# How much does it cost to airbrush a car? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 1, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-airbrush-a-car/670120 "2013-10-01T18:54:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-airbrush-a-car/670120/1 "2013-10-01T18:54:58Z")
I’ve always been a fan of the airbrushed fantasy painting on the side of a white van. While I’m never going to own a van, my next car will most likely be a white Prius. I casually wonder whether the Prius has enough real estate for an epic painting, but I’m sure I could look that up. What I really want to know is what’s the going rate for the paintings. I’m thinking of a wizard and his pet panther fighting a dragon with a snow capped mountain in the background. Crumbling castle optional. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-airbrush-a-car/670120/2 "2013-10-01T19:14:41Z")
ETA: to be clear I mean how much would it cost for someone else to do it. I don’t have the skills of an artist. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-airbrush-a-car/670120/3 "2013-10-01T19:45:46Z")
A buddy of mine used to airbrush motorcycle gas tanks. He charged around two hundred for a tank, but it was just a beer-money sideline for him. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-airbrush-a-car/670120/4 "2013-10-01T19:49:33Z")
Commercial vehicles are not now airbrushed. The design is printed onto a clear plastic which is stuck to the van. It makes it so much easier to rebrand or advertise the latest campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-airbrush-a-car/670120/5 "2013-10-01T19:50:36Z")
It depends on size and quality of course but the big custom airbrush murals are quite expensive if they are elaborate. I know some people who had their whole pickup truck tail gates airbrushed in the 90’s. It cost 2 - 3K then for an image roughly that size and would probably be a lot more now. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-airbrush-a-car/670120/6 "2013-10-01T20:35:23Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Commercial vehicles are not now airbrushed. The design is printed onto a clear plastic which is stuck to the van. It makes it so much easier to rebrand or advertise the latest campaign. Yeah, but what’s the point if the grand art on the side of your vehicle is just another vinyl vehicle wrap and a hundred other people could have the exact same picture? Anyway, I don’t know the price of a full-on custom airbrush painting, but I can tell you the cost of “wrapping” your vehicle - which means a full vinyl decal printed with whatever you want in full color on all sides of your car. It’d cover up every inch of paint with whatever image or color you wanted. That’ll run you about $2000 (though cars are more annoying to wrap than vans so that’s just a rough guess…). So I imagine anything airbrushed would be at least that much if not considerably more, if you’re doing both sides. Of course, you could just take an airbrushed digital image and have it printed out and put it on your car, but getting the wisps to go around your windows and the dragon tail to arch over the wheelwell wouldn’t be happening. It’s a real pain to fit images not made for cars onto cars and it’d probably look a little dumb unless it was confined to the rough rectangle the side doors make. And like I said, after that 50 other people could have the same design put on theirs. I get people that want to skip the $500 custom airbrush job on their hockey helmets for the $100 decal option we provide. So, airbrushing isn’t a cheap business. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-airbrush-a-car/670120/7 "2013-10-01T22:30:35Z")
> [@Macca26](#): > > Yeah, but what’s the point if the grand art on the side of your vehicle is just another vinyl vehicle wrap and a hundred other people could have the exact same picture? It only has to be unique in my neighborhood 🙂 I haven’t seen any duplicate vinyl at all let alone airbrush looking ones. But I just don’t like the aesthetics of vinyl when it is trying to depict pictorial art. It’s too shiny and plastic looking. ---
**Author:** ![Glazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e57/32.png) [@Glazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glazer)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-airbrush-a-car/670120/8 "2013-10-01T23:20:06Z")
The biggest impact on price is the talent of the artist. If it’s cheep don’t bother.