Custom Paint

[Jabba]

For those of you that have had custom paint work done...  What has it cost you?

I'd sort of like to get my IS repainted.  Essentially the stock base color, (Green) with Pearl White racing stripes.

I have NO CLUE as to what it'd cost me to get this done.

Is anyone willing to share what THEY dropped on paint?

Jabba

[fudgie]

$2,200 I think or $2500. He hand pin striped my flames which was $50 a panel. 1 bag, tank, etc is a panel. He threw that in for free since the paint was lighter then he expected.
If I had to do it over with again, I would not take it to a custom guy. I'd run mine through a paint booth somewhere for less then half that. I got alot of battle scars and some CA growing around a bolt or 2 but oh well. Should be good for another 10 yrs.
What ever you do make sure they work on getting the oem pin stripe off. Sand and fill and sand again. Even tho the stripe is gone, it will show up through the paint. My guy used some kinda 'bondo' on the whole bike to avoid the paint bringing out the 'ghost' stripes. Even after it was stripped off.
When mine was done I was like 'oh watch the paint'. That lasted 2 years. I want to ride it, not show it. Each marks lets me know where I been.

[JimC]

Jabba,

If I were you I would go to some car shows in your area and talk to the people sitting near the cars that have nice paint jobs. If you spend an hour or two walking around and talking to them, you will find someone that painted their own car, and or someone that paints them on the side. At the very least you will get leads on the local painters who do a good job for the money.

There are a lot of hot rodders and classic car buffs that turn out 1st class paint jobs out of a 2 car garage, a motorcycle is right up their alley because the parts don't' take up much room while prepping them. (get references from past paint job owners!)

I would think that if you find someone to paint an off the shelf color scheme like you are talking about, it could be had for $1,000 to $1,200 if you bring them the parts. You can easily double that price at a body shop because of the overhead they have to recover.

I will tell you something though, when you finally find someone to paint it, you will spend hours and hours changing your mind on the color before you decide. (I know from experience) I have painted 12-15 cars and two bikes and most of them, it was harder to pick out the right color than it was to paint them.

Jim

[Gear Jammer]

  The biggest cost in a job is the prep work.  And the cost of paint has gone up to the point of   .   But you get what you pays for, as they say. Expect to drop close to 2 large ones by the time it's done. And since you've got the IS, you're going to have a lot more surface area than Fudgie and me, so expect it to be pricey.  I took the parts to the painter off the bike. That saved me some labor cost. He insisted on reinstalling the parts to make sure they didn't get scuffed up by me, and then be blamed (by me) that the scratch was already there.  I think he got burned like that before    Make sure he tapes off the fuel cap hole, so paint doesn't get inside the tank.  It can cause problems later.

[Willow]

You're describing a pretty simply two color paint job so it should cost more like a stock repaint than a custom paint job.

I've twice had paint that amounts to the bags, trunk and fairing for 600 - 700 dollars.  I'd say adding in tank and fenders you should easily stay under $2000.

[Spirited-6]

You're describing a pretty simply two color paint job so it should cost more like a stock repaint than a custom paint job.

I've twice had paint that amounts to the bags, trunk and fairing for 600 - 700 dollars.  I'd say adding in tank and fenders you should easily stay under $2000.

SOMMEBITCH ! 

[wlgrice]

I had my Interstate painted stock looking but changed the colors to pearl blue and pearl white and cost me $2500 and I took it apart and assembled the bike. Painter did a great job he also pinstripped it with paint not tape and then cleared it.

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

Started out with a $800.00 price tag on paint...







I could'nt stand the way the Corbin Bettlebags looked so I bought a set of Interstate saddlebags from Mike Terry that added $ 250.00 more on paint. I shamed him into painting the Bob Drone fairing for freebie's ...So I have $1,050.00 in it....It's not the best paint job I've ever seen but it looks alright

[Medic]

Shop around...but only go with someone with good reviews or word of mouth. I recently had the tank, both fenders, side covers, and a set of hardbags painted (small dent in front fender also fixed) on my Standard with House of Kolor paints and clear..all for $1000. New black base with a lot of airbrushing and ghosting. Word of mouth pointed me to the guy I use. Small behind the house shop, but its his full time gig and does a lot of work for the NHRA cars. Initial qoutes I got ran all the way up to $2500..and that was before I decided to add the hard bags in! Make sure to ask how many coats of clearcoat the shop uses as well...for a good smooth finish over any airbrushing or striping..you want several coats.

[fudgie]

Shop around...but only go with someone with good reviews or word of mouth. I recently had the tank, both fenders, side covers, and a set of hardbags painted (small dent in front fender also fixed) on my Standard with House of Kolor paints and clear..all for $1000. New black base with a lot of airbrushing and ghosting. Word of mouth pointed me to the guy I use. Small behind the house shop, but its his full time gig and does a lot of work for the NHRA cars. Initial qoutes I got ran all the way up to $2500..and that was before I decided to add the hard bags in! Make sure to ask how many coats of clearcoat the shop uses as well...for a good smooth finish over any airbrushing or striping..you want several coats.

Kick ass! I like flames. 

[Jess Tolbirt]

I had my tourer with the harley fairing done for 500.00 only one color...cobalt blue,,,,
I ran an ad in craigslist and said i had 500 dollars to spend and i got several offers.
i chose the one that had a new baby and needed some extra cash...

[John Schmidt]

You guys really screwed up your paint jobs....I see at least one speck of dust/dirt on each one.   

Joe...Medic...Fudgie, beautiful work on all three. I also like flames, if I had the extra $$'s I'd like to have mine repainted with some ghost flames added but then I'd ruin all the art work done by The Mountain Man. Guess I'll leave it alone and admire all the others in the club. The suggestion re. a car show is a good one, that's exactly what my neighbor did and it worked out great for him. It's also what I did years ago when I got my I/S tank and it needed repainting. Young guy from Germany had a little garage out behind his house that looked like a dump from the outside. Inside...different story, you could eat off the floor, made me ashamed of my workshop. Kid was very meticulous...and very hard to understand, but knew how to paint.