With that in mind, the shop is negligent for telling a customer they can do the job and take peoples money. If it is not within their ability or expertise to do "HOT ROD" type work than just say NO I can't do the job. The shops that I have dealt with in some 40 years are not mega shops with large front offices with suits making the BS promises, they are owner operators with maybe 6-8 employees. In most cases it is a problem of robbing Peter to pay Paul. They take a job in maybe with a modest deposit, but then spend that money somewhere else. Then they have to take in another job to get a deposit to spend on the first job that the owner misappropriated that money on. In the long run the whole thing snow balls into a pile of Dung. I have a friend that only does insurance repair work on and he has done very well over the years. But he will tell you up front " I don't repaints, I won't do restoration type work and I don't work on JUNK" I commend him on his honesty.

 

I agree with most of this, but in terms of my customer stuff - I will ask for 1/2 down both for materials/supplies and as a sign of commitment and ability. Then nothing until it's done. I think the issue comes when a place takes a deposit, then takes it apart or strips it effectively grounding it there, and then asks for more $$ without showing any labor being invested into it. That's BS.

 

I've been doing body/paint work for 26 years. The best advice I can give someone is "don't bring a restoration job to a collision shop and vice-versa". They are two different animals.

I've done my share of restoration work. That's all I did for about 6 years. I'm an honest guy that does good quality work, for half the labor rate. I used to charge $35-45 an hour, depending on what I was doing.

I made my customer's buy there own products with my direction.(always used PPG products). That seemed to help when the bill came due.

I gave every customer a timeline, and a price that it would never exceed. And I did a damn good job on both of those two things.

I did learn one thing by doing restoration's, most everyone thinks they can get a show quality job for $3k, just saying, that's not gunna happen! LOL!

That is the reason I got back into collision work. That's where the money is. I would rather be doing restoration work, but I gotta make a living!

 

Must be an Oregon thing, because yeah,......was in that boat. Went back 3 times, over $12k into the body and paint and its not perfect. This was when a real, numbers matching GTS restored could be had for $12k.

 

Yawl shore ain't reading/listening to my post.
As per my handle- "thepaintguy" that's what I am. It's what I still do- for a small, handful of people.
I've managed 26 men in a large shop. This ain't my first rodeo. Take a second look at my first post- go from there.
Just to let some of you know- I have sent/advised many people to do much of their own work/disassembly, and send it to our local Macco Shop.
Why? Because our local Macco Shop has an excellent Spray Man- Period. It's a father/son shop and they don't dick anybody around, and do exactly as they tell you.
You might have the same thing in your local area. Did you read my first post?
Stop whining and bitchin. Read, look, investifuckingate!
There are more criminals in the auto repair business than anything else- other than our own United States scumbag government.
tpg

 

Wow, sounds like the social security system

 

Hope your boss or the owner of the Chevelle isn't reading this.

 

I read it...lol.
You're right on Maaco. They have some very talented painters because that's all they do, all day long. It's the bodywork that might suck. The paint lays down beautifully.

 

Maaco gets a bad name for this or that reason. Do your research on each one. I had a complete paint job on my 04 Camry at a local Maaco and it came out terrible. 2 years later, the shop is under a different company.

The paint job had a 3 year warranty so I took it to another Maaco who advised the other shop did many things wrong and agreed (with corporate's approval to) to repaint the car. They guaranteed and reassured that I would be happy although I was quite skeptical. They kept their word. I have to give them credit as they did a magnificent job. They have a former painter on the side that gets called in when needed. It is hard for them to keep good people and each shop is owned independently. They proudly display their work on Facebook to include several older cars, classics and drag cars.

I don't want to pay 5K right now for a regular shop to paint my '73 which has been sealer primed and all ready to paint from the same shop. I will seek an estimate from Maaco.

 

It did in 1996. But not now.

 

What should I expect to pay for someone to shoot my 64 Dart if I have all the prep work done to the painters specs.All trim and extra stuff would be removed from the car and I would supply the paint.? Base/clear Plumb Crazy.

 

I would guess $249.95 to $21,000.95 lol