LOW COST PAINT JOBS

JC Daniel

Promoted Users
I have a guy who I have known for about 40 years who had his truck painted about a month ago, The truck is a 2003 Dodge 1500 long bed. The painter replaced the rear bumper, Tailgate, Welded in bed wheel arch panels, Rockers and cab corners and changed the color from red to black for $1800.00. I said that was funny because I value my time more than a few hundred dollars, There already is spots bubbling on the body and he asked me what to do. I told him I had no idea since I did'nt do the job and he said I thought you was a painter? I told him if you want the truck to last you get someone who does quality work to do it and not some hack that has no idea what is going on, He said well I did'nt want to pay what you charge to get it done and it looked pretty good when I got it back except it don't shine like your jobs. Guys this is what I have to deal with around here and I believe you all do to, Everybody wants to get it cheap and they expect the cheap job to be as good as a quality job!
 
I don't give guys like that much time, they're fishing for a pissing contest and I have work to do... Also, you could fix it for him at double your original price and he would come back countless times until you end up working for peanuts anyway. Brush him off...
 
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I have a guy who I do all of his high end type cars for and he sends out his lower level cars to these other guys for these 2000 completes, lol. I dont ever point the flaws out, but most of these jobs deteriorate just sitting in the shop and never seeing any sun and you can see the problems clear as day. He will share pics with me while they are working on it and I'll reply with "wow they primed the complete car twice in a week in the winter and 2 days later they are painting??!!! Man these guys are fast!!!" All the while in he back of my head knowing that car is going to shrivel up like a prune!

Personally i can tell when someone wants to spend the money that should be spent and the rest I try not to even bother with.
 
I have a guy who I have known for about 40 years who had his truck painted about a month ago, The truck is a 2003 Dodge 1500 long bed. The painter replaced the rear bumper, Tailgate, Welded in bed wheel arch panels, Rockers and cab corners and changed the color from red to black for $1800.00. I said that was funny because I value my time more than a few hundred dollars, There already is spots bubbling on the body and he asked me what to do. I told him I had no idea since I did'nt do the job and he said I thought you was a painter? I told him if you want the truck to last you get someone who does quality work to do it and not some hack that has no idea what is going on, He said well I did'nt want to pay what you charge to get it done and it looked pretty good when I got it back except it don't shine like your jobs. Guys this is what I have to deal with around here and I believe you all do to, Everybody wants to get it cheap and they expect the cheap job to be as good as a quality job!

I understand JC, cause people in my area are the same way. i don't know why it is but I think economics have a lot to do with it. I assume it's similar in WV to here in Southside VA. There is a certain mindset around here....I don't know if entitlement is the right word but people seem to expect that you are going to work for next to nothing. Never seen it anywhere else but here. Maybe because we all know each other but people don't want to pay for certain things what it's worth, but they want it just the same. But these same people will buy other things and overpay for them. I don't get it.
And folks around here think that because you know each other then you should just trust them. I learned that the hard way years ago. Recently, I finished up a Chevy C-10 in the fall that I had been working on for over a year. Re-paint turned into a full restoration. Of course I didn't get what I should have for it (that's another story) but when it was ready to pickup, his son came to get it on a rollback. He starts to load it up I said "you got a check for me?" (I hadn't received any money for it to that point) and this guy starts getting mad and offended at me. Saying "you know we are good for it". I say of course, but this is business, and you and your father would never let me leave your shop (auto repair and towing) without paying a bill like that. Why do you expect me to? They end up getting offended for me trying to handle things in a business like and professional manner. Amazing. People say and do one thing but when it comes time to pay their attitude changes 180 degrees.
 
The polite way I have found to tell someone to go elsewhere is when I give them a price and they reply "well they said they would do it for cheaper" I just reply "Why on earth are you talking to me when they gave you that crazy price? I would definitely lock in a date with them at this point"
 
I honestly dont even offer to paint for friends anymore. They will always drop hints like "Oh man, the paint is bad but its a cool car, youre gonna wanna rip it apart when you see it" or "man one day when the funds are right id like to have you do it"....I just wanna say back "Dude I've known you for 20 years, the funds will never be right...lets stop with the BS and lets talk about Maaco doing this job for you!"

I do have ONE friend that I refuse to charge paint work for. Ill charge materials but that's it. He's like a brother and he's an HVAC guy! He knows and I know what we want from each other and we never question it!!
 
If someone wants to get a job done for cheap I actually encourage them to go for it. It's a win win, #1 I don't have to hear them cry about the price and #2 if they find someone who values their time at $.25/hr god bless them!! Let's watch the job cure together and go from there!
 
