Pittsburgh PA area -In Search Of

I'm in the middle of a resto on my '69 Charger and have hit a wall. I'm not a body guy and the car needs finished and painted. It's been stripped to bare metal, quarters replaces etc... Now it needs finished and painted. I can get the bodywork close. The last paint job I did was lacquer which took some "fixing" to get it decent looking.

Also, I picked up a used GearVendors unit and transmission. It will be going behind a 470 Stroker putting out mid 500hp and torque. I'd like someone "Mopar educated" to look at the transmission before I bolt it up.

I'm looking for recommendations on where/who to see, whether its a business or not, to get this project moving along again.
Thanks

PA Dodger said:

I'm in the middle of a resto on my '69 Charger and have hit a wall. I'm not a body guy and the car needs finished and painted. It's been stripped to bare metal, quarters replaces etc... Now it needs finished and painted. I can get the bodywork close. The last paint job I did was lacquer which took some "fixing" to get it decent looking.

Also, I picked up a used GearVendors unit and transmission. It will be going behind a 470 Stroker putting out mid 500hp and torque. I'd like someone "Mopar educated" to look at the transmission before I bolt it up.

I'm looking for recommendations on where/who to see, whether its a business or not, to get this project moving along again.
Thanks

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I'll be following this thread as well. I need a paint guy for my Road Runner.....

roadrunnerh said:

I'll be following this thread as well. I need a paint guy for my Road Runner.....

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this guy is local............. but booked for a while.........if you have any interest in Todd..... I will ask for you, PM me

PM sent Mark. I have a finished (almost) engine and a huge pile of new part just waiting to go into the car. I'm dieing to get this thing rolling again.
Harry, maybe we can get a buy one, get one special.:thumrigh:

Sounds good to me Dan! :blob:

Looking for someone to do some touch ups on my 74 cuda

following..... I need a painter in Pittsburgh too.. I have (1) Demon waiting for a painter (to be found) with all the AMD metal sitting in boxes ready to go.... Then I have Project DD still in the build state that will need painted as well.....

FWIW, I didn't get any useful leads. HemiMark checked his guy for me and he was booked for a year or two. My car is stripped to bare metal with all the new panels in place. It needs the final touches and paint. I had a "friend of a friend" look at the car. His estimate was $20,000 at $100/hr. He thought I was the owner of the company I work for so he was "adjusting" his price accordingly. And he also thought I wouldn't know the car, a '69 Charger originally a 318 car, wouldn't be have enough value when finished to justify $20,000 for paint/bodywork alone.
I will keep looking but I'll do some work of my own too. I was hoping to find someone to do the work over the winter so I could finish the car this summer.

I have a good friend who has done body work sine he was 12. He has restored hundreds of cars, including show winning Packards. He stripped and painted my daughters 85 Mercedes 560SL two years ago. He built the 318 for my black Barracuda, it's still at his place, should be firing it next week. I will see if he is interested in any of your projects - paint work is his passion! He lives near Herminie, Pa

I'm in his back yard,only about 5 miles from Herminie. What's his name?

I am looking for some detail work on my Cuda
I'm in finleyville
I know some people in herminie

there's a member here goes by farmboy 70. i've been to his shop & he had some nice looking cars there. he's north on 79. i have his phone # & address if any of you guys want to contact him.

PA Dodger...
here's a few thoughts on prices for body work/paint. i'm just about finished with a complete resto of my 68 barracuda s. it was originally enamel plumb crazy and i put it back to acrylic laquer turbine bronze. this was not a complete "rotissorie" nut and bolt tear down but a panel by panel repair/paint. i did the: door jams, trunk, hood, fenders, rockers, quarter panels, roof, trunk lid, engine bay. there was probably 20 hours of rust/panel/dent repair. the car is about 90% finished and i have almost 1900 hours in it. i did the entire project by myself and it has taken a year - and i spent over $1k on paint alone. most shops in the south hills of pittsburgh are charging between $50-$75/hr. for body work/paint plus materials. so if you just drop off a rough car and tell the shop "fix it", $15-$20k is not out of the question.

my suggestion is to take your car to a small local shop and have a little work done at a time. there is a small shop in coraopolis called "Al's Body Shop" which i've heard is reasonable. i have no idea how good his work is. with the amount of time and the cost of materials now it is not unheard of that you can spend $20k on a project. adding the cost of the car to the repair costs will often put you into the car for more money than it will ever be worth. there are mopars currently on ebay that are drop dead beautiful selling for prices that would never cover just the cost of the resto work. that's where the market is right now and for the "big three" classic cars, Chevy, Ford, Mopar - Mopars are bringing the lowest prices at the auctions.

I'm curious who the Herminie people are. Herminie is a few miles away.
Jim-I am doing what you did for a resto. The problem is I've never been happy with my bodywork. The engine, interior, brakes, suspension are all complete and ready to go into a finished body.