About what would I be looking at price wise to have a body shop: sand blast entire car, repair quarter panels, smooth body so it will look good and straight when painted, primer it, and paint it. Just curious because I'm considering not doing it myself
Many shops will charge standard labor rates to blast the car down, many more don't have the equipment and would have to sublet out the work. Sand blasting is harmful to most sheetmetal body panels. Check into some other kind of media blasting. I found a local guy here in Oregon who is just starting out doing soda blasting on the side. He is mobile, and he charged me based on how many bags of soda he used. Six bags was $600. He blasted the exterior sheetmetal, hood/trunk lid and doors complete, door jambs and the rear textured steel interior panels. All told, I think he spent about 4 hours on this 1968 Mustang. I was very pleased with the work that he did for me. Body and paint wise, tough to say. I had a guy lined up to do my body and paint on this car for $4500-5000. He is going through some family problems that prevent him from getting any work done, I am looking for someone else. In the past, I had a guy that did car restoration type of work as fill in work for his body shop. He charged much lower rates, because my work was done during slack time in between the insurance jobs. Him, being a classic car guy gave me lots of confidence in his shops ability. His philosophy was: that a busy shop was a quality shop. Plus the older cars were noticed from the street, and people remember shops that do old cars when they need a place to get an estimate.
Strip,body and paint is easy 8-10 grand around here. You dont want to sandblast either. It damages the metal and you'll never get all the sand out of the car. A painters nightmare. You can blow it off for hours and I guarantee you'll still get it in the paint. We just went through this at work with a pick up box.
Having mine stripped down to metal. Quarters replaced.painted. $45/hr plus material. Gonna be over $7k
Considering the pictures you posted of the car...I would say you would be looking at $10,000 at least.
OK this thread scares me LOL But seriously it really does justify my wanting to find a rust free body to start with. Now I do Know several Body shop Owners and have a guy that will do a nice base clear for about 2 grand, But that is with Minor body work, Rust repair can get scary in a hurry. Especially after you have stripped a car and found out where ther real rust is.
Well, you won't like this...my car was a California car, original paint..and I have over 8 grand into paint and body...and my friend did the work.....
Damn it Dave don't do that to me LOL . MAybe I should just pay 8-9 grand and have a car that is finished. restoring one is getting more and more expensive all the time..
Just wait, since you're dealing with a car that doesn't have huge aftermarket support, you'll sometimes pay more for a part, than the Mustang guys do... We did go a little overboard on my green car, but it's what we seem to do, I've promised myself not to do it with my black car.....
Sorry to tell you but there is no such thing as an average paint and body job when you're doing restoration work on these old cars.
uhm i have my own small shop and also work in another. if youll load it and bring it to me we'll do it for close to 5000 grand. that will be everything.
I have a 55 crown, a Judge , and the Grabber that need painting! On a budget i almost despair at what it will cost to finish them!!!
We did my car at work on our spare time. Pulled all the panels,had them dipped. Had hail damage but no rust too fix. Lots of door dings. Texas car. Our body man had about 40 hours in body work. Paid him cash. Have no idea how many hours I spent on it under strict instruction but its a lot more than 40. I would guess at least a hundred. Plus the time our painter spent directing me and doing all the spraying and finally the paint work. Most supplies were donated including paint. Spent 11 months at work in our shop. So it can be done affordably if you work in a shop with great body men who happen to be your long time friends that you have helped a lot over the years. And you have a good employer who lets you do it. HAve a supplier that owes a few favors as well as a great painter. Short of that little miracle it would have been 8 grand easy and a bit more if they reassembled. In these times its a lot cheaper to buy a car already done if you can find a nice one. Tim just sold a beauty out of Michigan for a song as far as I'm concerned. They are out there.
