[clarry]

You can buy the consumables for a paint job for a few dozen bucks, and then charge for a day or two of labor. You make 800 eur. Selling labor is how your body shop makes money.

Or you can buy a new bumper for 600 eur, charge a thin margin on it, and then add maybe one hour of labor. Most of what you charge goes to Honda, you make maybe 150 eur, and then hope the next job comes soon so that your tools and people don't sit idle for too long.

[imtringued]

You also have to pay for the working space. The reason why paint jobs cost so much has more to do with the lengthy setup than the actual labor or consumables. You need to maintain a specific temperature. You must detach the painted parts and tape them. There are minimum volumes of paint you have to use before you can mix them. This is why painting one part is so expensive. Painting three bumpers at once is much cheaper but nobody wrecks 3 bumpers at once.

[clarry]

How is "lengthy setup" not labour?

[triceratops]

Yeah, selling labor makes sense if you're short on jobs. If your order pipeline is full it makes more sense to sell marked-up parts and use less labor.