hi, i just recently bought the tc sportline raven body kit for my tc, i tooki it to the shop to get it painted and put on and the guy said it needed a little work. So he wants to charge me between 14 and 1600 dollars is this a rip off.

so 1400 to 1600 to install, fix and paint right? i know a good shop that charges 900 for paint and 400 to install. so i guess 1600 for everything is a reasonable price. did you try calling other body shops in your area for estimates?

i'll talk to my stepfather to see what he charges and i'll let you know tomorrow. he'll prolly have to take a look at the body kit first. his shop is in gaithersburg so it's not too far from baltimore.

its either a rip off, or the kit u got doesn't fit right and they have to adjust....

I dont like that kit... its "odd".. but.. to each his own they say :) Congrats on the purchase, hope it works out.

Heya, I do body work for a living... and have put more kits on then i care to count (inc several of my own). Depending on quality of the kit, and material (fiberglass or plastic) the price of fitment, painting and instalation can very GREATLY.
For example we recently had a guy who bought a knock off fiberglass kit for his IS300. It was a replica of a C-west kit i have done before. The fiberglass replica was just a piece of garbage quite frankly... It took me 6 hours of cutting/fitting/releaving just to get the rear bumper to fit. the sideskirts were 3/4" too short on each side and warped to holy hell. The front bumper was so bad, I had to tell him i couldnt fit it. He ended up getting a real C-west front bumper that fit like gravy. Even after fitment prices can vary shop to shop because of the amount of time they put into it... Some shops are gonna fit (hopefully) prime and paint the kit. While others yet are gonna take time to work the surface trying to give ya the Best possible surface for paint. This involves topcoating and blocking the surface (most of this work is done by hand and time consuming). Possibly even spray filler which is an awesome way to go but material cost is higher.
I tell ya all this just so you understand that not all shops are the same and will do the same work. Many of my Cars that ive done kits for have been feature cars in several magazines. I know what i charge people is more then your gonna get at the hack shop down the street... but I know im gonna do the job right. The guy in the example above ended up payin me $3.000 for the complete job. But the quality (or lack there of) and job he got warrented that amount.
-Mikey

Mikey is right and if you guys saw the prices of materials these days for body and paintwork, youd understand why labor is high.

many knockoff kits dont fit for crap. Anytime something doesnt fit right you can count on another 45 to and hour minimum to pull stuff off and readjust things then reassemble and check fitting again. they will put at least 12 hours of work into the car between fitting, prepping and painting the car, factor in cost of materials and the price they quoted you is fine. Most hourly labor rates are 65-100 an hour...

Mikey speaks!!!!