REDHOtTransAM

iTrader: (3)

My Mom had her honda painted by some college kids that were taking an auto body/paint class and they did a great job. It was free. They need cars to practice on and they do a pretty good job seeing how they get graded on it.

Does anybody know if there are any schools in southern California that do this? I wouldn't mind helping some college kids out with painting a couple F-bodies I have laying around the driveway at home.........

I know it's free and all, but it would really be helping them more than me I think.

hlaalu

iTrader: (3)

let me know if u find anyone ill go with you. they do touch up work right? =)

REDHOtTransAM

iTrader: (3)

I am pretty sure they do. They need as much practice as they can get. I feel as it's our duty to help them out......

ahhwataday

iTrader: (7)

I looking for the same thing in VA

camaro_fanatic2003

iTrader: (3)

do they really do that good of a job? i would be worried that they would paint it and it would look horrible and then you would have to pay to get it fixed...

brejcha

**** dude this is sweet. I wish I could find some in the Chi-Town area. They can re-paint my damn bumped, got those freaking spider webs--->yuck

REDHOtTransAM

iTrader: (3)

They did a REALLY good job on my Mom's Honda. The way I see it is if you already need a paint job why not let them do it? If they mess it up (which I doubt they would) you could go to plan B and pay to get it done. It just gives you a shot at getting a free paint job.

I bet they would put more work into it than a shop would. Some shops go through cars as fast as they can to get it done and move on to the next one. Not all shops but some.

camaro_fanatic2003

iTrader: (3)

yeah. i guess thats true since they are going for a grade. i dont "need" a paint job, i was just thinking about painting off my stripes and doing something different.

transambandit

iTrader: (6)

well i need to have mine painted anyways so if i could get a good new paint job for free hell i would do it.

shannon french

iTrader: (2)

i know when i was in a body school in highschool our teacher wouldn't let it go till it was perfect. but also we had to practice on fenders and absolute crap cars till he was ok with us doing customer cars. i did one of my grand parents cars and it was awesome. so yea i would trust them. and now i am super picky about my body work and actually know what i am talking about so that is a plus

Fast_94_Z

iTrader: (12)

i did quite a few cars when i was in highschool taking collision classes. my second year i did a compelete on a grand national. had a lot of rust repair, shaved the antenna, primed painted everything the original color. that was my first complete. it came out really nicely but i put a whole years worth of work into it while the rest of my classmates screwed around with the schools cars.

Arc00TA

iTrader: (17)

My car can't get much worse atm... I'll have to look into this.

hlaalu

iTrader: (3)

Yea I'm sure their teacher is not going to let noobs start painting peoples cars. It might not be a bad idea to email a body shop teacher, im going to check some local schools around here.

REDHOtTransAM

iTrader: (3)

sounds good. Let me know if you find anything out.

camaro_fanatic2003

iTrader: (3)

how long does it generally take for them to get it done? i cant be without a car for too long. i wasnt really looking for a whole car paint, just for them to possibly paint out my stripes.

REDHOtTransAM

iTrader: (3)

I am not really sure. I am trying to find out more information on it. I would imagine it might take them a few days longer than a regular Paint shop. I am hoping somebody with knowledge on this chimes in soon and fills us in.

98_Formula

iTrader: (15)

wow this sounds awesome, i need a paint job and free is right in my price-range... i wonder if this is available in the buffalo area?

Hawk108

iTrader: (1)

I would even pay for the paint if they wanted to paint my car a nice viper steel grey

getusumws6

iTrader: (9)

just call around to find auto body votec schools. free is great but usualy they make you pay for materials, which isnt bad. they might have your vehicle for more than a few days though, maybe weeks. And the teachers arent going to let you have your vehicle and let it look like crap.

steelhorses

iTrader: (2)

i just graduated from an autobody school this last year. yes, we would paint customers cars, but no, at least there, it wasn't free! we couldn't charge labor costs, but we did charge for materials. because at least for us, paint aint free! but that's still quite a bit less because you aren't paying 60-70 bucks an hour for shop rates.
one thing for us was that we didn't really have a deadline on when to have cars completed. mainly because we were working on vehicles owned by the school. i'm willing to bet it will take longer than a shop because they're still learning, they have other classes to go to, and the school probably isn't run at the pace of a regular shop. it could be days, it might be weeks depending on what you're having painted. stripes, i'd guess 1-2 days, but a full paint job i'd say at least a couple weeks. it's not as easy as some of you might think who haven't painted anything before. getting all those nooks and crannies sanded, filling any low spots that would show up, priming it, sanding it, paint, clear, etc.
but you might be able to talk to the instructor and see what kind of timeframe you'd be looking at.

as for whether or not it ends up being a good paint job depends on who is painting it. not to brag, but i was definitely one of the better painters in my class. yes, our instructors always tried to get the vehicles looking OEM or better, but sometimes it's not quite up to par. again, maybe you could talk to the instructor and ask him to put one of his better painters on the job.

if you've got more questions let me know, i'll see if i can answer some more