I am going to throw this out there to see what people think. Maybe get some opinions and/or suggestions..... Sorry for it being so long!
I have been searching for a body and paint shop to do the final sheet metal tweeking and paint job on my '68 coupe and find myself having more frustrations than anything else.
Let me explain first how far along my car is now. It was a former New York state rust bucket car. The shell of the car (from the firewall back) was completely rebuilt with full panel replacements. I have a rust free shell now. The shop that did this work specializes in Camaro panel replacements. They have worked with both Goodmark and AMD test fitting panels. Their body rebuilds have been featured in major car magazines. They worked with Hot Rod Magazine to help produce a restoration video series. They only do panel replacements, though. No body work or paint. There are numerous minor imperfections in the sheet metal that need to be fixed. When I asked the shop about this, they said the car was in the "rough metal state" and that my paint and body shop would take care of these.
I have almost all of my front end sheet metal accumulated for the project. It is all original used GM parts in excellent condition or needing very minor repairs.
HERE IS WHAT I NEED NOW FROM A BODY SHOP:
First off, I only need to them to put the car in paint. I want to walk away with a just a painted, rolling shell. Nothing more! I can do the rest of the work myself to see the project through to completion.
I need the imperfections in the repaired shell fixed.
I need the imperfections in my front end sheet metal fixed.
I need the front end sheet metal assembled and aligned.
I want an a nice, straight, no ripples body with even and consistent panel gaps.
I want show quality paint with no orange peel.
HERE IS WHERE THE FRUSTRATION STARTS: I have read a lot of posts on this website and have talked to some know legable people and thought I had a fair idea of how much this would cost. I thought maybe 10K to 15K. Maybe a little more............I visited 13 restoration shops in the State of Florida this past November and December. Some in my immediate area and some as far as two hours away from me. I could not haul my car to all of these shops. I went in with extensive photos of my car and all the areas that are going to need work. I sat down with the shop owners or managers. We went through the pictures and I went over my goals and expectations for the car. Of course, they could only give ballpark figures and I understand that...............I got a low estimate of $4500 to a high estimate of $70,000 ( I am not kidding.... $70,000 !!! ) and everywhere in between. Numbers like $15K, $25K, $30K, and $45K......... I got shop rates ranging from $45/hr to $70/hr.......... We didn't break down the price into labor rate x hours plus materials at each place. Where we did talk hours, I got totals of 400, 500, and 1000 hrs.
At most of the places with an estimate lower than $25K, I wouldn't have been comfortable dropping my car off there. I saw shops that looked like junk yards on the outside and like a tornado hit the inside. I saw a lot of work that was just so-so and some poor quality work too. Of the shops that had completely painted cars there to look at, I only saw cars that impressed me at three shops. Cars that I would be pleased if my car came out like that. These were at the $25K, $30K, and $45K shops. The shop that said possibly $70K had a finished '68 Camaro in their shop that was OK but nothing special.
I thought getting the shell repaired would be the hardest part of the project. Now I am finding this body shop search to be. I am frustrated at the differences in prices between shops. I am frustrated that most of the shops that were in that 10k to 15K price range did not have decent looking cars.
Am I barking up the wrong tree to think I can end up with the kind of car I want ( again, just a painted rolling shell ) for 15K more spent in addition work that has already been done? Just wondering what people think.
