What should a good paintjob cost?

[66StangCoupe]

I am looking to strip my '66 Coupe down to metal (and filler) to repair any "really bad" holes and such. Should I do this myself (chemical stripper) or have it "soda blasted"? I don't want any crazy "blue pearl bowling ball" paintjob (not on a Mustang!) however a "Candy Apple Red" would be my first choice (as that was one of the original colors). Any suggestions will be welcomed. Thanks.

[flex339]

I'd say try taking a razor blade to the paint if it is pretty old and worn and then use a dual action sander w/ 80 grit. As for paint job it depends. The amount of bodywork that needs to be redone, the paint used, the color, and the final finish. The cheapest I would go is take the car to a body shop and have them prep the car and then have Macco paint it since they can get paint so cheap. Macco is bad at body prepping so thats the cheapest I'd go. Probably $1500. Most decent body shops will charge at least $3000 to start with full paint jobs. Also the darker the color you get the more body work you need to do to get the final product to look nice.

[GTStang]

Bottom line is with a car that old you should use a combination of chemical stripper and 80/220 grit DA to get it down to as much metal as possible. Take like 80% of the paint of don't start warping metal by trying to get ever inch of paint off cause there are high low spots on the car. Second do the body work to the best of your ability but any good body shop will go over it again because there expert eyes and hands will find stuff you didn't and will fix it.

Now as far as cost and painting. #1 you will save yourself some money by doing the stripping and some body work yourself but all good body shops will look over your work and fix anything that is wrong and charge you. They can't just take that you did the body work right as fact cause when they paint it and something is not right the don't want to here you bitch. I'd say a good body shop checking your work doing the lil fixes and priming it which they will even if you have cause again they need to use thier primer to guarantee no product issues. This will cost you $1800-$3000 for a solid not show quality but no imperfections and last for years paint job. By the way Candies are the most expensive paint jobs to have done look more at the upper end of that price range for it.