Originally Posted by Crazy Horse

Most reputable shops (shops that do very good high quality work that will win shows and is very durable) that I know of will charge between $5000-6500 to paint an Ultra, a two tone with fairly complex graphics and that is true of my shop also. And that price usually includes the lowers and the inner fairing.
Yes most of us are small shops.
Pigpipes gave some great advice, I too have seen good and bad work at both ends of the price spectrum. You definately want to see pictures of the work they have done and hopefully they have painted some dressers. Its always great to see the actual finished product in person. You can definately see the real quality of a paint job when its right in front of you. Like if they used enough clear and you can't feel any paint edge around any artwork. And you can see the quality of the finish, if it has a smooth glassy finish or if its got a little orange peel to it. And hopefully if its a display piece that the painter has, you can touch it and see how hard the paint is. I like to have new paint and old paint I did years ago on display. The customer can touch them. Old paint is handy to have around as you can see how the paint had aged. especially if the part was run for years on a bike before it was replaced. Some of my customers have given me a piece of their old sheetmetal when they replaced a tank or fender.


We are finishing up painting an Ultra with extended bags and this is what I would call a somewhat complex job, a little more than a straight two tone. Just to give you an idea what's involved with painting a dresser. There are 20 parts in this job, tank, 2 fenders, 2 saddlebag lids, 2 extended saddlebags, 2 sidecovers, trunk, trunk lid, rear fender extention, fairing, inner faring, small piece that goes with the inner fairing, 4 pieces for the lower fairings, and liscence plate frame. I took a picture the other day after i moved the parts out of the shop. These are just the parts that have graphics on them, the trunk also has graphics but there wasn't enough room on the board for it here. There are even more parts like the lids that are just orange and the lowers that are just black.


The bike was originally a 2 tone, and the new paint is a candy two tone with graphics, so most of the old paint had to be removed from the parts because if its not, over time, the old pinstripe will "ghost" back through the paint.
The process is, first the parts have to be cleaned thoroughly of any wax or silicone. Then the old paint is removed completely from the metal parts, and sanded down on the other parts. Then everything is primed and sanded.
can you imagine how much time it takes to sand 20 parts?


The trunk is a total pain to sand as it is not flat on the bottom but has all kinds of ridges. And you can't just rush through sanding and its very easy to sand through all those little edges on the trunk, bags and lids. And if shortcuts are taken with sanding and the little crevasses are shiny and not sanded before they are painted, then eventually the paint will lift in those areas, not right away but 6 months down the road.
Then its basecoat, clearcoat, more sanding, then artwork and clearcoat, then more sanding and more clear. Then buffing all those parts.
Just the materials cost alone for a job like this can run $800 or more.

And if the paint job is properly done, the insides of the bags and trunk are masked off, so overspray won't get in there. And so there won't be a nasty big paint edge around the edges of the bags, that masking needs changed between primer and basecoat and final clear if you have artwork which requires extra clear.