Body Panels?

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FomocoReformed

FomocoReformed

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I'm sending my dart in for all the bodywork that it needs in a few weeks, and I was curious if it would be cheaper for me to find and buy the body panels it needs myself or if it would be cheaper for the shop to do it. I'm getting it blasted and painted, for metal work it needs new quarters, trunk exensions, a new floor w/4 speed hump, and some patches here and there, and the top lip on the inner fender where the fender bolts up to it could use some love. Also needs new bumpers front and rear since the chrome is all sorts of messed.

I know rockauto has some good deals on sheet metal (quality not withstanding) and then AMD has some of what I need.

And here's some random pictures just to make things more interesting.
 

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Have you got a cost estimate on the work needing to be done?

I know people become attached to their car but for example....

You could probably fly out here, buy this car and drive it home for less than the work you are talking about.

http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/ctd/2573404047.html
 

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Yeah the shop quoted me about $5-6000 for all of the bodywork, blasting, paint, new vinyl roof, and the interior work it needs. Owner personally came to my house to look at the car and showed me around the shop a little, he owns a regular bodyshop that does classic restorations on the side and from I've seen he's very thorough and does high quality work without cutting corners.
 
Go with the AMD parts and have the body shop install it. Unless you have the time,tools and ability.
 
I know the guy through a friend so it's not a bad price, I plan on keeping an eye on it and checking up on the work that needs to be done. He quoted me a quick base price.

I could go fly out and buy that car but then I wouldn't have the car that I want it to be and I wouldn't have the satisfaction of having built it up myself. (cept for the bodywork that is) I've already got ~$2200 into this car putting together my suspension, driveline, and starting my /6 to 360 swap. Buying a car that someone else restored is like reaching into a bag of skittles, you never know what you're going to get inside the bag.
 
As mentioned in a previous post go with the AMD stuff. It is the best/closest thing we will ever see to NOS.
 
I figured AMD would be better, looking at the prices on rockauto they're probably stamped in china or something with low quality steel.

The AMD stuff is more pricey but you get what you pay for I guess, I was just trying to gauge if all the panels I need + shipping would be cheaper than having the shop order them. I would think they get them at wholesale but then theres the markup so they make a profit.

or maybe I'm just penny pinching and it won't be that big of a difference in cost... like I said I dont know anything about bodywork or what costs what
 
If you order your panels there is usually a discount for MOPARTS members in the new product section, then jus have them drop shipped to the body shop. And I also think that 5-6K is really low. I myself would be looking closer to the 11-12K price range for the amount of work that needs to be accomplished. I would ask your guy for some referances, and look VERY closly at the work they have done. Just seems WAY to cheap...and by that I mean (and don't take this wrong) poor quality, and workmanship. Just my two cents worth.
 
6k is low, I have 3000 in the front half of my car on body work alone.
Go with AMD on everything and if you need trunk extensions, I went with the ones on year one but have not installed them.. so I cannot give you feed back on them yet.
 
You should talk with my brother-in-law first. He left his car with one of those good buddy/good deal shops. 2 years later he went and got the majority of his car back. Yes some parts were lost. The guy wrote 3 personal checks to the bro-in-law for One thousand each and bro-in-law agrred to cash only 1 per month. Here we are 5 months later, the car is in another shop and nearly done.
 
Alright, this is my new plan. I'm going to buy all the panels I need for my car through AMD with the moparts disount. I suppose I misrepresented a little when I said I can't do bodywork, I can't do FINISHING work like smoothing everything out and painting.

Once I get all the panels I'll take the stripped body, cut and tack the panels where they need to be so that all I need to do is have the shop finish the welds, blast and paint.

Thoughts?
 
FomocoReformed said:
Alright, this is my new plan. I'm going to buy all the panels I need for my car through AMD with the moparts disount. I suppose I misrepresented a little when I said I can't do bodywork, I can't do FINISHING work like smoothing everything out and painting.

Once I get all the panels I'll take the stripped body, cut and tack the panels where they need to be so that all I need to do is have the shop finish the welds, blast and paint.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

My first thought is that bodymen are extremely picky in how things get done. You can have a guy who has been doing nut and bolt award winning work for 50years do sheetmetal, take it to another equally qualified guy and he's going to spend 2hrs telling you that the first guy was a moron and didn't know his head from his *** hole, and that he has to redo everything.

My opinion, worthless as it is, is that you take it to them STRIPPED, come up with an itemized list of exactly what you want done along with a timeline and a contract. Im sure they'll need a deposit to get started on it but don't give them more than you can afford to loose. Pay them only for work that gets done.

I lost 10k and a cancer free '68 Cougar to a body shop that I didn't cover my *** on, I gave them the money upfront, with no paperwork showing what I expected EXACTLY to get done. And when I started getting suspicious I was getting jerked around, instead of yanking my car out, I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

Check up on it frequently, don't take excuses, don't pay for work that hasn't been done, and have everything in writing. The price you were quoted seems ridiculously low to me as well. The only car I've ever sent to media blasting cost over a grand just to have it done. Quarters run nearly 400 bucks a piece with atleast 2 days labor each to put on. Full floor pan is almost 500 with around 2-3 days labor. and than factor in a week of labor for misc. things that inevitably are found. Than another weeks worth of labor or more depending on the paint job your talking about. Those are just ball park labor cost times, not the actual amount of time it'll take the shop to do it.
 
I wouldn't call you opinion worthless, thats exactly the kind of information that I need since this will my first time dealing with a shop instead of doing it myself :glasses7: So I could use all the tips and pointers I can get from you guys.

I got another quote from a different shop, he gave me ~8k as a minimum starting price for the minor repairs, quarters, floor, and paint. He said the price might go up a bit depending on what else needs to be done but he wouldn't know until after blasting, and I can come by and check out the progress whenever they're open. That sounds a little more on point for the work that needs to be done?
 
Yeah I got that part haha, it's just because people earlier in the thread were saying to be wary of the first price I got quoted I wanted to get some opinions.
 
Well, I agree with 440abody and his 11-12k estimate.

That's what I would budget for and hope that it comes in under that.

Getting a car painted these days sure isn't what it once was.

I remember getting all the paint and body work done on my first car for $700 and it looked great. You can't even buy the materials for $700 anymore.
 
AMD is the way to go just remember cheap body work and paint is just what it is CHEAP I learned that the hard way................
 
2nd Shop sounds more on point with price. See if you can find any local guys that have had any work done through them. There should be a local board in the regional section of the forum :)

Look forward to seeing the progress.
 
Thanks for all the info, I'll definitely be updating a build thread in the restorations section once I get this kicked off. Don't have a date for when I'm going to bring it in yet but I'm still collecting the engine parts.
 
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