Saving money on body work

[CFMopar]

Hey guys,

Slowly disassembling my car here and getting it ready for paint. I've yet to get it to a body shop to get a actual quote. But I know it's not going to be cheap.

Wondering if there's anything people recommend to maybe save some money on paint and body? I talked to one guy who suggested building my own means to move the car around and maybe stripping paint.

I was thinking of constructing a tip over jig which seems pretty straight forward.

In regards to paint removal, Most of my body panels are solid. Issues are going to be had on floors and areas that weren't normally seen. Thinking of using a grinder with paint removal disc to get as much off as I can and getting the undercoating off. I can use my oscillating tool and maybe heat and a scrapping tool to do that. I thought of investing in a media blaster. But by the time I buy everything to do it I'm not sure there's much savings to be had.

Of course, flash rust then becomes a problem. Would you just use a cheap primer and cover it up after sanding it down? Would that cause a problem down the road for the body shop after? I guess if most of the other layers of paint are off it becomes a quick job for the body shop at that point?

Any other things one can maybe do. I own a welder and have done some welding in the past. Just not so sure I'm confident enough to tackle my car without some more recent practice. Maybe simple jobs like filling some of those useless holes in the engine bay and stuff, but not sure I'd want to tackle floors.

[71charger_fan]

Quotes are only good if you know you have a solid car that needs no rust repair. Once the sheetmetal is opened up to fix some rust, all bets are off. I had no idea mine was going to need so much work. It's costing a fortune, but I'm finally getting what I paid the last shop to do. It's just been 2 years since he accepted the job and a year since I dropped off the car. My guy's opinion is if a shop can take your car in right away, you probably don't want them working on it. At least in this area, I think he's correct.

[CFMopar]

Probably not bad advice. There's a shop around me that's is pretty well known that does cars from all over the world. Shop rate is $130 an hour so it's going to add up pretty quickly. Got a few others on the list I'm going to check out prior to commiting to any one. There's a veteran owned one a bit further away, hoping I can expect a vet to not fuck over another service member.

I've been following your thread and have an idea of what's going to happen. Even now, as I strip the car down I've seen shoddy repairs done by previous owner so I know it's going to be more than I like.

Just wondering what I can do to save a few bucks.

[71charger_fan]

My guy estimated an additional 120 hrs for priming/blocking/painting/wet sanding/buffing after the metal work is done. Not sure if that includes reassembly. Got to get through metal work before I worry about it too much.

[AKcharger]

Short of stripping it down to a shell...not that much. Any reputable shop will want to do all the metal work

[hemi-hampton]

most shops don't want other people working on a car before they get just to have to redoe everything. $130 a hour sounds extremely steep to me since I only charge $50. But if your in California I guess they charge around that much.

[AKcharger]

The place that sprayed my clear coat was $42 an hour in Florida

[71charger_fan]

I'm paying $50/hr and, I feel, getting top quality results.

[Rolling_Thunder]

$130 / Hr is high even for CA -- I am located in the Los Angeles area and I don't think prices are that high (granted I havent priced paint and body work in the last few years)

[hemi-hampton]

The place that sprayed my clear coat was $42 an hour in Florida

I only Charge $25 a hour if I do it as a side job out of my Garage.  AK, So what you end up paying? like $168? 2 hours to tape up & 2 hours to clear, 4 hours total? You did say you had it all sanded down & dissasembled & ready.  LEON.

[RallyeMike]

Just wondering what I can do to save a few bucks.

You are already saving a ton by doing assembly/disassembly    Having a jig and dolly is great too. After that, unless you are going to do the whole thing yourself, I think any returns are pretty small and could even cost you more.

[CFMopar]

I'm paying $50/hr and, I feel, getting top quality results.

Maybe I should get it done in the US $50 is $64 Canadian. Would be half the cost 

[AKcharger]

I only Charge $25 a hour if I do it as a side job out of my Garage.  AK, So what you end up paying? like $168? 2 hours to tape up & 2 hours to clear, 4 hours total? You did say you had it all sanded down & dissasembled & ready.  LEON.

lol, I like your math Sir! No they said $1000 flat rate to shoot my clear. They wanted to do some blocking and stuff in addition to what I'd done and I wasn't going to argue. In my instance temps were dropping so I COULDN'T do it even if I wanted, It's a good shop and few GOOD places are going to put their name on a paint job at the very last stage.
here's how I gave it too them

[hemi-hampton]

SO, That means they actually charged you $250 a hour. Wow, that steeper then the guys $130 a hour.

[AKcharger]

Well, I'm thrilled with the way it came out and it needs no wet sanding or buff. If it only took them an hour ($1000 an hour) to do that good a  job...more power to 'em! (I think there was a bit more than 4 hours though  )

[CFMopar]

I've been checking out the build threads for this shop https://www.southernontarioautorestore.com/home.html and speaking to the owner. They've done some nice and unique builds. Some fancy work cramming a viper v10 into a challenger which as far as I know, has only been done by dodge in their sema car. Their rates are a bit more reasonable imo. But that's not hard to do when its $130 an hour.

$75 for body work
$85 for mechanical
$95 for welding and fab

The work in the build threads looks great. In particular the metal work. I don't think mine will be as bad as some of the ones he's shared. But again, until stripped you never know. Curious if anyone here has used them before... Only thing that I don't like is the shop is something like 2.5 hours away. I'd prefer something closer but for the difference in price I can deal with that.

[hemi-hampton]

Well, I'm thrilled with the way it came out and it needs no wet sanding or buff. If it only took them an hour ($1000 an hour) to do that good a  job...more power to 'em! (I think there was a bit more than 4 hours though  )

To be serious if I was doing I'd probably figure 8 hour job & charged $400 or maybe $500 if I had to quote a Price. I remember working at a Body Shop way back around 1990. We did lots of old Mopars,, another guy working there painted a 1970 or 71 Red Challenger at least twice & screwed it up twice. He re sanded taped up & was going to try a 3rd time. It was a single stage Red. But then the Boss said to him why don't you just Pay Leon to do it for you. He asked me so I said OK. He said How much. I figured it take 2 hours so I said $50 figuring $25 a hour. SO, I easily did it within the 2 hours & made $50 bucks. We were both Happy. Try doing that nowadays LEON.

[CFMopar]

The place that sprayed my clear coat was $42 an hour in Florida

I only Charge $25 a hour if I do it as a side job out of my Garage.  AK, So what you end up paying? like $168? 2 hours to tape up & 2 hours to clear, 4 hours total? You did say you had it all sanded down & dissasembled & ready.  LEON.

Want to come to Canada? I'll pay you an additional $25 hour for living expenses lol

[BrokenHero]

Rolling Thunder - what part Los Angeles are you in? I'm in Encino.

[BlueSS454]

I charge $70/hour in my shop and bill time plus materials.  I won't quote such jobs as there is no realistic way to quote a body/paint job on a 50 year old car.  What I can tell you from my experience is to typically expect a minimum of 100 hours worth of work if the car is disassembled completely, stripped to bare metal, and needing no rust repair. It cost between $3500-$4500 to shoot the car once the body is ready for paint depending on what color it is.  I had $3200 in paint materials alone in my Charger and did not do the underside or inside the cab.  Mopars have a lot of real estate to cover.  Another 40 hours to sand and polish it properly.  That said, expect it to cost around $15K at any reputable shop.  Rust repair and any disassembly/reassembly will add to the cost.  Also no one, except a place like Maaco, will do any paint work over rust repair/body work they did not do.