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Duracoat & Firearm Finishing : Duracoat & Firearm Finishing

Just Curious....Whats your price

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gunrunner32

Posted: Mar 12th 2010, 10:57 AM

So I'm getting told by the wife that I need to stop hooking up friends at work and doing their camo jobs for the price of paint and start making some money. Especially since the Multi-cam jobs have taken accumulative 50 hours so far (I'm working on an AR-15 w/ 2 optics, light, foregrip, rear sight, rail covers) and I've still got more time to put into this job. I was thinking something along the lines of $25 a color and I'll give an 'as accurate' estimate of my time to do the job and give my time a cost of $5 an hour. With the time estimate goes prep time (degreasing/cleaning, phos, sand blasting) and creating masks, when possible. Am I lowballing myself, ordoes this sound about moderatly priced. There are very few people around here that offer Duracoating, there's a shop that does it closer to Nashville,TNand a few hobbists like myself.

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InstructorPyro

Posted: Mar 12th 2010, 11:18 AM

Since Duracoating is how I'm making my living these days... I'm gonna say you're low balling yourself. I charge $100 a color for multi cam jobs and my digital services are listed at $350 for digital jobs. Basically, I get $300 for a standard 3 color camo job and a single color I get around $200 for a rifle and $150 for a pistol. I also include shipping in my price for out of state guns. Most of the local work I get comes in multiple firearms. For instance, I just received 4 firearms from a customer... An Saiga rifle with 2 mags to paint, a lever action with optic, shotgun no optics and a Glock 17. The Saiga is going Russian Special Forces (Duracoat without buying their templates) so that is a four color job. The Lever Action is going 3 color tiger stripe-ish with green, tan, brown. The shottie is one color and the glock is going two-tone... for a total price of $1000.

I always get half the money up front from customers and all the money up front from friends. The reason I do that is if you get screwed by a customer you've got the materials covered and you're not out of a butt-load of time and money. The reason I collect the whole thing up front from friends is so that my friendships stay in tact... if you know what I mean.

I currently working at a gun shop owned by a local dude and I submitted my FFL application last week to the ATF (fingerprints and all). As of right now, legally, I have to paint them at the shop and not at my house because of the 'business location' on the FFL. So, I do the work at the shop and only my own firearms at home. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge... Just in case anyone from the ATF is watching, I never, ever, ever, ever, never, never take firearms home to paint them. But once my FFL is in place at home, then I won't have to worry about it.

Good luck with all of this. Remember, trust your customers very little and your friends even less.

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gunrunner32

Posted: Mar 12th 2010, 11:43 AM

Well lets just put it this way, the multi-cam job that I'm doing/did on the Glock 17, Rem 700 and the AR-15 is a 7 color job. the dark green is a mix of Flat Dark MagpulEarth and a Woodland Green, there's also Coyote Brown, Desert Mint, Woodland Brown, Arctic Shadow and Desert Tan. I do hand cut masks for each layer. Clean, scuff the surfaces,degrease, phos coat then base coat. For the 3 weapons to include all accessories I got 300 for it. I don't plan on getting an FFL or start doing it as a profession because I'm out of the country and state so much. I plan on sticking local, I'm just looking to a good idea for a price prior to advertising outside my team and company. And believe me, i get the money before I start the guns, I know what it's like working for family and friends.

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InstructorPyro

Posted: Mar 12th 2010, 12:26 PM

You put a lot of work and time into what you do. Lots of colors and time. I know about the hand cutting mask because I do the same when it comes to camo jobs (for the most part). I guess you should just feel that you are being fairly compensated for your time and energy. You do good work and the time you spend on your projects shows in the final product. I still think you're low balling yourself though. For that kind of 'one of a kind' work which you put so much effort into should be worth more.

In my personal opinion... for outside work you should get at least 300 for an AR-15 in your multi-cam, 250 for a long rifle, and 175 to 200 for pistol in the same.

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Room 055

Posted: Mar 12th 2010, 12:30 PM

You guys do some fine work. IP, post pics up of my Mossberg when your done with it. I want to see it step by step.

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gunrunner32

Posted: Mar 12th 2010, 12:41 PM

I agree that I hould be compensated nicely, and I know my wife would like more for her cut (90/10...i get the 10). She said that I should ask for more than minimum wage, I'm thinking 10-15 an hour. I made 23.50 an hour back when I was a plumber, and for service calls I charged 85 for the first hour and 65 for every hour after than plus parts. Maybe I'll venture up around what you charge for the colors just to pay for equipment, paints, shipping. Thanks for the advice, I think that 15 an hour and50 a color. So the Glock I did in a multicam would have been $575 at 7 colors and a lowball estimate of 15 hours. I don't see to many multicam jobs coming around. If you get one, I've made a powerpoint to show how I did it and the steps I took to get there I can email to you. I think that I'll end up getting more two-tone jobs and the occational tri-color camo job. But after doing the Multi-cam and the fading techniques that are used I can probably do about anything. I've never tried a digital job, I'd imagine that it'd be time consuming equally as much.

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InstructorPyro

Posted: Mar 12th 2010, 01:38 PM

GR, with as much time as you put into what you do, you should be able to get a decent amount of compensation for it.

Roomie! You better believe that we're going to do a step by step on your shottie! Pictures and maybe even some video.

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gunrunner32

Posted: Mar 12th 2010, 05:12 PM

IP, I reread your post at 12:26, I think I like the pricing scheme. I think my wife would be happy with it too.

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Room 055

Posted: Mar 12th 2010, 08:57 PM

Don't under estimate the one-of-a-kind factor. Quality is worth the extra dollar to the right people.

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