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

[clanton]

Sounds you have most of the car prepped yourself. I would imagine you could buy your own equipment and paint it yourself....after a lot of reading about it and a lot of practice, and you'd feel $10K richer. I know it is not as easy as it sounds, but applying paint cannot be that hard if every step involved with it was planned and done with a lot of attention to detail.

[Troy]

Depending on where you live (N.C.?), that price is reasonable. These guys from the coasts and big cities are used to labor rates in the $80-90+ per hour range where some of us only pay about $35-45 (or $20 if you find the right shop). That means you could be comparing a 110 hour job to one around 286 hours (ignoring material costs). Since the car is already a shell you have saved yourself most of the disassembly costs so that's a bonus. I think $2k to sandblast the car is high considering the price of the total job. If they haven't stripped it yet there's a good probability of finding extra work but since you're down to a shell most really scary damage (collision, rot inside inner structure, etc.) should be visible.

Troy

[sixty8charger]

very true..  i know i could do it.. its just i don't have the facility. my garage can barely fit a "neon" size car.  

maybe i can get the car sand blasted... welded up, and primered.. and i will try and figure out a way for me to paint it?...  hmmm...
not going for any car show winner here, i just want to drive it and not have it waste away in my driveway.

spend $2K-ish.. right now.. buy some tools to paint.. and a book! for maybe $500.. and a few cases of beer. and just keep doing what i am doing piece by piece.

[sixty8charger]

Depending on where you live (N.C.?), that price is reasonable. These guys from the coasts and big cities are used to labor rates in the $80-90+ per hour range where some of us only pay about $35-45 (or $20 if you find the right shop). That means you could be comparing a 110 hour job to one around 286 hours (ignoring material costs). Since the car is already a shell you have saved yourself most of the disassembly costs so that's a bonus. I think $2k to sandblast the car is high considering the price of the total job. If they haven't stripped it yet there's a good probability of finding extra work but since you're down to a shell most really scary damage (collision, rot inside inner structure, etc.) should be visible.

Troy

the current visible damage doesn't look like it will be too much.. new trunk pans, patch on under the pedals, and some patching around the back window. .. but i am very curious after the sand hits it.

[modmidget]

Sandblasting is not a good idea for the body panels.  Sandblasting can generate enough heat to warp the sheet metal.  I took my '68 Charger to America Stripping in Sacramento.  They use baking soda which will remove the paint and rust but will not damage glass or rubber.  They charged me $1,200.00 to "media" blast the car and spray it with etching primer.  They did excellent work.  I think there are at least 3 American Stripping franchises in VA.

I paid an unemployed body and paint guy $1,700.00 for his work and $500.00 for paint, bondo, and other supplies.

I used a Makita grinder to cut the trunk floor out, bought a new floor from Year One, and had a friend weld it in for free.

[sixty8charger]

  warp the sheet metal...   see, i am glad that i come to this site first!

[modmidget]

Forgot to mention, the "media" blasting also removed all of the old bondo which was about 1/4" thick on my left front fender.

Some stripping shops will use finely ground walnut shells instead of baking soda but the results are the same.

[dodgert68]

it's true that if you have an unexperianced operator they can warp the panels. You need to take the car to a well known blast shop. I've been doing restorations full time since 03 and have used the same shop for all my blasting needs and never had a panel come back warped. I do have friend that went to another shop that was closer to his house and they did warp his hood and trunk lid for TR6.

[sixty8charger]

oh.  Well, i went to the shop and looked at the cornet and 67 charger.. the metal didn't seem warped.. and he had blasted those cars.  Might possibly be in luck and he knows what he is doing.

[dkn1997]

oh.  Well, i went to the shop and looked at the cornet and 67 charger.. the metal didn't seem warped.. and he had blasted those cars.  Might possibly be in luck and he knows what he is doing.

more likely sand blast was a generic term used for "blasting"  It's been common knowledge that you don't sand blast anything thinner than a 50's caddy for so many years now that I can't imagine your shop doesn't know this. if you stripped it bare already and brought it to them on a rotisiorrie or jig, it shouldn't be more than a grand... some places will come to your house, tent it up and do it for that much.

[bull]

warp the sheet metal...   see, i am glad that i come to this site first!