I understand JC, cause people in my area are the same way. i don't know why it is but I think economics have a lot to do with it. I assume it's similar in WV to here in Southside VA. There is a certain mindset around here....I don't know if entitlement is the right word but people seem to expect that you are going to work for next to nothing. Never seen it anywhere else but here. Maybe because we all know each other but people don't want to pay for certain things what it's worth, but they want it just the same. But these same people will buy other things and overpay for them. I don't get it.
And folks around here think that because you know each other then you should just trust them. I learned that the hard way years ago. Recently, I finished up a Chevy C-10 in the fall that I had been working on for over a year. Re-paint turned into a full restoration. Of course I didn't get what I should have for it (that's another story) but when it was ready to pickup, his son came to get it on a rollback. He starts to load it up I said "you got a check for me?" (I hadn't received any money for it to that point) and this guy starts getting mad and offended at me. Saying "you know we are good for it". I say of course, but this is business, and you and your father would never let me leave your shop (auto repair and towing) without paying a bill like that. Why do you expect me to? They end up getting offended for me trying to handle things in a business like and professional manner. Amazing. People say and do one thing but when it comes time to pay their attitude changes 180 degrees.
When I did electrical side work, I never used contracts...a hand shake was good for me. That served me well for 12 years. Then in one year I got stiffed 3 times. That changed the whole way I did things...simple handwritten contract/ agreement from now on, with payment terms spelled out. 99% of the people had no problem with it, 1% bitched and out the door I went. I never got stiffed again. I believe the written agreement weeds out the deadbeats. It seemed awkward at first, but with time becomes just another step of the entire job.
 
Human nature is a funny thing. I used to manage an auto supply, one day a guy came in and purchased a long block and a lot of goodies. The bill was fairly sizeable. He proceeds to write a personal check, now this was like 25-30 years ago so I called the bank to verify funds and the guy loses his mind about how there's no trust in the world... I so wanted to go in the office and drag out the pile of bounced checks that I had to deal with on a daily basis. Sorry this thread reminded me of those times :)
 
The last couple of years I have been diligently studying, practicing and trying to implement what would seem to be a simple word:
NO !
It doesn't always work perfectly but I'm getting much better at it. I'm past the age where some stop working but I can't stop, don't want to and need to stay active. But I also need to be careful about what I get involved with.
 
The polite way I have found to tell someone to go elsewhere is when I give them a price and they reply "well they said they would do it for cheaper" I just reply "Why on earth are you talking to me when they gave you that crazy price? I would definitely lock in a date with them at this point"
I have told many the same general thing, but not quite as polite. The older I get, the quicker I will tell a "potential" customer how my shop operates in no uncertain terms. Get screwed enough times and it starts leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Usually when someone tells me so and so will do it cheaper, I ask them why they are wasting both of our time, and why are you here? They are at my shop because I have a reputation for doing nice work, but they want it for someone elses price. I have seen many cars I did 10. 20, or 30 years ago that still look good because the customer took care of them. Not once have I heard from these customers that they paid too much. They are proud of their vehicles, and that is priceless to them.
 
What I do now is call the customer a head of time and ask how they are paying for the car and yes must be paid before I release the car. And on restorations I do a contract and some $ up front. Shine use to say........I would rather sweep the floor in shop then give away my work!!!
 
When I did electrical side work, I never used contracts...a hand shake was good for me. That served me well for 12 years. Then in one year I got stiffed 3 times. That changed the whole way I did things...simple handwritten contract/ agreement from now on, with payment terms spelled out. 99% of the people had no problem with it, 1% bitched and out the door I went. I never got stiffed again. I believe the written agreement weeds out the deadbeats. It seemed awkward at first, but with time becomes just another step of the entire job.
We have a retired electrician do our work we never ask for an estimate as one he is from FL and were three phase so that disqualifies 90% of the locals and I would venture to say retired or not we get billed close to standard rate but we never complain as we trust him a 100%..
Not interested in saving a few bucks and the place burns down or one of my employees turn into Georgia barbeque.
 
this thread shows one of the main things that occurs in your occupation that also occurs in my- custom woodworking.
i dont do major amounts of work and dont do huge projects like full kitchen cabinets any more but will do smaller items- blanket chests, jewelry boxes- things i can comfortably construct in my 16 by 22 shop.
theres beena few projects ive been asked about where the customer doesnt bat an eye when i say how much it will cost. people will see me post the finished product on social media and ask me if i can build_________. sure thing. "give me details and ill give you a price."
quite often its been a picture of an item from the likes of ikea or bed,bath, and beyond. then have to ask what type of wood what type of finish blahblahblah.
i can typically give them a ballpark figure right then BUT if theyre interested will have to get more thorough.
the majority of times i hear,"but ________ is selling it for a quarter of that!"
"thats not my product in that picture. if it was my product it would be about 30-40% higher than what i quote you."

it also happened when i did carpentry. happened often on siding and deck jobs. had one guy call me up after someone else did the siding . asked me to retrim the windows. im no expert at braking and bending trim metal but know clamping the metal between 2 by 4s to bend it is not the appropriate way. more waves in that stuff than on the lake the house was on.
 
And here I was thinking that all the cheapskates / I want it for nothing crowd lived in my town lol
I think they are spread out fairly evenly across the country. A lot of the ones that have plenty of money to do it right are the worst about spending it. I couldn't afford to pay myself to paint one, but I wouldn't expect something for nothing, either. I've told many that said they can't afford to spend that much that I understand, because I couldn't afford it either.:)
 
I'm certainly no professional painter, heck I wouldn't even pass for a backyard hack. That being said, one thing that became crystal clear to me, was that I had no idea the amount of work it took to achieve the result I was after. I got a quick edge-a-mucation in all the little things required to get that beautiful finish I so desired. I'm not a perfectionist,(although my wife would disagree) but, I cant stand poor quality results, especially when I feel like it's a result of not giving a damn, or "they wont notice that". :mad: I think it's hard for people who haven't done the work or witnessed the process to grasp why it can be so expensive. And don't even get me started with material costs. Great thread guys.
 
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