[Ken K]

There are plenty of body shops that do things the wrong way. Some painters cover up bad body work. Some body shops have the new people do the sanding. A good paint job is in the prep work, that is also what takes the longest time. Insurance work is what most body shops are use to doing. Some people will step up to the plate and pay the cost for a good paint job on a old car. The place I buy my paint from says people redoing old cars is dying off, people still do it but it's not like it use to be.

[68lemansman]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Ken, I've been working on this car for at least 7 years. I have learned a lot about body work...both the right and the wrong way to do things.
The guy that's working on it now has already told me that I worked very hard on it....but not very smart. In other words..He's going to have to fix a few things first. He has promised to teach me all he can to correct my mistakes though.

Wow Greg I thought your car looked relly good with all the work you have done to it. Speaking of body shops. I just went to my body shop guy and he has a 1973 charger that some girl dropped off and basically wants it stripped and the entire thing flat black. (Rat rod) color I guess you call it. She wants it done before mopar show at carlisle in june.She wants everything that is chrome or shiny painted black.The told her she needed all new quarters in the car. She told them to fiberglass it ,mud it and make it look pretty. She wanted to cut corners to save time. Original numbers car also. What a shame.

[65Mark]

Originally Posted by 68lemansman

Wow Greg I thought your car looked relly good with all the work you have done to it. Speaking of body shops. I just went to my body shop guy and he has a 1973 charger that some girl dropped off and basically wants it stripped and the entire thing flat black. (Rat rod) color I guess you call it. She wants it done before mopar show at carlisle in june.She wants everything that is chrome or shiny painted black.The told her she needed all new quarters in the car. She told them to fiberglass it ,mud it and make it look pretty. She wanted to cut corners to save time. Original numbers car also. What a shame.

Sounds like she is going to try and dump it on some fool. I would refuse to do that job. My motto is "If you want Mickey Mouse, take it to Disneyland"

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by 68lemansman

Wow Greg I thought your car looked relly good with all the work you have done to it.

Well, I still think it looks pretty good compared to when I got it...and it didn't look terrible then. This guy is just a perfectionist and I myself already recognized some areas that still needed attention. Especially the fit of the trunklid to the left quarter.
I'd just reached the end of my ability and patience to do it right. I mean really right.
I knew that if I'd painted it myself, even if the paint was perfect, I'd always see those spots here and there that bothered me.

[webfoot]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Ken, I've been working on this car for at least 7 years. I have learned a lot about body work...both the right and the wrong way to do things.
The guy that's working on it now has already told me that I worked very hard on it....but not very smart. In other words..He's going to have to fix a few things first. He has promised to teach me all he can to correct my mistakes though.

Care to elaborate, for us other first timers?

[Old Goat 67]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Ken, I've been working on this car for at least 7 years. I have learned a lot about body work...both the right and the wrong way to do things.
The guy that's working on it now has already told me that I worked very hard on it....but not very smart. In other words..He's going to have to fix a few things first. He has promised to teach me all he can to correct my mistakes though.

There's a term for that Greg, it's called "constructive criticism".
Don't you get tired of the nicety's at times?

[400 4spd.]

The people redoing old cars is dying off, but the people wanting old cars redone is not dying off. At least not where I live. I opened my new shop 5 months ago, and business is surprisingly stronger than I expected.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by 400 4spd.

The people redoing old cars is dying off, but the people wanting old cars redone is not dying off. At least not where I live. I opened my new shop 5 months ago, and business is surprisingly stronger than I expected.

That's good to hear Steve. I believe you are correct in that assessment also...My friend is as busy right now as I've ever seen him in the 15+ years I've known him. I would say it was down a bit a few years ago but not right now.

[400 4spd.]

In comparison to the shop I was employed with the previous 9 years, the scope of the work and number of cars I have now took 5 years to happen there.
Here is an example. Last week I had a call from a lady in Germany. Her husband is stationed there for another year, and as a surprise, she wants me to have his RS Camaro done for his return.
A guy is dropping off his race car next week, the day before he moves to New York state. He's coming back to get it when I'm through.
Another fellow wants to ship a '51 Buick here from Ohio.
I have 6 other large scale jobs here (muscle cars) that belong to locals, and I'm doing vintage BSA and Harley motorcycle pieces. Tuesday I go check out a '57 Chevy for another.

[400 4spd.]

Worse than that, she keeps it for 10 years and tells everyone who did the body and paint!

[65Mark]

Yeah, that would be worse. That's why I never did those kind of fixes. A rep is everything.

[Greg Reid]

You know, surprisingly I didn't ask him for specifics about what I did wrong when he said that but I believe that what he meant was that I had progressed too far with the surface work when there were still a couple of issues, mainly in the trunk lid area, that needed some more 'persuading' to get the gaps right and so forth.
I recognized those areas and was just going to paint it anyway. My friend has been doing this a long time and he wants it all straight first. That's part of the reason I decided to get it out of here. I was about burnt out on body work. I knew that if I kept it much longer, I was going to paint it, regardless.
It would have looked 'OK'..... but it'll look great when he's done with it.

