Richard Van Hyning
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Just an update…
Still working on finding a good shop that will give a working quote. I’ve been pretty busy so I haven’t made it to as many as I want.I should have mentioned that this is a California car. The car has spent it’s entire life, from 1973 to 2009, in California. The original color is white, and the blue is the only extra paintjob. My best friend purchased the vehicle off the original owner, so this is where we’ve received the information. I’ve just noticed that a few of you have referred to the potential for rust from being in the “rust belt” here in KS. The car has been driven minimally since it’s been here, so it hasn’t been exposed to the horrors of this state’s weather/roads. A couple shops have given me much lower quotes after learning of its origins. The quotes so far have ranged from $5,000 to $10,000.
[quote=”velvethamma” post=18126]In my opinion, you can never have too many tools. Unfortunately, unless auto body is something you think you will be doing more of in the future, the cost of the necessary tools will be expensive. You could easily have $5000.00 in tools and a compressor if you don’t already have some of the basics. As for stripping the car yourself and sending it out for the body work, you could certainly save yourself some cash. Just take care in stripping the existing layers of finish from the car. Don’t want to make extra bodywork for yourself. Looks like a solid car (from the pictures) and shouldn’t be too difficult to get cleaned up. If you have plenty of time to put towards it, I’m sure you can get it done. Good luck and ask plenty of questions, the people on this site are very helpful.[/quote]
I’ve got a lot of standard tools, just no specialized auto body equipment. A lot of it will come down to what it would cost to furnish the equipment I need versus what it would cost to have a shop do the work. I’m going to take the car to a couple shops tomorrow that I’ve received recommendations for. Hopefully they’ll be able to give me some realistic quotes. I’ll post up the estimates I receive so I can get the word on whether or not I’m getting hosed 😉 Thanks!
[quote=”bondomerchant” post=18130]im sorry but that car has all kinds of surprises hiddin in it lookin at the pics u can help it alot but i would recommend going back ta white on that ol girl kinda reminds me of dings last girlfreind been there done that u can make it a nice driver though;)[/quote]
Could you elaborate at all on what sorts of things tip you off that there might be hidden surprises? I’m not doubting you at all, just curious what types of things I should be looking at. I was really thinking about white because it’s a forgiving color, and I think you’re the first person that’s actually voted in favor of it as well.
I’ve seen cars in far worse shape get restored to great condition. Granted I’m sure they shelled out the cash to do it, but basically I can’t personally see anything that shouts “incredibly difficult repair ahead.” This car means quite a lot to my friends and me, so I’m going to get it fixed up one way or another. You nailed it though… a nice driver is all I’m looking for. Thanks for the advice.
[quote=”MoCoke” post=18117]its kinda hard to advise you on how to approach this job if your not looking for an “award winning paint job” any time you spend on it will be just a waste if you cheap out on the final paint. so being that, if you do decide to take this job on you have a lot of preperation to do. you may very well end up spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to do it professionally yourself. so u gotta ask yourself do u have the time, funds, and equipment to do it?[/quote]
I don’t necessarily mean that I wanted to go cheap; I guess I should have elaborated a little more on that. I just want a good paintjob, but I’m not looking to turn this into a vehicle that I’ll be taking to car shows in hopes of winning best in show. I want the car to remain a driver, and I can’t envision spending a TON of money on paint just to have it getting chipped up on the freeway. When I said “average” paintjob I meant average amongst the good quality work.. 😆
As far as your questions at the end go, that’s what I’m trying to evaluate. Time wise, I would expect this to be a project to last quite a long time. I have no misconceptions about how many man hours it will take, I expect it would be something that would take me many months to complete. With regard to funding, that’s sort of why I’m considering the two options. I have the funding to just have a pro do the whole thing, but I really like the idea of seeing my own work come to life. Equipment wise, I don’t have anything to speak of yet. If I decide to do this, I’m going to invest in what I need. Being in the military, I have the luxury of having auto hobby shops on base that I can use (cheap too… $3.50/hr) and most of them have paint booths. So yeah, I’ve got a lot to consider. I guess it just comes down to how much monetary value I can place on the feeling I get from doing the work myself.
Thank you for your insight!
[quote=”Jayson M” post=18121]First off here is your first lesson,no such thing as a front quarter panel…they are called fenders 😛 From what I can see I think you have a solid project car,but to be sure if you can put it up on a hoist and check the floors and trunk drop offs,wheel wells for rust damage and sub frame for collision damage.Go over every inch of the car with a light and if that checks out you are on your way.If you want to do it your self you will need a large compressor with at least 18cfm to run air tools and a sander,also you need a garage too.If you were to drop it off at a shop you would be looking at $5000-$8000 for driver quality.if you de-trimmed it and stripped it to bare metal yourself that figure would be less.It also depends where you are and what the laror rates are and what your expectations are. Good luck with your project, If you add up the cost of the tools and materials sometimes it is better to just buck up and getsomeone else to do it.[/quote]
D’oh! :blink: I knew that about the fender. I just had so much stuff going through my mind when I was trying to type the original post that I kinda goofed up. I’ll take my car into the shop later this week and try to get some pictures of everything. My buddy has had a lot of work done to the car, and he did a lot of the work himself. Although not the most gifted auto body specialist, he’s quite good when it comes to the mechanical aspects. From what he and I know, the only real rust of significance is the rust spot you can see on the driver’s side fender.
Would stripping it to bare metal actually save me any significant amount? That’s one thing I KNOW I can do 😆 I figured this part might only save me a couple hundred dollars at best, but then again I don’t know much about paint and body. I like your point about adding up the cost of tools and materials… that’s sort of where I’m at right now. Part of me thinks, “How stupid would it be to buy all these tools for one paintjob?” The other part of me thinks that buying tools is never a poor investment. The compressor, for example, is something I’ve been wanting for a long time anyway.
Oh and the garage is in the works 😉
Thanks for the ballpark figure and the insight. You’ve definitely given me some good information for consideration.
Thanks for the friendly welcome messages. I’ll be snapping a bunch of pictures of my Nova today so I can start a thread where I can hopefully get a No-BS opinion on what I’m going to be involved in. You can only get so much out of the “car guys” you work with. I’m guessing the members of this forum will probably be able to give me much more accurate assessments!