I thought I would share an experience with you fellow members. I have wanted to change the plastic on my quad for some time now so I priced what I would need from Maier. I wanted to go red and white. When all was said and done, I was looking at $503.93 plus $161.25 for a total of $665.18 to replace ALL the plastic in the colors that I wanted. And this was at "close out" prices. Needless to say, I could not justify the expense. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the plastics on it now. Possessing the ability to paint and having all the equipment needed, except a paint booth, I was determined to do it my self and save money. I think you guys already know where this is going. Since I already had the white paint, clear coat, sand paper, and thinner, my material costs were less than starting from scratch. Naturally, the paint that you use is a huge factor in determining cost. Duplicolor makes a ready to spray lacquer base coat, clear coat, and primer for $25 a quart. PPG and Dupont range from $100 to $160 a quart but is mixed 1 to 1, so basically you get 2 quarts after it is thinned. Anyway, I hope I haven't lost anybody yet. My material bill (remember, I had some of it already) came to $80 which included a quart of adhesion promoter which I used in place of a flex agent. Sounds cheap right? But now you have to factor in labor. My quad was in pretty good shape but it still took me approximately 8 hours (2 days, 4 hours per day). Most of the time was for sanding and reassembly. Now obviously you don't pay yourself for doing your own things, but I bid jobs at $45 to $75 per hour. I have already ridden it pretty hard on some rough trails that caused considerable flexing, and the paint job survived. Will it last? Is it worth it? You can decide for yourself.

 

Looks sharp, I like it!

 

Thanks Scooter. I have always been leery of painting plastic that will be subjected to flexing, but with many of the new ATVs and automotive plastic body panels, I am thinking that paint adhesion/flexibility has improved considerably, otherwise the manufacturers would not risk doing it themselves. I would have posted more pics on the first post, but it only let me upload one.

 

I like it. I want to. Paint my Rhino but I don't have the equipment for painting. What do you believe to be a reasonable price to get it done?

 

If your only talking about the plastic/body panels, I think it would range between $600 to $1000. You could probably have it done for less and save money on material by using a single stage paint. I know I would not do it for less than $600, but that is because I am lazy and now only paint as a side job. When you don't HAVE to paint for a living, you can be very particular on how much you charge. Even though, everything is expensive as hell these days.

 

Great looking paint job.

 

Thanks jumbo. I was finally able to take low resolution pics. I had to sneak the 250R in there so it would not get jealous. I will post updates on durability.

 

You can use quality things by slightly increasing the cost of your product. You can also start powder coating business which appears in more finished form.

 

Update on paint job. Well, my paint job survived up until November of 2017. And it did not fail under normal use. It took my stupid, fat *** falling off a ladder (while getting Christmas decorations down) onto my quad to cause the damage. And for 270 lbs. falling on the left rear fender, the damage was not that bad. Now obviously, the paint did crack, but the fender survived. Needless to say, I was pissed, but I should be grateful that my Honda put itself in harms way to try and break my fall. Isn't that stupid? I was not relieved that I did not get hurt, but I was pissed off that I cracked the paint. Anyway, the paint job, in my case, was a worth while project. As stated previously, I am not gently on my ATVs. The paint job was able to survive everything I put it through. I should include that I do not ride on trails so narrow that branches or thick brush come in contact with the machine, but I do ride in dirt, sand, snow, and rocky mountain trails.

 

You were lucky you survived and were in better shape than your paint job. For a little while I had a Sportsman 500 with blue automotive style paint. It was an LE model with cast aluminum wheels and it looked great. But when I scraped a fender on a tree, and not just a sapling, it took the paint right off. The plastic was blue too so you wouldn't notice it from a distance.