i am getting charged 800 for complete body work on my truck (including a rust whole and some dents) and primer
I'm can see it ending up as one big hole once those four are cleaned up the right way to repair that section...at the least, two in order to remove the 'bad' area's and insure clean metal around the repair... Not saying they are priced high or not, but not every repair turns out as simple as thought to be...in fact, not many i have ever done turn out to be that way..might just be my luck though..
Hum, kinda looks like the holes in the cowl of my 56 Ford pickup when I started on it. This is where I'm at now. Larry T
Right after you fix THOSE holes, and get paint on it.......the other holes that are 90% though, from the backside, will start to pop out!
How about inconsistent pricing? I took 20+ parts to be chromed to the Turkey Rod Run one year and gave them to those famous chromers in Nashville... name starts with Advanced. What I got back was amazing work and chrome for about 500 bucks. Very reasonable for the work done. I'm not sure, but I think my order was handled at Daytona by the owner. I took it to them well packed, with photos / inventory and a sheet on what I wanted done. They handled it perfectly. Then a few months later I mailed a handful of small parts to them that required far less work. The bill was over $200. After the coronary I called them. Some "other guy" offerred to take 10 percent off to make me happy. I paid the bill, but I didn't get kissed on that screw job. Will I go back to them? Would you? Gary
There is more nastiness in there than you can see. That sort of money sounds reasonable for that repair. You quick fix is going to cost you much more in the future. Get it done right.
53 Tuck n Roll, Take finkd and chopolds advise they have the solution for you. In today's world $65. an hour isn't that bad, prices can range anywhere from a low of $45. to $125. an in most shops and this is the low end. The problem is finding a good shop with good craftsman, not always an easy job. Ask around for good shops and check them out and look at their work. Its right body-men are not heavy gold chainer's most work hard to make a buck. This part is hard, some guys are fast and some are not, try to find the guy who's fast and does good work. Think about taking a body and fender class at a local collage or night school and welding too. Good luck with your ride. CRUISER
that looks pretty good compared to the 55 ford I looked at in jan we opened that door and it damn near fell off the whole door jam was rusted out and you had to kind of set it up there to be closed plus it needed cab corners and we added up at least 400 dollars worth of patch panels and that was before we paid anyone to weld them up. a month later and for 500 more I got this one it was definetly worth it to me.
I think you are learning a little about hiring shops. Sometimes they hit ya hard with a big number just to see if you'll flinch. Because most old cars are a can of worms and the price & complexity skyrockets as the paint comes off. They'd much rather deal with a customer that will see it thru instead of abandoning the project and skipping out on a $2500 tab. Other times they're really too busy, or just don't want your job, so they'll shoot a high price. If you bite, it's worth their while, otherwise f-off. Other times, that's just what it'll take. Not all bodymen are created equal, some are faster at metalwork than others. A person I've used has a fairly high shop rate but when he hands you the bill it's quite reasonable cause he works so damn fast. And wicked 50's $800 body job is a huge roll of the dice, not something to count as a data point when estimating what it should cost for your car. $800 either means a beginner bodyman who doesn't know jack about estimating, or an experienced guy doing a rush job. Neither of those people should be near your project car IMO. good luck!
My F truck had rusted cab mounts & a small line of rust down the edge of the floor. once it was all stripped down it needed new floors, cab mounts, cab corners, some repair to the floor crossmember, firewall & the cowl sides. It all looked real simple until the cleanup started. I hope yours is much easier. If not, you get to learn to make patches & weld them in. Get the help you can, enjoy the process & the end result. Good luck.
Ah, you miss understand. The car we had doesn't have production stamped rockers available so any of the parts we needed were built from sheet steel. Any time you can buy a stamped part it will be pennies on the dollar compared to having to hammer out one from nothing. Labor = $ Once the "small rust holes" were opened up the true damage lurked beneath. Most of the rocker was eaten away from the inside out and the inner structures were just as bad. Considering we had to build three layers of critical structure to a 1936 Cord 810 Westchester Sedan on both sides of the car the bill wasn't unreasonable to me or my customer.
You started out saying 3 holes, then it was 4 holes , and now that i see the pic , it is the rocker panel and lower quarter half. the best way to fix this is cut the entire rocker and lower 8 inches of the quarter off. hand build new panels ,treat the back side and weld it on, be sure you dont have any pinholes in your welds, cause it will start rusting right away. I wouldn't do that job for 15 hours. my shop rate is 46. I just built a car for a friend I spent 500 hours of my eves and weekends( which should be double time) i charged 10 k now this took almost a year to do . and mind you my wife was real happy about me always being gone. 10 k is pretty good wages for almost a years work !!! maybe I should just build my own cars, i will be the one with all the kool stuff and you guys can walk or show your home built cars that you are learning on. everyone should have to build a car at least once. then you will see.....
