I'm getting this fall to disassemble the Chevelle and have her painted. Can anyone recommend any painters/body shops around Metro-Detroit that you've had good success dealing with?

Thanks!

Hey Glenn....how ya doin'?
I work in Warren and live in Clinton Township so we are practically neighbors. There is a shop in Clinton Township at the corner of Utica Rd. and Hayes. The business just has a sign out front on the building saying "Signs", like it is a sign painting shop at one time. I do not have any personnel experience with them but I drive by there at least twice a week taking the kids to church and I have seen some beautiful work coming out of there. Last night, in fact, I drove by and saw what appeared to be a late fifties/early sixties full size Chrysler in the booth getting the tape taken off. The thing looked huge and was snow white. It glistened like Pine Knob on a cold sunny winter morning...

They might be worth looking into. He is a small volumn shop and one of the guys that works for me has been in the shop a while ago and said the work in there looked excellent. I am thinking of going to talk to them about sheet metal work on my '66 SS convertible....I am finding that I don't have the talent or patience that I thought for doing metal work...problem is I do not have the pocket book to have someone else do it right now either.

I will let you know if I talk to them..

Mike

hey glenn
im in troy, about 20 minutes from you guys. here in troy there is a good paint/body shop and they also do complete restoration work. i havent had them do any work on my car yet, but plan to have them do some paint touch ups soon. iv spoken with them on numerous occaisons about original paint and what type of setup and work they do. they are really knowledgable about matching original paint codes use quality stuff like Dupont and PPG based on the original GM paint codes that they match with the dupont or ppg number. they also you some computer photo equipment that takes a picture of the paint and then makes a formula for it. ill be taking my 72 chevelle there soon to get an estimate, so if you want ill let you kno what i see there at their shop and fill you in. im very confident in their work just by speaking to them on the phone and hearing how professional they are. they have done several chevelles including a 1967, just recently. the head painter has been doing body and paint for over 30 years so i trust that their work should be very high quality.
hope this helps
by the way, ill let you know how things work out with my car.

Star Productions Custom & Collision
1705 Blaney Drive
Troy, MI 48084-4620
248.649.5673

-nathaniel

Thanks for the inputs. Nathaniel, let me know how you do with an estimate.

I've got some body work to do first. Typical quarter panel patch work over the wheel wells and minor door dings. I've got a real good welder that can handle the patch work for me.

I'll probably disassemble the front clip, remove the powertrain, remove the doors and decklid then have everything soda blasted. I'll probably replace the body/frame bushings while it's apart, too. I've got some cracks showing at the quarter to roof seams and also at the roof to a-pillar seams that need attention.

The car is "LL" Dark Teal Metallic hardtop. The present 30 year old laquer paint job is showing its age. I've never seen another LL Chevelle in person. Can't wait to see it done. I've had the car for 7 years and have been contemplating a paint job since day 1.

I know a few collision shops in my immediate area that won't touch it because they say it takes too much time. They make much more $$$ on crash work than restoration.

You have Reiter's Metal Craft right there in Mt. Clemens [145 Malow, Unit F (586) 954-9888].

They are in all the magazines; their most recent one was the "Mule" camaro, built by Mark Steilow (Popular Hot Rodding magazine).

You also have Conti Customs & Classic Auto [25500 Joy Blvd, Harrison Twp. (586) 954-1929]. Nick is the owner; his son Dominic works at one of the car mags. It's all customs and hot rods.

Crankshaft