Paint and Body Advise

[miamivice]

Alright, the time has come to go out and look for a good paint and body shop for the Charger. What factors should I look for in determining who is good/bad?   Im sure that most of them will look "good" to me if i just go in and walk around and look at one of their cars. 

I’d like to come up w/ a nice little check list or something that I can have, to set some kind of standard so when I go to shops I can determine which would be best for me.

Also, any western Washington state mebers have any recomendations for places for me to go check out???

Thanks ya’ll and merry Xmas

[daytonalo]

YOU NEED TO CAR TO A CAR SHOW AND FIND A CAR THAT LOOKS RAZOR STRAIGHT AND NO ORANGE PEEL . THEN YOU ASK FOR NUMBER OF SHOP . MOST OF THE TIME YOU BETTER OFF HIRING A BODY GUY TO COME TO YOUR SHOP FOR 20-25 CASH AN HOUR , AND HAVE  HIM SAND UNTIL HE NO LONGER HAS FINGERPRINTS

[Silver R/T]

check cars they worked on
see if they have good reputation, and preferrably do not drink, see how far theyre booked

[8WHEELER]

Most likely you will end up with a one person resto mopar guy. I have checked off and on around the Seattle
area, and I have not found a SHOP SHOP that will do a complete resto, and no offence but your car will
require a ton more patching and welding than most cars shops ever come across. I have my wife's 68 RT
Charger at a single run shop right now for a resto, he is a mopar guy, his shop has an approved paint booth
inside of his own building. If this goes well I will recommend him to others, I can also ask him if he will take on
a project such as yours and get some idea what he thinks. My wife's car needed only small lower quarter
patch panels, then take it down the rest of the car to metal and make it arrow strait. He is not evan a
1/4 done yet. He does not do the drive train, susp or interior work either.

Dan

[Drop Top]

I'm a one man resto shop. I got started doing this because I couldn't find a shop that could do any better then I was doing already. I like  Mopars too. If I were looking for a place to do my Mopar. I would fallow some rules. First talk to other people in your area that are driving cars that you really like. Eventually, If your lucky,  you will be finding out the best cars in your area have been done by one or 2 or 3 differant people. Once you have found out who this person is, check him out. Find out how long he has been doing this and how long he stays in one place. You dont want a guy thats going to move out on you and not tell you. Find out if you can check on the car often. Ask for referances. You wouldn't leave your new baby with just anyone would you? So why would you leave your car with just some fly by night.  Dont judge the shop if its a bit dirty. Its a dirty job. Judge the work that has been coming out of the shop. Some of the best shops are small out of the way places and not always really clean. Mine included in this. Talk to him about more then just how he dose his work. You need to find out how he runs his life a little to find out how he runs his bussness. In other words you don't want a druded out or drunk person working on your car. You want a responsable person working for you. Once you find a person that you feel comfortable with. Talk about the arangements and don't be a dick to him. If hes good you need him more then he needs your job. If the person has been around for awile he's going to charge strictly time and materials. Its not going to be cheap to do it this way. If you want cheap then this means cutting corners. Cutting corners means the job may not last as long as you would expect and it may not look as well as you would expect. If you want the best expect to pay for it. Find out how he dose his work. In other works if all he dose is spread Bondo and not try to smooth the dent or cut out rust and replace with metal. Your not going to want to leave your car with him. Once you have found out where your going to leave your car. Make sure you keep the money rolling into him as he needs it. If you don't have the money or parts that he needs when he needs them. Your going to lose your spot in line. Hes not a bank and needs to keep makeing money. Your his boss. If its time for payday and theres no money then hes going to quit and move on to another job that pays. Wouldn't you, if that happened to you? If he's like me he's going to have a waiting list and he will push your car out the door so he can keep making a living. I have done it more then just a few times. Some times it may be another 6 months before he will start on your car again. Just because when he finds someone that keeps paying hes going to keep working.

When restoring a car its very important for both sides to be comfortable with each other. Its going to be a long hall and alot of money is going to change hands over a 6 month to a year period. Remember the more you can do at home the cheaper it will be to get your car done. Ask what you can do before you bring the car to him. Like take the interior out and maybe all the glass. The running gear. Maybe even stripping the paint off the car and removing all the stainless, bumpers, grill and lights. Theres alot that you can do to help keep the evpenses down.

All of what I have said here has come from over 10 years experance of restoring cars for a living. If your body & paint guy is a responsable and honest person in the first place. You shouldn't have any problems as long as your a responsable and honest person in return. If you like what hes doing leavehim alone and keep the money coming in. Don't play games with him and expect the same from him. If you dont like whats going on pay him to date and pull the car from him.

Good Luck

[red72chrgr]

Great advice Drop Top ! I'm also like miamivice, lookin around for a body/paint guy. believe I've found one except he wants 1/2 when he gets car and rest when he's done. What do you think of this?

[miamivice]

Great advice Drop Top ! I'm also like miamivice, lookin around for a body/paint guy. believe I've found one except he wants 1/2 when he gets car and rest when he's done. What do you think of this?

yes great tips guys.   exactly what i was looking for.   its interesting that you bring up payments red72, cause thats another thing i was wondering about, paying half and half like that doesnt sound like a good deal to me, in fact, paying anything up front doesnt really suond like a good deal to me.....unless its for supplies.   

[8WHEELER]

I put 1/3 down for materials and get started money, but everybody has a different way of doing things.
My blue car was 1k a month sometimes 2k, then nothing for 6mo when he stopped working on it.
Then the rest is bad history   

Dan

[red72chrgr]

I put 1/3 down for materials and get started money, but everybody has a different way of doing things.
My blue car was 1k a month sometimes 2k, then nothing for 6mo when he stopped working on it.
Then the rest is bad history     

Dan

Dan, you're makin me think I might not wanna go with this guy. My cars not in real bad shape and he quoted a price of 3k to do the little bit of body work and bc c/c of the original red. Maybe I should just keep lookin although it's hard to find people in my area to even look at older cars let alone work on 'em.

[8WHEELER]

I say if he does good work, and you have seen some of the cars he has done, 3k for a complete
paint and body work is a real good price..........

Dan

[Drop Top]

Remember guys. I'm talking about compleat restorations here. Restorations can easily run in the 10's of thousands of dollors. Manley because when I restore a car in drives in. Every nut and bolt is taken off the car and the parts are referbished to better then it was new. Painted, buffed, and put back together.

In this area of the U.S., $3000 is very inexpensive for a good paint job. Depending on how bad the car really is. Around here a basic paint, color sand and buff runs closer to $5000 to $6000 depending on the color. I also do regular paint and buff jobs. They start at $4000 plus materials. The materials can run anywhere from $1000 to $5000. Usually it runs around $1500. The $5000 in materials would be a Kandy job.

The way I start on most any job I do is. The customer pays $1000 down. Then we go down and the customer picks up enough material to get the job started. Then I work on the car entil the first $1000 is gone. I then call the customer so he can see what has been done with it. If he is happy, I continue on entil he owes me $500. When the customer owes me that $500. I call and he brings me $1000. That pays the $500 he owes me and then I owe him $500 worth of work. He also buys any material as we go along. It goes on like this entil the job is compleated or entil he decides to take the car home. This way we both feel comfortable and the costomer can take the car at anytime without feeling riped off and he feels in abit more control of the money being spent. I allso ask him how much he can aford to spend a week. I can burn up $1500 a week on any car. The more spent the faster it gets done. But I need at least $500 a week from any car to keep my doors open. So if he can't at least aford $500 a week. I have to let him pass and go on to another car. Its not personal. Its bussness.