Today while driving home my newly purchased 76 stingray, the passenger front tire blew out and destoryed the lower half of the passenger fender.
I had it towed to a shop where they quoted me 4000.00 to patch in a repair panel, and color match, it really isnt TOO awful bad and it seems astronomically high for the fix.
Is this about right? On top of this they got me 100.00 for the tow.
Not bad considering it's my first day with the vette.

Here is the damage





As far as I can tell I need these two parts
http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?...16&dept_id=1438
http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?...&dept%5Fid=1438


Does that estimate seen very unreasonable like I think or what? I dont have 4k to spend on getting this fixed, 2k maybe.
Any suggestions, and before anyone suggests this, I am not a body man at all.

IMHO that entire fender needs to be replaced. Depending on what else needs to be done $4000 may not be too far off the mark. I don't mean to be derogatory, but your Vette looks pretty rough.

Vince

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The estimate doesn't sound high to me and I write estimates. By the time you factor in removing and installing (R and I) all the parts like the hood and emblems and bumper, door panel, handle, belt moulding and anything else bolted to the panels that will need to be painted it adds up. After adding in paint time to blend the adjacent panels, and paint materials, and on your Vette that means the whole front end being there isn't breaking point all the way around to the other door, it adds up.

I would be more concerned about the est in that YOU don't understand why it costs so much. If it wasn't explained to you exactly what is going to be done.

Can you do it for less, of course you can. Can it be done "right" for less, of course it can. I would put money on it that the est was written without the understanding that you were paying for it and you needed to be included in the plans for repair. If just asked "can I get an estimate" the average estimator is going to walk out there and give you an "industry standard" est. That est will include all the things I mentioned.

While if you walk in and ask "Can I have an estimate" and are greeted with a "Are you working with an insurance company" and "WHAT insurance company is it" then the estimator gets a little info on YOUR expectations.

As an example we have two Toyota pickups in the shop right now where they were "totaled" by the cost of the est being more than the value of the truck. One was actually not insured at all. As soon as he told me this I knew that things would be done very different as there was a lot that could be left off of the "industry standard" est that this customer would be fine with.

He was asked questions "can you live with this damage? "Is it ok if we don't replace this?" We came up with a repair that was MILES from what we usually do at the shop. But it was a long time customer and we needed to fulfill his expectations, which was to save this little motorhome so he and his wife could use it to as they loved to do. So not blending the hood, not painting the entire door and masking off the Winnebago sticker on the door and fender instead of removing it and repainting it was fine with him. Making sure the wiring was repaired (he had a blow out as you did and the tire ripped the wire harness out of the under the fender!) was the more important stuff to this customer.

The truck was finished up last night and he and his wife are off to go camping on the fourth of July weekend. We met his expectations.

Repairing this truck "correctly" (sometimes "correctly" IS what ever the customer expects) would have been $5000 or MORE with a new door and fender. We repaired it all and it was still $2500!



The other guy had a near perfect Toyota pickup that was totaled by the insurance company but he wanted to "save it". Again, we walked around the truck with the work order and scratched off all the stuff he was happy living without. And frankly, I would have done the exact same thing. In the end I brought down the est about $400. Not a ton, but enough to make him happy.

You need to go back to that shop and ask them what could be left off to meet YOUR expectations. Maybe don't blend the hood, stop the blend on the front clip at the sharp body line in the center between the headlamps instead. That sort of thing. Look over the door handle and moulding and see if there is any paint on it. They may have been left on when a repair was previously done. What good would it do to remove them now? Leave them there when the door is blended (it REALLY needs to be or the repair will stand out like a sore thumb.)

Go to another shop and see what they say. You need to know that they know Vettes, replacing that fender by a non-Vette guy could be disaster.

Brian

Well yeah, NOW it looks rough.

WOW, really???

I'm curious, what other parts do you see that it needs (or MARTINSR or one of the other pros, what do you suspect it needs)?

I'm curious, since so far we've talked about a little over $400 worth of parts, a $100 tire (probably less actually since it's an old school size), maybe a quart of paint and then whatever reducer... if you're just painting that fender and blending, an assortment of filler/bonding and other body supplies.... Maybe I'm undervaluing the labor involved (I'm figuring that this should be possible for around $1K labor also)

To be honest (and this is not picking on you guys that do this for a living, I think a few of you might remember some of my recent posts on one of the autobody forums about trying to find a good shop to fix my truck recently, but in a lot of cases it's quite hard to find a shop that will fix it to most what I would consider reasonable expectations), if it was mine, was a toy and not covered by insurance for some reason unless I got an estimate well under about $2K and that I thought was going to be done perfectly for that, that would be my next home shop project.

OTOH, my wife is always saying that I undervalue my time spent when i get involved in something like this and end up doing it myself to have it done exactly the way I want it..., but common, I bought my last 3 project cars for less than $4K total...

when you get new tires check the date code on the tires,

http://www.tuninglinx.com/html/car-tire-date-code.html

Newly purchased Stingray and you have no collision on your insurance. You’ve got to be kidding.

