Is the paint on your car starting to look dull and lifeless? If it is, you might be wondering, “How much to paint a car?”, right now. While most people don’t ever get around to painting their cars at any point, you should know that it is an option. It’s great for those who have cars with it fading on the outside of them. It’s also great for anyone who has been involved in an accident and is trying to breathe some life back into their car.
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Painting your car might not necessarily be cheap. But it’ll usually be worth it in the end once you see just how different your car looks. Before you go and arrange to have your car painted, though, you should work to find out the answer to the question, “How much to paint a car?” It’ll help you make sure it’s going to be in the budget for you.
Learn more about how much it’ll cost to paint a car and what factors will play a part in the price that you’ll pay to get your car painted below.
How Much to Paint a Car?
It can be a little tricky answering the question, “How much to paint a car?”, because the truth is that it really all depends. There are a bunch of different factors that are going to go into it.
On average, a low-end paint job for your car is going to run you somewhere between $300 and $900. But more often than not, you’re going to be looking at paying anywhere from $1,000 to $3,500 for a decent job. And if your paint job requires any customizations at all? You might end up paying between $2,500 and (get this!) $20,000 for it.
If you’re asking yourself, “How much to paint a car?”, at the moment, you should take some time to read up on the factors that’ll help determine the price you’ll have to pay. Here are 7 of these factors.
1. The Company Hired to Perform a Paint Job
When you go to apply fresh paint to your car, you shouldn’t have too much trouble tracking down a company to help you. The global automotive paints market is currently worth almost $8.5 billion. This has led to a huge surge in the number of companies that specialize in painting cars throughout the country.
You should take advantage of this by calling around to a bunch of different companies and asking, “How much to paint a car?” You might be surprised to learn that their answers are going to vary. In some cases, you’ll find certain companies to be way more expensive than others.
Make it your mission to locate a company in your area that has a good reputation for painting cars for the right price. It could make the cost to paint a car more affordable for you while still leaving you with a quality paint job in the end.
2. The Quality of a Paint Job
You know the age-old saying, “You got what you pay for”? It definitely applies to painting a car. If you’re only asked to pay $300 for a paint job, your car is going to look like you spent $300 to paint it.
This isn’t always a bad thing. If you have a really old car that you want to paint for some reason, it might make all the sense in the world to only spend $300 doing it. But if you’re looking for a high-quality paint job, you’re typically going to have to prepare to spend over $1,000 on it.
You should spend some time thinking about what kind of quality you’re looking for in a paint job. It’s going to have a big impact on the answer that you come up with for the question, “How much to paint a car?”
3. The Type of Paint Used During The Job
As we alluded to a few moments ago, the global automotive paints market is booming right now. As a result, there are so many different types of paint that you can put on the exterior of your car.
If you don’t mind using paint manufactured by a no-name company, you might be able to get your car painted for cheap. But if you want a company to use high-quality paint on your car or, better yet, if you want them to deliver a custom job, you’re going to have to fork over a pretty penny for it.
You might want to do a little bit of research on different kinds of car paint prior to speaking with a shop about painting your car for you. You might stumble upon a decent type of paint that isn’t going to break the bank when you use it.
4. The Number of Coats Used for a Paint Job
Oftentimes, a company that paints your car is going to have to use way more than just one coat of paint to provide you with a good-looking job. They’re going to have to apply at least a few coats of the stuff to your car to make it look great. In some instances, they might even have to apply a dozen or more coats of paint to your car to get the intended results.
And guess what? The more coats of paint that a company has to put on your car, the more it’s going to cost you to get this done! While painting a car with a single coat of paint isn’t the hardest job in the world, it’s not easy painting a car a dozen or more times before finishing it off.
The number of coats of paint that your car will need will depend on everything from the color of your car to the type of paint that you’re using. You should make sure you’re on the same page as the shop working on your car so that you know how many coats of paint your car is going to call for. It’ll help you figure out, “How much will this cost me?”
