What's new
Old Chevelles

Welcome to OldChevelles.com, built by Auto Enthusiasts for Auto Enthusiasts. Cars are not our only interests so please feel free to post about any subject the community might enjoy or you just feel you need to air.

We respect free speech and constructive dialogue however we don't allow threatening talk against members, nudity, or pornography. Threads are monitored and trolls are not tolerated.

This site is completely free and there are no costs. Please enjoy and provide feedback.
  • We've enabled the website app for anyone who wants to use it on a mobile or desktop device.

  • We've changed the header logo to display our Member's Cars.

    If you'd like your car to show up there, go to the forum Site Bugs & Feature Requests and post your image in the "Member's Car Pictures for the Header Logo" and we'll add your car into the lineup.

My 65, presently in paint jail

I started with the first body & paint shop that was owned by my friend of 30+ yrs. father, my friend and his younger brother basically grew up working for their dad then dad passed away, they bought the bus. from mom then a year or two later the younger brother (30's) moved to In to live with mom, my "Bud" stopped working on my car but still asked for $$, really long story but he went Belly Up so I went to another shop, hot rods & motorcycles but Not a pro shop and that wasn't too bad but not great either, looking back I should have bit the $$$ Bullet and went to another local shop that specializes in restoring, restomods...Hind Sight being 20/20 lol
 
The best thing you can do is get to know the body shop by your experience with it over the years. I will likely have my next car done by the same shop I've used over the past 20+ years. Trust means a lot to me. But so does the end product, so we'll see. I'm still old school when it comes to paint. My '67 Chevelle was factory lacquer and it was gorgeous. I'm told water-based stuff is the best these days, but I'm a bit skeptical. My last restoration was 16 years ago, and the body shop I spoke of did a fine job...wet sanded between coats and it shows. See the before & after pics below. I did everything myself except body work & paint.
 

Attachments

  • 000_2-17-2001 (9) - Copy.jpg
    000_2-17-2001 (9) - Copy.jpg
    39.8 KB · Views: 4
  • Pics from 128MB Fugi card circa 2005 093.JPG
    Pics from 128MB Fugi card circa 2005 093.JPG
    131.2 KB · Views: 3
I am hoping I get what I pay for. I have seen his work and its beautiful but as I get to know the guy I am thinking he is kinda flacky and that has me worried. I have paid him six thou up front to get the job started so I am somewhat committed.
Funny, I don't know if it`s the paint or the clear coat but, the kid that painted mine was a bit flaking too.
He had it for about 3 or 4 years but, I didn't care as long as it came out right.
The only thing were the quarter panels. I bought skins (because that's all you could get at the time) and he cut the bottom section out and welded a seem in the middle of the lower quarter?
Instead of at the transition where the upper goes down to the lower? In the summer heat, the weld expanded and you could see a line where the weld was.:mad:
 
Oh boy, three or four years is a long time to have your car at a paint/body shop. The place I took mine to said six months, I hope they were being honest and realistic with me.
 
Oh boy, three or four years is a long time to have your car at a paint/body shop. The place I took mine to said six months, I hope they were being honest and realistic with me.
Yeah, the kid did it as a side job. He was working at another shop and rented a garage at my brother-in-laws. I wasn't in a hurry, I had other stuff going on anyway.
I bought all the supplies and he only charged labor. It started out at $3000. but, by the end it was closer to $5000.
He kept telling me black paint was expensive? It was $100. a gallon? It did the whole car with 2 or 3 coats. I think I might have had to get another quart?
That was back in 2005.
 
Yeah, the kid did it as a side job. He was working at another shop and rented a garage at my brother-in-laws. I wasn't in a hurry, I had other stuff going on anyway.
I bought all the supplies and he only charged labor. It started out at $3000. but, by the end it was closer to $5000.
He kept telling me black paint was expensive? It was $100. a gallon? It did the whole car with 2 or 3 coats. I think I might have had to get another quart?
That was back in 2005.
In the 80's I had my 76 T/A painted 3 times and all were color changes, 2 were done by one of my friends since HS and his dad that was a pro frame/body & paint man and 1 was done by his SIL and all were $2,500 to $3,000 but the job done by SIL had part of the roof paint separate from the epoxy primer, wife had taken it to a car wash before 30 days were up or some crap like that, I think it just wasn't scuffed before paint was sprayed? anyway that's when the 3rd paint job happened, 76 T/A was originally Maroon then I had it pro painted Emerald Green BC/CC with Sil/Gold/Blue Poly Fleck in the clear, my HS friends dad was pinching small amounts of the diff flecks/flakes and sprinkling into the clear then stir and showed me the stir stick and said "How's that?" well I figured since I bought these 3 little 1? once jars I wanted ALL of the flake in the clear LOL, the car came out absolutely beautiful...for a SPEED BOAT haha, if the sun hit the hood at a certain angle it would blind you so about 2-3 months later I had the SIL strip it, fiberglass mold the factory bolt on flares and spoiler and paint it Gold base Candy Apple Red Amerflint II and it looked perfect till the roof came off lol, then had father/son paint it a 77 Ford factory Candy Red BC/CC and it looked fantastic for a few yrs till wife & I got D'd so left her the nicest car we had (and she was F'n around so I wanted OUT!) then a couple yrs later she gave the car to one of her sisters that contacted me and asked if I'd do a tune up on it for her LOL.....Nope! I guess this reply turned into a book
 
