my civic is almost 10 years old and still runs like a dream...but sure as hell doesn't look the part. i drive a lot on the interstate so i have gotten quiet a few paint chips, dents, dings, and scratches just from everyday driving. i was wondering if anyone had a ballpark estimate of how much it would be to get the body work taken care of and a quality paint job. or if there is another option to fix the dents and whatnot without repainting the entire car. i know next to nothing about paint and body work, so i am pretty much in the dark when it comes to cost and options. thanks for any help, i know you guys know your stuff when it comes to civics

 

It really depends on what kind of body work needs to be done. Obviously filling in small dings and smoothing them over is going to run you a lot less then replacing entire pieces so that can make a huge difference in your overall bill. Never having the car repainted at once, I'm not sure the exact price, but I've been told to expect 1-2k for a quality* paint job.

*Not including you're typical run of the mill insurance fixers like Maaco or earl s

 

If you dont have any major body damage, paint will cost you about $900-$1200. Also depends on the paint that you have, R81 red is pretty expensive, but it looks really nice. I paid about $500 to have hood, front bumper and quarters painted and rad. support straightened out.

 

yeah, there is no major damage...just small dents...and i don't plan on changing the color, so i guess i wouldn't have to repaint the whole car. thanks for the info

anyone in NC that wants to give me a discount, lol

 

Well, you're probably going to have to paint the whole car anyway if you want it to be done well and have satisfying results. For example, If you have some dents on you hood, you will have to also paint the bumper as well as the quarters or at least parts of them, otherwise the edge where the bumper meets the hood and the edge where the hood meets the quarter will have different colors of paint on them. You will be able to see that the paint on the hood is more fresh than the paint on the bumper and having a relatively old car, you probably have some relative fade on the paint. So unless you are concerned with only a few larger sized dents or marks in specific areas, where you could color match, you will have to paint a large portion of your car.

 

Never had this done myself but I've heard you can just have a few coats of clear applied to the car with surprisingly good results if the color doesn't show scratches, etc. too badly.

No idea on price, might be unique prep. work that would need to be done before than too so it might not be much cheaper.

However, some people like the idea of keeping the original paint on the car if it's held up well over the years, that way you know it's not going to start peeling off in a couple years.