I have a good friend who is a paint and body man. I refuse to ask him for help on my truck because he won't charge me anything or if he does charge it wouldn't be enough. I recently had him paint some pieces for the tractor that I'm redoing and I had to force money on him.
I appreciate the sentiment (and I don't charge him for things I do for him either) but, I also know that the man needs to feed his family. So, I ask for advice here and there, but that's as far as I'll go.


Bobby

 

hahahahhah

probably the worst/best presidential quote ever..... Thats right up there with Watergate and Bill Clinton.

 

Except the media were all over Nixon and Clinton and the present president gets a pass from the liberal media today.

 

Just to add my 2 cents on body and paint work. I have always done my own work including body and paint. For me the total hours spent on body and paint could be 75% of the total hours in a build (note that I refuse to start with poor quality sheet metal) . Many guys will tell you that they did all of the work on the truck except body and paint, so by my experience they did a small fraction of the work. I do not know how many hours I have in Willard, a lot. The only time I ever kept track was when I restored a 1938 Ford Woodie in the 80's. It was a ground up restoration and I had to make about about 40% of the structural wood from scratch. I had over 1700 hours in the restoration.
More recently I have friend with a 1 man restoration business with a professional down draft paint booth shoot the final color ( I shoot final color on the "laundry" i.e. small pieces. I can do it myself and have, however, he is just lays down the color better than I do. When I say he shoot the color, I mean that I have cleaned his booth, set up the parts in his booth, masked and wiped down the parts and then turned it over to him. He mixes the paint that I supply and shoots, that is it. The cost is very minimal since the work is in the prep.

 

Truck forum guys. There are plenty of other places to talk politics.

 

Duane, I try to even it out, I try to talk old Ford.trucks on political discussion boards.

 

sorry, you are right. I can't help myself sometimes!

 

If you can do the work yourself, do it. If you have the time, and time is money, that's what you will save. Like 49 Willard's I did as much as possible but I can't sew and I don't have a paint booth.


_____________________________________
48 Ford F1 - Darkside
46 Ford Tudor - Street Rod


"Good work ain't cheap and cheap work ain't good"

 

I have a few different viewpoints on this subject. As a small business owner myself I get beat up on a weekly basis by consumers that don't realize what it truly costs to design and build something. When you factor in overhead and the headaches, sometimes it truly isn't worth it. Having said that, anyone who enters into the hobby of classic cars/trucks, better have a big check book or an ability to do the work themselves.

I look at 10-15 project vehicles per month as part of my hobby. All of those projects would be cost prohibitive if I tried taking them to a pro shop and asking them to rebuild it. I know that going into it so it doesn't bother me. Unfortunately, most sellers think their precious vehicle can be fixed and flipped within 2-3 weeks and then I, as the potential buyer, will be sitting on a gold mine when it is done. Sadly, as it has been stated here previously, the current offerings on TV make it seem like you can buy a car for $5k, put $12k into it and then sell it for $35k. The reality is much different, as most of us here know. You typically put $15k into the truck only to have it be worth $7k when you are done.

I would rather see someone do the work themselves and learn the process. If someone quoted me 15k for a paint job, I would put that 15k into educating myself to do bodywork and paint. Around me, I have a painter that shoots the car for 1k provided the bodywork is done and ready to go. There are also 2 places in town that rent out pro paintbooths for $100 a day. That makes it nice when you want to do your own work.

Lastly, I think people have to be realistic with their goals. I don't own show cars/trucks anymore. It is too much of a pain. I like weekend drivers that require less work. Fix'em, drive'em, love'em.

 

You are right on with that kind of thinking, Teardropty! I see our hobby continuing only through do-it-youselfers, because expectations today are totally unrealistic on both sides. I used to do all my own work and drove only air-cooled VWs.
Then we got horses and needed trucks so we bought a 66 F100. My wife was making good oil industry money so she saw investing in the truck as investing in the horses. Because I had never rebuilt a V-8 before, we hired someone to rebuild the 352 for $3000.00. It blew up in the first year(broken camshaft). I had rebuilt the suspension and brakes on my own. The body/interior was good.
Because we had money and I was rebuilding a house at the time we thought we could throw money at the problem. We hired a local engine guru to fix our problem. Trouble was, he didn't see our needs as a priority. My fault as much as his. We ended up with a 545 stroker/built C6 combination that required replacing the brakes and exhaust as well. Long tale of woe, I know, , but my point is this. I ended up with $40,000 into a truck that on a really good day was worth maybe $15,000!
Nobody was happy! I mean nobody! This is apparently not uncommon. So, if I were you, I would thank that bodyman and do the work yourself.

 

I relate body work to being like my business. I've had customers tell me they can develop, implement and maintain custom magazine computer programs cheaper than what I am charging. They usually buy a program that does not do everything then try to modify it They budget 10 grand for the whole thing and 20-25 grand later they have a program that doesn't do half of what they need. A good body shop guy (not the rip off guys) will give you an honest cost so he is happy and you will have a good job done. There is a reason he is in business a long time and is considered good-he knows what he is doing. Listen to him or do it yourself and learn what it really cost the hard way. Doing it yourself has other rewards than trying to save a dollar.

 

Oh, I think my brain just broke a little trying to comprehend the expenses. Just got into an actual project. I didn't/don't expect it to be done tomorrow, but a few years seems reasonable. Hell, it'll be a 15-year project just so I can afford the paint!

Is it any cheaper/more expensive to do it piece by piece? The truck ('53 F100) is in pieces already, so I'd like to have the frame blasted and repainted (to have a clean start) and then paint bits as I go. I don't need someone to take it apart or put it back together, but I need someone to make the panels/pieces smooth (remove the old paint/primer/rust/etc) and have some fresh paint. Just a driver, not a show car...

 

That's pretty much what I wanted. I took it to a shop and explained that I had $2500 to spend. At the time ('04) that was all I could afford, and I told them no bodywork on the bed, and I was going with all 'glas fenders so just prep on them. It had the cab on frame, hood, bed and fenders loose. Even so it was a struggle to contain them, for instance they wanted to fix some dents in the roof. Just for that they wanted an extra $800. I passed on that. They stayed within the limits, and the overall result is fine for a driver.

I did get burned on one thing. Since I was assembling, they told me to bring it back assembled and they'd block and buff it. But it took over a year to assemble, and by then they had gone out of business!

The other catch is, now I'd be willing to pay 2X that for a better job and more work. Is it worth pulling it all apart, to get that better job? Not to me. Point is, you likely have one shot at it, get the best you can afford the first time.

 

Wise words. Thanks for the advice. I'm in a very similar boat (similar budget, etc). I have a flatbed, so even less work to be done there!

 

Just a FWIW, get a time limit on how long the truck will be in the shop. I got caught one time on a Tbird repaint. The end result was an absolutely beautiful job at a decent price but over a year in the shop. End result was probably worth it though when the international club president and several others told me they thought it was the best enamel repaint they had seen. This was prior to all the fancy stuff available today. My choice was lacquer or enamel and original was enamel.