body work cost estimate... is this too much??

[sixty8charger]

Alright.. stripped the car down. everything.. wiring, carpet/interior/headliner, chrome pieces, glass..  drive line.. everything.. just a body on 4 wheels.  the bad rust areas are the trunk pans, driver front floor pan, and rear driver side panel... bottom area.
to have the car sand blasted (entire frame and body)
patched, primered, painted a gun metal silver, with wet sanding and repeated steps of painting...

i am getting quoted $10k?

does that sound right?

[DC_1]

Alright.. stripped the car down. everything.. wiring, carpet/interior/headliner, chrome pieces, glass..  drive line.. everything.. just a body on 4 wheels.  the bad rust areas are the trunk pans, driver front floor pan, and rear driver side panel... bottom area.
to have the car sand blasted (entire frame and body)
patched, primered, painted a gun metal silver, with wet sanding and repeated steps of painting...

i am getting quoted $10k?

does that sound right?

Pics would help........Sounds cheap

[tan top]

Alright.. stripped the car down. everything.. wiring, carpet/interior/headliner, chrome pieces, glass..  drive line.. everything.. just a body on 4 wheels.  the bad rust areas are the trunk pans, driver front floor pan, and rear driver side panel... bottom area.
to have the car sand blasted (entire frame and body)
patched, primered, painted a gun metal silver, with wet sanding and repeated steps of painting...

i am getting quoted $10k?

does that sound right?

Pics would help........Sounds cheap

[jb666]

Sounds VERY cheap...

[dodgert68]

Just for comparison i'm currently doing a VW Beetle ,granted it was pretty rusty, but i've already done 10k between parts and labor and its just getting to where i can start finish body work. So the price you got is a bit low, i would do alot of asking around about the quality of this shops work. I did a Charger last year and used 4k in just paint and body materials.

[jb666]

Just for comparison i'm currently doing a VW Beetle ,granted it was pretty rusty, but i've already done 10k between parts and labor and its just getting to where i can start finish body work. So the price you got is a bit low, i would do alot of asking around about the quality of this shops work. I did a Charger last year and used 4k in just paint and body materials.

I agree completely... $10k sounds WAY too low... Almost "too good to be true", and you know what they say...

[Old Greg]

My friend quoted me near 20k for a full frame off & paint & reassembly. I think that's a good price & I've seen his work for years & the work he did on a Thunderbolt.

[Back N Black]

I paid 10 G for body and paint, bodyshop had the car forever, but it was well worth it in the end. Here is a pic leaving the body shop.

[bull]

You mentioned the rusty areas but you didn't say how they plan on dealing with them. Did they say you need new pans and a quarter panel or is it a wait and see deal? Was the quote for labor only or are they figuring the cost of parts in too. If so, what parts are they planning on buying? Also, be prepared to discover that a $10k estimate can easily turn into a $15k bill.

[ODZKing]

Yep, that is about what mine is as well.

[greasyspider]

I was qutoed 8500 just for 2 quarters.

[NHCharger]

What Bull said. Are you providing the sheet metal? Prices for labor are all over the place right now.
Board member Beer had a lot of work done to his 73 Charger. Think the final tally was 13-14k. And the work looked superb.
10k is a real good price. Try to find some satisfied customers from that shop. Check with the BBB also.

[sixty8charger]

no, for the parts, i will provide the quarter panel, and trunk pans.. from AMD. the floor pan is such a small area he is going to fabricate the replacement panel out of quality sheet metal (he showed me is material). the shop has had plenty of nice projects. while i was there, a 67 charger just got out of the booth and looked great! also under covers he showed me the work of a 67 cornet that he had just completed.

He said the work would probably take about 4 to 6 months to complete (mainly because he takes in the priority "insurance" jobs, and works the restorations on the side).
damage area pictures are provided...
pretty much 50 percent of the trunk has the little holes in it.

[sixty8charger]

"is"... is more correct.

[sixty8charger]

BBB checks out as a grade of "A" with no complaints within the past 36 months.

[green69rt]

Alright.. stripped the car down. everything.. wiring, carpet/interior/headliner, chrome pieces, glass..  drive line.. everything.. just a body on 4 wheels.  the bad rust areas are the trunk pans, driver front floor pan, and rear driver side panel... bottom area.
to have the car sand blasted (entire frame and body)
patched, primered, painted a gun metal silver, with wet sanding and repeated steps of painting...

i am getting quoted $10k?

I would guess at 8-10K just for steps of primer, resurface, block, resurface, block, paint, sand, paint sand final paint.  Expect cost increase or "extras".

[Brock Lee]

My friend quoted me near 20k for a full frame off & paint & reassembly. I think that's a good price & I've seen his work for years & the work he did on a Thunderbolt.

How does he do a frame off resto on a Charger?

[DC_1]

My friend quoted me near 20k for a full frame off & paint & reassembly. I think that's a good price & I've seen his work for years & the work he did on a Thunderbolt.

How does he do a frame off resto on a Charger?

I'm sure it's just a figure of speech. A lot of guys use that term even on a unibody restoration. Basically they are saying they are stripping the car of the suspension, engine, interior and all trim right down to a shell.

[Arigmaster]

I have to agree with the others, 10K is very cheap based on the work. Sometimes quotes like this are for the purpose of getting you in the door at a shop and then it will end up costing more once the work has started.

If you are dealing with any shop. Get a price commitment (not to exceed $XX,XXX.XX) along with a completion date commitment "in writing." Shops make more money off crash work than they do restoration work and your car will end up going to the end of the line as the crash work arrives.

It's alright to be flexable with the shop you choose. However, it's good if both you and your shop have a process plan with a payment plan to match. In addition, to a plan for discovery... Create change orders only when you see what they need to do in advance of the work being done. (never just take their word for it)

This will keep everyone honest and happy.

[sixty8charger]

Arigmaster,

thank you for your advice, (as well as everyone else).

I am in the process of working with them right now. We are compiling estimates based of scenarios, and what not. picked at a lot of the  body and don't see any expected issue areas.. and as of right now.. i think the roof skin might be salvageable!!! looks like only surface rust. we shall see once the sand hits it.

The shop likes to do work in 1/3s...  first payment being 1/3 of the estimate, and then we work the first couple of months on that.. if we need to add a bit or decrease a bit we will have to figure that out as we go. at least, thats the agreement right now.

[dkn1997]

I'd be shocked if that 10 didn't turn into a 20 real quick.  10 sounds right for just prep and paint with no rust repair.

Maybe have the car blasted first...Then get an estimate? 

[sixty8charger]

Its $2k for an entire sandblast.

[dkn1997]

Its $2k for an entire sandblast.

Since that's part of your plan no matter who or what shop does the work, why not contract that to be done, then bring it to a couple of different places for an estimate?  You would get far more accurate quotes that way.  The fact that blasting the car is part of the plan leads me to believe that you have lots of paint on the car now...with that said, nobody can possibly know what's hiding under there. 

The first time I had my charger painted, the guy just da'd the whole car to metal and found the drivers door and fender filled with bondo.  They looked really straight and clean before.

[sixty8charger]

there is a lot of paint on the car right now...  i hope it isn't too bad under there.. the car has been in the family for years, i hope there wasn't a hidden accident that nobody knew about.

[sixty8charger]

prior to stripping everything off....