Need A Fender Painted...Cheap

My project '99 Civic has taken a kind of expensive turn. Frankenstein,
as Greg called it, needs to have its eyeballs matched. The car currently
is sporting one '99 headlamp and one '96-98 headlamp, which also comes
with a '98 passenger fender. In order to fit the '99 light, the fender
also needs to be swapped out. Otherwise, there's an ugly gaping area
between the light and the fender.

I bought the '99 light ($138.), '99 fender ($79.), and I proceed to call
around to find out how much it will run to paint the fender as it is,
off the car, free standing, primed and ready to go. $200-240!! I'm
slack jawed at how expensive painting car parts is! I was prepared for
$100-120., but over $200?!

How difficult is it to paint a piece like this?
I'm not looking to have any perfect color match done as the other fender
and bumper cover don't match the original paint perfectly, either. It's
my 16 year old son's car, so perfection isn't necessary.
Eventually, he wants to paint the whole car, but not just yet. A couple
of years perhaps.

Can a neighbor who's a meticulous guy when it comes to painting other
stuff do a passable job of painting this fender? Or should we wait for
the whole car to be painted before mounting the new fender and light?
Any other suggestions on discount painting? I'd like to proceed with
this project now rather than wait for the car to be painted. It's our
last step to making Frankenstein a Freulein!

Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

If you are in California you can go to
Earl Scheib
http://earlscheib.com/locator.asp

They have various packages and cheapest is $199 for the whole car !

Or
Check One Day Paint , if present in your state
http://1daypaint.com/1daycenterlocations.html

Pranav.

 

or try maaco

 

(Trojan)
wrote:

Thanks for the tips. I called One Day Paint a few days ago and they gave
me the $200. quote for the fender. Their cheapest whole car deal is
$579. now. The guy said the $200 jobs were all coming back in less than
a year and they had to upgrade the quality of paint being used. Still,
$579 is a heck of a lot better than the body shop quote of $3,000+.

 

Forgot about them. I wonder if their paint is of the one year kind?

 

You might want to check this

http://www.onedaypaint.com/1daycoupons.html

will save u $100 on $579 for the whole car with a 5 year warranty.
There are other packages too.

 

Very kewl info. Thanks for sharing.