What to charge for paint

[krafty]

What is a reasonable price to charge somebody to paint a tank and two fenders. I am starting with all new parts in raw steel. I dont paint professionally..only as a hobby. They are buyin the paint and such..I have my own gun and all the sandpaper
-THANKS

[DR_DEUCE]

About $12 for the set.
Can you do a set for me as well???

[Locodave]

Hi, A few years back. My buddy with a body shop painted my Suzuki. I did the grunt work. Cost for me was $300.00. His cost for material. He usually charges $1,200 to $1,500. And hates doing bike parts. Labor.

What it entails. Bare metal needs a special primer coat to seal the metal. Then it was sprayed a sandable primer coat. You sand the sandable primer with 1200 grit to get the high spots out. Then the color coats. With urathane that has a catalist to help dry between coats. 3 coats. After it drys for a day. Then you wet sand it with 3600-2400? paper ( I forget. ) to get the hi-spots out. Looks like you just made a shiny surface dull when your finished.

Then you get to hold each piece while he used 2 diffrent polishing grits with the buffing wheel at slow speed. To " Buff it out"

End result is a finish that will be good for gas spills, no clear coat. Lotta effort. You have to look up close to see an imperfection @ 6 inches. Dave

[qtrracer]

Seeing that its a hobby and you are doing labor only(almost) my guess would be, 500-600 more than that I would be going to someone who does it professionally. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.

[kustom_flames]

That is a good question. Are you doing the job for a friend, or total stranger? What type of paint job - just base/clear? Or are you doing a kandy application? Any graphics?

YOu mention bare metal - these aftermarket tins? Have you pressure tested the tank? They will also need bodywork to smooth em out...

Do you plan on buffing these when you are done?

There is just no simple answer...and need more info before I could even try and help you with a number...

[krafty]

Just doing it for a friend. They are all aftermarket parts. Tank is tested. It is going to be a single stage paint with a flatner mixed in. It's what they want for color. I was thinking 300-400 if thats not out of line.It all depends on time into it too.Color will be OD Green. No decals or anything like that

[kustom_flames]

If it's for a friend, than keep the cost down to a minimum and do the best possible job you can as this will be advertising for you and could potentially bring you business. What about the condition of the tins? Every aftermarket set of tins I ever worked on needed some mudd to smooth out low spots or imperfections in the manufacturing process. And are you going to color sand and buff for him?

Your pricing thoughts seem pretty reasonable to me. What concerns me is the shape of the tins - you can put a grade a paint job on them, and if there is any dings or imperfections in the tins that will detract from your work.

So as long as you have yourself covered for the bodywork than you should be ok. Be careful spraying around the filler hole areas too - if you spray all the way inside you will have the paint bubbling there from gas fumes. The tank cap gaskets seal to bare metal or even a bead of jb weld nicely.

Since this is your first, go in at the low end (like you are doing) and then adjust your pricing accordingly for the next one - in small increments.

You do have a decent place to spray right?

[Rockbiter]

It all comes down to how much is your time worth, and how long it takes you to get to the finished product...

Grab some ratty tins from somewhere, and time yourself to see how long it takes...then figure how much your time is worth....multiply time to do the job by your "hourly wage" and then you have what the job should cost.

Don't forget the case of beer sales tax...

[Nightking]

I know a lot of folsk who think that buying brand new tins will be better. But, it does cause the painter a lot of extra work. Aftermarket tins have very deep scratches and obvious imperfections in them ,like Flames said. It is a lot of work to get them nice. It's not just a matter of shooting a few coats of primer,and sanding them. You could easily spend two days just getting the tins ready for paint.

[krafty]

Well I saw the tank today. The area where it curves around the seat is very rough and jagged. I look at a couple options here and please chime in with your suggestions. Am I better off trying to grind it smooth or use metal filler and shape it. I can see probs with both. The filler possibly flaking away, but If I grind it, I take a chance of bustin the weld. What do you think. Like you guys said, I want this to look good cuz it's kind of gonna be like free advertising.

[kustom_flames]

You're not going to want to grind too much. You can go over the whole piece with may 80 grit on the DA and then you'll be ready for mudwork. Evercoat has a good product - Zgrip, not too pricey, not the cheap pink bondo stuff either...

Unfortunately, you'll be needing filler on probably all parts so check the fenders real good. I close my eyes and rub my hands over them (let's all keep our minds out of the gutters here ). If you feel any weird spots you'll know they will need work.

I would be totally upfront with your guy abuot the tins needing work. If he's close by, show him in person! Just explain to him that this is what it is when you buy most aftermarket tins...

[krafty]

I was going to use the evercoat metal to metal. Do you think those edges will be okay to use filler and shape? The edge is pretty jagged. I think the grinding would be too much. By the way, Thanks for all the help

[kustom_flames]

Hard to tell for sure without seeing it...Possibly you could grind down a little and then smooth with body filler. Not sure you need metal filler...Maybe a dremmel tool with a small bit on the end will be just what you need to do it delicately...

[Nightking]

I think the edges you are speaking of are close to the seat. You can sand those pretty close ,like Kustom Flames said, using 80 grit. But, I would definitely get some filler in that area for sure. The seat won't always cover that up. And,like KF said, get the customer over to your place and show him what you have to do. It ,in the end will score some major points with him. Just take your time with the Evercoat, and get it good and flat. A body rasp is very helpfull in getting high spots out of the mud. Good luck.

[JimsFlh]

Got a guy local that charges $300 for solid one color tank and 2 fenders and that includes paint, clear coat and minor bump work if needed.