this guy pretty much plans on everything he paints being in a show. part of the 9600 $780 is tax, which he is gonna let me slide on if i give him cash, which is why i havent named his shop yet. but he's pretty famous over here and people come up to my tempest all the time and ask if Van Pelt painted it so they can tell automatically. dont forget i authorized him to do alot of extras if you read all my posts. what i didnt mention is the car had been vandalized and hit with a lead pipe about 15 times from end to end. although it was completely glassless when i took it to him, he put the whole car together. i dont have a picture of it finished yet, but it is turnkey and driveable. his wrench also spent 3 hours re-adjusting the lifters and carb/timing to get it running is best and he knows what he's doing. he also bought ALL the glass cept the pass.side window and installed both door windows, felts, weatherstripping on the door and the body. he told me it was $700 JUST for the racing stripe and i told him to go ahead with it. also the aforementioned 3 hr's of wet sanding and buffing. PPG carosel red isnt cheap and yes the rocker panels he bought are $90 each and he removed a bunch of bondo from behind them as well as rust behind the rear wheels. had to re-align and fix a shipping dent in the goodmark hood too.

as for his shop, he is barely getting by! he is not Rich, (except in name) and his wife says they only stay in it cause he loves it. there is only room for 3 cars in his shop. average wait is a few months to get to it and then once they start it's done in a couple weeks. like mine. sat there for 4 months and was done almost as soon as they started, which is why i was caught with my pants down as far as paying them. i thought with him paying the glass bill and adding the stripe and all the panel replacement, which i thought was minor, it would be in the $7000 range and i was happy with that. but all of you are right when you say most people LIKE ME dont realize how much work goes into making a body look good. i wasn't complaining about a 4000 dollar overcharge just a grand or too. i like the guy, but i should have known that i would end up with another show car i am scared ****less to drive on I-5 . in fact i have already decided this car will never be on I-5. i am trying to decide whether to sell it or not. a car like this just went for over 32,000 on ebay. it was a z28 tho, same color. i had another friend in reno named Al who owns accent auto body. he uses no bondo ever. he says ALL of his customers have a heart attack when he gives them the bill. guess thats the way it goes. i got what a paid for, i just really didnt want what i ordered, but like a meal in a restaraunt, you ordered it, you eat it boy!

when I seen this post I just had to reply since in the last 8 years i have restored a few cars and a gto is one of them as I type .I know it takes a lot more time to do the job right and if the "body man" would have done a poor job on your gto , and let me say it sure looks nice ,you would not have put a pic for all to see , right? I have a 70 dart that I bought in 72 and I fully restored it 2 years ago and it cost over $12,000 . I did all the work myself and it took 7 months but I'm sure glad I did it now and I love all the comments I get when I take her out to the shows and such .

WOW I really feel that I got a good deal now.I have a 66 chevy II
I will be getting from the body shop thursday so I will take some pics and post them.I had new rear quarter panels welded in and the wheel wells stretched 4 1/4 inches ,Fiberglass doors fitted and all door handle hardware installed and new hinge mounts so doors are removable,one piece front end fitted I did the mounts .The hood cut out for the hood scoop and the hood scoop mounted to the engine,shaved the front cowling smooth and notched it so i can pull distributor out,Fitted the trunk lid and rear bumper,Did all the zuze fastners and also shaved the drip rails.They took the car down to bare metal and etched primed it and then applied 4 coats of primer.I know it was done right cause he painted my Dads steel 32 3 window 16 years ago and it looks like it just came out of the booth.They charged my 2,500.00 for all work done so far.They said they put 100 hrs into it.I was guessing 4-5 grand.I didnt ask how much up front because I was told he was a perfectionist and he never charges what he should.

let us know what the final bill is when you get it.

I already paid him cash today.

I'm hopping in here a little late, but I need my 2 cents in here. I run a hotrod shop in Canada, and like MartinSr. says, being a good bodyman does not make you a good businessman. I work on cars, and have someone run the office, deal with customers, etc. I suck at paperwork so I have my office guy keep me accountable. Funny thing is, many people think he owns the business, wich is fine with me.
The way things work at my shop is that a customer gets a basic idea of what he is going to spend, but there are no fixed quotes, ever. A car comes in with a deposit, anywhere from 1-5000, depending on the size of the job, and what the customer is comfortable with. We ask that they come by on a weekly basis, evaluate progress, quality of work, etc. and to top off the funds if necc. Anytime a customer is not happy, or short of funds, they are free to remove their car, or have it moved to our indoor storage. [Space permitting]
I never go much beyond the money that is left with me, because too many things happen to stop projects. People lose interest in projects, get divorced, stop the project to avoid divorve, lose jobs, etc. The pay as you go method is , in my opinion, the only method that allows the shop to make money, and the customer to controll costs. it also keeps communication open. I tend to be overly finicky, and not everyone can afford that. A weekly visit prevents alot of ugly surprizes both ways.
Martin Sr is right on the warning signs of bad shops. The only one I disagree with is the money. I get probably one a month people coming by to check out our shop because their car is lost in some other shop, or they paid big $ and see no progress.
Bigest tip I could give is to do your homework first, decide what the car will be used for, and then stay in close communication with the shop doing the work.