Understand that "sandblasting" has become a bit of a generic term and most people aren't dumb enough to actually use sand on body panels, especially those who've done more than one car. It can be used on rigid surfaces such as frame rails and whatnot but typically guys that do media blasting know enough to use the right stuff on the right parts.

EDIT: Oh jeez, I guess I should have read the post above.

[charge69]

When all is said and done, "blasting" has its' limitations, no matter how thorough. I just ended up having mine dipped and it came out pretty clean after about 30hrs or more in the acid solution. Gonna find ALL the rust that way, for sure and I ended up replacing most of my rear of the car. The framerails were rustfree, surprisingly, as it lost a lot of rust and "suspect" metal that way. The "numbers" part of the trunkrail, in fact the whole trunkrail, was fine and reused as well as all of the original sheetmetal from the interior/roof, doors forward. That includes the floors and all the metal inside/outside the car's interior. I guess I got lucky with it but most of my sheetmetal is original to the car including the trunklid, doors, trunklid, front fenders, hood,roof skin and interior metal.

Hard to find a place that will "dip" it though and be very careful with it as you can bend the roof portion easily if you remove it from the solution too fast.

[dodgert68]

Oh god don't get started with "numbers panels" in this thread....lol

[sixty8charger]

i am going to have to look in to the dipping... that sounds like it would get into all areas that the "blasting" can't get to.

[modmidget]

Dipping might be a good way to go but make damn sure you have a way to thoroughly clean every crack and crevice after it comes out of the dipping tank.  I've had guys tell me that they had problems with the stripping fluids seeping out of those cracks and crevices AFTER the car was painted and really screwing up a nice paint job.

[charge69]

Well ..... unfortunately, mine has lasted more than 2 years after the dipping on a rotisserie and it is now dry, for sure!! It actually took me around a year (not intentionally) to gather up the sheetmetal we used. It had most of the rear of the car replaced with AMD panels but had to wait for it to become available. The Charger was in different positions on the rotisserie the whole time and is still there.

The Charger should be in it's original color very soon though and the body is now lazer straight.

Still look at the older pics in Moparstuart's thread and get very nostalgic about them.  That '70 is sweet and so are all your cars, Stuart!!  It is a shame you have to put them away for the winter but ........ it is Kansas!

[modmidget]

Yup!!!!, letting it sit to dry for 2 years after dipping should do it.    But I did my entire restoration in 14 months.  From media blasting to final painting was less than one month. 

[jb666]

Dipping might be a good way to go but make damn sure you have a way to thoroughly clean every crack and crevice after it comes out of the dipping tank.  I've had guys tell me that they had problems with the stripping fluids seeping out of those cracks and crevices AFTER the car was painted and really screwing up a nice paint job.

I was actually talking to a buddy tonight and a similar story came up...

Mine was media blasted.. made a world of difference, too.. not too happy with the car AFTER it was blasted, but oh well, at least I knew what I had (or DIDN'T have) at that point... 

[bull]

There are good and bad aspects to both dipping and blasting. One thing about dipping; the hidden spots that did not rust during the past 40 years are now bare metal so guess what? They're now going to rust so unless the car is then dipped in epoxy, wash primer, or e-coat or something you're going to have problems. Also, that acid will eat everything so the car is going to have to be stripped down completely. Every little piece of plastic, rubber and sealant you don't want destroyed needs to come off. It's a 100% commitment.

[Old Moparz]

i am going to have to look in to the dipping... that sounds like it would get into all areas that the "blasting" can't get to.

I have one car that I'd like to "dip" to have stripped, it's pretty rusty. I took a pair of 1969 Satellite fenders to a place in Allentown, PA & did just that, & liked the way they came out. The place is called Kwik Strip & can do an entire car as well. There are not many places that can handle an entire car, so be prepared to come up empty on a local level. Redi Strip is another name that does this.

Something to consider with dipping is that EVERYTHING will be stripped to bare metal. Inside hard to reach areas that will be extremely difficult to repaint & prep. The inner support bracing on my fenders was a nightmare to get good coverage on & I'm not 100% sure it is. I did the best I could & know it won't see bad weather & road salt, so it should be okay.

