Paint/body work

[sext7366]

What should I look for in a shop that will be doing some body work, and paint on my car.
I will need some quarter panel work (pass side has a dent about 3 inches in diameter, and there is a bondo crack on the wheel well), drivers side fender needs smoothed out along with the valance, the hood has a dent about 3 inches in diameter on the front edge, and I may have some rust in the rear quarters as the trunk leaks.  I have updated my plans, and currently have about 1500 saved.  I am hoping that this will cover most of the body work.  In the fall I will have another 3000-3500 for the paint.

Does 1500 seem like it would cover the things I mentioned, or should I plan on saving another thousand or so?

[bull]

Pics would help but it depends a lot on what you want to accomplish. If you're just repairing one or two areas that $1,500 might do it but if you plan on doing the whole enchilada you'll need to find a restoration shop rather than a body shop. Body shops won't mess with you on a restoration project because they want to make a profit, and there's no real profit to be made on restorations compared to insurance work unless you have deep pockets to make it worth their while. If there's rust you're looking at a lot of money. I saved up $13,000 over the past year thinking it would be enough for metal replacement, body work paint and an engine rebuild on my '68. Now it looks like that $13,000 is going to be just enough for metal replacement and body work. And that's not counting the cost of parts. I'm looking at roughly $15k just to have it ready to paint. But it will be done right.

[4402tuff4u]

I'm just about completed with the restoration on my 68 R/T and one very important advise that I can give you (learn from my mistake) that I missed and failed on is makesure you write down for him exactly what you want done to the car and make that list that you come up with be part (rider) of the estimate document. I just dropped $ 14,000 on an estimate of $ 10,000. I had a list of exactly what the $ 10,000 was going to cover, but I started adding stuff for him to do. It was my doing on the extra $ 4,000. My Charger did not have rust and I gave him a media blasted white metal car so the guess work on what the Charger needed was not there. We (him & I) knew exactly what the Charger needed, discussed and agreed on the estimate. I then after he started and was deep and thick into the Charger, I started adding rail connectors, prep & paint interior of Charger 100%, prep & paint undercarriage, paint original rims, prep and paint dashboard, install vinyl top and a few small little things that add up. If I were a bit smarter, I would of included all the extras I came up with on the original estimate and cornered him into a more accurate price. Giving him a list helps him estimate his time to each particular task. The bad part of adding after he has started is that if he under estimated a particular task on the car, he's going to add his loss to the next extra thing you add for him to do. You can't blame him for that, he's in the business to make money. But by putting everything up front for him, he taking a bit more of the risk in pricing the work.  Oh, makesure the shop is neat. If he cares that the shop is neat and everything is in it's place, then that most likely will be a reflection of his work.

I'm very happy with the job he has done on my Charger, he lets me work on the Charger at night if he's working late and lets me use his tools - so in my book that has to be worth something. I would recommend him anytime. $ 1,500 is a start at $ 75.00/hr is only 20 hrs here with NY rates. When you decide where you are going to have the Charger done, makesure you visit him at least twice a week to keep track of your Charger's work and keep the fire on him. Good luck and post pic's when you start. Take alot of pictures, they will be very helpful in the long run.

[73chargers4404]

make damn sure you look at there work before you give them any money.we just had a maco body shop move to are town and i never herd the name before ,and i was taking pictures around trying to get a idea of a cost of labor and i tought to myself this looks like a clean nice shop and then before leaving one  of the cars they painted pulled up and the guy behind the counter said heres one we just got done ,it looked like dog shit it looked like you gave a monkey a paint gun there was little pcs of grit all in the paint it sagged in a couple places.now i  must look at there work and make it a point of stoping by when there busy to see what kind of work they do .

[EMF]

 Requesting any info. on restoration shops located in the North east (Tri-state area) that specialize in Mopars. I need to find out if my C500 and 69R/T are restorable  and an approx. price. Both are mostly complete but have serious rust issues. Thanks.

[73rallye440magnum]

I want to say Roger Gibson Resorations is located in Pennsylvania. You sort of hi-jacked the thread there...

[Telvis]

Paint and body work are expensive. Not to mention the time issue. Plan on three to five times longer to finish than your body man estimates. That's if you are fortunate enough to even find someone willing to do it.