new paint

[SC430girl]

Any ideas on reasonable place to have 2006 SC430 repainted?

 

[1990LS400]

What kind of paint job are you looking for?  Something basic to make your car look a little better or an OEM quality paint job?  Prices can range dramatically from a few hundred dollars to many thousands of dollars.  Preparation is everything.  I've largely stripped cars before I had their bodies painted removing all pieces that weren't going to receive paint, e.g. badges, moldings, headlights, taillights, fog lights, grills.  I even removed the windshield on one convertible.

Since you're in California, here is a link to an LA Times article about having an entire car painted:  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-05-02-fi-1447-story.html 

[SC430girl]

not sure what OEM means but that is probably it.  I have had 2 quotes that charge $800.00 per panel = $8800?  Thank you for the article.

 

[Bykfixer]

Original Equipment Manufactor as in the way they did it in the factory when producing the car. It can be done close to that where like "1990" said above, you remove a bunch of stuff instead of taping edges and covering areas they don't want painted. But $8800? Phew, that sounds pretty pricey. 

Are you just wanting to correct the flaws or are you looking to change the color from say blue to white? If you are changing the color then yeah 8k would not be so unreasonable since they'd have to disassemble all kinds of things to do it correctly. Some would call that a "frame up" paint job where the car is largely disassembled, painted and reassembled. That would be a true OEM paint job. 

If you just want to correct exterior flaws like chips and scratches it should not cost $8k. 

[ppine]

These cars have pretty good factory paint.   In order to repair a panel or paint the whole car, it is necessary to remove the clear coat.   That is one of the reasons modern boyd work costs so much.   In order to have a satisfactory paint job similar to the original quality it takes a lot of labor. 

$7-9 K is in the ball park for a quality paint job. 

Doing a front fender is around $900.

 

[RX400h]

Quote

In general, a car’s value often determines whether you will pay $500 or $5,000 for a paint job. “You are not going to spend $800 on a $1,300 car,” said Kenneth R. Zion, professor of automotive repair at El Camino Community College.

I agree. Sometimes being able to see what a paint job looks like, 3 years after completion is just as important as scrutinizing the work immediately following completion of the job. Due diligence is important.