$7000 paint job

and let me add this: years back I had my hands on more than a few cars.
at one time I had a young guy, that worked as mechanic for highway dept. great mechanic, self taught bodyman. did excellent work. did it in small garage, no paint boot, small mig, hvlp deal, cut off wheel. as good work as you will find.... but ya know one thing, ....he did it after work and weekends. one car at a time. I KNEW how long it took him to say, put o n a pair of qtrs, truck ext., trunk and inside floor pans.

back then, we generally didn't BUY bent up cars, they took very little to smooth them out... yea they all had rust. these were 70-1- e body and 68-70 b bodies. all rusted in SAME areas. project cars in general were WAY better than nay you generally find now! people restore cars NOW that weren't even considered parts cars back in 80's, 90's...... but point is, the guy had 1 car in there at a time. no smoke........he and I knew when he gave me a price

bout how long it would take. he did the labor, I bought the sheetmetal, he furnished the materials....... I had a PRICE to do that car.... and we both knew bout how long it would take.... wasn't in apint shop jail, didn't cost $$$$$$$. NO it wasn't shot with base/clear, wet sanded, buffed and sanded and buffed. looked like new OUT of the factory circa 1970. its fine if someone wants the ultra shiny base/clear, yes i realize lots of work to get it finished. but.....


think about it..

another story... i had a guy working in my shop off and on. young guy had worked in couple of ins shops. he could do good work.... had a 440-6 challenger, staright as a string, only rust was in 1 lower rear qtr. he fabed a lower patch, car was down to bare metal, epoxied primed, painted with acrylic urethane. i mostltcompletely restore it, rebuilt engine, tranny, brakes, interior. sell it to a nice man.

couple years later i'm off in another state at a place that is a museum, (won't mention any names),,, has full time bodyman, lots of traffic. he shows me this purple challenger, yes , the one i had sold. tells me how he's doing the paint work on it... how its a total tu--! $10,000 cost for repaint.... LOL

i proceed to tell him how i understand he will strip it, how he will find NO filler, its straight, yes he has found it had a lower patch.... i tell him its none of my business but i really hate to see these people screwed! $10,000 in mid or early 90's , they wanted a base/clear job,.......$10,000 in the Midwest to paint that GOOD a car!! HA! i didn't even remember their names, just a couple that wanted a desirable car to take to some local shows....they had ben told they didn't win the trophy cause it needed base/clear job!
maybe the judge gave the price to his chevy owning cousin!?? LOL
true story...