In 1958 my family moved to Bainbridge Island Wa that is a ferry boat ride from Seattle. The "older guys" meaning high school guys with a license and a car who didn't have a lot of money would prep their cars, strip what chrome they didn't want paint on and no bumpers and all take the ferry to Seattle and drive the few blocks to the Earl Schieb shop and leave the car overnight and make their way back down to the ferry and walk on to ride back and get someone to pick them up and revese things the next day. The next afternoon often included a stop at Sure Fit seat covers for a set of custom looking seat covers that the folks in that shop could get and install pretty quick or if they were special order you left your car overnight and again picked it up the next day. Then take it back home, bolt what chrome was going back on it on and drive it to school all painted with new seat covers. For the guys with a bit more money there was a guy who was buddys with someone at the local Chev garage who would lay some pretty nice paint jobs on at night or on weekends in the paint booth at the dealership. I never saw it getting done but saw the pretty nice results including a couple of scallop jobs. After we moved back over here in the valley a High school buddy who's dad owned a local body shop would spray a couple coats of primer on guys cars for 10 bucks but you had to buy the tape and tape it. His dad who became a good friend of mine years later when I was teaching and he was the school bus shop supervisor did some real nice paint jobs on local cars. Later when I was in trade school in Grandview Wa the guy who was the transmisison mechanic at the local Chrysler Plymouth dealer (one of the best torqueflite men in the country) would shoot paint jobs as a side hack at different places around town including the shop a friend of mine's family had. He just shot the paint though and you had to do all the prep work and then mask it and supply all the paint. You would tell the guy at the parts house that mixed the paint that he was going to shoot it and that guy sold you the paint he wanted to spray.
The Jalopy Journal
