Pittsburgh PA area -In Search Of

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.