Here is a link to the thread I posted on dipping the fenders.... http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,60027.0.html

As far as $10K to do your car being a good price, I don't think you can get one correct answer from people. It depends on the level of quality you get or expect, the competence of the shop, & the hourly rates. Here's an example. I wanted my Scamp fixed & painted & got estimates once that were all over the place & not even close to each other.

First one was around $6000, second was $4000, & one was $800. (Yes, I typed $800 & not $8000) I saw the work from all three shops & would be content with any of their work. At that time you could buy a clean Scamp for about $4000 so I couldn't justify spending that so I talked to the $800 guy again & added more work to the original quote & spent $1600 total. Is it a show car? No. It's a driver that looks good from 10 feet which is completely fine with me.

My biggest concern with your body shop isn't the estimate as much as insurance work being his No. 1 priority & fixing yours as fill in work between collision projects. That 6 months could turn into 12 months, or 18 months, or a couple of years.

Paint was done around 1992 & is just now starting to need more in a different spot from where the quarters were repaired.

[sixty8charger]

alright.. here is a detailed quote i received:

Body work                 HRS     $
Sand blast car body--- 16      800
Sand blast car frame--   8      400
Dent Repair-----------   8      400
Replace Trunk pans---  24     1200
Patch driver floor board  8       400
patch rear window panel 8      400
vinyl top rust treatment  8      400
patch lower rear quarter 16    800
repair right qtr door seam 4    200
patch battery tray area   4    200

prep time charges:
sanding/stripping          30    1500
masking/taping              8      400   ? if the car is stripped.. i don't understand this one...

Painting charges:
Sealing                         .5       25
prime                          1         50
base coat                    1         50  (Black)
clear coat                   2.5      125
wet sanding                10       500
buffing                       10       500

obviously.. some of the Hours listed don't make much sense to me....  but please take a look and give me feed back.

[ChgrSteve67]

So basicly 50 dollars an hour for labor, materials not included.

Are you providing the materials or is that a seperate quote?

8 hours for masking and taping is crazy. They could do 5 or 6 cars in that time
Blocking and Sanding the car to get ready for paint will take at lease 30 hours of done properly.

I would add it all up and figure out a done deal price reguardless of the time they think they will need. That way they don't come back asking for more time and money.

As it sits $8,350 does not seem too bad for the amount of work you have listed. I think $50 an hours is a reasonable price.

[modmidget]

The people who did my car did not charge by the hour.  American Stripping gave me a 2 line quote:

1.  Media blast the body        $775.00
2.  Apply etching primer          260.00  (included the paint and materials)

The guy who did the body work gave me a one line quote:

1.  $1700.00  (included all bondo work, rust repair under rear window, gray primer, top coat, 4 layers of clear coat, all wet sanding, and buffing)

But I did have to pay seperately for the paint ($500.00).

To be honest, it would be very difficult to compare your costs to mine.  My car spent nearly all of it's life in California.  There was very little rust to deal with.  I had to replace a portion of the trunk floor and there was some rust at the bottom of the rear window.  There was absolutely NO RUST under the vinyl top and there was only some minor surface rust on the front floor boards.  The rest of the body was solid.  No rust in the fenders, rocker panels, or rear quarters.  I'm sure glad California outlawed the use of salt on highways during winter a long time ago!!!!!

[FLG]

Seems a tad high

I had new floors installed, custom frame connectors, and a spare k-frame blasted and painted for around the price of just your trunk floor.

I understand things can open a can of worms, but since your blasting a lot of it will be seen when the dust clears. I can't see why doing a trunk floor should take anywhere near 24hrs.

What's vinyl top rust treatment? Prime and paint the whole car including the roof.

16hrs to patch a quarter?

Why is it taking 8hrs to mask? And what's being masked? Isn't the whole car bring painted?

Sanding and stripping? What is he stripping if you just blasted the whole damn thing? And does he mean blocking the whole car before paint?

Eh seems too much when ya break it down.

[sixty8charger]

the quote does not include the materials...  there is an additional 1800 for all the paint, catalyst/hardner, primer, clear, sealer, poly primer, sand, and an estimate for additional body and paint materials..

the metal i was going to purchase on my own through AMD, since they like to add a 25% charge to the products purchased....