Bobyshop pricing question

You're likely to get many quotes with a huge range of prices. Here's what I know: there's a custom shop near me that does nice, show-quality work. Their complete paint jobs start at around $16,000. There's a regular body shop also a few miles away that does pretty good, driver-quality work, and they painted my buddies '57 Chevy for $3000, jambs and all. I did the work on my fastback, and while it looks better than my buddies '57, it's not quite perfect. I have about $2500 in materials alone in my paint. How the collision shop can turn out work for little more than I paid in materials is beyond me. Rather than get hung up on price only, spend some time talking to a few shops and ask what they charge, and how thorough a job you get for your money. Do they strip it to bare metal and repair all the trouble correctly? Do they scuff and shoot and hope for the best? Do they use top-quality materials? Will they warrantee their work? Do they rely on filler or polyesther primer to get panel alignment right? Quality work is expensive, but if you plan to keep the car for a few years, you'd be better off paying for the good work and materials, but don't think for a second that a high price means good work. I've seen some crappy work at high prices, so ask if they'll let you talk to past customers to see how they were treated.

For me, Panel alignment, hood, doors, trunk, sanding, paint, stripes, new bumpers, hood locks, new mirrors, all cost me 6k. It's decent quality work; there are a few blemishes here and there but not too noticeable unless you really spend the time to find them. It took about 2-3 months. It was here in So. Cal, and at the time was a pretty good price for a complete redo. (its been about a year since it was painted)

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mine was done by a rather incompetent fellow. +1 on the asking customers, that was one mistake i made and i paid for it. He guaranteed a "show quality car" and what i ended up with was a 20 ft'r that looks alright, but there's lots or imperfections in the paint. Orange peel was everywhere, and there were several runs that are pretty obvious (were actually) and thin layers of paint here and there. Its a good thing that it didn't need any body work otherwise it would be much worse. The whole thing was jambed, and painted, but not very well... i ended up paying 2K for it, and it shows.

it basically came down to me doing alot of finish work that any professional would have done. generally speaking, you get what you pay for.

however, there is a mustang shop in my area that does very good work for ~4K. They've shipped cars over seas and built some very rare mustangs over the years. And I've seen the work of my buddies dad, he might have a hard time with deadlines...lol...but its pretty darn good work for about the same price.


buddies car is on the left, mine is on the right:




heres when we first got it:

Painter

You should give Ken Pike at Street Rod Painter a call. He mainly does the FFR Cobras but also Mustangs as well. Work is top quality and he is close to you.