sorry to be a bastard but ur being ignorant about the situation.

they cant see the car so they cant estimate what needs doing.. u obviously dont know about painting because there are so many aspects its not funny, why not drive to a few places and get quotes instead of complaining that they can't make a figure for u over the phone.

sorry to be crude but i had to say it
shut me down if u like

Nup. Fair call. Obviously I don't know. I just assume that they can tell me how much to wave a gun at it.
I work in a bank and have a fair idea of how much stamp duty, registration fee on a mortgage will cost, ball park of how much lender's mortgage insurance will cost, how much to expect for conveyancing, pest inspection, building inspection fees, stamp duty and registration of transfer of property in a few different states and I've never bought a house yet and have only been doing this for a year and a half.

In fairness as well. I know what people are like. You give them a rough price and they try to hold you to it and can get quite nasty, despite all reasoning.

My guesstimate for panel and spray is about $5k. I won't bother a panel beater til I have that sitting in my skyrocket, but as I've only ever done it twice before and someone else organised it as part of a build, I didn't get to see exactly how much it cost and assume they probably got trade discount anyway.

Oh, and then there's the logistics of dragging a shell from place to place...

But no. I do agree. Sometimes I am a pig headed bastard. I just have been ripped off enough by mechanics enough before that it's only those I have had good experiences with I trust, and as for the rest, yes I'm probably over cynical and can only use something like finding out a ball park price as a test to see how much they know their job. It's probably not fair, but having lost over $13k before...

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You're only supposed to blow WHAT off?

For a mini in reasonable condition and little rust i'd be guessing maybe 4000 for a fairly standard colour in 2pac. Once you start going fancy with metallics, pearls etc the paint itself can get very pricey, like between 500-1000 for just some colour, then clear coat on top of that. Most of their costs is labour, they need to see the car to see what panels need to be straightened, if rust needs to be cut out and new panels welded in, they just don;t know what surprises they might find without seeing the car. Cause if they say over the phone that it might cost around X$$ and when the see the car it really needs a hell of alot more work, then the owner might try and stiff them buy keeping them to their original quote or the customer gets angry cause it will cost them heaps more to paint. There aren't too many paint shops who will just paint your car though nowadays for variuos reasons. they either do the whole lot, or nothing. Theres stories of people bringing there car in to have just the colour put on and then when 6 months down the track the paint start flaking off, the customer tries and blames the painter when it was their own bad prep that caused it and so the painter ends up having to refund them anyway.
You can always save yourself a hell of alot of money and do it yourself in acrylic
Cheers
Ash

yeah, I'll grant you that regarding the a*seholes who get snotty. Personally, working in customer service I see them every day and there are just some people around you wonder how they've lived so long without someone deliberately taking them out of the gene pool.
But, the $4-5k part sounds reasonable. I intend to go, plonk down a pile of panels, point at car and grunt. And then hand over wads of cash. But it will be worth it if it comes back anything like I've been thinking about.

Me want Charlie on road

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You're only supposed to blow WHAT off?

Yeah, just make sure its a reputable place. Ask to see the quality of work they do first to. If you know anyone who has had stuff done by them see what they thought to.
cheers
ash