So I,m picking up the family car from a recommended local paint & body shop which actually did a nice job on a small fender bender (wife ran over neighbors mail box while searching for her cell phone )

Decided to ride over with my '48 F-1 just to see what he thought it would run to do body work and paint on my truck..he was hesitant to say then said it would be a scary number..after pushing a bit he finally said $15k..said with the rust and whatever he said it would be right back where I started in a few months/a year if not done properly. Really??

Hey guys..do me a favor and as best as possible look at the pics of my truck in my album..admittedly there's some under body rust and some outside rust to contend with..but $15k?? It's a driver but I would like a decent job to enjoy for a while..certainly longer than a year or so..ok I do live in South Florida heat so that is a factor.

 

I do see a lot of work to be done, and body work is already expensive, and you also live in Florida, so you gotta take that into consideration. If he's doing everything correctly it might not be too unreasonable. You gotta realize this is going to take up his shop space for a long time, and he's gotta be on the safe side, since paint can hide all sorts of sins, can't tell you 10k and later charge you 15k because there was more work than he expected! I'm sure someone here with more knowledge than me will speak up.

 

If he didn't get down and crawl under and through the truck to scope out the entire condition of the truck he probably threw out a number to cover himself. Like mentioned above, there can be a lot hidden that won't be found until the tear down of the truck.

Also many shops would rather do insurance work and not work on old vehicles so he also might had thrown out a number to scare you.

Even if you didn't want concourse restoration, just driver quality paint job, many shop don't want to get involved. Shops are afraid to do cheapie jobs because they're afraid if you, or some one else, sees the job and it's not perfect word will get around that their shop does substandard work.

To me $15K sounds in the ballpark. That's why so many of us do most, if not all of the work on our truck ourselves.

 

Bob, you reminded me of a guy my dad met one time. He did GORGEOUS body work and paint on some of his personal cars, but he refused to do a paint job on someone else's body work. Because sometimes it's hard to tell if a flaw was caused by paint or body work, he didn't even want to take the chance someone would think it was his paint work that made it look that way.

 

If your using quality materials it is not hard to spend 2-3K on materials and if the shop is following all the current rules and regulation a 40-45 dollar and hour charge out rate is not unusual. Do the math. When I look at the amount of hours that I put into my truck 15k would of been a bargain.

 

Are body shops that much cheaper per hour than regular mechanics? My dads work just bumped up their labor to $90-95 an hour, and that's pretty par for the course in the area..

 

Thats about right. I have seen non-show car paint get close to the 20k area. When you factor in age/rust/trim/weatherstriping etc, it gets costly very fast. Sometimes reusing weatherstripping costs the same as replacing it due to the extra effort in removal for example. That is all figured into the cost. If he is a good body man/runs a good shop, he shouldnt need to get under the truck to give you a ball park. In reality, it is such a large amount of money that being off by 1-2K isnt that big of a deal. At 100 bucks/hr that really inst a ton of extra room for error

 

That's what I was saying but to give an accurate quote, a figure written down, he better do a lot of crawling and detailed looking. It's real easy to miss something and if you do its hard to convince a customer the proble wasn't covered in the quote.

In one body shop I worked in wouldn't do thorough check out of car because he was too lazy. He then b*tch when I tore apart a car and found problem he overlooked.

 

Body shop labor rates are regulated by the insurance companies. The insurance companies not only tell the shops how much they will pay for the hourly rate, but also quote the time allotted. If you're not willing to bow to their demands, they'll just find some lowball schmuck down the street to do it instead. It's one of the reasons I got out of the business. I got tired of killing myself for $12/hr.

It's the same reason our medical costs are so high. The rates have to be jacked up for the self-payers to make up for the discounts the insurance companies demand. Now they've got the government covering their backs. There's nothing affordable in the affordable care act.

 

Another factor to consider: most body work on late model vehicles is far different from old iron. There aren't any skins to easily replace on a 48, unlike most modern rides. There's a reason you don't see dusty, rusty project vehicles in the back of body shops as some of us will recall from the day. The older work demands an artisan, skills not needed, or compensated, by the typical insurance work.

 

Yeah, so the girlfriend's truck is running into the $20 to $25k range. This includes boxing the frame, replacing floor, and he's having the frame powder coated.... His shop rate is $85 an hour, and we're getting 10% off as she knew him back in highschool.

How it currently sits, we originally paid $300 for the truck, it was missing all the front sheet metal.

 

I had a scrape on the passenger door of a Chrysler 300 and pulled up to a good body shop in our area. The owner was sitting in the widow looked out as I parked and held up six fingers and mouthed next week! I waved thanks and left, he fixed it the next week. A good body shop guy knows what he is doing and knows what he needs to make it right. They will not do driver quality work just to save a buck because you are already driving it looking the way it is! Would you hire a house painter to just do OK work?

 

Dave estimating damage on a newer car is fairly easy because of flat rate.books that tell you what it.should take do a job. Also if a car is less.than ten years old the damage is usually confined to the damaged ara. When you start work on an old vehicle there could be a lot of hidden damage and lots of.rust not mention some the "inventive" modifications done over the years. There's way too much that could wrong not to give an old vehicle a close inspection.

 

Auto glass business is the same. Lots of hacks low balling and the insurance companies all want the work for half of what it's worth. I gave it up. If I am going broke I might as well do it at home with my feet propped up as busting my but for nothing!
Elmo

 

That seems to the general feeling of owning a business, bust you butt, give the.customer more than they ask for and they'll go down the road to save 5% from a low baller who does crappy work a won't be.in business a year from.now. I know the feeling.