Body work opinions

[coffeedart67]

Took the Dart to a body shop(friend acquaintence of mine), to get an estimate on the engine compartment (repaint and do rust repair)and paint underside of hood and trunk lid. Told me to call back in a week. Called back and he asked what I was thinking and I said "I have budgeted myself around $1200 for this." He jumped in and said he could do it for that. My question is should I go with him or get more estimates? The only parts removal would be the steering if they wanted it out of the way.
Here are a couple pics

 

[67Dart440GT]

Do you have the capacity to do it yourself? The cost of materials would be a large part of this repair.. but for the most part, barring any major rust repair (cutting out sheet metal) the repair would only require a sandblast, prime and paint. Sounds a little high but all depends on what materials he is going to use.

 

[8Barrel]

Without seeing your car, that sounds expensive to me. Prices can vary, but some independent shops can paint a whole car for $4000 to $5000 with a quality basecoat clearcoat + minor body work. Other shops catering to high end customers might have paint only starting at $7000 just to paint the car (no body work).

 

[BrianT]

Need some better picts of the rust repair needed. Check references no matter how good of friend acquaintance he is. Do as much of the work you can. It's not hard to tape things and scuff paint.

 

[Demon 408]

Probably depends on your location. I had my hood prepped and painted inside and out, holes cut for scoop, scoop painted and mounted. Trunk lid prepped and painted inside and out. Two fender extensions prepped and painted as well as the front valance. I supplied a quart of PPG primer and paint, painter supplied the rest of the paint and materials. Cost $1300.

 

[rjsjea]

edit....just dont think there is enough info given to decide.


They gonna mask around the heater,wiper, mc, wiring etc..........rust repair? As in skim it with filler and spray or weld up damage or unused holes?

 

[coffeedart67]

I have already removed anything that is removable. He wanted me to remove the front bumper, and have the rear brake line and fuel line to remove yet. He was talking of cutting out rusted areas and welding in new. Am now planning on getting a couple more estimates and this time I know to let them say a price first.

 

[coffeedart67]

Got 2 more estimates and am even more confused now. One was $500 from a guy that works out of his shed, he was talking scuffing the old paint and shooting over it, pressure washing the k member and shooting that, and the underside of the trunk lid and hood and the weatherstrip area of the trunk.
The other was $1,300-$1,800, this is a body shop with quite a few show cars they have done(including the owners 340 Duster). This was pulling the trim, doing the fender tops and door tops and cowl along with top and bottom of the hood and trunk lid and blasting the k-member and painting it, and the trunk opening area and engine compartment, taking it all down to bare metal, and patching the rust areas with original Chrysler parts (leftovers from his Duster), and he was also talking of filling in all of the spotwelds and smoothing them out(that is IMO a little overboard), he also said he would blast the front fender wells to and paint them, I would probably forgo that as they are undercoated and the undercoating seems to be in good shape. One of the questions I have is he wants me to pull the k-member and would need ideas on how to make it mobile with out the k-member. I have been debating back and forth, the $500 paint job I could get the car back together this summer yet, but the $1,800 job would be one step closer to a complete repaint in the future. Decisions, decisions, decisions!