5. The Prep Work Done for a Paint Job
In order for fresh paint to stick to the outside of a car, a company has to prepare the surface of it. To do this, they’ll usually take these steps:
- They’ll begin by cleaning the outside of a car
- Then they’ll sand the outside of a car
- They’ll finish their prep work by priming the outside of a car
If your car is on the newer side, it might be simple enough for a company to prepare your car for a new paint job. It’s not going to have any effect on helping you answer the question, “How much will this job cost me?”
But if you have an older car with all kinds of imperfections on the outside of it, that will be a much different story! You’ll probably have to pay a little more than you would otherwise to get your car prepped for a new paint job.
6. The Urgency of a Paint Job
Are you willing to let a shop keep your car for as long as they want to finish up your paint job? Or do you need them to wrap up your paint job in a hurry so that you can get your car back out on the road?
If you fall into the first category, your answer to the question, “How much to paint a car?”, is going to be lower than it would be if you fell into the second category. Most shops are going to charge customers more when they need work done on their cars immediately.
If you can give a shop some extra time to work on painting your car, you might be able to get it done at a better price. It would be worth considering this as an option if you can afford it.
7. The Warranty on a Paint Job
Any time you have a company paint your car for you, you’re going to get some kind of warranty on the paint job. This warranty will allow you to bring your car back to them to have additional work done if you notice anything that seems off with what they did.
But not all companies offer the same warranties on their paint jobs! You might get a 6-month warranty from a company that specializes mostly in lower-end jobs and a 5-year warranty from a company that does custom jobs on cars. It all depends on what a company decides to offer.
You should, however, be aware of the fact that a longer warranty could result in a higher total when you ask a company, “How much to paint a car?” It’s something that should be on your radar when you’re having a car painted.
What Are the Benefits of Painting a Car?
Now that you have some general idea of what the answer to the question, “How much to paint a car?”, is, you may be wondering whether or not it’s worth paying the price to have it done. You should know that there are quite a few benefits that you’ll enjoy when you paint a car, and they could make it worth it for you.
Take a look at some of the top benefits of painting a car:
- New paint will almost always make your car look like it’s brand new
- It’ll also get rid of a lot of the small scratches and other imperfections that are on the outside of your car
- It’ll help you protect your car from the sun
- It’ll make it easier for you to get your car clean moving forward
- It’ll often add some value to your car
These benefits might be enough to convince you that you need to find a way to pay for a paint job, no matter what the answer to the question, “How much will it cost me?”, might be.
Should You Pay to Have Your Car Painted?
As long as you take good care of a car, you really shouldn’t have to worry about getting it painted at any point. But if you keep your car for a long enough time and the paint on it begins to fade, the benefits of repainting it might be enough to get you to do it.
There are some cases in which it won’t make a lot of sense to pay to paint your car, though. For instance, you’re not going to want to paint a car if it has serious mechanical issues that need to be dealt with first. You’ll just be putting lipstick on a pig if you put fancy colors a car that’s not right under the hood.
You’re also not going to want to paint a car if you know that you’re going to be getting rid of it soon. While painting it might add some value to it, it’s not going to be enough to justify the expense. You’ll be better off selling it as-is with its current paint job intact.
How Can You Sell a Car That Is in Serious Need of a Paint Job?
If you have a car that is in obvious need of a paint job, you might think that it would be impossible to sell it. But that isn’t always true!
Private buyers might balk at the idea of buying a car that looks awful on the outside. But Cash Cars Buyer will help you avoid having to find out the answer to the question, “How much to paint a car?”, by buying your old car as-is. Regardless of how bad the paint on your car looks, we’ll still buy it!
All you need to do is send us some basic information about your car, like its year, the make and model of it, and its odometer reading. We’ll take things from there by making you an offer for your car and arranging to pick it up if you decide you want to take us up on our offer.
Want to know more about selling a car to Cash Cars Buyer? Contact us now to speak with someone about our junk car services.