The Cost of Art

Auto painting prices vary a great deal depending on the quality of the job, the type of car and the amount of additional bodywork.

Typical costs:

Middle of the road auto body shops often will quote prices between $1000 and $2000 (depending on the amount of work).

Custom body shops can charge $4000 to $8000 if it involves removing many parts, changing the color of the car, detailing the engine, rebuilding mechanical parts, chrome plating, etc.

Tip: Be sure to ask about a shop's warranty. Bad paint jobs are notorious for lasting less than three years. Warranties can run five years.

Additional costs:

There are many possible upgrades:
- Some customers will choose to upgrade the paint to a higher-quality.
- Customers may also choose additional layers of paint (more than two) or a layer of clear coat.

When cars are repainted, sometimes they need body repairs beforehand. Small repair jobs (dents, etc.) can run $200-$500.

Discounts:

Some body or auto painting shops will offer a discount of a few hundred dollars if the customer sands the car and removes or masks parts that aren't going to be painted. This reduces the preparation work (and labor costs) for the shop.

Be sure to shop around and compare quotes. Prices and quality can vary even within the same chain.

Tip: Many customers recommended visiting and reviewing a body shop. Ask to look for a recently painted car and see if it was well done. Larger businesses may have a record at the Business Bureau. There should be a work area where the bodywork is done, and a paint booth. If it's not in use, you can ask to inspect the paint booth to see whether it is relatively clean and dust-free.

Technology

1. First of all the car is thoroughly washed (side skirts, archs, bottom, junctions of body details).
2. Then the work follows to prepare paintwork surface of the car for patterning the foundation for the image.Every detail is thoroughly frosted. Except frosting the car is subjected to minimal dismantling or set of details.
3. Then details which won’t be painted are pasted over (even wheel archs) in order to avoid penetration of evaporation into salon and under the hood, bolster is laid.
4. Important moment – preparation of stencil for substrate of the image. At this stage artist-aerographer determines final proportions of image location and makes adjustments to create a complete artistic composition.
5. Adjustments are made and choice of image details disposition is finished. Then starts aerography patterning. Substrate is applied under the future image, so that one can already see the shapes…
6. In spite of seeming simplicity the process is very laborious and time-expanded. In addition to skills and education artist-aerographist should be perfect in painting, otherwise the result won’t gladden the owner.
7. After the stage of stencils is over it is time to start working in a free-hand style.
8. Details of the image at the car are should be drown out as well as a picture on the canvas, and the artist needs professional experience, trained hand and knowledge of composition law. Without artistic education there’s nothing to do in this branch as well. The work is really long and takes several days even for professionals.
9. As the image is adjusted more and more, detailed drawing starts...
10. The process of drawing some single details looks very much like general preparation of the car, but on a smaller scale.
11. Finally! The car is covered with high-quality varnish to protect the image from exposures. The varnish is applied in several layers to guarantee the quality of the surface.
12. After drying and polishing the owner can be proudly presented with his embodied idea – aerography on his four-wheeled minion.

Motivation

Nowadays everybody wants to have a special unique car. Some people tune their cars up, some change outer appearance of their cars by changing hoods, bumpers, etc and some draw pictures on it. The art of making pictures is called Aerography. Nowadays Aerography is very popular among car drivers.

If we take two cars (absolutely the same but one has “aero picture” on it) so the price of the car with picture could be 5 times bigger then the price of a usual car. The price is big. But car owners stand in line to make picture on their cars.

Some car drivers say about their cars as about ladies. Maybe that’s why they change their outer appearance by Aerography. What lady wants to have the same dress as everybody else? You will not find any. So that’s why people draw pictures on their cars.But also Aerography is a great chance to show off.

History of Aerography in brief...

In 1878 someone Abner Peeler constructed air brush – aerograph. Of course, this device was very primitive in comparison with modern hi-tech instruments (the inventor himself was a jeweler, and was engaged in painting during his leisure hours). The invention created a furor: rather plain by sight, it represented a sewing needle set into a system of tubes and was connected up with a hand compressor.

Abner painted pictures for 3 years and turned on serious interest in new sort of fine art. In 1881 Liberty Walkup company became interested in Abner Peeler’s invention and accrued the rights from the author at a fabulous price 700$! Inventor provided himself a well-to-do life. In 1883 daughter enterprise of Liberty Walkup called Rockford Airbrush was founded. The company was engaged in advancement of production created with the airbrush (aerography) method. Little by little enthusiasm for aerography acquired larger scales, and the new technique of patterning burst into such branches as advertisement, photography, typography.

There were racing teams who first started using aerography technique – they patterned pictures of hard-won cups, information about sponsors, pictures of animals embodied rapidity of this or that bolide. Soon sport moneymakers realized that every square centimeter can make an additional profit as an advertising area, and now almost all information we can see at sport cars is commercial and usually advertise this or that brand. However, soon aerographic pictures were changed to bright stickers – they are easier to change from one to another race. And only brand names sometimes are patterned by means of aerography.

In spite of banishment aerography from sport, its development wasn’t stopped. At the beginning of 1940-s firms and studios which patterned pictures by airbrush method on common cars appeared. And now aerography grows, and our attention is attracted not only by ornamented cars, but also by mobile phones, computers, monitors, snowboards, bicycles, motorcycles, helmets, refrigerators and even furniture. One is dazzled because of such plenty and wants to make every object unique, to impart style and mood to it… Now we can confidently say that artistic aerography irrevocably came into our life.