Cost to paint a body?

[slowTwitch]

By a luthier/specialist; just looking for a ballpark figure. Assume entire instrument sent rather than body only.
Nothing fancy, a solid colour, perhaps a light metallic fleck.

Any recommendations of people who are particularly well regarded for this type of work?

Cheers,

Rich

Edited Tuesday at 11:49 by slowTwitch

[JJMotown]

Best go to a car garage that does panel painting, it'll be as good, maybe better, and cheaper.

[slowTwitch]

It's an option to consider if a luthier proves too expensive, but I initially want to explore the lazy, one-stop-shop option, of handing the entire instrument to one person. 

[Silky999]

A car place would need the body only so you would have to take the bass apart. It’s also depends what type of finish you would want. A car sprayer would probably use 2k type paint, so paint and a hardener. It’s quicker to apply and also doesn’t need cure off for as long before polishing in the same way nitrocellulose or 1k poly would. 2k is also quite toxic hence they should use proper air fed respirators and decent extraction. They may not do nitrocellulose if that’s what you wanted. 
 

So from a luthier perspective, you are looking at stripping the bass to body, taking any existing clear coat off, prepping the colour already on, priming, new colour then clear coat, cure, polish, reassembly and set up. As a rough estimate, I allow poly clear coat 7-14 days to cure and nitro 14-30 days before polishing. 

 

Poly consumables - £140-215

 

Nitro consumables- £150-260

Total

 

Polyurethane Refinish:

£350 – £450

(Primer, colour, poly clear, materials, and labour included.)

 

Nitrocellulose Refinish:

£400 – £550

(More coats, more labour, longer cure — hence the higher price.)

 

I hope that helps. 

 

 

[Geek99]

Could you buy a ready made and painted  body cheaper ? Just a thought 

[slowTwitch]

That's great - thanks Silky 👍

[JJMotown]

Silky's costs are obviously without the luither taking it apart, reassembling it afterwards and doing a set up. Which are all additional costings.

[Beedster]

IME - and I've done both - it's often more economic to simply buy an aftermarket body in the preferred finish than it is to refin the existing body; for example a while back I bought a stunning new Warmoth 3tsb body for not a lot more than a refin had recently cost me, which was close to £400. OK it's most useful with Fenders/Fenderalikes and MMs of course but there's a 90% chance after all 👍 

[Silky999]

My costs would include disassembly, reassembling and basic setup……..I’d feel like I was taking the p*ss if that was extra 🤣

 

If someone wanted to send just the body then I would factor that into the price and charge a little less…….time is money as they say!

Edited Wednesday at 20:35 by Silky999

[BassTool]

On 09/12/2025 at 20:49, JJMotown said:

Best go to a car garage that does panel painting, it'll be as good, maybe better, and cheaper.

This 👍🏼

 

Check out my BlazerRay thread in Build diaries - I got the body painted with a grey primer, white top coat plus lacquer (including all flatting and prep) for £100, the finish is superb.

 

Small body shops love the challenge of something outside the norm, if you have any local to you of course!

 

Just so happens we have loads up here - and I knew the guy who did mine - but these guys and girls are as good as any luthier job, as body shops are spraying stuff every day 😉

[Silky999]

On 11/12/2025 at 22:44, BassTool said:

This 👍🏼

 

Check out my BlazerRay thread in Build diaries - I got the body painted with a grey primer, white top coat plus lacquer (including all flatting and prep) for £100, the finish is superb.

 

Small body shops love the challenge of something outside the norm, if you have any local to you of course!

 

Just so happens we have loads up here - and I knew the guy who did mine - but these guys and girls are as good as any luthier job, as body shops are spraying stuff every day 😉

I would absolutely endorse having a go yourself. You can get a decent finish with rattle cans (I started with cans from Northwest Guitars before getting spray guns etc) and sprayed in the garden with the body screwed to a bit of wood as a painting stick tucked under my arm! Admittedly it is more challenging this time of year with the weather 😂. You could always knock up a bit of a backdrop out of some cardboard boxes and spray in the open door of a garage or a shed but definitely get respirator that can deal with Volatile Organic Compounds off eBay or Amazon. Decent protection is cheaper than you think and the VOCs will make you feel like crap if you don’t. Make sure you get either nitro or 1k paint/finish such as polyurethane as 2k stuff(it has a separate hardener) has isocyanates which is as nasty as it sounds and needs decent extraction and a positive pressure respirator to be safe.

 

Body prep is everything and the more time you spend on that such as sanding, grain filling, sealing before you start painting will reap absolute dividends and a better finish 

 

I personally find nitro finishes more forgiving than poly as they flash off and dry quicker which is a plus if you are spraying in the open as it means less sanding of dust nibs, dead flies etc 😫. If you do use nitro, it really needs to cure for a couple of weeks after the final coat before you can do the final sand and polish and it can remain quite soft during that time which I learned after leaving what I thought was a cured body on a soft patterned towel. It left the imprint of the towel material in the finish🤬 You can also get some shrink back into pores if you haven’t put enough coats on or sealed the wood adequately. Poly is more durable, needs less coats and cure time but takes longer to dry between sprays and also doesn’t melt into the previous layer in the same way nitro does. I also found that rattle can poly doesn’t go on as well as nitro and I got better results with wipe on poly(make it yourself by thinning normal poly rather than buy it) than spraying it.
 

Practice on a scrap bit of wood first to get the hang of the spraying and it’s is better to spray more thin coats spaced out than fewer thick ones. 
 

Hopefully @slowTwitch, that has given you some options and I’m sure whichever route you choose, be it car sprayer, luthier or have a go yourself, you will get the result you want.