My New Years resolution is to finally try and get some paint on my 68 Riviera. This car has been sitting dormant way too long now. Its to the point that not too many people even know I own it! The car is basically all metal. My uncle and I stripped and repainted the car in the early to mid 80s so I know what exactly whats under the paint on each panel. The only plastic on the car is in the rear quarter. The panel had a crease repaired in the early 70s. The plastic is cracked and falling off at this point. I'd say its less than an 1/8" thick. There's also one small localized rot hole on the right rear wheel opening. Aside from those issues, its all metal. The car is super solid. Right now the car has lauquer on it which is cracked and peeling. What I'm looking to do is this- In order to save some money, I was going to remove all the chrome and trim myself. Then reassemble afterwards. Basically bring the car to the shop ready to go. Since the jambs and door hinge areas need to be stripped and repainted as well, I was going to pull the nose off the car too. That way, the insides of the fenders can get done as well. I'd like to get the car back with all the panels back on and lined up. Based on the info, what is a reasonable estimate? I wish I lived closer to Tokepa, Kansas! :ball: :grin:
My recommendation is call John Jr and get the number of his guy.. He fixed John's car in 10 days .. From this: To this:
That was one possibility. I spoke to John last week and asked him. So far I was told to get the car ready for paint would be around 125 hours. Does that sound reasonable?
Disassemble,strip, patch small hole, minor body filler, sand, primer, sand again, seal, final blocking, and clean spotless. 100 - 125 hrs. is a reasonable estimate for a large boat for paint prep.
If you disassemble it. Completely! The next step in our shop is to media blast the car jams and all. Its worth about $750-1200 depending on the guys hourly rate. Then to put the car straight enough for primer you would spend about 80-120 hours yes. Of course without running my hands on it and seeing it necked (no paint) thats no more than an educated guess. at best.
120 -140 HOURS SOUND'S LIKE ALOT BUT IT FLY'S BY WHEN YOU ARE ON A DEAD LINE :laugh: IT SOUND'S LIKE A LOT OF :dollar: :dollar: :dollar: :dollar: BUT IT WILL BE WORTH IT WHEN IT COME'S HOME IN COLOR:kodak: LATER'S TIM:3gears:
I know a good place called Brenda's BodyShop but they only take 1's Id talk to a few and find one first before you do anything. Then let them guide you. Maybe even ask them to inspect your work in different stages of prep. Allot of guy don't like jobs like that, unless you agree they are not liable for damage caused by you. Not that you would but some but not all; if they are gonna put their name on the line insist on doing it all so they know it done right. As a bad prep job can can get ya later. Not that you would do a bad job but id clear all your doing with them first so its done up to their specs on how a job shoud be preped right. Myself all I do is small parts powder work but hate prep, ill work for near free to avoid hrs of prep work to just focus on the final steps. I turn down doing car rims all the time as well I don't have a good out source for blasting and hate blasting for very long myself.
I just did my skylark, and it took me about a week to take everything apart and stripped/sanded to the metal...(about 80 hours) but my car was in really bad shape with rust coming up through the paint. I also have to wait overnight for the phosphoric acid to sit on anything that has had rust and sand again. Another five days for fixing the dents and pits. A final week for priming/sanding painting in the garage. Probably going to be a final week for wet sanding and body panel alignment too.
Sounds like a 6 week ...2k to 4k job depending on paint quality if you got deep wallets I can also give you a 7k show job aswell:laugh:
I might have to give you a call Joe! Can you make it look like your white 69 convertible? How busy are you these days?
125 hours at a very conservative rate of $50 per hr is $6250 125 hours at a more realistic $75 per hour adds up to $9375 of course then you have to figure paint and materials at about $1500. do as much work as you can to cut down on labor hours.. I strip mine down to bare metal myself including jambs, window channels and all trim and interior. I like to have the body shop reinstall the sheet metal to align gaps and prevent chips and scratches from reassembly
It sure does add up. Im certainly not going to be able to swing 10 grand. Thats for sure. The only other idea I was thinking about was to break up the work a little. Do it piecemeal. When I run out of money, take the car home for a few months until I can make another installment. I'll have to wait till tax time and see how much I get back. Whatever I deceide, the first step is to start dismantling it. Bag and tag everything. That isnt going to cost anything.
Paint and body work is one area where costs can rack up very quickly. One thing to watch out for is a lot of body shops only like to do insurance work because thats where the real money is. I've known several people that took their old cars to body shops and it would take years to get done. The body shops would only work on the old stuff in between the insurance work.
Post some pixs of any part of the car that may be an issue. I have a couple places in mind but would like to see some pixs of the car, AL.
Actually, it cost me about 450 bucks in material and paint... Didn't turn out too bad I think. Here's a pic. :grin: You can't see it, but there is metallic flake in the paint. No sun though...
Jason you have seen my car before and after that cost 3 grand to paint. i paid an extra 5 hundred to have them remove and weld up the bodyside molding and hood spear Gerry