If you can't do it yourself,you have to pay,40 years in the body business sounds reasonable to me. Those who play....must pay
If you can't weld, at least cut out the rocker or cut out the holes yourself and have the new rocker or replacement panel fitted into place and dead set ready to weld. This way you've done all the dirty work and you're only looking to have some welding labor done. Ask around for a local rodder with a MIG, to pay for some welding or trade labor with. Arrange to leave the car at his place for a Saturday. Your repair is pretty straight forward/not brain surgery. When I was 16 I did this with my 55 Chevy-prior to having any welding equipment. I fitted the panel, drove it over to a welding shop (not a body shop) where I had made an appointment and gladly paid their 2 hour minimum, and waited while they did 30 minutes of work. ! paid cash, so they took care of me. I drove home, ground the welds and did the finish work in the driveway that afternoon.
Factor their cost vs. buying yourself new tools and learning new skills and you've won your own personal lottery! Wifey doesn't know it yet,but since the new wiring was run to the garage it'll need something to power...hee hee hee
Try a local vo-tech school or community college. Between the autobody or welding program, they love outside work. Jon
Jon is on to something. I am about to dump my Chevelle off at the San Diego Community College autobody shop and let them finish it. The only cost will be materials and a few pizzas and pop when they are done! I have seen some of the work that has come out of there and it was nice. The only catch, you can not be in a hurry. Worth looking into.
The pic makes me think there is more rust lurking. I get more work at the shop this way. But there is also a flip side, if I work on it then my name becomes attached to it no matter what we "didn't" do. I will. sounds like you got a deal the first time. The second time sounds like the regular pricing.
Look at it this way, do you plan on owning old cars and messing with them for the rest of your life? If you do then go to a vocational school and take a welding class and a body shop class. I do this for a living and it ain't cheap. But the way I started off was becuase I was just a kid that loved old cars and had only enough money for parts and no labor. So I went to school and learned how to do it myself. Became my career. If you can't go to school find a buddy that knows what hes doing and buy some beer and food, help him out on his car and I'm sure he'll do the same for you. Good Luck.
Those holes while they look little and "easy" to repair, it wouldn't cost much. However, custom cut new metal, form it, tack it...wait...tack it some more...wait...tack it some more...grind it, grind it, sand it. Those 4 little holes are gonna take 12-16 hours not including paint. I do my own and others and I'd ball park you at $600 but my hourly is only $45.
Then do it yourself and quit bitchin!!!! if you can see 4 holes now I can assure you once you grind/sand it down to bare metal you will find more. Probably lots of pinholes and thin metal, try to find something solid to weld too and you will probably end up cutting most of the rocker off.
Just soak some rags in oil cram them in the rockers. Cover it with crome tape. Cost about ten bucks. When you hire someone to do a job you have to realize they have to cover more than just the job. There is shop rent or payments, cost of their tools and equiptment ,taxes,insurance,ect. Also you are paying for their expertise. I have been in buisness and when you charge enough to make a decient wage you sometimes get accused of being a crook. OLdWolf
Ok, some people should probably read a little more. I have already sanded it all down to bare metal and what you see is what you get. No pinholes or anything extra. Just the main holes you see in the above picture. Also, from the inside out is good. Im gonna do the the rest of the cutting tomorrow and weld on the patches.
step up and accept the challenge! i was in the garage yesterday of a old friend that is working on a 56' chevy pickup door that 20 years ago we would have taken to the dump but this week any decent door (core) is $200+. you can fuck up lots of welding wire and waste lots of welding gas for $200. one of the tricky thing i noticed was that sometimes the metal in the spot where your welding is ok but suddenly a spot in close proximity suddenly goes away for no appearant reason. takes some real talent to do metal work correctly. check out www.metalmeet.com lots of good info their. post some progress pic's of your repair.
if you think you are going to patch those 4 holes and be done you are mistaken. I'm thinking 3-4 inches in front of the first hole all the way back to the wheelwell and about 6" up ought to do it. one piecs, not 4. what I would do is cut it out and look at the backside of the part I cut out. if the edge of that piece is not good metal I'd cut some more until it was.
$360.00 to drill out 2 kingpin bosses on an axle.....THEN, it only took the fucks 3 weeks to do it! it was 1 damn thing after another. 1st the belt broke on their drill press then they had to buy new bits and reamers.... somehow i got the impression that i was payin for all these problems....i even yanked the axle and brought it in bare to save a little cash. imagine if i'd just rolled the chassis in off a trailer!
Fix it yourself. I just got my OT car back from the bodyshop in the spring and the $2K I paid him to get started was definately not spent on the car. I had to replace entire panels that were fine when they went to him, and sand the entire car to bare metal and start over.
I have to think there is more. IF it only rusted through right there then it's a fluke. I'd look for more . At least some thin spots. I'd say cut it out for one big patch than a few smaller ones.
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