Auto Appearance Specialist - If an auto appearance specialist is going to pay $80 for a quart of auto paint, the auto appearance specialist better know what the auto paint does, why the auto paint is so expensive and what my alternatives are (competitors selling for less?). Real auto paint is expensive, that is just a fact a of life. Get ready for some serious sticker shock when you go to the autobody supplier. Automotive finishes are a science, that is, "measurements of polyurethane microgel deposition and clearcoats with the oscillation technique to determine the viscosity-temperature behavior correlate well with technical properties of the final films".