Cost to paint a 31 Sonic white
 

Anyone have an idea of what it would cost to paint a 31 Sonic white? I would love to do a wrap on my boat but it really needs a new base paint before I do anything detailed. I would also like to spray the cockpit area. I have painted several cars and thought about tackling this process myself but just not sure I have the time to devote. My boat is currently white with yellow stripes so it wouldnt be much cover up. The gel has been wet sanded so many times its not even funny and it is still not bright enough for me. If anyone has any references or can shoot me a rough idea of what you think the cost would be I would greatly appreciate it.

roughly 10-12K with the cockpit area on an unrigged boat. Thats single stage PPG Concept buffed to perfection :cool:

Glass dave, just curious but I was quoted around $6k from a local guy who paints alot of high detail boats. He told me a little more intricate custom paint job would be around $12-15k. Is there not much cost difference between doing a plain white vs a design? Or is most of the cost just getting the body ready.

yes theres a great deal of difference. On a boat this size i would have two thousand in materials alone. If you feel comfortable with the painter, he has references and is familiar with painting large boats have at 'er but thats a very low number to be able maintain high quality. The devil is in the details here, cockpit sucks a ton of effort and just in general the 31 Sonic is a pretty big 31 footer with the arch and all. Thats just a ton of work to be able to keep motivated for 4K. I generally start off a customer with finding a budget and then see what fits. Its not hard to get it done reasonably but be careful with low numbers, thats a good sized boat and it will take pretty good sized hours to make it nice.

I appreciate the respose. So you are figuring around 100 hours of labor on something that size?

yes conservatively, but it usually goes beyond that. It would most likely be in the 120 to 150 range easy, again the devil is in the details here. Hull sides and fore deck are pretty easy but when you hit things like the dash and arch it gets tedious. Truth is the actual hull sides can be prepped and ready to spray in a day on a decent boat but when you get above the rubrail the pace hits a wall. Bow rails, lighting, cleats etc slow the process. My only business is repairing/painting boats and i have it down to a bit of a science. I hate to say it but i cant tell you how many projects i have had to salvage from cut rate shops. Please understand i am not trying to slam your painter, just giving a word of caution. If you are familiar with his work and reputation then alls good. There are guys out there that give there labor away and actually do good work (i hate those guys lol).

Don't know how handy you are, but if you can do the dumb work for them you might save some money. My boat needed to be reshot above the rubrail because of clear coat peeling. I worked a deal with the paint shop and removed all hardware myself, did fine line taping, and did my own wet sand and buffing. Looking back I wish I paid him to wet sand and buff, it took forever. But over all I lowered the cost 40%.

FYI, bag your engines yourself before having any paint work done. Guy did a great job on my boat, but I did have some overspray clear that some how found its way to my 575s. It came off, but I wasn't happy at first ;)