Estimates - what do you think?

[paolotvl]

Hello everybody,

This morning I decided to get some estimates to completely redo the complete truck. As you can see from the picture below, it needs some paint. I live n Cypress (NW Houston) so I looked up some body shops in the area on my wife's Angie's list account. I could only locate one that seemed to be willing to work on older vehicles (in the past with other cars I had a very hard time finding a shop willing to do non-insurance/collision work. This is the place I went to: http://www.colorcoatauto.com
The owner told me he was not interested because it would have been too much work. I told him that I just wanted to get an idea $3000, $4000...$6000? He did not want to do it. I was not wasting his time, meaning that I was serious about getting the truck redone. He told me to go to Maaco. They must be doing very well, because I would never turn down a customer who is willing to pay for a job. So, I went to Maaco and there they told me anywhere between $3000 and $5000 to do a decent job (the upper figure is for getting it to bare metal and do it from scratch). What surprised me is that I would expect them to just factor in the cost of new body parts (the truck has a big dent in one of the fenders, another big one in the rear lower fender and the gate is a little messed up) while instead they told me that it would take a lot of time to repair them since it is not easy to find parts and they would need to locate used (read junkyard) parts. I even told them that all new parts are still available. The only actual body work/fabrication required would be the replacement of the two lower cabin panels (one dented and the other rusted). I figured about $1000 between new fenders, gate and panels replacement and $1500 for a decent paint job. Am I on crack? A good honest shop should be able to do a decent job for $2500, right? Oh, and don't mention "two tone" since that adds at least another 50% cost....

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[paolotvl]

The picture above is the side with dents...


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[Skweegle89]

Crap I wish I would have known this 2 weeks ago. I had 2 sets of nice front fenders and a nice tailgate I was trying to get rid of. Even had a couple of hoods. Ended up taking them to my moms in MO and putting them in her barn until I hit a deer or something.


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[CSFJ]

I would avoid having any work done at Maaco. I'm not to impressed by their price structure, or quality of work (at least in my part of the world). Maybe a better route would be to talk to anybody you know with an antique car, or hit a cruise night somewhere, and find out where those guys get there paint and body done. The bump shops may only want to mess with quick insurance and fender bender stuff, but somebody is restoring old cars somewhere. They'll be the ones you want to work on your truck.

 

[CSFJ]

Btw, is that the original color of your truck?

 

[paolotvl]

I'm in TX...I'm actually thinking about painting the whole truck by myself....I do have nice spray gun and all the tools...I just don't like the idea of spraying a truck in my garage because it will take me a week to prepare the garage and a week to clean it up...


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[paolotvl]

Yes, I agree, I would not go to Maaco either, but the guy suggested it and it was on the way home, The shop I was looking for is the kind of shop you are talking about and the website of the shop I selected actually shows some restored car... That of going to a cruise night is actually a good idea.


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[350runner]

http://www.katycustomfinishes.com this one has some good reviews

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[paolotvl]

Thanks, I'll check them out!


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[paolotvl]

CSFJ, no, the truck was painted by the previous owner with dark green self-etching primer, which right away is some kind of olive drab and then after a while turns into a dark grayish green...


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[paolotvl]

Ten original color of my truck was metallic blue, kind of a dark/ grey blue,


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[CSFJ]

I was just curious. The way the light hits it in the photo, kinda makes it look like it may have been a faded factory paint job. I thought it may have been a color that I hadn't seen before.

 

[chengny]

What surprised me is that I would expect them to just factor in the cost of new body parts (the truck has a big dent in one of the fenders, another big one in the rear lower fender and the gate is a little messed up) while instead they told me that it would take a lot of time to repair them since it is not easy to find parts and they would need to locate used (read junkyard) parts.

If the the sheet metal of your truck is OEM (and actually looks as good in real life as it does in the image above) - you should not even consider junking the various panels and replacing them. That is some seriously sweet steel from the looks of it.


I even told them that all new parts are still available.

They're not - easily available.

It's true that new aftermarket parts are available all over the place - but they are junk. The gauge of the steel is nowhere near as thick as OEM. But maybe more importantly, the steel used to stamp them is re-cycled crap. It has been sent over to China and re-smelted so many times that it barely resembles what it once was.

Each time steel is re-smelted, it is mixed in with all kinds of contaminated scrap steel. This scrap steel is purchased on the bulk commodities market, at the lowest price available and delivered to China in huge ships - the quality & the source of the steel are not considerations.

This is done over and over again and each time it leaves the mill, the level of by-product contained in the sheet steel increases.

The reality is that this steel - recycled from China - is the raw material that the aftermarket parts manufacturers are stamping their panels from. The high percentage of impurities may not be noticeable in a freshly produced and primed body part. But renders a steel that is porous, weak and highly prone to corrosion.

If steel of this quality had been used to produce the parts when your truck was built - we'd have started shaving with it years ago.


It has taken me nearly two years to source and purchase the body parts required to restore my truck. I decided in the beginning to only accept NOS (or nearly perfect OEM) sheet steel. As I find and buy the various panels, I hand them over to a local body guy. I have worked with him before and his attention to detail and the quality of the final product is outstanding. He takes the parts down to white metal, primes/finishes them using the Sikkens System and then stores them for final assembly.

As comparison to the quotes you received, here is what I have paid so far (and estimated costs for what still needs to be done) Remember that these are prices for stripping, priming and finishing only - the parts I gave him were either NOS or perfect used OEM and required no structural repairs. Assembly will be extra:

Two NOS fenders - $1700
OEM hood - $800
Two NOS inner fenders $400
Two OEM doors shells $800
OEM bed (underside only) $600
OEM bed floor (Monstaliner) $650
OEM bed front panel $400
Radiator support, cowling, etc $200

Estimated costs for work still to be done:

Two OEM quarters (bedsides) $1200
Bedsides - inner surfaces (Monstaliner) $600
Cab (complete interior/exterior) $2000


Holy crap! I don't even want to add it up - and don't forget, I supplied all the parts myself.

 

[paolotvl]

Thank you for sharing this info, it is very useful. That is $5,550 for work already done and $3800 you still expect to spend. You are probably at the extreme end of the range of possible options, yours being the best possible job. It is not what I am looking for, because I am not doing a frame off restoration so it would not make sense for me to spend that much into body and paint and then leave the rest of the truck crappy. I'd be happy with a decent job, using whatever parts are available in the aftermarket or from junkyards, if needed.. I think that with the exception of the lower cabin panels, no other parts in my truck should be replaced, but when the guy told me that it is hard to find parts I thought that he would have replaced them instead of repairing. The dents are definitely very easy repairs, in my opinion. I need to get a few more opinions and then decide what to do. I know how to prepare a car for paint and I know how to paint, I just suck at repairing dents... Maybe I can get somebody to repair the dents and I'll do the painting....


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