for local dealers every day. If you shop around you can find someone who will do the best work at a good price. a good job is re gaping the entire car by aligning everything right, even the factory didn't do a great job of that. Disassembling almost everything, like removing all weather striping, all windows, taking apart the front end assembly removing the bumpers and hatch. then they need to sand down all there surfaces with a heavy grit, fix any visible body work, then polyester prime every surface and block them with a guide coat, followed by urethane primer which needs to be wet blocked with a spray guide coat. Tinted primer sealer, then base coated and cleared with a high quality combo that are supposed to be used together. production shops like that are on every corner only care about speed and cost. the products and methods used are not meant to last. I know this is what I do for a living. There are not too many people that pay the kind of price it takes to do the job right. that is just factory quality work or a little better, the kind of work going into my car is of a much higher nature. every curve, body line, and panel is getting tuned adjusted and straightened. nothing is being left untouched. Show car winning paint is much harder than it sounds and is not something you can do quickly. Keep in mind world class cars that win at places like pebble (Concourse d' Elegance) take 4-5k hours to complete and cost $250,000-$500,000 in body fabrication, customization and paint. These are the cars of Chip Foose, Boyd Coddington, and other well know figures, can it be done cheaper, yes, but these are the best of the best, the cars you see on the real hot rod magazine covers. These guys call in free lance professionals from around the world just to work there craft. It is not the guy down the street painting your mom's dodge caravan.

crazy_hotrodder

cars that get worked like this cost $250,000 plus in work.

jensen73110

iTrader: (4)

Out of that, you will get an okay paint job, and their wallet will get a PRIMO deposit.

Mine was $6100, and its a better than factory job. Hell, the flames alone were 1500.

$2000 will be a nice job if you do all the prep & body work.