I feel compelled to add on to this post since I do this type of work. One thing that I have seen as a trend the last several years is, many people think that those that do this type of work, shouldn't be paid accordingly for what they know. On average, I end up with between 100-120 hours in a body/paint job. That's dialing in gaps, and filler work, blocking, and final color sanding/polish. Rust repair is a separate deal as is any disassembly or reassembly. Some times there will be less hours, sometimes more. I use those numbers as a general guide.
Doing this work on these cars is a specialty and people have higher expectations that your run of the mill 2015 Honda in for a fender bender. The body has to be right before it's painted. Also remember, whoever is doing the work, the car is their business card. That's their name on it and most restoration specialists are not going to sacrifice their reputation for the sake of doing a cheap job. I've turned several people away for this very reason. Second, the cost of quality materials is constantly going up. I am dropping a 67 off to my painter this weekend, just the cost to have it sprayed is $4800. I am giving it to him ready to paint.
When I agree to do a body job, I discuss it with the car owner and give them an idea of what to expect in terms of cost, but due to the nature of how it's done on old cars, I never quote a price. It's not fair to the car owner or shop owner IMO. I charge by time plus materials and keep the car owner updated as it progresses.
Now all of this is not to say there aren't shady shops out there that take old car owners for a ride and leave them dry, there are, I've been victim to it. That's what made me get into doing it for myself, then it morphed into a full blown business.
It's simply not cheap to have this work done at this point in time, and likely never will be again.
 
I feel compelled to add on to this post since I do this type of work. One thing that I have seen as a trend the last several years is, many people think that those that do this type of work, shouldn't be paid accordingly for what they know. On average, I end up with between 100-120 hours in a body/paint job. That's dialing in gaps, and filler work, blocking, and final color sanding/polish. Rust repair is a separate deal as is any disassembly or reassembly. Some times there will be less hours, sometimes more. I use those numbers as a general guide.
Doing this work on these cars is a specialty and people have higher expectations that your run of the mill 2015 Honda in for a fender bender. The body has to be right before it's painted. Also remember, whoever is doing the work, the car is their business card. That's their name on it and most restoration specialists are not going to sacrifice their reputation for the sake of doing a cheap job. I've turned several people away for this very reason. Second, the cost of quality materials is constantly going up. I am dropping a 67 off to my painter this weekend, just the cost to have it sprayed is $4800. I am giving it to him ready to paint.
When I agree to do a body job, I discuss it with the car owner and give them an idea of what to expect in terms of cost, but due to the nature of how it's done on old cars, I never quote a price. It's not fair to the car owner or shop owner IMO. I charge by time plus materials and keep the car owner updated as it progresses.
Now all of this is not to say there aren't shady shops out there that take old car owners for a ride and leave them dry, there are, I've been victim to it. That's what made me get into doing it for myself, then it morphed into a full blown business.
It's simply not cheap to have this work done at this point in time, and likely never will be again.
Hey Tom I was told back in the 80's by my old HS friends dad that red paint was the most expensive paint to buy because of the materials or pigment? to make it cost so much, would that be a true statement and still true if it was? and I agree that paying for quality workmanship is money well spent, when I was having my car done I was looking for DD quality and I guess that's what I got
 
Tom does awesome work, he did my Gold 72. He keeps in contact with the customer, provides accurate billing and does what he says he is going to do. I trailered the car from Central NC to South Jersey because he does that good a job. Mid Atlantic Muscle Cars is the name of his shop.
 
Hey Tom I was told back in the 80's by my old HS friends dad that red paint was the most expensive paint to buy because of the materials or pigment? to make it cost so much, would that be a true statement and still true if it was? and I agree that paying for quality workmanship is money well spent, when I was having my car done I was looking for DD quality and I guess that's what I got
Red is an extremely expensive color. Why, I honestly don’t know. I’ve been told the same thing about red pigments and such before but never really heard from someone in the manufacturer arena of it.
 
Who knows which paint color is the toughest to match? My body guy told me this years ago while one of my vintage Bimmers was being restored and it surprised me.
 
Top Bottom