Day 5 - Research

We put the charger on the trailer and took it to a body shop and got a quote for how much it would be to do all the metal work and paint on the outside (excluding the trunk floors). Jeff and Randy at Womack Auto Body at 9831 SE Powell Blvd. Portland Oregon were great. Jeff had explained that the entire passenger rear quarter panel that was pictured on day 4 would be about $2,200 dollars to fix. Yeah, that’s just the metal work. He also mentioned that the way the doors are put together on these old cars it will eventually rust through on the lower part of the doors. What they do is cut the corners off of the bottoms of the door to get inside of it and treat the rust and replace the corner with a new piece of sheet metal. He also could just tell the front part of the driver side fender was bondo under the paint. He then stepped back and said for all the exterior metal and paint work, it would be about $15,000 to $20,000 depending on much more metal damage there is. I then asked him “what about just the Primer and paint?” He said if you get the body all straightened out it would be about $4,000 - $6,000. He then proceeded to describe their primer/paint process. It is as follows:

1. Primer Car
2. Block Sand Car at 180 grit
3. Primer Car
4. Block Sand Car at 320 grit
5. Primer Car
6. Foam Block Sand the Car at 500 grit
7. Primer Car
8. Foam Block Sand the Car at 800 grit
9. Base Coat (this is usually the color of the car)
10. Clear Coat ( I didn’t’ ask how many clear coats)

We then took the car over to my dad’s friend who is also does bodywork and paint. He said that if I buy all the sheet parts for the car he would do all the metal work and paint for about $6,500. This of course sounded more reasonable. I then asked how about if all the metal work was done. He said about $5,000. There were only 2 problems. First, he didn’t know when he could get my car in. He had a crap load of cars in the back that all needed some body work. The second thing was his process was a little different. His was as follows:

1. Primer Car
2. Block Sand Car at 180 grit
3. Primer Car
4. Block Sand Car at 180 grit
5. Primer Car
6. Block Sand the Car at 320 grit
7. Primer Car
8. Block Sand the Car at 400 grit
9. Base Coat (again, this is usually the color of the car)
10. Clear Coat (again, I didn’t’ ask how many clear coats)

So those are kind of my choices and its a lot to think about. Since my car won’t be worked on anytime soon I think my next step is to get the car media blasted and see what I really have to work with, metal wise.