How much does it cost to repaint one panel?

What one panel typically costs

A door skin in a solid color with nothing to remove sits at the low end. A hood in a fine silver metallic, or a quarter panel that requires the bumper and taillight to come off, sits at the high end. Add a tri-coat pearl white or a candy red and the number moves again, because those colors take an extra coat and far more skill to match.

Two shops quoting the same panel can differ mainly on how much blending they include and whether they charge for the disassembly that a proper job requires.

One useful comparison: refinishing a single panel is usually a small fraction of what a full repaint costs, which is why painting the whole car to fix one panel is almost never the economical answer. If a shop quotes you a full repaint for damage confined to one area, ask them to price the panel alone as well.

The only way to know your number is an estimate on the actual panel, with the paint code and the current condition of your finish in front of the estimator. We write those free and turn them around within 24 hours from photos.

One thing worth checking before you commit: how faded the rest of the car is. On a vehicle with ten Minnesota summers on it, a freshly refinished panel can look correct in color and still read as newer than the paint around it. A good shop will tell you that in advance and, where it matters, recommend refinishing a group of panels rather than one.

Why "one panel" often means three

This is the single most misunderstood line on a paint estimate. If a shop mixes your factory formula and sprays it only on the repaired panel, you will very often see the repair — because your paint has aged in Minnesota sun and road salt, and because metallic and pearl flake lays down differently on fresh paint than on old paint.

The fix is blending. Color is faded out into the adjacent panels, and clearcoat is carried across the whole area so there is no hard edge for your eye to catch. On a door, that usually means the two doors beside it. On a fender, the hood or the front door.

So an estimate that says "repair one panel, blend two" is not padding the bill. An estimate that promises to spray one panel edge-to-edge on a metallic car and charge you less is quietly promising you a repair you will be able to see.

What changes the price

Panel refinishing is priced in labor hours plus paint materials. These are the factors that move both:

• Panel size — a roof or a full-size truck bedside takes far more material and booth time than a fender
• Color type — solid, metallic, pearl, and tri-coat run from least to most expensive, in that order
• Blend panels required — usually one or two, occasionally more on a long uninterrupted flank
• Disassembly — handles, mirrors, moldings, lamps, spoilers, and liners that must come off and go back on
• Underlying repair — a dent or scratch under the paint has to be fixed and blocked flat first
• Edges and jambs — painting the inside edge of a door or hood is extra work that makes the job look factory
• Sensors and cameras — anything in the panel may need removal and a functional check afterward

The panels that cost the most

Roofs, hoods, and full-length bedsides are the biggest surfaces on the vehicle, so they cost the most in material and booth time. Roofs are also the hardest to blend, because there is nowhere to fade the color to on a wide flat plane, and on many vehicles the roof rails or trim have to come off.

Quarter panels are expensive for a different reason: they are welded to the body, not bolted on, so they cannot be replaced cheaply and the refinish work has to be perfect in place. Bumper covers can be surprisingly costly on newer cars because of the sensors, grilles, and brackets that come off and go back on.

Is one panel worth going through insurance?

Often it is not. A single panel refinish frequently lands close to a typical collision deductible, which means filing a claim buys you a small savings, a claim on your record, and a possible surcharge if you were at fault.

Two exceptions are worth knowing. If somebody else caused the damage and it can be established, their insurance pays and you owe no deductible. And if the damage came from hail, a falling branch, or vandalism, it falls under comprehensive coverage, which usually does not carry a fault surcharge.

Get the repair number first, then do the math. We will give you the number free and tell you honestly whether we think a claim is worth opening.

What a proper single-panel refinish involves

Knowing the steps makes the price make sense, and it gives you something concrete to ask about when two quotes differ. A correct panel refinish runs roughly like this:

• Remove the trim, handles, moldings, lamps, or liners that sit on the panel
• Repair the underlying damage — dent work, filler where genuinely needed, sanded and shaped
• Prime, cure, and block sand until the surface is flat under a reflection
• Clean, degrease, and mask the surrounding vehicle so overspray lands nowhere
• Measure the actual color on your car, tint the formula, and spray a test card to check it under color-corrected light
• Seal, then apply base coat, blending into the adjacent panels
• Clear coat across the repair and the blend area, then bake and cool
• Reassemble, polish where needed, and inspect in daylight