Crazy Question #234: how much for a complete strip and paint of the tub

[Greg Bell]

Hey guys,

I was thinking about having my EB sandblasted and painted. What is the general price range. Not a show job. Just a good paint job.

 

[Landho]

I dropped my tub off at the blaster today.

tub, windshield frame, fenders, tailgate will be about $150 to blast ($75/hour). I am not having all of the inner rear quarters blasted, nor are the core support, floor, hood (fiberglass), or front floor boards. Other plans for those. Would be another hour ($75) to blast those.

To epoxy prime all of that (No body work, no filler, just spray the freshly blasted parts so it doesn't rust while I do the body work) would be an additional $650 for PPG DL90 Epoxy primer ($100 for the paint, $100 for wax/grease remover and other bare metal prep), and $450 for two coats of the epoxy primer and use of their area for proper cure time)

For the next step, 2K high build primer/block sand/ Urethane top-coat / Urethane Clear Coat, would be another $1800+. ($300 in paint, the rest in hours to block & sand and prep the body for the top coat, including proper cure time for a very very durable finish)


Another place, which I didn't use, to soda blast the entire tub, fenders, grill, etc... and epoxy prime (plus do very miner filler work, just that which annoyed the paint guy) for $1800.

Another place, to sand blast, prime, block-sand, top coat (single stage non-metallic) was $2000 - and included a very slight bit of body work. But they wouldn't use epoxy primer, something about their cleaning system or some bs, so I didn't use them.

Maaco wouldn't touch my EB, they were dicks about it, and wouldn't warranty the work... but wanted $800 to prep the old paint and put their crappy paint job on it.

Notes: make sure you use an experience person to sandblast the sheetmetal, it can warp and distort if they don't know what they're doing ( I screwed up a piece of sheetmetal I was just playing around with )

 

[Greg Bell]

Thanks! That sounds quite reasonable to me.

 

[Landho]

well I didn't mention the $150 or so I spent building a tub cart, and the other $50 on ramps for the trailer that worked with casters, etc... etc... etc... not sure if you're planning to pull the tub off the frame, but it does take a wee bit of planning.

Based on my past two weeks of learning, just shop around... check out the places you would never think of, and most of all - ask. That's been the most rewarding - just going in to the paint shops and plain out explaining what I want and what they'll do it for.

I go in blind and they hear me asking about getting a '69 bronco painted, they automatically see $$$. I go in and say "hey, I am working on an off-road truck and want a good seal on the metal to help prevent rust. Not looking for show quality, just durable coating" and I get different results.

Also, be warned, once they sand blast there is likely to be a lot more body work necessary than you can see with the paint on it today.

 

[JohnJohn]

I paid $750 to have my tub blasted and put into epoxy primer. I paid another $700 to have the frame, hood, tailgate and grill done. I did all the metal work before having it blasted.
My personal opinion is to not go the soda blasting rout.

Body cart another $200.

A good final paint can run from $1500 to several thousand. I spent $2600 for an 8 out of 10 paint job.

 

[Mono]

Spent 3000- for body work/paint and floor liner. Not a show truck though.

 

[crozetcrew]

My dad had his 77 fiberglass primed and painted corvette white for 2 cases of beer for the labor and cost of the paint. Has a couple of runs but not bad. We like it.
Chris

 

[deltarat]

I have about 6500 in blasting,epoxy prime and paint. Another 1000 in LineX.

 

[Landho]

Be careful getting it blasted... it is suprizing what turns up beneath a decent coat of paint. Found lots of suprizes that are going to add up to much more body work than I anticipated... and we just have the removable parts like core support, fenders, and tailgate blasted. I am nervous about what the tub blasting will reveal now.

 

[sellitall]

Be careful getting it blasted... it is suprizing what turns up beneath a decent coat of paint. Found lots of suprizes that are going to add up to much more body work than I anticipated... and we just have the removable parts like core support, fenders, and tailgate blasted. I am nervous about what the tub blasting will reveal now.

If you're planning on keeping it, this is definitely the way to go.

 

[borg]

Looking back, considering the number of hours I've spent with paint stripper and/or sandpaper trying to prep my project, the next one is getting blasted.

Steve

 

[Landho]

I choose to paint stripper/electrolysis clean one of my core supports for sh!tz and grins... I have one at the blaster, and the other one here - I've spent SEVERAL hours on it alone, not to mention the nearly 18 hours it has been sitting in the electrolysis bath, and it still has problems. It took them less than 10 minutes (about $12.50, if assuming $75/hour to blast) to blast the other one and it looks BEAUTIFUL (except for the rust holes that blew though!)

But I'm okay witht the rust holes blown through... I can cut and patch that area, or for some of them will lead tin/solder fill them - and then epoxy prime - and then know that I have clean healthy metal that isn't rusting away under the paint . Then I'll bumb against a pine tree, and a rock, and cram a bunch of creek water and mud in there and let it start the process again for another 30 years! Woot!

 

[trailpsycho]

I did alot of spot-blasting and some general areas when I was replacing the floor pans, fixing the cowl spots, rockers, rear corners, etc. I used cold galvanizing and weld-thru primer during the metal work to keep the bare steel from oxidizing. Then after all my fixes/customization stuff were complete, it went to the media blaster while on the rotisserie.

I paid about $800 to have my tub, doors, door panels, hood, tailgate, dash, front fenders, pretty much the "whole bronco" media blasted--some was soda, some was alumina. Thats just the blasting, not the transport to and from (my tub was on a rotisserie) another $75-100 each way for a flatbed. Then there was the metal conditioning (important if soda is used), primer and paint work (~$2800) and Line-X ($1800). Yeah, there is alot of Line-X...much more Line-X than paint.

 

[sellitall]

I have a nice Marco blasting unit for small to medium sized stuff like fenders, tailgates, and grilles but the tubs/bodies/frames etc. I farm out to a local guy in my area. This is a pretty industrial type company. He uses steel shot to blast most panels. The stuff is like tiny little steel balls, but it doesn't warp any panels. It comes in all different sizes and even shapes depending on the type of metal and the amount of rust, paint and debris on it. He took me on a full tour of his place which was about 25,000 square feet with 30 ft ceilings. They do sections of bridges inside. It was pretty amazing to see. Anyway, he has been doing this for over thirty years and it was originally his father's business. Basically, he's no stranger to the process. He went into the entire debate of sand over black beauty over aluminum oxide etc. etc. in regards to warping panels. He said almost all abrasives can be used on sheetmetal. It's just the operator that needs to know what PSI to control the media and how they "sweep" it across the panel. The distortion isn't from heat, but the peening effect the media has on the metal from being on it for too long. I've used him for years now abd have never had a problem. He always uses the steel shot on my panels and has never warped a single thing.