Hello. When I finish stripping, patching up, smoothing out, and priming the body of my '65 Skylark, I'll be taking it to a shop for another coat of primer and its compatible paint. Can anyone tell me if shops will guarantee/warranty their work even if the customer did the bodywork and put on primer? Are there additional steps I should take into consideration here to reduce the risks?
I would highly doubt a shop would consider any type of warranty on a paint job where the customer did the prep work. If there's going to be a failure it's usually related to the work and or material underneath. An exception may be if the shop knows you and trusts you to do your own work. Stripping, prepping the bare metal, and priming are all very critical to a paint job that will last and look good.
probably no warranty as many times it's the paint suppliers that provide the warranty to the paint shops...once they hear about non-shop prep, etc they most likely will say you are on your own. What are you using to prime it?
There are a number of aftermarket urethane primer co's out there. I used Transtar 2K Urethane on my car. The best bet is find out what brand paint the shop uses and IF (I repeat) IF they use the same brand primer as paint then get that. If not, use what brand primer they tell you to use and you may not have a problem. Most shops won't warranty the paint if they didn't do everything from the metal surface on up to the clear. Basically, they'd be warranting what you did too. Not many shops will do that. They may give you a verbal warranty, but soon as there's a problem you know it's going to be blamed on something that you did.