[webfoot]

Ahh, gotcha. Can't wait to see it! I am hoping to paint mine in the next month or 2. (which makes the most likely scenario 3-4 months) Just want it done in time for my 20 yr HS reunion in August!

One thing I am not sure of is the painting of the trunklid, I am assuming this is best done while on the hinges so you can line it up prior to spraying?

[Judas]

Originally Posted by webfoot

Ahh, gotcha. Can't wait to see it! I am hoping to paint mine in the next month or 2. (which makes the most likely scenario 3-4 months) Just want it done in time for my 20 yr HS reunion in August!

One thing I am not sure of is the painting of the trunklid, I am assuming this is best done while on the hinges so you can line it up prior to spraying?

You are almost the same age as me.

I had the same goal too but, uh..."Fail"...

[Greg Reid]

Hey, don't ask me....I'm the guy that just decided to pay someone else to paint his...lol

[Ken K]

When you put fresh paint on the car, any mistakes you made or anything you missed will be magnified. Getting them strait takes a long time, there is no way around it. People wonder why good paint jobs cost so much money. I always buy extra paint. If something happens or you have to fix something then you have the paint to do it. They change the paint, formulas and laws so much that the paint you buy now might not be avalable a few years down the road. California has it even worse than a lot of states. If you look on Ebay, it says they won't ship some types of paint supplies to California. The TV shows make it look easy. I would like to see one of those 1 week wonders. They have 50 people working on the car.

[PontGuy]

So you are following almost exactly the same path as I recently did for my Lemans. I did all the repairs and paint underneath and in the interior myself, but turned it over to a local shop for exterior bodywork and paint.

I did a garage restoration and paint job on my 67 Fb many years ago. I built a plastic booth in my garage and used filters to let in fresh air and fans to exhaust and keep the dust down. It was a great learning experience and it turned out quite good especially considering the money saved, but something I never want to do again. The main thing I learned from the experience is that it is all about prep and that part takes a lot of time. One side of the FB was much rougher than the other and I spent months getting it right. I spent a lot less time on the good side. Sure enough, when it was all over the rough side really looked great, but the good side had some imperfections that I didn't get blocked out all the way. The more time spent in prep, the better it will look. Of course when you give it to a shop the labor really costs, so its a bit of a balance between expectations and the price tag.

Since you know the guy that is doing the work and it sounds like he wants to do things right you should get a very nice job that meets your expectations. Just be sure to keep a close eye on what he is up to, recognize the amount of work involved, and help out where you can.

Looking forward to seeing how it comes out!

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by PontGuy

So you are following almost exactly the same path as I recently did for my Lemans. I did all the repairs and paint underneath and in the interior myself, but turned it over to a local shop for exterior bodywork and paint.

I did a garage restoration and paint job on my 67 Fb many years ago. I built a plastic booth in my garage and used filters to let in fresh air and fans to exhaust and keep the dust down. It was a great learning experience and it turned out quite good especially considering the money saved, but something I never want to do again. The main thing I learned from the experience is that it is all about prep and that part takes a lot of time. One side of the FB was much rougher than the other and I spent months getting it right. I spent a lot less time on the good side. Sure enough, when it was all over the rough side really looked great, but the good side had some imperfections that I didn't get blocked out all the way. The more time spent in prep, the better it will look. Of course when you give it to a shop the labor really costs, so its a bit of a balance between expectations and the price tag.

Since you know the guy that is doing the work and it sounds like he wants to do things right you should get a very nice job that meets your expectations. Just be sure to keep a close eye on what he is up to, recognize the amount of work involved, and help out where you can.

Looking forward to seeing how it comes out!

Well, I did most of the bodywork myself over the last few years. If I'd known it was going to be as involved as it eventually turned out to be, I would have done one of those build threads that are so popular here. As it is, all of my posts showing what I've done over the last 6 or 7 years are scattered about the forums.

What Dennis is doing for me is fixing a couple of mistakes I made and also fixing a couple of problems that I simply did not recognize or was unable to think myself out of. They are relatively minor problems but not something you want to paint over.

I spend at least one day a week down there and try to help where I can. I've already learned a few things and some of that is simply having more sets of eyes to look at it. I've found that it's easy (especially when you are the ONLY one looking at a car) to get into a tunnel vision situation and blind yourself to the fact that a particular problem that you THINK you see is actually a symptom of a problem in an adjacent area.
I'll update when I get something significant to share.

[webfoot]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

I've found that it's easy (especially when you are the ONLY one looking at a car) to get into a tunnel vision situation and blind yourself to the fact that a particular problem that you THINK you see is actually a symptom of a problem in an adjacent area.
I'll update when I get something significant to share.

I have noticed this so many times along the process it isn't funny, and these are the problems I spent the most time on because I was working on the wrong thing.

[Greg Reid]

Ken, I doubt that paint has started flying yet. I haven't been down since week before last but I'm going tomorrow. I'll update IF there's anything to report. It's been raining like crazy here lately.