I'm late: but from the angle of a purely mechanical type, I will ask the body shop guy what kind of work he does first. If it's my daily driver and all of his clients are entered in Pleasanton, he's the wrong guy. Body shop guys are artist, that's the only way they know how to work, I can't make them do any less than what their interpretion of "the right way to do it is". Got to have a meeting of the minds, they're normally not out to screw a guy.

I am still trying to figure out how to posts pics.So I could show the work done to my car.I have them in photobucket But when I post a pic It says the file is to big.As soon as I get time I will figure it out and post them.

Hey 66....Post your pics to the Photo Gallery here and then you can post a link to them. Or at the bottom of your "reply" window, look down and it will say"attach file". Click on that, scroll thru your files in you computer until you find your pic, then double click on the pic. When you do that it will attach itself to the file.

Kevin

I just thought I would put my 2 cents in!I own a small, yet high end shop in N.C. and I do mostly restorations.At my shop,I get 35$ per hour for as long as it takes.I wont even start to give an estimate on a restoration,because there is no way to guess what is going to be under,on,or in the car.I take a deposit of 1000$,and work till thats gone.Then I call the customer,and they approve the work.After it has been approved,I take another deposit,and so on and so forth untill its done.I have had customers that spent 20,000$,but they were spending it on a 180,000$ car!I do think the guy should have clued you in on the problems first,but assumeing he did the work correctly,I would rather have it done right that cheap.Thats just my opinion.

evilone that is IMO the way it should be done. I do not agree with saying it will cost X amount then the price is double. That is not the way to do things. When you screw up you should live with it. If I tell someone I will do something for a set price then that is the price. Let's face it when working on old cars there is no way you can know what you will find so there is no way you can say for sure how much it will cost, but if you do then that is your mistake and you need to live with that.
If you are having someone do the work for you then a good repore is key, as evilone said you should be in contact the whole way if things are going to go past your estimate by a bunch then you should bring the customer in and show him why and get his approval. To hit him with a 4500 buck over is bad business and it all he had to do was fix shipping dents and line up a hood than that is always to be expected and should never be an extra charge.

much agreed. I'm not a bodyman, but whatever... I hope it works out for ya.



jpeg pictures work best in my opinion; how do you know what file type that picture of yours is? When you're scrolling through your computer, it has filename.exe or filename.jpeg or filename.bmp and stuff like that.

those .jpeg or whatevers I think are called file extensions. They descrivbe file types. For example, a mp3 (music file) would have .mp3 after it. Another type of music file is called midi (.mid I think) but it's of low quality. .doc is microsoft word, etc.

Picture File Types
.bmp= bitmap. Takes up a lot of memory. Good quality.
.jpeg or .jpg= J-peg. Takes up a lot less space, still looks great. My digital camera saves pics as this type.
I don't know any others. Hope it helps.

well that's up to you and you only if you feel cheated persue him in court but here were I'm from if you take a car to the best paint guy I know if it is ready to shoot I mean all he has to do is tape off and shoot it starts at 6000 to 6500 but you have something when it's done sooo it's up to you if it is a nice paint job flawless and no imperfections don't gripe too much!!!!!

From the pics I've seen it is a slick paint job but I would have to look at it in person to see how good it really is if you are happy just cut your over-expenditures and go it is slick!!!!!!!!

back in here after the holiday leave. this is my dart after I finished her . I took her to the first show and she was like a new kid in school , everbody couldn't keep their eyes off her . Bull get a few pics in so we can get a better look at the car and when i finish the gto im doing now I'll get some in of it . have a safe new year guys !

back in here after the holiday leave. this is my dart after I finished her ( hope this works kevin). I took her to the first show and she was like a new kid in school , everbody couldn't keep their eyes off her . Bull get a few pics in so we can get a better look at the car and when i finish the gto im doing now I'll get some in of it . have a safe new year guys !

back in here after the holiday leave. this is my dart after I finished her ( hope this works kevin). I took her to the first show and she was like a new kid in school , everbody couldn't keep their eyes off her . Bull get a few pics in so we can get a better look at the car and when i finish the gto im doing now I'll get some in of it . have a safe new year guys !

well I guess that worked , not the way I planned but I'm not into data entry . Kevin how do you put the pic under your name ?

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