I got a suggestion....but you wont like it.......YOU wanted a vette,bought a USED one probably owned by grand ma and never raced or beat,now suck it up and act like a cocky I'm better than you vette owner and stop *****in an take it like a man the more you clench the more its gonna hurt.Theres a guy here that specializes in vettes or maaco it'll be hard finding anyone to work on one especialy if they've delt with vette owners before. Sorry.Just kiddin

In my neck of the woods $4000 is maybe starting to head to the high side, but I doubt anyone in my area would touch it for less than $3000 if you want decent quality work. No one likes to work with fiberglass, it is a PITA and itchy, too. I see $500+shipping for parts and $1000 just in other materials. Doesn't leave much at the $3000 dollar level for labor.

Being a new Vette owner, you have to realize that you just joined a "clique" looked at as snotty, money-ed, arrogant "sports car" owners-- and body shops automatically charge more for Vette work. Welcome to the club, my stepdad owns an original '69 and a restomodded '64, the work on the '64 was not cheap.

You want to see some beautiful vette work....look up "shine", he's a member here. VERY, impressive work.....best I've ever seen...don't tell him I said so though.

You should be getting at least 2 more estimates for comparison - if they are all the same - well that is what it is going to cost. Something I always do when I first get the quote --- I open my eyes wide in surprise and say "wow I didn't think it would be so much", then I sit down with the guy and ask if there is anything we can do to reduce it a little without compromising the quality, or maybe I am not expecting a A1 job and can we tone it down a bit. Doesn't always work but worth a try. As Brian said there maybe a few things they don't have to do to meet your expectations.

When I give quotes I tell the customer he can have it 3 ways (boats not cars).
1. The top notch A1 job where everything I do is the best quality using the best products.
2. The medium priced job where I can save a bit on the cosmetic stuff, and use some medium priced materials and maybe take a few shortcuts.
3. The cheapest available where it just about gets him out of the yard without safety getting compromised.

A friend of mine always inflated his estimates a little (for the unknown) and watched for the expression, if the customer never batted an eye he knew he was dealing with someone where money was no problem, if they went into shock he would say "well let's see what we can do here" and maybe they would get 10 or 20% off and walk away happy! The 'art of bargaining', most shops are willing to negotiate a little.

Look on the bright side -- you could of totalled the whole thing and gotten hurt or maybe hit someone else and with no insurance you would really be in trouble.

Welcome to the world of Corvetts.. Where a Heater blower motor for a 1976 Chevy costs $39.95 BUT the same exact motor for a 1976 Corvette will cost $79.95. A while ago I bought a 1974 Corvette Stingray in fair condition for a project car (see my Gallery). I paid $3,500 for it, Spent $9,000 over 2 years on it not including all my labor ( I did all the work, including paint myself) and sold it For $10,000.. Reality Sucks.. You need to make some choices: (1)When you decided to buy it, what were your plans for it. If you looked at it as an investment, will the price paid + cost to fix it be more than it's worth on the open market. ( C-3's don't fetch a lot unless specific collector models).. (2) If you look at it as a Project, How much can you do? How much will you have to have done by others? Shops that specialize in Corvetts are expensive due to the expecations of Corvett owners. Corvetts aren't any harder to work on than any other make. It could be a fun project or it may be better to sell it as someones elses project, take a small loss and try again.

Nespr0,

I have a used passenger lower fender you can have if you want it. It has a couple cracks but could be used. If you want it its yours free. With an estimate like that now may be the time to learn how to repair fiberglass yourself. You may want to order this DVD also.

http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?...384&dept_id=227

Kurt

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Any tear like that in a regular hand laminated fiberglass fender would have stress cracks and delamination extending several inches beyond the tear. A corvette, with a fender made using filled resin in a 2 piece mold could have stress cracks going back a foot or more. Some of these cracks you don't find until you are actually repairing the fender. I don't work on corvettes for just that reason...No matter what kind of work you do, you can block it till doomsday but it's it's still a corvette and will ripple up after a few trips in the sun.

The guy probaly quoted 2k for fixing the damage he could see, and another 2k as a pad for what he can't see until he's into the job.

The 2 parts you pictured will cost you over 500.00, 299.00 +209 = 508. He's going to tack on 20% if he buys the parts, and after he spends 2 hours on the phone asking customer service why the parts have not shipped, waiting for the promised parts to arrive (while you car hogs up shop space), the sending the parts back because they are wrong, then when the right ones do come they fit like crap and he spends more time making them fit, repairing damage from the ups package mangler, and pushes it around his shop some more he'll have earned every penny of that 20%.

Then he gets to do about 12 feet of slicing , grinding, laying up the repair seam, then laminating the underside, (grinding fiberglass overhead in a cramped wheel well on a hot Texas day does not sound like a good job to me at all), blending the patch, filling and blocking the whole thing, waiting for it to post cure enough so that it MIGHT not transfer after it's painted...but it will anyway), doing the paintwork and trying to make it all blend in, (which it won't) add messing with all the fluffy trim things martinsr said.....If he does it right he'll use epoxy resin, that stuff is not user friendly either.

I'd have quoted it at 5,000....because if the price didn't scare you away, and I actually got the job I could do it right and MIGHT make a profit on it.

There are alot of very good books on fiberglass repair, read up some, go buy a gallon of resin and about 10# of matt and play around with it some. It's fun stuff.

JMO, I know a little about fiberglass stuff. When I was shop foreman at the fiberglass shop, in our custom shop we'd repair or build most anything...except corvettes. The price to do it right was always too high, and to do it for what was reasonable to the customer couldn't fix them right.


Later, mikey

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