TABLE OF MATERIALS USED IN PAINTING VEHICLES.
For a landau:—
In the case of a Berlin coach, perhaps the quantity of each item of material should be increased over the above to the extent of 1/4 for the body surface. Running parts require the same quantity. The body of a six-passenger rockaway will need, approximately, 1/8 less material than the body of the landau or coach. The body of the coupe-rockaway 1/4 less. Running parts consume about the same quantity as the heavier vehicles here named.
The quantity of varnish named for the above vehicles provides for toe-boards, checks, steps, bottoms, etc.
For buggies of the various styles:
| BODY. | |
| Priming | 5/8 pint |
| Lead | 1/2 " |
| Putty | 1/4 lb. |
| Sandpaper | 6 sheets |
| Roughstuff (4 coats) | 1 quart |
| Color (2 coats) | 1 pint |
| Lampblack (for bottoms) | 1/2 " |
| Color-and-varnish | 5/8 " |
| Clear rubbing (2 coats) | 1 " |
| Finishing varnish | 2/3 " |
| Varnish in color and filler | 1 " |
| RUNNING PARTS. | |
| Priming | 1 pint |
| Lead (2 coats) | 1 3/4 " |
| Putty | 3/8 lb. |
| Sandpaper | 12 sheets |
| Color | 1 pint |
| Color-and-varnish | 1 1/4 " |
| Clear rubbing | 1 1/4 " |
| Coat of finishing | 1 1/2 " |
Such light pleasure vehicles as surreys, cabriolets, etc., require an increase in the quantity of each item of material over that accorded to the buggies and phaetons of about one-half.
The above tables may be of benefit to some of my readers who desire a practical basis upon which to estimate the cost of the material to be used upon a certain vehicle. Labor is said by competent authorities to represent 75 per cent of the cost of painting a vehicle. With the cost of material at hand—a computation made comparatively easy by the aid of the tables here set forth—and with 75 per cent of the whole cost credited to the labor item, a very close estimate upon general vehicle painting can be made.
Guess work in gauging the price of a job of vehicle painting paves the way to an unprofitable business venture; more surely in these days of uproarious competition than in times past. Careful estimates, which include cost of labor, material, shop rent, wear and tear of tools, and such other incidental features of business which may properly be taken note of in an estimate, have come to be imperative necessities in carriage and wagon painting. Verily, it is true that it is not all of painting to paint—estimating should be included therein.