"take a guy who has had a 70 STG 1 for 20 years.. it's all rotted out, the ugly kind of rust in the floor pans and cowl area.. far beyond what can be repaired with the "normal" rust repair jobs. But the catch is, he can't afford the $10K plus just to put all the metal back together, to say nothing of having to finish it and get it into paint. But, he could afford to fix a car, he has owned for 20 years, and has no intention of ever selling, if we were to find a good donor shell. This guy is into this car for between 45-70K to get it finished, and when done, will be certainly one the the nicest GS's out there. So he is not going to turn around and flip the car for a buck. The market value of the car will be less than he has invested in it." Quoted from a post by Jim Weise. I believe this is just where we are with the 1 or 18 built convertible. Very extensive damage was discovered and continues to show up on this car and it has gone way over budget. Let me say right now, I don't expect my customer to bear the financial burden of my under bid. You can see most of this damage here: http://www.buickperformance.com/grn4spdconv.htm What is the moral, legal or personal opinion of the restoration community here if a good body were found to replace this one? We would use as much of the original car as possible to complete the project. We are already adding options that the car did not come with. This route is one neither the owner or I would do under cover or with the intent to deceive anybody. I welcome your comments. Thanks,
Oh no, here we go again. My opinion is to go for the rebody, I would want a solid car underneath me and not worry about the select few that have a problem with a rebodied car.
Think you should be able to replace any part, sheet metal included, and still retain the original VIN tag. The factory assembled these packages from many ,many parts & sold all those parts as a package deal. i.e : '72 brand new Stage car gets creamed at the stop light. Insurance fixes the car only because it's more cost effective than replacing it. Still an original Stage car??
My Opinions Professional As a shop owner, my obligation is to explain all the possible senario's available to get the customer's car back into primo condition, and the prices involved with each option. This can really only be done, after the car is dissasembled, and sometimes blasted. I then follow the course of action prescribed by my customer.. since I am not at all worried about any of them "flipping the car" for a buck, since they will have substantial money invested in the car, almost always more than they could sell it for. I would be open and honest to any potential buyer of a car that I did, as to how it was repaired. Personal In the cases where the rust/collision damage has invaded the majority of the body shell, I would opt for an unrusted body shell. When I do my '68 GS 400 convert, you can bet I will be shopping for a rust free 68 Convert. Even with me having the ability, space and equiptment to do my own car, I would opt for the new body.. never rusted, never hit, will always be the best deal. ---------- I will say Skip, that is what I thought needed to be done to Mike's car.. that one is just too far gone. and I feel your pain on the $$ part.. JW
It's too bad that it's coming to this, but it's so far gone. Once it's done I want to be safe power shifting (some of you know what that means) without breaking welds up and down the length of the body. I can imagine spider webs in the paint like crazy after not too much gear banging. The convertible bodies have more flex in them than the hard tops even when they're solid. Anyways, I'm leaving it up to Skip. He's my main man on this and I'm in good hands. Something along the lines of the Jim Weise of the west coast, professional in all respects.
Blush I'm no JW, I just try to do the right thing and keep good employees. They are the guys that deserve credit.
I'm surprised you didn't just get a new body from the get-go. At least the doors. I'm surprised you repaired those instead of getting good used ones. Replace the shell. It is no biggie. Just be sure to either have it retitled as salvaged or at least provide an affidavit explaining what was done. Not that it would matter 30 years down the road. There has to be logic in here somewhere that says saving one of 2 junk cars by merging their parts is better than junking both of them. Good job so far tho Skip. We appreciate your hard work.
